BERKELEY — There is so much uncertainty ahead for Cal football: Who becomes the next head coach? Who will the Bears face in a bowl game? How much will defections to the transfer portal impact the program?
But on Saturday night, after a nightmarish week in which Cal lost the Big Game to rival Stanford, then lost nine-year coach Justin Wilcox to a Sunday firing, the Bears enjoyed their finest moment of the season.
Freshman quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele threw for career-bests of 330 yards and four touchdowns, then directed a flawless, game-winning 75-yard drive in the final 2:22 to lift the Bears to a 38-35 upset of No. 21 SMU in front of 28,956 at Memorial Stadium.
“What a football game,” Cal interim coach Nick Rolovich marveled after the Bears surrendered a 31-14 fourth-quarter lead then pulled out the victory. “We talked about being ready for a dogfight, expecting to win, knowing there’s going to be a time in this game where it may feel impossible to win.”
But the Bears did win a game that felt eerily similar to their collapse against Miami a year ago, when they were up 35-18 in the fourth quarter before losing 39-38. Rolovich, who served as senior offensive analyst all season before being promoted this week, continues to be impressed by Sagapolutele, who was 5 for 5 for 61 yards on the game-winning drive after SMU took a 35-31 lead on the previous series.
“He’s such a wonderful kid to be around,” Rolovich said. “Accurate. The mastery of the plays — these aren’t easy plays that we’re putting in there sometimes. But who he is as a competitor . . . he’s not here for the 330 yards. He’s here for the winning.”
The Bears (7-5, 4-4 ACC) clinched their first winning season since 2019, locked up a non-losing conference record for the first time since 2009 and denied the Mustangs (8-4, 6-2) a second consecutive trip to the ACC championship game. Cal will learn its bowl assignment next Sunday.
This one wasn’t settled until running back Kendrick Raphael’s 33rd carry of the night got him the final 2 of his 111 yards for the go-ahead touchdown. He went around left end, rolling over tackler Alexander Kilgore and into the end zone with 43 seconds left.
Even then it wasn’t over. SMU drove quickly from its own 25 to the Cal 35 before freshman kicker Sam Keltner missed wide right on a 52-yard field goal attempt with 3 seconds left.
“After last week, it was hard,” said senior defensive lineman Aidan Keanaaina. “We had a lot of stuff happen surrounding the Cal program. We had one message from Coach Rolo: Play for each other.”
The Bears addressed their anguish over losing Wilcox early in the week. By kickoff Saturday, they were feeling loose.
“We all felt down this week because of the situation,” senior wide receiver Jacob De Jesus said. “Hey man, let’s go do this for him but not only him, let’s go do it for each other. It was a bumpy road this season. I feel like the players, let’s go out here and have fun. We have nothing to lose.”
Sagapolutele, who was not available for post-game interviews, threw three of his TDs to under-used receivers. First, Jaiven Plummer caught a 35-yarder (just the second career catch by the sophomore), Cole Boscia made a spectacular leaping 15-yard catch in the end zone (just his third career reception) and then QuaRon Adams grabbed the 32-yard strike for his first career TD, pushing Cal’s lead to 31-14 on the first play of the fourth quarter.
De Jesus, whose 7-yard TD catch gave the Bears their 17-7 halftime lead, finished with 12 receptions for 97 yards and has climbed to No. 2 on Cal’s single-season list with 99 catches. He made 42 of those catches the past three games now is just one back of Dameane Douglas, who set the program record with 100 in 1998.
Sagapolutele, the nation’s freshman leader with 3,117 passing yards, climbed past a half dozen former Golden Bears, including Aaron Rodgers and Fernando Mendoza, to No. 5 on Cal’s single-season list.