You may not have noticed it, but the California Golden Bears were one of the funkiest teams in college football in 2025.
On the field, the Golden Bears were a high-ceiling, low-floor team that racked up some impressive wins against SMU and Louisville, but was also dogged by some head-scratching losses, like a 34-0 drubbing against San Diego State and a 21-point defeat against Stanford in The Big Game.
The result was a mundane-looking 7-6 record and a loss to Hawaii in the Hawaii Bowl.
While all of this was happening, their former quarterback, Fernando Mendoza, was rewriting the record books en route to a national championship and Heisman with Indiana. You’d think that Mendoza’s rise to stardom would have been a bee in the bonnet for fans in Berkeley, but they actually didn’t miss the future No. 1 overall pick all that much.
That’s because the Golden Bears had one of the most electrifying players in all of college football under center in 2025. And he was a true freshman.
Because he played for a mediocre team and for a program that hasn’t won 10 games since 2006 (when Marshawn Lynch and DeSean Jackson were on the team), Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele’s sensational debut season at Cal went under the radar last fall.
College football die-hards tuned into the JKS Show every Saturday, but the Golden Bears weren’t good enough for their talismanic quarterback to crack the mainstream.
It’s a shame because Sagapolutele was the goods, throwing for 3,454 yards, 18 touchdowns, and nine interceptions, while regularly turning heads with highlight-reel plays.
The Hawaii native also seemed to get better as the season trudged on, as he threw for at least 320 yards in three of his last four contests.
There were certainly hiccups from Sagapolutele in his freshman year. Still, that strong finish can’t be understated because it came at the end of a season where Cal traveled across the country seemingly every week.
At one point, the Golden Bears played a four-week stretch that saw them travel from Berkeley to Virginia, back to Berkeley, and then to Louisville.
Like their results, California was all over the map last season.
Even with the built-in excuse of an insane schedule, Sagapolutele delivered much more good than bad.
So much so that it felt like it was a good bet that the 6-foot-3 slinger would hit the transfer portal, especially when Cal fired head coach Justin Wilcox.
Several big-time programs would have welcomed him with open wallets.
Instead, Sagapolutele stayed put.
That alone makes Cal an intriguing sleeper in the ACC in 2026.
It will also help that the Golden Bears will face a much more manageable path this season.
They’ll still be traveling plenty, but it’s not as crazy as 2025, and their strength of schedule is lower than all but two teams in the ACC.
New head coach Tosh Lupoi should also raise the ceiling for Cal, even if only because he will provide a different look from Wilcox.
This program has been screaming for a new approach for a long time.
An expert recruiter, Lupoi has surrounded Sagapolutele with plenty of weapons on offense, and he’s re-made the defense by attracting former blue-chip prospects who were looking for a change of scenery after last year.
There are a lot of moving parts, but that’s true of just about every team in college football these days, and Cal has the most important piece of the puzzle already in place.
The ACC has one elite team (Miami) and several flawed contenders behind it.
Last year, in a similar setup, we saw Virginia shock everyone to reach the conference championship game against Duke.
This is a weird league, and Cal has more than enough going for it to take advantage of the chaos as a 40/1 outsider.
And if you believe in the Golden Bears enough to take a piece of that action, why not double down and back Sagapolutele to win the Heisman at 65/1?
Predictions: Cal to win the ACC (40/1) | Jaron Keaew-Sagapolutele to win the Heisman (65/1, bet365)
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Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters win bracket pools, find long shots, and learn how to beat the market in mainstream and niche sports.
