Evans Hall: Primus Inter Pares
Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele is one of many; can he be first of them all.
Primus Inter Pares - First among equals.
There are 136 teams, each of them generally field 1 QB at a time (yes I am looking at you Shinryuji Naga wannabees trying to run 2 QB looks at the same time). Which means for Sagapolutele to start for Cal as a True Freshman is to join an elite fraternity of players. Less than 150 men are privileged to call themselves QB1 in top flight college football and for Cal we have one who has the potential to one day call himself Primus Inter Pares among that brotherhood.
But for now let’s see where he stands among his equals.
Big Picture View: Explosive but Inconsistent
The Cal passing offense ranked 7th among all teams that faced non-P4 opposition. Efficiency, as we recall, leaves much to be desired. It was a mixture of 10 incompletions and 2 passes completed for negative yards: 40% of his drop backs being unproductive if not negative plays. Clean that up or turn the 4-5 yard gains into 7-8 yards and we’re cooking.
Explosive play wise we do have to note that from the 6 teams ahead of Cal
Ole Miss beat Georgia State 63-7,
Purdue beat Ball State 31-0,
UVa beat Coastal Carolina 48-7,
Duke beat Elon (which doesn’t even have a sports-reference page) 45-17,
Arkansas beat Albama A&M 52-7,
I would argue that Cal played a tougher opponent than any of them and acquitted themselves at the same level. Question is, is it sustainable? If it is, can someone coin an Oppenheimer-JKS comparison.
2nd Down is His
There can be a discussion made about the type of play-calling OC Harsin makes and the outcomes that JKS achieves when faced with 2nd down and < 6 yards to-go. Some of his best passes were made when the offense had the option to pass or run the ball, strategic ambiguity combined with the willingness to run the ball can be a tool if we can maintain being on schedule on early downs. That is also when we saw them trying, and succeeding, to big game hunt.
We can see that on the backdrop of every drop-back an P4 QB had against non-P4 opposition JKS’ performance on 2nd downs overall stands out, this isn’t something where a P4 team can just dominate any non P4 team, this is a Cal offense thing.
Among Equals
Overall, when looking and the charts, Jaron-Keawe didn’t stand out in the other 2 key advanced statistics: he had moments where the passing game wasn’t on schedule, and on the mean and median wasn’t the most overall effective player. I would attribute the drop to the dropped 3rd down passes, the 4th down toe out of bounds by De Jesus, and the two passes for negative yards, the most eggregious one was blown up by Oregon State on a bubble screen.
None of which can be attrubutted to the QB but to the players surrounding him. The explosive play rate can fluctuate, as all explosive plays are a matter of chance and luck. Bringing up the median and average effecitiveness of the passing game combined with more “matriculate the ball down the field” plays can make into a monster passer.
Conclusion
In his first start, away from home, Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele showed that he belonged among the brotherhood of QB1s. This is as much as one could ask of him, and yet he showed glimpses with his arm and decision making that he has the characteristics to become first among those equals.
Thank Oski that he shall do so in the blue and gold.
I feel honored to be part of a University that cares enough about football to give me detailed postgame statistical data and elite enough for the data to go way over my head
Successful first downs usually lead to successful subsequent downs. A successful running game usually leads to a successful passing game. There is no mystery. Harsin's play calling coupled with a new O-Line that executes better than last year in both run blocking and pass pro changes the dynamics of play calling and success for any QB. I think JKS is phenomenal, but even Nando would have played better behind our current Big Uglies. Swag and drag Big Boys!