Lupoi's first camp opens with a QB2 fight
Tosh Lupoi's first fall camp as Cal's head coach is drawing raves for its energy, and the real intrigue is who backs up Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele.
The energy around Lupoi's first camp is real
Cal opened its first camp under Tosh Lupoi with the kind of buzz a program hopes for after hiring one of its own — general manager Ron Rivera called him "a true Golden Bear" when Cal pulled him off Oregon's defensive staff last winter, per ESPN's report on the hire. Players have made his practice-field personality the story of camp. "He's probably the most enthusiastic coach I've ever been a part of," junior defensive lineman Jayden Williams told SI, and offensive lineman Ashton Rivera added that "the energy is contagious. He'll get us all riled up."
The more useful camp story, according to Write for California's fall camp notebook, is behind starter Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, who returns after completing 64.2% of his throws as a true freshman and landing on the Maxwell Award watch list. QB coach Nick Rolovich is running an actual competition for the No. 2 job between returner EJ Caminong and transfer addition Jackson Brousseau, and he's said the new practice structure gives the staff "a huge piece of work" — enough reps and tracked decisions to make the call on merit rather than reputation.
Last season ended the way it played all year — in a shootout
Cal's last game action came on Christmas Day, a 35-31 loss to the Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors that closed out the 2025 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 31-21 loss to Virginia and a lopsided 31-10 loss at Stanford, last season's team rarely settling for a low-scoring afternoon either way.
That track record of games decided in the final minutes 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 to build the installation around rather than a search for one.
The opener is somebody else's fresh start too
UCLA is walking into Memorial Stadium in the middle of its own reset. The Bruins fired DeShaun Foster after an 0-3 start in 2025 and finished 3-9 under interim coach Tim Skipper, then hired James Madison's Bob Chesney — the 20th head coach in program history — and brought his offensive coordinator, Dean Kennedy, along with him.
Quarterback Nico Iamaleava is a redshirt junior who is technically a veteran but is starting over anyway, learning a new scheme and building chemistry with an overhauled group of skill players in fall camp, per SI's Bruins coverage. UCLA's last result on record was a 29-10 loss at USC last season, and with new coaching staffs on both sidelines September 5, neither team is bringing much recent form into Memorial Stadium.
Two new coaching staffs open against each other
Cal hosts UCLA on September 5 vs. UCLA, and the line opened with the Bruins a 1.5-point favorite — about as thin a number as this sport prices — with the total set at 55.5, a middling number for a game with two new offensive installations on the field. Kickoff at California Memorial Stadium is set for 9:30 PM.
It is a strange way to open a season for both programs: Lupoi's debut against a UCLA team that is just as new to itself under Chesney, with neither coach having called a game for these rosters yet. Whichever staff has its install further along by kickoff probably decides a number that close.