Every now and then there's a quarterback with raw talent and potential silently grooming his game in the East Bay of Berkeley, California.
Surely, you've heard of Fernando Mendoza, Jared Goff, Aaron Rodgers, Kyle Boller and Troy Taylor.
Well, Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele is on the way to becoming the next one up. He's not on anybody's Heisman prediction list, but the he's got Heisman expectations and future NFL draft pick written all over him.
Sagapolutele enters the 2026 season as a sophomore who's already put his name in the record books of California Golden Bears football. He started all 13 games as a true freshman, the first to do so since Goff in 2013.
He started and put together a great campaign. He finished the 2025 season with 316-of-492 passes
for 3,454 yards with 18 touchdowns and nine interceptions. His total completions, attempts and passing yards in a season were second-highest by a Cal freshman quarterback behind Goff, who eventually became the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NFL Draft.
Sagapolutele threw the most touchdowns of any true freshman last season. He scored a total of 22 touchdowns, including four rushing touchdowns, which was the second most of any true freshman quarterback behind BYU's Bear Bachmeier, who had 26.
In Year 2, he's poised for an even better season under first-year coach Tosh Lupoi and his NFL-experienced coaching staff including his new offensive coordinator Jordan Somerville, who spent the last three seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the assistant quarterbacks coach working with Pro Bowl quarterback Baker Mayfield in a 2025 campaign in which he set career highs.
His final game was a bowl game loss, as the Golden Bears were defeated by Hawai'i in the Hawai'i Bowl in the final seconds of the game as the Rainbow Warriors scored with 10 seconds left to win, 35-31.
Sagapolutele had led the Bears' previous drive 75 yards on nine plays, ending in a 1-yard quarterback keeper touchdown run putting Cal ahead, 31-28, with less than two minutes in the game.
That's the type of offseason that Sagapolutele is coming off of. Combine that the upgraded coaching staff and roster, he should have more eyes on him as the season goes on, especially if he's cooking and the Bears are eating.
Cal brought in weapons to surround him, including New Mexico transfer Dorian Thomas, a tight end, and wide receivers Cooper Perry from Oregon, Adam Mohammed from Washington, Ian Strong from Rutgers and Chase Hendricks from Ohio.
Strong and Hendricks both were named to the 2026 Biletnikoff Award preseason watch list. The Golden Bears are one of 10 schools in the FBS to land at least two players on the watch list. Cal's duo are two of 45 receivers who got the preseason pick.
Between the two of them, their pass-catching pair was the highest-rated ACC wide receiver duo, according to PFF's preseason ratings.
In a nutshell, Sagapolutele will have more guys to throw to. Strong earned All-Big Ten, starting 10 games for Rutgers, finishing with 762 yards on 52 receptions and five touchdowns in 2025. He ranked fifth in the Big Ten with 76.2 receiving yards per game and sixth with 5.2 receptions per game last season.
Hendricks started all 13 games and tallied 1,037 receiving yards and seven receiving touchdowns. He recorded 100 or more receiving yards in six different games in 2025.
Whether it all comes together will be seen, but keep an eye out on what's going on at Cal. Lupoi, Somerville and Sagapolutele have things going and vibes seem to be high going into Saturday's game.
"It's great vibes," Sagapolutele told told the San Francisco Chronicle. "Our offense, we've been finding our stride, and we've been really rolling in practice. We're ready to show what we can do come Saturday. And the defense (is) always putting in that work to challenge us, getting us better. It's great vibes around the whole facility, from the players to the coaches to staff."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is Cal QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele a sleeper Heisman Trophy pick?
