Post-Game Thoughts: SMU Football 2025

Cal bests the Mustangs behind a legacy game from Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele

photo via @calfootball twitter

I’ve talked this week about how badly this now-annual game needs a little bit of spice. Cal and SMU has played once prior to joining the ACC together, but at least for now they’re the only team other than Stanford permanently on the schedule.

Hey, if this is our new reality, best to embrace it, right?

Is there a better way to build lore and create bad blood than by beating your rival in a game that meant everything to them and almost nothing for Cal? Welcome to Berkeley, ponies!

Offense

Efficiency Report

10 possessions - 5 touchdowns, 2 field goal attempts (1-2), 3 punts, 3.8 points/drive. Cal offensive points/drive entering the game: 1.9. SMU defense points/drive allowed entering the game: 1.6.

So Cal more than doubled the level of efficiency you would expect against a defense like SMU. How? With a pretty different set of personnel packages, and with a bounce back performance from a truly special talent.

JKS is the truth

We can talk big picture. We can talk about how Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele just put up the highest completion percentage and QB rating SMU has allowed all season long. We can talk about the poise to drive 75 yards in 99 seconds, and the calm decision making that saw him wisely throw short/underneath five times on the drive before a deeper look finally came open.

We can talk individual throws. There are little throws, like an improvised side arm to De Jesus on a WR screen that turned a potential sack or batted pass into a 7 yard gain, or a bunch of swing throws perfectly placed to put the receiver in stride for major YAC. There are the medium throws, where he puts just enough loft on a throw to get it over a linebacker in shallow coverage, but with enough zip to get it in before the safety comes down. There are the big time throws, like when he faced pressure, took a hit, and uncorked a throw that only Cole Boscia could grab for a touchdown. Or how he lofted a beautiful back shoulder sideline throw in the corner of the end zone to Jaiven Plummer.

Cal’s line generally provided JKS with time and a clean pocket, and JKS went to work with that time, carving up an SMU defense that had really locked down since some early season struggles against Baylor and TCU.

It was a thrilling cap to what just might be the greatest true freshman season from a quarterback in Cal history. JKS’s numbers actually look pretty similar to what Jared Goff put up as a true freshman in 2013, and boy is it fun that we can make that particular comparison.

A temporary solution to the tight end problem

One of the challenges that Cal has faced this year is a lack of tight end versatility. Mason Mini has been the primary tight end and he’s a dangerous pass catching target. Unfortunately, he hasn’t yet developed into an impactful blocker. Meanwhile, Cal has also used Jeffrey Johnson and Landon Morris at tight end, but they are primarily used as blockers, with just 9 catches on 14 targets between them.

I think that split in usage creates a conundrum for an offensive coach. You want Mini out there as an every down threat to catch a pass, but he’s not really helping as an extra blocker on run plays. But if you pull him for more effective blockers, it’s strongly signaling what kind of play you’re going to run - a pass if Mini is on the field, a run if he’s off the field. How do you best manage usage?

But with Mini and Morris unavailable due to injury/illness, Cal turned to alternatives. True freshman John Tofi got a little bit of burn, and Cal used him effectively as a blocker, most notably on a swing pass touchdown to De Jesus.

But more often than not, Cal either ran with an extra lineman (Leon Bell, Akili Calhoun, or most frequently Frederick Williams) or they just played 4 WR sets, with way more snaps for players like Quaron Adams and Cole Boscia.

And what do you know, all of them stepped up. Cal’s extra linemen generally helped set up successful running plays, giving Kendrick Raphael more push all game long. Meanwhile, Adams and Boscia combined for 9 catches, 114 yards, and two touchdowns.

Maybe the lesson is that you’re better off using players in the ways they’re most effective, even if it means that you might be signaling the type of play you’re running.

Can the next coach please use Quaron Adams?

By every single efficiency metric, Quaron Adams has been Cal’s best wide receiver. Adams is first on the team in:

• Yards/route run

• Catches/target

• Yards/catch

• Yards after catch/reception

Unfortunately, Adams has only received 90 total snaps all season long. 48 of those snaps have come in Cal’s last two games, and he didn’t even play against Oregon St. or Boston College. On a team desperate for WR production, Adams mostly sat on the bench.

The WR room is one of many position groups set for a major overhaul, but Cal might have a solution on the roster if they can effectively use an undervalued talent that’s already on the roster.

The smoothest collection of TD celebrations you’ll ever see

De Jesus’s perfect flip into a crouch, Adam’s smooth roll into an immaculate ball spin, and Jaiven Plummer’s face-to-face with SMU’s confused mascot? All A+++.

