Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele has heard the praise. He called it a blessing, but didn't elaborate much further.
The left-handed quarterback out of Campbell High School won the starting job as a true freshman at California in 2025 and impressed immediately, throwing for 3,454 yards and 18 touchdowns. As more NFL Draft analysts were made aware of his tape, the 6-foot-3 Sagapolutele has already been called a potential top pick in the 2028 draft, the first year he would become eligible to turn pro.
"I've definitely seen it here and there. Any opportunity is a blessing, and just grateful to God that he's allowed me this platform to just be able to spread his name, spread his glory, and yeah, I definitely say it's a blessing," Sagapolutele said.
Before Sagapolutele can declare for the draft, he still needs to play two more seasons of college football. And in 2026, he'll enter his sophomore season with an abundance of buzz.
Sagapolutele, who turned down millions of dollars from other schools and refused to enter the transfer portal following the 2025 season, enters his sophomore campaign as the face of the new era of Cal football. The Golden Bears hired former Oregon defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi to be their new head coach in December, and one of his first moves was to fly to O‘ahu and talk to Sagapolutele in person to let him know how vital he was to the program's success.
In both building the offense around Sagapolutele and preparing him for an NFL future, Lupoi hired Tampa Bay Buccaneers assistant quarterbacks coach Jordan Somerville to be the team's new offensive coordinator. Lupoi also retained former Hawai‘i head coach Nick Rolovich, who went 1-1 as the team's interim head coach to end the 2025 season, which included the Hawai‘i Bowl on Christmas Eve.
At Cal, Rolovich's new title is associate head coach and quarterbacks coach, which means countless hours spent with Sagapolutele in the film room, exchanging ideas and the two learning about each other as people.
"I know we're coach and player, but I do think there's a friendship element. There's a respect element. There's a love element," Rolovich said of his relationship with Sagapolutele. "I feel very similar to when I got a chance to coach (former UH quarterback) Bryant Moniz. Still talk to Moniz to this day. It's the things outside of football. We can draw this beautiful play, but people can play Madden if they want to do that.
"This game has some personal elements to it that I think are not only important but critical when the spontaneous moment happens, right? How quickly can we get our corrections or our thought process going into the next series? I think the personal element is something probably I'll treasure more than than the hours and talking and scheme."
Said Sagapolutele: "It meant the world just having a coach that believed in me and him being a big help for me last year, just everything with the mental part. Whenever I needed extra time with film, he would always help me. We'd have late nights, we'd stay there. I'm grateful that he's here now, and what we've been going over, just the things we've been learning, it's been tremendous for me. I'm just so grateful to have him here."
A year ago, Sagapolutele was still battling for the starting position. He's now one of the most well-known commodities in the entire sport. In between the time that has passed, he's kept his same humble nature, taking all the praise and hyperbole in stride.
"I'm so grateful for being able to play my first year, and just even scoring a touchdown was definitely a big milestone for me," Sagapolutele said. "So, I'm grateful for what I've done last year. But just knowing the mistakes and the things that I had to work on were you know tremendous as well. Just really taking it with a grain of salt and just allowing myself to know that although I did some good things, I also have to work on fixing the things that I did wrong."
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Christian Shimabuku can be reached at christian@alohastatedaily.com.
