Former Washington State head football coach Nick Rolovich is returning to major college football for the first time in three years after being fired for refusing to comply with the Washington state vaccine mandate in 2021.
Cal Berkeley announced his hiring Friday, saying he is being added to the staff as a senior offensive assistant for the Cal football program.
Cal also has COVID-19 policy requirements for faculty, staff and students, but they can opt out of vaccination and submit a declination statement despite the university’s recommendation that they stay up to date on vaccination.
Rolovich, 45, sought a religious exemption from the mandate at Washington State but was terminated after the athletics department determined it couldn’t accommodate his unvaccinated status.
He then sued Washington State in 2022, accusing the university of discriminating against his religious beliefs. Part of his lawsuit was dismissed last year by a federal judge, but the case remains active and pending in federal court in Spokane, Washington.
A spokesperson for Cal football didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment. An attorney for Rolovich, 45, also didn’t immediately respond.
Rolovich is Catholic.
Pope Francis and other Catholic organizations have supported COVID-19 vaccines. However, some conservative Catholics have opposed them on religious grounds, believing they are tied to abortion, which they oppose.
No aborted fetal cells are in those vaccines. The cell lines that were used to develop or test them were derived from fetal tissue from decades ago and have been used to develop other medicine as well.
Rolovich’s lawsuit stated that before his firing, he was “uncomfortable because he did not know how WSU would react to him sharing his religious opposition to medical research based on aborted fetal tissue, given that WSU professors have in the past publicly defended such research.”
In response, attorneys for the WSU defendants said Rolovich’s objections were a crock based on junk science, conspiracy theories and secular opinions instead of “any truly religious beliefs.” They said he never claimed a religious reason for his refusal to get vaccinated until he applied for a religious exemption and accommodation less than one week before the deadline.
Rolovich coached 11 games at WSU, including the shortened season of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. His records there was 5-6.
He previously served as head coach at Hawaii for three seasons, where he compiled a 28-27 record.
After his firing at Washington State, he resurfaced as an assistant at San Marin High School in Novato, California.
At Cal, he joins the staff of head coach Justin Wilcox and will work under new offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin, the former coach at Boise State and Auburn.
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com
