Burl TolerIII isin his second stint and 10th season overall on the coaching or football staff at his alma mater Cal in 2024, as well as his seventh campaign as a full-time assistant coach and sixthworking with the wide receivers. He is also in his third campaign as theteam's recruiting coordinator. Toler's first full-time coaching job with the Golden Bears was as the running backs coach in 2018 before he moved to his current wide receivers group in 2019. In his first tenure on Cal's staff, he spent three seasons as aquality control assistant from 2013-15 working primarilywith special teams all three campaigns, as well as the wide receivers in 2014 and running backs in 2015.
In between his two coaching tenures at Cal, he spent one season as the wide receivers coach at both Fresno State (2016) and UC Davis (2017).
As a student-athlete at Cal, he was a four-year letterwinner as a wide receiver from 2001-04 before going on to play forseven years (2006-12)in the Arena Football League, Italian Football League, NFL and NFL Europoe
Coaching Career
California–Wide Receivers/Recruiting Coordinator(2022–Present); Wide Receivers (2019-21); Running Backs (2018);Quality Control, Special Teams/Running Backs (2015);Quality Control, Special Teams/Wide Receivers (2014);Quality Control, Special Teams (2013)
– Will have a largely new group of receivers to work with in 2024 as former walk-on Trond Grizzell is the only one of the team's top five wide receivers from 2023 who returns with Grizzell second on the team last season in receptions (39), yards receiving (590) and touchdown catches (5)
– Roster will feature eightnew wide receivers in 2024 including six who transferred after the 2023 campaign in Cole Boscia (Colorado), Jonathan Brady (New Mexico), Kyion Grayes (Ohio State), Mikey Matthews (Utah), Tobias Merriweather (Notre Dame) and Isaac Torres (Santa Rosa Junior College), aswell as a pair of incoming freshmen in Josiah Martin and Trevor Rogers
– Coached Jeremiah Hunter to three-yearcareer numbers at Cal recorded in 33 games from 2021-23 of 144 receptions, 2,084 yards receiving and 13 touchdown catches, with Hunter posting a single-season career-best of 965 yards receiving as a 2022 sophom*ore and then career highs of 63 receptions and seven touchdown catches during his 2023 junior campaign, earning second-team All-Pac-12 honors from Phil Steele and Pro Football Focus as a wide receiver, while adding second-team recognition as a punt returner from Steele, and an honorable mention all-conference selection by the league's coaches as a wide receiver in 2022
– Guided Mavin Anderson to career highs of 37 receptions, 372 yards receiving and three touchdown catches in his 2022 redshirt freshman campaign, while Monroe Young recorded his top two Cal seasons in his final two campaigns working under Toler as a 2022 junior and 2023 senior before being invited to the San Francisco 49ers rookie mini-camp in the spring of 2024
– CoachedJ.Michael Sturdivant, who transferred tofirst-team Freshman All-American honors from The Athletic, College Football News and the Football Writers Association of America, while Sturdivant was an honorable mention All-Pac-12 selection of the league's coaches in 2022 after leadingthe team with 65 receptions and seven touchdown catches, while ranking second with 755 yards receiving, with hisreceptions andreceptions per game (5.4) leading all of the nation's freshmen,while his receiving yards and receiving yards per game (62.9) ranked second and his touchdown receptions tied for second
– Hunter was the only returning receiverin 2022 that had double-digit catches in 2021 when he contributed 21 receptions for 388 yards and one touchdown, while his average of 18.5 yards per reception ranked 20th nationally and second in the Pac-12 behind only Trevon Clark (19.9, 7th), who had a team-high 658 receiving yards on 33 catches including an 84-yarder that was the longest reception ever in the Big Game and one of his four touchdowns on the campaign, and was also among the Pac-12 leaders in total receiving yards (7th) and receiving yards per game (54.8, 8th), while Kekoa Crawford had a team-high 40 receptions for 513 yards and was 12th in the league with an average of 3.6 receptions per game
– Coached current Kansas City chiefs wide receiver Nikko Remigio during afour-year Cal career from 2018-21 in which he finished with totals of 1,871 all-purpose yards and eight touchdowns including 97 receptions for 903 yards with seven touchdown grabs
– Crawford and Remigioboth earned honorable mention All-Pac-12 honors in 2020
– Has coached three receivers at Cal who have been on NFL rosters or had NFL tryouts in Clark (Baltimore), Crawford (Kansas City), Remigio (Kansas City) and Young (San Francisco)
– In his single season as the Bears' running backs coach in 2018, tutored current former Miami and Tampa Bay running back Patrick Laird, who finished his Cal career with 2,153 yards rushing and 14 touchdowns on the ground before going on to play three seasons in the NFL including appearing in 37 games for Miami from 2019-21 before spending the 2022 and 2023 campaigns primarily on Tampa Bay's practice squad
– Laird racked up 961 yards rushing as a 2018 senior tofinish just 39 yards from becoming only the third Cal player to ever amass a pair of 1,000-yard rushing seasons and joining Marshawn Lynch and Russell White in the elite group, became the first Cal player since Lynch to rush for over 100 yards twice in the Big Game in back-to-back seasons in 2017 and 2018, and caught more passes in his Cal career than any running back in school history with 99 receptions for 608 yards with five touchdownsincluding 51 receptions as a 2018 senior that were a single-season school record for a running back, while also capturing a multitude of honors for his accomplishments on and off the field during his 2018 senior seasonhighlighted by his second-team Senior All-American pick by the Senior CLASS Award, his spot on the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team®, and his selections as a BurlsworthTrophy finalist andCampbell Trophy semifinalist.
