Cal Football: Linebacker Jackson Sirmon Still Digesting His Big Game Hero Status

On his 37-yard fumble return for a TD: `All I did that play was I didn’t mess it up.'

Jackson Sirmon is new to the Big Game. The senior linebacker arrived here in the offseason, a transfer from Washington, so his background in rivalry games was the Apple Cup.

He cannot possibly understand what a Big Deal he will be someday. And forever in the hearts and minds of Cal fans. Especially those among the 51,892 at Memorial Stadium.

When asked about his 37-yard fumble return that flipped the script in the 125th Big Game and paved the way to a 27-20 victory over Stanford on Saturday, the Bears’ inside linebacker didn’t exactly lap up his status as a Big Game hero.

“It bounced right to me,” he said of the ball that popped loose from freshman teammate Jeremiah Earby and into his arms. “I was in the right place at the right time. All I did that play was I didn’t mess it up.”

It’s certainly true that on the eve of the 40th anniversary of The Play, Sirmon didn’t have to maneuver through the Stanford band on his way into the end zone.

He had a straight shot down the right sideline . . . and into Big Game lore.

Quarterback Jack Plummer, also playing in his first Big Game, embraced Sirmon’s big moment.

“I didn’t see much. I saw him running and I saw the crowd go crazy,” he says in the video above.

“I look up to see Jackson pick up the ball and I knew he was kind of gone,” safety Daniel Scott said. “Party in the end zone.”

Cal didn’t need five laterals to beat Stanford this time. But in some ways the key play of the game Saturday was reminiscent of the bizarre nature of The Play in 1982.

Stanford was leading 17-12 when backup quarterback Ashton Daniels — used exclusively in this game as a running threat — took the snap and tried to get around left end.

Scott reached in and pried the ball loose, although he later said he didn’t know it was him.

“Maybe . . . there were a lot of plays out there,” said Scott, who made another huge one when he returned an interception 40 yards to the Stanford 9-yard line to ice the outcome with 2:16 left.

Freshman cornerback Jeremiah Earby corralled the loose ball and had big plans. A week earlier, he accounted for Cal’s only touchdown with a 33-yard return of a fumble in a 38-10 loss at Oregon State.

“I thought this is another opportunity to go scoop and score,” Earby said. "I grabbed the ball and turned up field.”

Then Daniels, the quarterback, popped the ball loose from Earby, whose mindset flipped in a flash. “I’m going to get ripped for this,” he remembered thinking.

But his panic didn’t last long, because he saw the ball go right to Sirmon, who took off for the end zone. Asked if he was more excited or relieved, Earby admitted, “I would say more relieved.”

Cal coach Justin Wilcox could not immediately digest what was happening.

“From across the field, you’re kind of looking through a mass of bodies from my vantage point,” he says above. “I saw the ball come out and somebody had a chance to swipe it up and then it came out again and Jack picked it up and he was off to the races.

“Biggest play of the game, I think we would all agree.”

And the kind of play he expected one of his most veteran players would deliver.

“There’s moments when you need somebody to make a play,” he said, “and that was was big as any.”

Sirmon said he gradually gained an appreciation for this game during a week of festivities and conversations.

“As the week went on, I started realizing more how big the Big Game is to a lot of people in the Bay,” he said. “There’s a lot of history about it.”

In the 125th Big Game, Jackson Sirmon helped write a new chapter in that history.

Cover photo of Jackson Sirmon celebrating after his touchdown by Darren Yamashita, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo