Nebraska is expected to hire Tony Tuioti to its staff to replace Mike Dawson as the D-line coach, according to sources at Cal, where Tuioti has been serving as the D-line coach.

The sources confirmed their expectations of the move to Steve Wiltfong of 247Sports. Tuioti wasn't there Monday for the first practice of the spring for the Golden Bears, according to Shannon Carroll, who covers the team for our Cal site. Nebraska has not yet made anything official regarding the hire.

Tuioti has spent the past two seasons at Cal after serving as the director of player personnel at Michigan in 2016, where he headed the Wolverines' recruiting department. He coached the defensive line for the Golden Bears this past year after being in charge of the outside backers in 2017.

Tuioti also has some NFL experience in his background, having spent 2014-15 as the assistant defensive line and quality control coach for the Cleveland Browns. From 2010 to 2013, he coached at Hawai'i, serving as the D-line coach in 2010 and 2011 before working with the linebackers the next two seasons. Hawai'i is his alma mater, having played on the D-line there and began his coaching career as a grad assistant back in 2000. He is one of two people from the school to have won a WAC Championship both as a player and coach, his bio states.

He should also add some recruiting punch for the Huskers on the West Coast.

It's been assumed an announcement on the new D-line coach for Nebraska would come at some point this week since spring practices start a week from today. This is the first coaching change to his assistants Scott Frost has had to make since he originally put his staff together at Central Florida in 2016.

Tuioti's bio on the Cal site noted that his D-linemen helped the Bears rate among the best in both the Pac-12 and nationwide this past year. Cal was 15th nationally in total defense and 22nd in scoring defense in 2018 while running a 3-4 scheme like Nebraska uses under Erik Chinander.

This past year, Tuioti helped guide Luc Bequette, Chris Palmer and Tevin Paul to much improved seasons on the D-line. Bequette earned honorable mention All-Pac 12 honors and was the league's Defensive Player of the Week in a performance against USC. Palmer, meanwhile, was named the team's most improved lineman on either side of the ball after converting over from the O-line.

Tuioti's experience coaching the outside backers could also could come in handy. In 2017, he was in charge of a couple of impressive edge-rushers in Alex Funches and Cameron Goode. Funches led the team in tackles for loss (10 1/2) and sacks (4). Goode also had a busy stat line under Tuioti's tutelage.

Husker head coach Scott Frost had managed to keep his pursuit of a D-line replacement a quiet one since it became known Dawson was taking a job as the New York Giants outside linebackers coach a couple weeks ago. It's not known initially how much the Huskers will pay the new hire, but they had some money to work with, having paid Dawson $475,000 a year. Tuioti was making $276,500 at Cal in 2018, according to the latest assistant coaching salary figures from USA Today.

As for how the new addition will fit in other ways, Frost explained to Husker247 last year some of the leading ingredients he looked for when hiring assistant coaches.

“The two traits I was looking for were intelligence and character. I valued those two things even over experience in some cases. I had guys in mind for a long time, probably just a couple years or three years into my Oregon career, guys that I had met and knew were smart guys and would be good coaches. I was lucky to get a lot of them down with us in Florida."

Frost is hoping he found more of the same.