Football Position Breakdown: Outside Linebackers

FB8/19/2025 5:00 PM | By: Cal Athletics

Football Position Breakdown: Outside Linebackers

2025 Presents Outside Backers Group With Opportunities

The Room: OLB Notes:
  • Ryan McCulloch returns as the Golden Bear with the most production from the position a season ago. He made an appearance in 10 games last season.
  • McCulloch was named an under-the-radar breakout candidate by 247Sports entering 2025 and was named one of the ACC's highest-graded returning pass rushers by Pro Football Focus.
  • The Bears have brought in four outside linebacker transfers since the end of the 2024 season (TJ Bush Jr., Odera Okaka, Chris Victor and Jayden Wayne).
  • Bush Jr., a transfer from Liberty, led the Flames as a sophomore in 2024 with 9.5 TFL and 5.5 sacks as a second-team All-Conference USA selection. In 2023, he started all 14 games as a true freshman and finished with 32 tackles, 7.0 TFL and a pair of sacks.
  • Okaka, a junior college transfer from the College of San Mateo, was the nation's No. 1 JUCO edge player according to 247 JUCO composite and the nation's No. 3 JUCO edge player according to On3 industry ranking. Last season, he had 41.0 total tackles and 3.0 sacks.
  • Victor comes from Chattanooga where he started all 12 games for the Mocs in 2024. He registered 54 tackles and a team-high 12.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks. He also added six quarterback hurries and one forced fumble.
  • Wayne, a transfer from Washington, played in 11 games and logged six tackles and one pass breakup last season.
Outside Linebackers Coach: Vic So'oto, 4th Season
  • So'oto enters his fourth season with the Golden Bears and was recently named Co-Defensive coordinator on April 10, 2025.
  • Before joining Cal, the former NFL and collegiate player spent the previous two campaigns in 2020 and 2021 on the USC coaching staff after a prior four-year stint at Virginia (2016-19). So'oto began his coaching career in 2015 as an intern at his alma mater BYU, where he spent six seasons as a student-athlete from 2005-10.
  • He was selected by the American Football Coaches Association to its 35 Under 35 Coaches Leadership Institute in 2020.
  • So'oto was on coaching staffs that won division titles in back-to-back seasons with the Cavaliers in 2019 (ACC Coastal) and Trojans in 2020 (Pac-12 South), while reaching bowls in each of his last three campaigns at Virginia (2017 Military Bowl, 2018 Belk Bowl, 2019 Orange Bowl) and then again at Cal in 2023 and 2024 with appearances in the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl and Art of Sport LA Bowl.
  • He has coached six defensive draft selections in his four stops at the FBS level.
  • As a professional, So'oto was on NFL rosters for four years in Green Bay (2011-12), Oakland (2012), Washington (2012), Arizona (2013), New Orleans (2013) and Pittsburgh (2014). He totaled 14 games played, one start, eight tackles and one quarterback hit.
  • In college, So'oto was a four-year letterwinner (2005, '07, '09-10) who started his career as a tight end before moving to defense as a linebacker and defensive end for his final three seasons of six campaigns that also included two redshirt years.
  • He was named First-Team All-Mountain West selection on a defense as a sixth-year senior in 2010 when he recorded 45 tackles, 11.5 tackles for loss, 5.0 quarterback sacks and one interception.
  • He is the second cousin of the late Pro Football Hall of Famer Junior Seau.
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