Garret Chachere named Cal linebackers coach, Fred Tate hired, Andy Buh reassigned

As expected, the California Golden Bears have now put their coaching staff in place for the 2014 season.

Former Cincy aide Fred Tate hired by Cal as D-line coach; ex-DC Andy Buh reassigned within athletic dept. Tate worked w/new DC Art Kaufman.

— Jeff Faraudo (@JeffFaraudo) March 12, 2014

Cal's new D-line coach Fred Tate worked with new def coordinator Art Kaufman at Cincinnati and Texas Tech.

— Jeff Faraudo (@JeffFaraudo) March 12, 2014

Garret Chachere, who coached DEs for Cal last season, will handle linebackers. Kaufman will strictly oversee defense, w/o position group.

— Jeff Faraudo (@JeffFaraudo) March 12, 2014

As originally reported, Andy Buh has been officially reassigned within the athletic department and will not be coaching with the team next season. With no buyout provision in his contract, Buh can decide what he wants to do next but can rest assured that he will happily be paid the remainder of his contract regardless of what he decides to do it. The question is whether it will be Cal or another school paying it.

TwistNHook broke down Buh’s contract last November.

The contract (on page 7) has a duty to mitigate damages clause. This clause is standard in many, many contracts. It legally forces the fired employee to take reasonable steps to get further employment. If they get another job, the amount of money that Cal has to pay them based on this contract is decreased by a dollar to dollar amount from what they receive at that second job.

...

If he gets another job (and the duty to mitigate damages clause is broad and includes ANY job, unlike Tedford's clause, which included only certain jobs) and that job pays him $1.25 mil over the next 2.5 years, Cal would not have to pay a dime. Under this section, Buh has to report to Cal on a consistent basis how much money he is making, so they can re-organize how much they pay him.

Of course, he may not be able to get a job that pays him $1.25 mil over the next 2.5 years. If he gets a job that pays him $250,000.00 per year, then Cal's responsibility to him would be cut in half.

Defensive end coach Garrett Chachere now upgrades to take Buh’s spot as linebackers coach. Defensive coordinator Art Kaufman will not be taking on any additional titles, but I imagine he will have significant input on the linebacking situation as that is his speciality. Chachere by default will probably become Cal’s best defensive recruiter on the staff and will probably be Kaufman’s point man in that regards.

Also as expected, Cal has hired former Cincinnati defensive end coach Fred Tate. More from the Cal Athletics press release.

"Fred Tate comes highly recommended from Art Kaufman and the two have had an excellent relationship in the past," Dykes said. "He has a tremendous amount of energy that will carry over well to both on-field coaching and recruiting."

"I’m excited to be joining Sonny’s staff at Cal and be reunited with Art," Tate said. "We’ve had a tremendous amount of success over the last two seasons working together, and I’m looking forward to replicating that and improving upon it at Cal. I’m ready to hit the ground running."

Tate’s most recent stint with Kaufman was in 2013 as the defensive tackles coach for a Cincinnati team that finished 9-4 overall and played in the Belk Bowl. Cincinnati’s defense was one of the best in the country, ranking in the top 10 nationally in both rushing defense (6th, 104.5 ypg) and total defense (9th, 315.6 ypg).

Tate also worked on Kaufman’s defensive staff at Texas Tech in 2012, inheriting a 2011 unit that ranked 114th nationally in total defense (485.58 ypg) and improving them to 38th (367.31 ypg) while ranking second in the Big 12 Conference. Texas Tech was keyed by a pass defense that led the league and ranked 15th in the country (192.00 ypg). The Red Raiders finished 8-5 overall and were victorious over Minnesota at the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

Tate’s other previous coaching stints have come at Marshall (2010-11), Tennessee-Chattanooga (2008-09), Southern Miss (2005-06), East Carolina (2003-04), Middle Tennessee State (2002), Southwest Texas State (2001), East Mississippi Community College (2000), Jacksonville State (1998-99) and East Central Community College (1997).