Former Oregon 5-star QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele has competition at Cal

One of the biggest wins for Dan Lanning and the Oregon Ducks on National Signing Day a month ago was getting a commitment from 5-star quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, who flipped from the California Golden Bears at the last minute to sign in Eugene.

Just a few weeks later, though, Sagapolutele made the surprising announcement that he would be entering the transfer portal after going through bowl practices with the Ducks and going to the Rose Bowl against the Ohio State Buckeyes with the team on New Year’s Day.

The reasoning, according to Sagapolutele, was that he wanted to be somewhere where he was valued more, and had a better chance to win the starting job as a true freshman. In Eugene, that was going to be hard to do with Dante Moore seemingly in line to be an elite passer for Oregon in 2025.

This led to Sagapolutele transferring to Cal, where everything started. In Berkely, the 5-star freshman would have a pretty clear route to stepping in as a first-year starter and cutting his teeth early in his career in the ACC.

That is, until this past week.

After Ohio State’s national championship win, backup quarterback Devin Brown announced his transfer to the Golden Bears, where he is now expected to be in the mix to take over as the starter, if not the front-runner in that conversation. While Brown has had little experience with the Buckeyes — 331 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT in 17 games — he is still a former 4-star recruit who was rated as the No. 5 QB in the 2022 recruiting class.

At Cal, both Brown and Sagapolutele will now compete for the starting spot under Justin Wilcox and offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin.

If Sagapolutele does not win the starting job, it may be frustrating for him, seeing as that was one of the primary reasons he ended up leaving Eugene and the opportunity to be developed by Will Stein…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/former-oregon-5-star-qb-192010580.html

Author : Ducks Wire

Publish date : 2025-01-24 19:20:00

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