University of California Athletics

Coaching Accolades

• 3 consecutive Cal bowl appearances.
• Coached Jack Endries to All-ACC honors in 2024.

Notable Player Accolades

• 4x Letterwinner for the Golden Bears.
• Pac-12 Football Scholar Athlete of the Year (2020).
• Campbell Trophy Semifinalist.
• Wuerffel Trophy Semifinalist. 

Travers Family Head Football Coach Tosh Lupoi announced the return of Mike Saffell as the team’s assistant tight ends coach on January 15, 2026.

Saffell returns for his 10th season at Cal as a player or coach and his third campaign as a full-time member of the coaching staff in 2026. 

Saffell, who will continue to work with the tight ends, helped Jack Endries (2024) and Mason Mini (2025) become the nation's top pass-catching tight ends over the last two seasons, with Endries also leading all Cal players in both receptions and yards receiving. 

At the age of 24, Saffell was promoted from a second-year graduate assistant to the team's tight ends coach between the 2023 regular season and the Bears' appearance in the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl. He started his coaching career in 2021 as a student assistant with a pair of tight ends - Keleki Latu and Jake Tonges - from his tenure as a graduate or student assistant going on to play in the NFL. 

Saffell played four seasons at Cal as an offensive lineman (2017-20). He was a team captain and the Pac-12's Football Scholar-Athlete of the Year as a 2020 senior. Saffell was also named a semifinalist for the Campbell Trophy and Wuerffel Trophy that are considered college football's premier academic and community service awards, respectively. He helped Cal to back-to-back bowl games with the Bears appearing at the Cheez-It Bowl in 2018 before knocking off Illinois at the 2019 Redbox Bowl to finish 8-5 overall.