Duane Akina reportedly the new Cal defensive backs coach?

Sonny Dykes might be on the verge of his biggest hire since coming to Cal.

By Avinash Kunnath@avinashkunnath Jan 20, 2014, 11:24am PST

There is no new news on who Cal has tapped to be the new defensive coordinator, but we might have been given a big clue as to who the Golden Bears will hire based off what one recruit had to say in an interview with one of the Cal recruiting writers.

Darius White just committed to Cal to hopefully provide some instant help at cornerback. In one of his interviews discussing his Cal commitment, White might have left us a huge clue.

White made the commitment to Cal despite the absence of his future position coach but he likes the direction he sees the program heading and has confidence that the Bears will bring in the best man for the job.

"They said the coaches should be in sometime next week and that the secondary coach from Texas will be coming and they'll give me a call when it's all taken care of," said White.

This could technically mean that it could be any defensive backs coach from the state of Texas. But the fact that White says "from Texas" seems to indicate that it's not just any secondary coach, but the former defensive backs coach of Texas, Duane Akina. (There are technically two Texas secondary coaches who fit that description, but I don't think Charlie Strong brought in his new guy just to see him get outpriced by the hedge fund company that is Cal Athletics a few days later.)

For those wondering about Duane Akina, let's just say that Akina will probably be the best hire Sonny Dykes has ever made on the defensive side of the football (and maybe on both sides). Akina has spent over a decade and a half molding defensive backs into NFL players at Texas (names like Quentin Jammer, Nathan Vasher, Michael Huff, Michael Griffin, Cedric Griffin, Earl Thomas, Aaron Williams and Kenny Vaccaro are probably familiar ones), turning the Longhorns into "Defensive Back U" the way Ron Gould made Cal "Running Back U". This would be a huge hire that would certainly bolster a porous Cal secondary.

What do you think of Akina? Discuss in the comments!