Coach Nicholas Edwards to join the Cal Poly staff

We’ve got just the most shocking shocker to ever shock the California Golden Bears: Coach Nicholas Edwards will go and follow Beau to coordinate their O.

(For some other Cal and Pac-12 connections, his other hires include Paul Wulff [the former Washington State Cougars head coach] and Casey Petree [who spent time as a graduate assistant at California under Dykes and Wilcox and in quality control back with Dykes and the SMU Mustangs].)

Edwards joined the Cal coaching staff in 2017 for Justin Wilcox’s first year; he spent the first two seasons coaching receivers, while 2019 was his first year coaching a different group—running backs.

Edwards has been working with Beau Baldwin since 2008, when Edwards was a walk-on receiver for Baldwin’s Eastern Washington Eagles. (Which means Edwards did indeed play against Cal way back in 2009.) Edwards had a brief professional career (spending an offseason with NFL teams and “turn[ing] down an opportunity to play” in the Canadian Football League) and then turned to coaching at his alma mater; with the Eagles, he spent his first year as an assistant strength and conditioning coach, then three years coaching receivers. In that time, his most famous product was Cooper Kupp, who turned an illustrious FCS career into an NFL position.

Presumably, California now must replace two offensive coaches—including the immensely important role of offensive coordinator. It is unclear if Edwards will continue to coach the team through the Redbox Bowl as Baldwin will.

Best of luck to Edwards in his career (except when we play them in 2020)!