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These Days: Jake Spavital’s fast rise through the coaching ranks

The first thing anyone mentions about Jake Spavital isn’t his years of experience, his coaching prowess or his family’s illustrious history of producing coaches.

It’s his age.

Sure, all those building blocks have helped mold one of the brightest offensive minds in college football. But at first glance, the glaring bullet point on Spavital’s resume is that he is 31. Though he started his coaching career back in 2008, Spavital is the fifth-youngest coordinator in the FBS.

“They bring up the age a lot,” Spavital, Cal’s first-year offensive coordinator, says. “I was just trying to get my foot in the door so I was constantly moving.