Cal Sports Report

Report: QB Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele Cancels Georgia Trip; It's Cal or Oregon

Hawaii quarterback prospect Sagapolutele was scheduled to be at the Big Game, and he is expected to decide between Oregon and Cal soon

Jake Curtis

Cal head coach Justin Wilcox
Cal head coach Justin Wilcox / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
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Highly touted Hawaii quarterback Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele committed to Cal in July and has not de-committed from the Bears, but after Oregon and Georgia offered him scholarships, there was some question whether he would stick with his Cal commitment.

Apparently Georgia is off the list, according to a report by 247 Sports' Brandon Huffman, leaving his final decision down to Oregon and Cal. Sagapolutele is expected to make a final decision soon.

Because he had been participating the Hawaii state playoffs Sagapolutele had to do some rescheduling of his college visits recently. He was scheduled to attend the Big Game at Cal on Saturday in an unofficial visit and was then scheduled to visit Georgia during the Thanksgiving weekend when Georgia faces Georgia Tech on Friday.

However, Huffman reported that Sagapolutele cancelled his trip to Georgia, leaving only Cal and Oregon, which he visited last month.

Sagapolutele has been moving up recruiting sites' rankings of prospects in the class of 2025.

The most impressive rise has been on the On3 rankings, which ranks Sagapolutelel as the 19th-best prospect overall in the class of 2025 and the fourth-best quarterback prospect. On3 rates him as a five-star recruit.

Other recruiting sites are not quite as high on Sagapolutele. He is ranked as the 90th-best prospect overall and 10th-best pro-style quarterack prospect by Rivals, and 247 Sports lists him as the 106th-best prospect overall and the eighth-best quarter back prospect in the 2025 class.

So Cal is battling Oregon, which is the No. 1-ranked team in the country and has a recent history of outstanding quarterbacks (Bo Nix and Dillon Gabriel). Sagapolutele picked a good time to visit Cal from the Bears' perspective, because Cal rallied from a 21-7, third-quarter deficit to beat Stanford on a late 98-yard scoring drive on Saturday before more than 55,000 fans, many of whom stormed the field after the win.

You can understand why there is so much interest in Sagapolutele, who attends Campbell High School. He threw 46 touchdown passes with just three interceptions this season, and his value was demonstrated in the state semifinals.  Sagapolutele played the first half of that semifinal game, leading Campbell to a 17-6 halftime lead over Saint Louis when he amassed 169 passing yards. But a rib injury prevnted him from playing the second half, and Campbell had only 32 yards of offense and three first downs after halftime without Sagapolutele. Campell's only second-half points came on a piunt return, and Saint Louis won 27-24

Cal's current starting quarterback Fernando Mendoza is just a third-year sophomore with two seasons of eligibility remaining. But if he continues to improve at a rapid rate next season, there's an outside chance he might consider entering the NFL draft after the 2025 season.

Oregon quarterback Dillon will be gone after this seson, opening up the starting quarterback spot, but the Ducks already have a quarterback commitment for the class of 2025 in Akili Smih Jr

It's unknown whether NIL issues will be a factor in Sagapolutele's decision.

ESPN.com posted a story on Saturday, before games were played that day and before he reportedly canceled his Georgia trip. The story included Sagapolutele among quarterbacks who might flip their commitment. The story said this about Sagapolutele:

Four-star QB  (No. 17 pocket passer): Oregon and Georgia are working hard to flip the Cal commit, making Sagapolutele's return visit to the Bears this weekend a critical one for Justin Wilcox & Co.

A late riser in the 2025 cycle, Sagapolutele initially picked Cal over Oregon State, Boise State and Utah State in July. But Oregon has been pursuing Sagapolutele in full force since September, hosting Hawaii's No. 1 overall prospect on Oct. 26, and Sagapolutele will travel to Georgia next weekend after initially planning to visit the Bulldogs on Nov. 16. The Ducks are the favorites if Sagapolutele ultimately pulls his pledge from Cal, but the Bears will get at least one more shot with their top commit Saturday as they host Stanford.

"I haven't really made a decision yet," Sagapolutele told ESPN. "Still love all the programs that are recruiting me. I want to see what Georgia has to offer; see how good it is over there and keep praying over my decision."

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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