Jim Michalczik's Pac-12 Tour has stopped in Pullman, Wash.; Corvallis, Ore.; Berkeley, Calif.; and even Seattle for a a couple of months.
Tuesday, he added Tucson as his fifth stop.
The Arizona Wildcats have hired Michalczik as their offensive line coach. He replaces Robert Anae, who left two weeks ago to become BYU's offensive coordinator.
Michalczik, 46, comes to the Wildcats after spending the previous two seasons as the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Cal.
Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez was out of town recruiting on Tuesday and unavailable for comment.
Michalczik (pronounced muh-hall-CHECK) is the only Arizona assistant who has held a full-time job elsewhere in the conference. Tight ends coach Charlie Ragle spent one season as a graduate assistant at Arizona State.
Michalczik, who is expected to arrive in Tucson today, has 23 years of experience in the college and NFL ranks. He had two stints at Cal: Before serving as the offensive coordinator, he was the Golden Bears' offensive line coach from 2002 to 2008.
In the middle of his two stops in Berkeley, Michalczik was the offensive line coach for the Oakland Raiders in 2009 and 2010.
Michalczik also spent three years at Oregon State and played for Washington State in the late 1980s.
Michalczik served in several roles under Beavers coach Dennis Erickson, including special teams coordinator, assistant offensive line coach and tight ends coach. Michalczik played for Erickson at Washington State and was part of the 1988 Aloha Bowl champion team.
Michalczik also served as Washington's offensive coordinator, though he never coached a game for the Huskies. He was hired by Steve Sarkisian away from Cal in December 2008. But he left Washington less than two months on the job to work for the Raiders.
Michalczik began his career as the defensive line coach for Miami (Fla.) when he was just 24. After two seasons there, he moved on to Montana State, where he was the offensive line coach for seven seasons.
Michalczik and his wife, Jennifer, have two sons, Max and Chase.
Rodriguez and the Wildcats still have to replace safeties coach Tony Gibson. Gibson left the program this month and is expected to take a similar job at West Virginia.
Extra points
• Defensive tackle Tony Mekari decommitted from the UA on Tuesday night and pledged to Cal, Scout.com recruiting service reported. Mekari is a two-star recruit and ranked as the 88th-best defensive tackle prospect in the country by Scout. His departure leaves the Wildcats with just one DT (Luca Bruno) in their 2013 recruiting class.
On StarNet: Check in on the Cats during the offseason on the Star's UA football blog: azstarnet.com/uafootball
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