– Filledseveral different roles during his first three seasons on the football staff from 2013-15 as a special teams quality control assistant all three seasons, while also working with the wide receivers in 2014 and the running backs in 2015 when Cal won the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl.
UC Davis –Wide Receivers(2017)
– Coached wide receiver Keelan Doss, who earned consensus first-team All-America and Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Year honors, while being a finalist for the Walter Payton Award given annually to the nation's top FCS player, after leadingall FCS and FBS schools in receptions (115), per-game receptions (10.5 rpg) and yards receiving (136.3 ypg), while his 1,499 total yards receiving led all FCS receivers
– Doss signed an undrafted free agent contract with the Oakland Raiders in 2019, played in nine games for Oakland (2019) and Las Vegas (2020), as well as five with the Los Angeles Chargers (2023), and has also been on NFL rosters with the Jacksonville Jaguars (2019), Atlanta Falcons (2021), New York Jets (2021), New York Giants (2022) and the Chargers also in 2022
– Wide receiver Marcus Cummins picked upCoSIDA Academic All-American honors under Toler's tutelage
Fresno State–Wide Receivers(2016)
– Helped three wideouts to at least 45 catches and 630 yards receiving each, with KeeSean Johnson ranking third in the Mountain West Conference in receptions per game (5.5),being drafted in the sixth round by the Arizona Cardinals in 2019 andmaking a combined 36 catches for 360 yards and one touchdown during the first two of his three seasons with the Cardinals, before being on NFL rosterswith the Philadelphia Eagles (2021), the San Francisco 49ers (2022), Atlanta Falcons (2022) and Buffalo Bills (2022-23) before moving on the Canadian Football League and his current team the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2024
Professional Playing Career
Arena Football League – San Antonio (2012); Orlando (2012), San Jose (2011, 2007); Italian Football League –Bologna (2009);NFL – Washington Redskins (2007-08), Oakland Raiders (2006);NFL Europe– Cologne (2007)
– Spent time as a NFL player on the rosters of the Oakland Raiders in 2006 and the Washington Redskins in 2007 and 2008,while he was on the roster of the Cologne Centurions of NFL Europe in 2007
– Also on rostersofthe Italian Football League's Bologna Dovers in 2009, as well as theArena Football League'sSan Jose SaberCats (2007, 2011), Orlando Predators (2012) and San Antonio Talons (2012) before retiring as a player in 2013
Collegiate Playing Career
California (2001-04)
– Started his collegiate career as a walk on and helped Cal to an Insight Bowl victory and a Holiday Bowl appearance in his final two seasons as a 2003 junior and 2004 seniorwith Cal recording its first 10-win season since 1991 and also finishing No. 9 in the final AP Top 25 in his last collegiate campaign
– Compiled career totals of 69 receptions, 873 yards receiving and four touchdowns
– California'ssecond-leading receiver as a 2003 junior with 48 catches for 609 yards receiving to go along with three scoring grabs, completing his junior campaign by hauling in a team-high six passes for 84 yards in a 52-49 victory over Virginia Tech in the Insight Bowl.
Other
– Toler's family has a deep connection to the Cal Athletics and the Bay Area
– Father, Burl Toler Jr., was a four-year letterwinner as a linebacker for Californiafrom 1974-77 and a team captain as a senior in 1977
– Mother, Susan, is a Cal graduate, as are his brother, Cameron, and sisters, Pita and Laureina
– Cameron was a member of the Cal football program from 2004-07, while Pita and Laureina were onthe Golden Bears' track andfield team
– Pita also worked at Cal as a member of the athletic development staff
– Has another sister, Christianna, who is an artist in New York
– His grandfather, the late Burl Toler Sr., played on the legendary unbeaten 1951 University of San Francisco football team that refused to accept an Orange Bowl bid because itdidn't include the team's two black players and later became the first African-American official in the NFL before spending 25 seasons in the role from 1965-89
Year-By-Year Coaching Positions
Season: Team – Position (Postseason, Champions)
2013:California – Quality Control, Special Teams
2014:California – Quality Control, Special Teams/Wide Receivers
2015:California – Quality Control, Special Teams/Running Backs (Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl)
2016:Fresno State – Wide Receivers
2017:UC Davis – Wide Receivers
2018:California – Running Backs (Cheez-It Bowl)
2019:California – Wide Receivers (Redbox Bowl)
2020:California – Wide Receivers
2021:California – Wide Receivers
2022:California – Wide Receivers/Recruiting Coordinator
2023:California – Wide Receivers/Recruiting Coordinator (Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl)
2024:California – Wide Receivers/Recruiting Coordinator
*Season in which bowl game was played
File
Birthdate:April 7, 1983
Hometown:Berkeley, CA
High School:Bishop O'Dowd HS
College:California, 2005, Bachelor’s in social welfare with a concentration in sociology
Family:Wife, Drea; Daughters, Laleand Lana; Son, Burl IV
Last Updated
June 4, 2024
