Riverboat Ron is officially headed to a college front office.
Cal Football announced on Thursday that they have formally hired Rivera, the former NFL head coach. Rivera will be serving as the general manager of their program.
The 63-year-old Rivera has 13 total years of NFL head coaching experience between the Carolina Panthers (whom he led from 2011-19) and Washington (whom he led from 2020-23). Rivera was a two-time NFL Coach of the Year with the Panthers and led them to Super Bowl 50 in the 2015 season. But he was far less successful during his time in Washington, posting an overall losing record of 26-40-1 (.396) in his four seasons before getting fired.
Rivera took the 2024 campaign off but is now jumping right back into the football ranks as the new GM at Cal. There is a strong connection there too as Rivera is a Golden Bears alum who played for them as a linebacker from 1980-83 and was a consensus All-American as well as the Pac-10 Football Defensive Player of the Year in 1983.
Cal has fallen on hard times in recent years as they have not produced a winning campaign since 2019 (though they have had bowl game berths in back-to-back seasons now). With head coach Justin Wilcox, who took over in 2017, still leading the team, Rivera, who was still interviewing with NFL teams just last month, is rejoining the mix in the Bay Area as well.
