Backup QB battle still open as Lupoi's Cal era begins
Tosh Lupoi makes his coaching debut in the Joe Roth Memorial Game tonight, and Cal still hasn't named a backup quarterback behind Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele heading into the opener against UCLA.
Lupoi's first game is also the Joe Roth game, and the QB2 job is still a jump ball
Tosh Lupoi's debut tonight doubles as the restoration of the Joe Roth Memorial Game, with Cal wearing the classic royal-blue jerseys and yellow helmets to honor the only quarterback whose number the program has ever retired. Lupoi has made sure his team knows why: "If we had the majority of the team representing the principles and values of Joe Roth, we're probably going to be in a position to win a lot of games," he said this week, per Yahoo Sports, framing Roth's fighting spirit as "what a Cal Bear is all about" on the night he takes over the program for real.
The other subplot Lupoi inherited hasn't resolved by kickoff. Colorado State transfer Jackson Brousseau, redshirt sophomore EJ Caminong and redshirt sophomore Dominic Ingrassia went through Saturday's second scrimmage still fighting for the QB2 job behind Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, and Sports Illustrated reported no winner had been named as of this week. Nick Rolovich has stuck to his line that all three give him "a fair evaluation" and that whoever gets the nod, the room will be "in good hands" — which means the backup quarterback competition that has shadowed fall camp since August 29 is walking into tonight's opener still open.
Faith. Humility. Courage. Steve Kroner speaks with Joe Roth’s brother in the latest Inside Cal Football feature story honoring the iconic Cal quarterback. 📰: t.co/dxn55VPW6i
Last season ended in a shootout, and tonight looks built for another
Cal's last game action came on Christmas Day, a 31-35 loss to the Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors that closed out last season on the road. It fit the shape of the whole finish: a 29-26 win at Louisville and a 38-35 win over SMU sandwiched around a 21-31 loss to Virginia and a lopsided 10-31 loss at Stanford — last year's team rarely settled for a low-scoring afternoon either way.
That track record of shootouts is part of why the energy in Lupoi's first camp reads as more than a coaching cliché. This roster has already shown it can score, and Sagapolutele's return gives the new staff a proven arm — he threw for 3,454 yards last season, sixth-most in program history — to build the installation around rather than a search for one heading into tonight's opener at home.
UCLA brings its own rebuild, and a rivalry that runs 95 games deep
UCLA walks into Berkeley mid-overhaul itself. The Bruins fired DeShaun Foster after an 0-3 start last season and finished 3-9 under interim coach Tim Skipper, then hired James Madison's Bob Chesney — the 20th head coach in program history — who brought offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy and a wave of former James Madison players and coaches to speed the culture change. The headliner is running back Wayne Knight, who ran for 1,373 yards at 6.6 yards a carry with 9 touchdowns last season and racked up a school-record 2,039 all-purpose yards on his way to second-team All-American honors — a newcomer for UCLA, not a returner. Redshirt junior quarterback Nico Iamaleava is technically a veteran but is starting over anyway, and Chesney said this week he's "a lot more comfortable" through camp, with defensive back Rodrick Pleasant adding that Iamaleava is "making guys better day in and day out."
There's history layered under tonight's game beyond either coach's rebuild. This is the 95th meeting in a 93-year-old West Coast rivalry the Bruins lead 58-35 all-time, though Cal took the last one 33-7 on the road in November 2023. Lupoi and Chesney have already met once with a season on the line — Lupoi's Oregon defense beat Chesney's James Madison team 51-34 in last year's College Football Playoff — and tonight adds a second collision course: two Polynesian quarterbacks, Sagapolutele and Iamaleava, each trying to be the guy his new coach builds around.
Cal opens as a home underdog in a game nobody expects to stay quiet
The market has UCLA favored in Berkeley, with the spread opening at 1.5 points — about as close to a pick'em as this sport prices a road favorite. The total opened at 55.5, a middling number that isn't betting on a defensive struggle but isn't calling for a track meet either, which tracks with a Cal team that just finished a season full of shootouts squaring off with a UCLA offense still finding its footing under a new staff.
UCLA arrives 0-0 like everybody else in September, with its only data point being last season's 10-29 loss at USC — a result from a different coaching staff and, in Chesney's words this week, a program still learning "everybody's name." Kickoff for the Bears' opener is Saturday, September 5 at 9:30 PM, with Syracuse waiting on September 12 to keep Cal's schedule moving the moment tonight is decided.