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Cal, Texas Tech football defensive staffs intertwined
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- Cal, Texas Tech football defensive staffs intertwined
SHREVEPORT, La. — By the time college football teams meet in bowl games, the amount of tactical guesswork is diminished somewhat with coaches having a full season's worth of game video to study on the opponent. There might be even fewer secrets among the defensive staffs of the California and Texas Tech football teams.
Tech and Cal, both 6-6, play at 8:15 p.m. Saturday at Independence Stadium. Tech is a 3 1/2-point favorite .
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Tech defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter held the same position from 2017 to 2020 under Justin Wilcox, now in his seventh year as head coach at Cal. Tech secondary coach Marcel Yates and defensive quality control staff member Ryan Conry also worked under Wilcox with the Golden Bears , Yates in 2020 and Conry in 2019 and 2020.
"We're very familiar, with their defensive staff especially," Wilcox said Friday. "Structurally, there's quite a few similarities in how they run their defense. They're not exactly the same. Any given year, offenses, defenses will be tweaked just based on personnel.
"But when we did practice this past couple of weeks, we were able to call some of our stuff because it's some of the same stuff that they run. They're really good coaches across the board."
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Texas Tech's defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter gives instructions during football practice, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2023, at the Sports Performance Center.
Last spring, Tech inside linebackers coach Josh Bookbinder went out to Cal to discuss strategy with Golden Bears defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon and his staff.
"They've been very good with us as far as we trade information on common opponents, those kind of things," DeRuyter said. "When you have relationships in this game, that's what you do. But come Saturday night, it's playing your brother in the backyard. During that 3 1/2 four hours, whatever it is, buckle up. We're going to compete."
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Wilcox called DeRuyter "a phenomenal guy, great coach." This is Sirmon's sixth year on the Cal staff. He and DeRuyter overlapped with the Golden Bears from the 2018 through the 2020 seasons.
"I'd known him before," DeRuyter said, "and we had talked when we were in previous jobs. He's a very sharp football coach. We have a lot of similar philosophies. We've kind of kidded that this may look like a spring football game, at least when we're both on defense.
"But I know they'll do a good job. They've got a really, really good staff that gets the most out of their guys."
University of California, Berkeley head coach Justin Wilcox responding to a question at the Independence Bowl pre-game press conference Friday morning, December 15, 2023, at Bally's Shreveport Casino & Hotel in Shreveport, LA.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Cal, Texas Tech football defensive staffs intertwined
