BERKELEY — Cal freshman quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele devoted a lot of the bye week resulting in Friday evening’s nationally televised matchup towards coach Invoice Belichick and North Carolina to smoothing over the tough edges in his recreation.
Requested to evaluate how he has performed by way of the primary six video games, Sagapolutele stated: “Not ok. We now have two losses, and people are huge losses I may have performed higher on. And that’s on me.”
The Bears (4-2, 1-1 ACC) additionally obtained just a few days away from soccer since their 45-21 loss to Duke on Oct. 4 and Sagapolutele and 5 teammates used the chance to go to Chinatown in San Francisco.
“That was fairly cool to go expertise that and get exterior of Berkeley. Dwell life,” he stated.
The tour included tasting what nearly actually was dragon’s beard sweet, a Chinese language deal with that reportedly dates again to the Han Dynasty about 200 BC.
“It was like this furry sweet or one thing. Or furry sweet or sticky sweet,” he stated. “It was fairly good.”
A victory over North Carolina (2-3, 0-1) within the 7:30 p.m. matchup could be sweeter nonetheless for the Bears.
Sagapolutele stated enjoying beneath Friday evening lights reminds him of highschool — all of a 12 months in the past. However he’s obtained no body of reference for competing towards a future Corridor of Famer.
“It’s such a blessing, going towards among the best coaches to ever coach this recreation,” Sagapolutele stated. “It’s going to be a fantastic problem for us.”
Belichick’s debut season at UNC has been a rocky one, together with a report final week he was exploring choices for getting out of his five-year contract. Belichick known as that “categorically false,” and stated the Tar Heels proceed to work to ascertain their program.
“There’ll be a rating change in some unspecified time in the future,” he stated. “Hopefully this weekend.”
The 73-year-old coach, who received six Tremendous Bowls with quarterback Tom Brady, stated Sagapolutele “is having a superb 12 months as a freshman.”
It was fairly good early, however the 19-year-old has had a harder time lately. He guided the Bears to a 3-0 begin by finishing 67 p.c of his passes with six touchdowns and only one interception. Cal is 1-2 since then and Sagapolutele’s numbers have dropped to 57 p.c with two touchdowns and 6 picks.
Cal coach Justin Wilcox has persistently praised his younger quarterback, however is aware of there may be room for enchancment.
“There’s issues he can do higher actually – taking what’s there, enjoying every play by itself benefit, and understanding there’s a time … simply from time to time he’s obtained to chop it unfastened and eliminate the ball,” Wilcox stated.
“He’s gonna get that. He’s a really good man. He’s very coachable. He’s gonna get it. And when he does, he’s gonna play at a really, very, very excessive degree.”
TEDFORD RETURNS
Jeff Tedford, the winningest coach in program historical past, shall be acknowledged Friday evening as a part of the newest class inducted into the Cal Athletic Corridor of Fame. Wilcox has identified Tedford for the reason that Nineties, when Wilcox was a defensive again at Oregon and Tedford was the Geese’ offensive coordinator.
“He gave me my first full-time job right here, so I’m eternally indebted to him for that,” Wilcox stated, referring to being employed as linebackers coach in 2003. “It was a good time to be right here — we had phenomenal gamers. He poured his coronary heart into this place, had some nice groups.”
COME EARLY, STAY LATE
The Cal Soccer Countdown and Cal Soccer Wrap-up, the newest in a collection of latest game-day features, will debut Friday.
They are going to be held on the Goldman Plaza in entrance of Memorial Stadium and hosted by KNBR’s Greg Silver and former Cal and NFL working again Patrick Laird.
The Countdown will start two hours earlier than kickoff at dwelling video games, with the co-hosts previewing the matchup and interviewing Cal GM Ron Rivera at 5:40 p.m.
The 20-minute wrap-up will assessment the sport and preview what’s forward.
Initially Revealed:
