Tosh Lupoi Details His Hawaii Odyssey to Secure Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele
Cal's new head coach didn't waste a moment after his introductory press conference, boarding a plane with no luggage, no plan and lacking his new quarterback's phone number.
In an interview with On3 earlier this offseason, Tosh Lupoi went into detail on his wild journey to Hawaii to make sure Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele was committed on Day 1 to be a California Golden Bear.
Lupoi opened by reflecting on what makes Cal a unique place to build a program, pointing to the concentration of NFL alumni who came through Berkeley.
“I can’t tell you how many people, whether you’re watching TV or watching the Super Bowl, you see two starting DBs in the Super Bowl that played here at Cal, or just when Keenan Allen flashes up on the TV, Marshawn Lynch, Jared Goff, Aaron Rodgers, DeSean Jackson, Cameron Jordan, where it’s like, oh shoot, he played at Cal too.
That’s the neat part about it, where you have maybe a certain perception of such a high-powered education, and this place is obviously rated number one in so many categories, but the combination of the NFL influence along with the higher education, man, we’re cooking with this grease.”
That NFL pedigree showed up in person when Jared Goff came by for a visit, and Goff had a story to tell.
“When you got hired I was like, man, I think you recruited me at some point, and I looked back through my Facebook. Sure enough, the first message I ever received on Facebook from Tosh Lupoi was, ‘Jared, what’s going on big guy, great game last night, go Bears.’ You were here at Cal, recruited me at Cal, and that was the first message I ever received. About a few months later Coach Tedford offered me and the rest is history.”
Lupoi’s ability to identify talent early has been a throughline in his career, and he traced it back to what he saw in Goff as a high schooler.
“What jumped out was the competitive nature. As you compile these things and note-take and you’re in that mindset of constant growth, you fall back on those moments. Then I go to Alabama and recruited and signed Tua Tagovailoa, and the guys I’ve been fortunate to be a part of the process since then. You just keep building and improving.”
On the resources surrounding the program, Lupoi painted a vivid picture.
“We’ve got over 30 Fortune 500 companies within 40 miles of this campus. You could go up on the eighth floor and look over and see the entire Pacific Ocean and the Salesforce building. It’s crazy, man.”
His ambitions for how Cal connects players to those resources go well beyond the annual workshop model.
“There has not been a single week yet where a multi-millionaire, on multiple occasions billionaires, haven’t been talking to our team, whether it’s out there on the field or as part of a classroom activity in the evening. Not that annual workshop. Our workshops are every week, building these young men and informing them of how this is truly a reality utilizing the resources right here.”
He also highlighted the Cameron Institute as something he believes is unique in college football.
“To my knowledge, we’re the only program in America that has four full-time mental preparation individuals present here on campus, not outsourcing, not doing Zooms. The Cameron Institute has three major pillars: mental preparation, community engagement and career development.”
When the conversation turned to Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, Lupoi explained how close the program came to losing him before he’d even met the young quarterback.
“I myself unfortunately lost some guys that I didn’t anticipate losing, especially on the defensive side of the ball that I never even had the opportunity to meet because of how the portal is placed within the college football playoffs. And Jaron was potentially one of those guys.”
The day of his introductory press conference, Lupoi changed the schedule to go address the team first. Jaron wasn’t there.
“I had a few guys I wanted to stand up and ask about. Well, he wasn’t even there. Jaron, stand up. Jaron wasn’t there either. I’m thinking, don’t these guys have school? What are we doing? So you can imagine what’s going through my mind. I’m literally muffling outside like, where are these guys?”
What happened next has become one of the more remarkable recruiting stories in recent college football memory.
“I literally got in the car, told my wife, ‘Enjoy the rest of this,’ left my family, drove directly to the San Francisco airport, got on a commercial flight. I actually purchased a ticket. I got on the plane with no plan. I don’t believe I even had Jaron’s number in my phone yet.”
On the flight, Lupoi started working his Cal connections to track down the quarterback in Hawaii.
“I hit up the founder of Olukai knowing he lives there and there’s a Cal connection. Dan McInerny, he’s the one who picked me up directly from the airport. I had no rental car. I landed. Fortunately, Tyson Alualu, 2010 tenth overall pick from here, I coached him at Cal, got some other connections. So I started utilizing those connections to find Jaron on the island.”
By the time he reached the family, it was well past midnight.
“We met from roughly 12:30 a.m. to 2:45 a.m. Just really going into the vision, the culture. Me asking him to listen to a potential vision and culture he could be a part of, and giving me the opportunity to see what’s going to take place even just the next 30 days. The only reason I could even be given that opportunity is the power of Cal, the alumni, the resources, the respect of the education. He wanted to be here, there was no doubt about that, but painting that vision out.”
What he said to Jaron that night set a 30-day challenge in motion.
“I challenged Jaron and said, just watch what we do here in the next 30 days. That’s all I asked. So what do we do? Go sign that number one class in the ACC, go get, in my strong opinion, at least three potential NFL receivers, tight ends, running backs, complement that with the offensive line, retain the right guys, and build it out from there.”
The first words when he finally found him were fitting.
“Probably aloha.”
He didn’t come fully ready for an overnight trip.
“If I took my suit off, I would be naked. I had no luggage, no nothing. Not a single thing. This is not some sarcasm funny try-to-be-cool story. This is exactly what occurred.”
With the last flight back not until morning, Lupoi made the most of the wait.
“When it got late, you got to go back to the airport. Comfortable in your environments. I had an amazing nap right there by the beach on a bench.”
He closed the interview the same way he’s approached everything since arriving in Berkeley.
“We’ve got tons of work to do and that’s what we’re doing every day, attacking it. I’m going to leave and go right back in with the staff. I’m so pumped about this staff, the embracement they’ve had of the culture and how they’re operating. Honor to be on it.”