List of California Golden Bears head football coaches

The California Golden Bears college football team represents the University of California, Berkeley in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Until 2023 it formed part of the North Division of the Pac-12 Conference (Pac-12). The Golden Bears compete as part of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. The program has had 34 head coaches since it began play during the 1886 season. Since December 2025, Tosh Lupoi is serving as the interim head football coach of California Golden Bears.^[1]

Jeff Tedford (2002–12) is the leader in seasons coached (11), games won (82), and bowl appearances (8). Pappy Waldorf (1948–56) led the team to three Rose Bowl games from 1948 to 1950. Andy Smith (1916–25) has the highest winning percentage (.799) of any coach (minimum 3 seasons).

Key to symbols in coaches list
General		Overall		Conference		Postseason^{[A 1]}
No.	Order of coaches^{[A 2]}	GC	Games coached	CW	Conference wins	PW	Postseason wins
DC	Division championships	OW	Overall wins	CL	Conference losses	PL	Postseason losses
CC	Conference championships	OL	Overall losses	CT	Conference ties	PT	Postseason ties
NC	National championships	OT	Overall ties^{[A 3]}	C%	Conference winning percentage
†	Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame	O%	Overall winning percentage^{[A 4]}

Coaches

List of head football coaches showing season(s) coached, overall records, conference records, postseason records, championships and selected awards^{[A 5]}
No.	Name ^{[A 6]}	Season(s) ^{[A 7]}	GC	OW	OL	OT	O%	CW	CL	CT	C%	PW	PL	PT	CC	NC	Awards
1	Oscar S. Howard	1886	9	6	2	1	0.722	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2	Lee McClung	1892	4	2	1	1	0.625	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
3	Pudge Heffelfinger	1893	7	5	1	1	0.786	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
4	Charles O. Gill	1894	3	0	1	2	0.333	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
5	Frank Butterworth	1895–1896	15	9	3	3	0.700	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
6	Charles P. Nott	1897	5	0	3	2	0.200	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
7	Garrett Cochran^†	1898–1899	19	15	1	3	0.868	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
8	Addison Kelly	1900	7	4	2	1	0.643	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
9	Frank W. Simpson	1901	10	9	0	1	0.950	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
10	James Whipple	1902–1903	17	14	1	2	0.882	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
11	James Hopper	1904	8	6	1	1	0.813	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
12	J. W. Knibbs	1905	7	4	1	2	0.714	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
13	Jimmie Schaeffer	1915	13	8	5	0	0.615	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
14	Andy Smith^†	1916–1925	97	74	16	7	0.799	26	8	2	0.750	1	0	1	5	4 1920 1921 1922 1923	—
15	Nibs Price	1926–1930	47	27	17	3	0.606	10	13	2	0.440	0	1	0	0	—	—
16	Bill Ingram^†	1931–1934	45	27	14	4	0.644	11	7	3	0.595	0	0	0	0	—	—
17	Stub Allison	1935–1944	102	58	42	2	0.578	34	27	2	0.556	1	0	0	3	1 1937	—
18	Buck Shaw	1945	10	4	5	1	0.450	2	4	1	0.357	0	0	0	0	—	—
19	Frank Wickhorst	1946	9	2	7	0	0.222	1	6	0	0.143	0	0	0	0	—	—
20	Pappy Waldorf^†	1947–1956	103	67	32	4	0.670	40	21	4	0.646	0	3	0	3	—	—
21	Pete Elliott^†	1957–1959	31	10	21	0	0.323	8	10	0	0.444	0	1	0	1	—	—
22	Marv Levy	1960–1963	40	8	29	3	0.238	3	13	0	0.188	0	0	0	0	—	—
23	Ray Willsey	1964–1971	83	40	42	1	0.488	18	25	1	0.420	0	0	0	0	—	—
24	Mike White	1972–1977	66	35	30	1	0.538	21	19	1	0.524	0	0	0	1	—	—
25	Roger Theder	1978–1981	45	17	28	0	0.378	13	19	0	0.406	0	1	0	0	—	—
26	Joe Kapp	1982–1986	55	20	34	1	0.373	12	30	1	0.291	0	0	0	0	—	—
27	Bruce Snyder	1987–1991	57	29	24	4	0.544	15	19	4	0.447	2	0	0	0	—	—
28	Keith Gilbertson	1992–1995	46	20	26	0	0.435	11	21	0	0.344	1	0	0	0	—	—
29	Steve Mariucci	1996	12	6	6	—	0.500	3	5	—	0.375	0	1	—	0	—	—
30	Tom Holmoe ^{[A 8]}	1997–2001	51	12	39	—	0.235	6	31	—	0.162	0	0	—	0	—	—
31	Jeff Tedford	2002–2012	139	82	57	—	0.590	50	45	—	0.526	5	3	—	1	—	—
32	Sonny Dykes	2013–2016	49	19	30	—	0.388	10	26	—	0.278	1	0	—	0	—	—
33	Justin Wilcox	2017–2025	103	48	55	—	0.466	26	47	—	0.356	1	3	—	0	—	—
Int	Nick Rolovich ^{[A 9]}	2025	2	1	1	—	0.500	1	0	—	1.000	0	1	—	0	—	—
34	Tosh Lupoi	2026–present	0	0	0	—	–	0	0	—	–	0	0	—	0	—	—

v t e California Golden Bears football
Venues	California Field (1904–1923) California Memorial Stadium (1923–2010, 2012–present) Oracle Park (2011)
Bowls & rivalries	Bowl games Stanford: Big Game (Stanford Axe) UCLA USC
Culture & lore	Oski "Fight for California" "Big C" History Marching band Tightwad Hill The Play
People	Head coaches Starting quarterbacks NFL draftees Statistical leaders
Seasons	1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906–1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026
National championship seasons in bold

List of California Golden Bears head football coaches

Coaches

Notes

References

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