Cal Football Fall Notebook #4

8.18 The Golden Bears have a QB1, and positional updates from Coach Wilcox

Just before taking the banner late Monday morning, Peter Thamel tweeted that Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele would be Cal’s starter, moments before Coach Wilcox’s final banner session of fall camp. The decision was made Sunday and the Quarterbacks were made aware of the decision that night. You can check out

TD_24

‘s post here.

• “Practice, walk-throughs, reps, production.” were top of Coach Wilcox’s list as to why they went the way they did. “Accuracy down the field, keeps his eyes down the field really well, those two things showed up. Very very coachable, he learns quickly.” Toward the end of the presser he mentions that “He plays like he’s been here a couple years. The questions he asks, his ability to take the coaching and apply it, his instinct for the game, he’s a very natural guy…you just don’t see a lot of repetitive mistakes with him. Again, he’s a young guy, he’s not perfect, but his ability to understand the defense, and where he fits, his instincts for the game, he just looks like he’s been playing here a while.”

• On Devin Brown; “Devin is a really good football player, and (we believe) his ability to be a winning starter at this level, but Jaron earned it.” On the reality of reps; “At that position, when you make a decision like that, it’s not like a lot of people are swapping Quarterbacks every play. A corner, or an offensive lineman, or a linebacker, there’s a lot of reps to be shared, but Quarterback, traditional it doesn’t work that way.” Coach Wilcox continued, “I Think Devin’s a good football player, he does a lot of things well, extremely smart and he’s a great leader, so I’m sure he’s disappointed, and there’s a point where we need Devin, I can empathise with his disappointment.”

• There’s an understanding on staff that they are starting a Freshman, and it that was part of the message Wilcox meant to impart today. It seems like his coachability mixed with his traits fast tracked his development, and we can thank his early enrollment for spring practice and spring workouts getting him to a place where fall camp could take him to yet another level.

• It was mentioned that JKS “feels the pocket really well” which if you pair with the comments about downfield accuracy, and keeping his eyes down field could lead one to believe we might see a degree of fearlessness from Cal’s QB1.

• Sagapolutele’s demeanor impressed the coaching staff; “He comes out here every day, the same guy, and he’s very competitive. He’s quick to smile, but he’s a very competitive guy. That shows up on the practice field and the meeting room.” “He’s still learning, a lot of these are firsts for him. He has the ability to learn. I think where you get concerned is when a guy gets here and you have the same coaching points over and over and over again and it’s not resonating. He’s a guy that’s shown he can learn and digest it. Out on the field he’s got the right demeanor.” Later Wilcox came back to the question in a different form;

• When asked if there’s any comparison to the last Freshman to start at Cal, Coach Wilcox stated; “I remember watching Jared (Goff) play when he was in highschool, and here, obviously I wasn’t here, I was competing against him, just watching him on tape a lot. He was always such a cool customer, he didn’t seem to get real up and down, very steady. A lot of great quarterbacks have that character trait, their ability to stay in the moment the ability to not get too high or too low. I see some of those character traits with Jaron, I don’t like comparing people, everybody’s unique, but he has some of that, where he’s just an even keeled guy, you don’t get the sense it’s going to be too big for him. I just think he’s got that demeanor that’s very calm and collected, but competitive at the same time.”

• On what to expect against Oregon State; “What I expect is, when you have a young QB like that, he’s got enough on his plate, it’s everybody else, it’s the O line and the tight ends, runnings back and the receivers, it’s the coaches, it’s the defense, it’s the special teams, it’s everybody else. He’ll have enough on his plate.”

There was another closed Scrimmage on Saturday the 16th, with more positional takeaways.

• The Scrimmage; “We had a live portion, got about 35 plays in there. The defense tackled much better than they did the first scrimmage a week prior. The offense, especially the backs had some really nice runs again. We did a lot of situational football, end of half, end of game, which I thought the offense managed- we had some really good learning in there, did a good job getting scoring drives in those end of half, end of game situations.”

• Offensive Line; “When it comes to positions, there are some positions that are starting to take shape, O Line, I think we’re getting closer and closer, but at this point there’s five guys taking the field with the ones, we’re prolly playing more than five guys. Would we love to see five take a step forward and create some distance between themselves and the twos? Yeah that’d be great, but right now, as long as they’re all getting better…The ones and some of the twos are becoming more solidified.”

• One offensive lineman who’s improved particularly is junior Leon Bell, who’s at tackle. “You’ve probably seen him by, he’s a big, big guy, really long arms. He’s changed his body in the summer, credit to him, and Coach Novak and their staff, he’s improved significantly at tackle.” Tyson Ruffins has shown improvement at left guard as well, Siopae Vatikani has shown out, and presently Lamar Robinson is holding on to the Center spot. The faith in the offensive line is apparent as Wilcox continues to go down the roster, going out of his way to mention Braden Miller is having a strong camp. Nick Morrow, Fredrick Williams III, and Jordan Moko were called out as well. “There’s a lot of names in there, it’d be great if we create so much competition that five guys just rise above, but it’s so competitive right now, I can’t say that it’s that clear.

• Tight End; “There are three guys getting the lion’s share in there”

• Running Backs; “The running back position, to be honest right now, it’s kind of 1 A, B, and C. All three of those guys have shown to be productive in different ways, got some really good physical runs this past Saturday, which was great to see.”

• Wide Receivers; “The receiver group, Jacob DeJesus continues to flash each and every day, Trond (Grizzel), we’ve seen what Trond can do, and then three through seven or eight in the receiver room, its ‘who can take a step forward and create seperation for themselves, and/or we’re going to play multiple guys at those positions.”

• Defense; “Cade Uluave is going to start and play as long as Cade can play, Aidan Keanaaina the same, Ryan McCulloch, TJ Bush has done a really nice job at the other edge…The young D Lineman have flashed, they need to be more consistent, but those guys continue to flash.

• Secondary; “Zeke (Hezekiah Masses) and Paco (Brent Austin) are the clear starting corners, at Safety Isiah Crosby, Aiden Manutai, Dru Polidore, and really, Jordan Sanford and Tristan Dunn have done some good things.”

• “Inside linebacker position opposite Cade, the who’s made a really big jump this camp is Luke Ferrelli, he’s done an excellent job he had a little bit of an injury that slowed him down at the end of last week, but he’s good to go. He’s had a really good camp. Harrison Taggart and Buom Joc have made some really good plays, Aaron Hampton showed up. But that spot opposite Cade, Luke really stepped up and those other guys are still pushing.” Look for Bastion Swinney to take some snaps at guard, potentially alongside some looks at Center.

• The Kicker about Kickers; “We’re gonna play two kickers, there’s one for ya.” Coach pauses for a moment, “Not at the same time.” There will be one kicker for long distance and one for short. It sounds like Abrahm Murray will handle the long kicks, with Chase Meyer on things like PAT.

• Outside of Nate Burrell, who is out for the season, there are no significant injury concerns.

• On the depth chart: “We will release it when we have to release it.”