Defense

Efficiency Report

11 possessions - 5 touchdowns, 1 field goal attempt (0-1), 3 punts, 1 turnover (interception), 1 failed end-of-half drive, 3.2 points/drive. Cal defense points/drive allowed entering the game: 2.0. SMU offense points/drive entering the game: 2.45.

• SMU’s first six drives: 30 plays, 150 yards, 5 yards/play, 7 points

• SMU’s final six drives: 37 plays, 327 yards, 8.8 yards/play, 35 points

I can’t exactly pinpoint why Cal’s defense collapsed after a really strong first half. 30 plays isn’t some kind of massive number, so I don’t think that they got tired or anything. SMU did get their RPO game rolling, keeping Cal off balance with runs into light boxes or throws to the tight end over the middle with Cal’s ILBs got sucked in.

Cal definitely had trouble bringing SMU runners down once they got to the 2nd level, and so part of the story was that Cal’s line just wasn’t able to make as many plays in the 2nd half as they did in the first half.

Whatever the exact reason, Cal allowed four straight touchdowns when even one stop would have ensured a much less stressful ending. But hey, in a game that wasn’t hugely important, why not allow another score just so the offense could play hero, right?

Making Cal’s corners irrelevant

The strength of Cal’s defenses is Brent Austin and Hezekiah Masses, and depending on your point of view the were either lock down, or SMU made them nearly irrelevant in coverage. The duo were targeted five times for 2 total completions for 9 yards, but also Cal allowed 35 points, 477 total yards, and 7.1 yards/play, so you can’t exactly say that Cal profited from having two outside corners that allowed basically zero production.

That’s because SMU’s offense was almost entirely running plays and check downs, as Cal’s safeties, ILBs, and nickels comparatively struggled with disrupting pass catchers, cutting off running angles, or making tackles. SMU only completed one pass play 20+ yards downfield . . . which was the slot fade touchdown that was exactly 20 yards downfield. This was not an aerial passing attack, which makes it all the more frustrating that Cal leaked so many yards.

Special Teams

Never return kickoffs

Five times (3 by SMU, 2 by Cal) players in this game elected to return a kickoff. None of them ever reached the 25 yard line thanks to either a tackle or a penalty. This has been your occasional reminder that, unless you are a Desean Jackson level talent, you should always signal for a fair catch on kickoffs.

Coaching

Erratic offensive game plans

I don’t know what to make of an offensive brain trust that simultaneously built great offensive game plans to beat strong defenses like Minnesota, Louisville, and SMU, while knowing that they couldn’t fully prep the offense to move the ball effectively against teams like North Carolina, Virginia Tech, or Stanford.

Errata

We need a post-Thanksgiving game of consequence, for science

Or, perhaps alternatively, a post-Thanksgiving Big Game, for science.

Whenever Cal has a home game in week 12 to end the season, attendance is always abysmal. This isn’t super surprising, because Cal hasn’t been in position to play a game of consequence in week 12 for a long, long time.

What I would like to know is if Cal is destined to always have terrible attendance because Cal fans are simply too fair-weather to stick around in Berkeley after the holiday and come to Memorial in cold weather regardless of the game circumstances, or if bad attendance is just a reflection of how (not) important the game is.

The only way to find out? Give us a 12th game of the season that matters. Be in contention for the ACC title game.

Big Picture

Sometimes it’s nice to focus on a game solely for the emotion and spectacle of the 60 minutes on the field.

For once, this game didn’t matter because of what it said about Cal’s coaches or the health of the broader program or ACC standings. It only mattered as a chance to watch our Bears compete for themselves and each other.

How appropriate that it happened to be senior day. Per Cal, 20 Bears participated in the pre-game ceremony. With eligibility rules shifting year by year, it’s hard to say how many might end up having the option to return, but the following Bears may have enjoyed their final game at Memorial Stadium:

• Brent Austin

• T.J. Bollers

• Nate Burrell

• Belay Brummel

• Mayze Bryant

• Akili Calhoun

• Jacob De Jesus

• Trond Grizzell

• Brook Honore

• Jeffrey Johnson

• Aidan Keanaaina

• Michael Luckhurst

• Hezekiah Masses

• Chase Meyer

• Dru Polidore

• Ja’ir Smith

• Zae Smith

• Jordan Spasojevic-Moko

• Bastian Swinney

• Chris Victor

It was great fun watching Cal’s seniors end the season on a high note, and watching them get to celebrate on the field as the true die-hards in attendance ‘rushed’ the field to end the season. It was also exciting to get a reminder of what kind of talent is on this roster, ready to be molded and augmented by a new coaching staff.