Because he was still pulling double duty as Oregon’s defensive coordinator, Tosh Lupoi had only a few minutes with his new team on Dec. 5. He wanted to make those precious seconds count. At the top of the new Cal coach’s mind? Retaining lefty, laser-beam slinging quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, who had the sport buzzing as a true freshman and who — because of the coaching change — was a prime target for other schools seeking a high-ceiling QB.
As he entered that first team meeting in Berkeley, Lupoi planned to explain how working for Jeff Tedford, Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Dan Lanning and other standout coaches had helped him craft a philosophy that would guide Lupoi as he led his alma mater. Lupoi also planned to call first-team All-ACC linebacker Cade Uluave and Sagapolutele to stand before their teammates. Lupoi would then start the sales pitch to make sure the best players stayed at Cal. As he addressed the team, Lupoi realized his plan had a glaring flaw.
Uluave wasn’t there. (He would transfer to BYU.) “Jaron wasn’t there, either,” Lupoi said. “I’m thinking, ‘Don’t these guys have school? What are we doing?’”
That’s when the odyssey began.
“You can imagine what’s going through my mind,” Lupoi said. “Where’s Jaron? Where’s the quarterback?”
One thing that went through Lupoi’s mind immediately? Fernando Mendoza. The Indiana QB had spent his first three seasons at Cal. On that particular day, Mendoza was about to lead the Hoosiers against Ohio State in the Big Ten title game, and Mendoza was the odds-on favorite to win the Heisman Trophy.
Lupoi knew other schools would use that in their sales pitches. He wanted to Sagapolutele to know that Lupoi intended to create a program at Cal where what Mendoza did would be possible in Berkeley.
Lupoi left the meeting and asked staffers where Sagapolutele was. He learned Sagapolutele had returned home to Hawaii. Suddenly, a packed itinerary for the former Cal defensive lineman’s homecoming evaporated. A meeting with the chancellor was postponed. Lupoi told his wife Jordan “enjoy the rest of this” and hopped into a car bound for the San Francisco airport. He bought a ticket for a commercial flight to Honolulu.
Lupoi had no luggage. He wore the suit he’d worn to his introductory press conference — the gray one his former Cal teammates had deemed “weak.” Lupoi had Cal staffers feeding him all of Sagapolutele’s info. He had no transportation set up for when he arrived in Hawaii.
All Lupoi knew was that he was flying across the Pacific, and he wasn’t coming back without a commitment from his QB.
The time stamp on that post from Sagapolutele is 5:39 a.m. Hawaii time on Dec. 6. According to Lupoi, the photo was taken a few hours earlier.
To most viewers of the photo, the takeaway was that Cal’s new coach somehow managed to retain the star quarterback everyone assumed would leave after the recent coaching change. The news was huge for Cal fans, and it certainly raised eyebrows in other college football personnel departments where staffers believed their team might have a shot if Sagapolutele entered the transfer portal. But to the trained eye, the question was this: How was Lupoi already in Hawaii, standing next to his future quarterback?
The answer starts with that flight. Lupoi used Wi-Fi as he cruised over the ocean to try to track Sagapolutele’s whereabouts. The plan was to locate Sagapolutele once he had touched down on the island and make a grand gesture to explain why the quarterback should remain a Bear.
To make this possible, Lupoi also needed a ride. Sure, he could have rented a car. But here he turns the story into another Cal sales pitch. He reached out to Cal grad Dan McInerny, one of the founding partners of sandal-maker OluKai. He got his ride.
Lupoi reached out to Tyson Alualu, a Honolulu legend who played for Lupoi at Cal before becoming the 10th overall pick in the 2010 draft. Anyone who might have a connection on the island of Oahu probably got a text from Lupoi during that flight. Sagapolutele had been spotted at a high school game that night. Lupoi kept texting away until he could arrange a meeting.
Even though Sagapolutele signed with Oregon in the 2025 class and spent a few weeks with the Ducks before transferring to Cal in January 2025, Lupoi hadn’t been heavily involved in his recruitment. Lupoi didn’t feel he had the kind of relationship advantage he might have had with a player whose recruitment he spearheaded. What would Lupoi say to Sagapolutele? “Probably aloha,” Lupoi joked.
Lupoi was running on fumes as the clock struck midnight in Hawaii, but the meeting was set. He visited with Sagapolutele and his family from about 12:30 a.m. to 2:45 a.m. Hawaii time. “Just really going into the vision, the culture,” Lupoi said. The message to Sagapolutele: Give me the opportunity to show you over the next 30 days what this program will look like in the future.
Lupoi got the vibe that Sagapolutele wanted to be in Berkeley. The parties got far enough down the road in the wee hours that Sagapolutele felt comfortable tweeting out his intention to stay. But Lupoi knew that guaranteed nothing. The final details of any revenue share/NIL deal needed to be hammered out, and Lupoi needed to hire his staff.
But when he left Sagapolutele, Lupoi knew he’d done everything he could to keep the player he considered a foundational piece of what he wanted to build at Cal. He could relax… a little.
Lupoi had scheduled the earliest possible flight out of Honolulu, but he still had a little time before he needed to be at the airport. So he found a bench on a beach and took one of the most satisfying naps of his life.
He was still wearing the same suit he’d worn to his introductory press conference half an ocean away. “In the same underwear, man,” hejoked.
Less than a month later, the transfer portal opened. A few weeks after that, it closed. Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele was still a Golden Bear.
The grand gesture worked.