Cal Pulls in Four ACC Weekly Football Honors

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Cal’s biggest victory of the football season has earned the Bears their biggest haul of weekly ACC honors.
Three Cal players collected four different awards on Monday in the wake of the 29-26 overtime upset of No. 15 Louisville:
— Quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele was named ACC Rookie of the Week for the third time this season and was honored as ACC Quarterback of the Week for the first time. He also was named to the Davey O'Brien Great 8 and was honored as a Manning Award Star of the Week selection.
— Senior Jacob De Jesus was chosen as ACC Receiver of the Week.
— Senior Hezekiah Masses was named ACC Defensive Back of the Week.
Sagapolutele completed 30 or 47 passes for a career-best 323 yards with two touchdowns and no turnovers in the Bears’ win at Louisville. His 3-yard touchdown pass to De Jesus on a fourth-down play in overtime secured the victory.
The 19-year-old from Hawaii leads all true freshmen quarterbacks in FBS with 2,518 passing yards. That’s the second-most ever by a Cal freshman, trailing only Jared Goff.
De Jesus had his biggest game as a first-year Golden Bear transfer from UNLV. He caught 16 passes for 158 yards, including the game-winner in OT, tying the program’s single-game record of 16 receptions set by Geoff McArthur against Stanford in 2003.
A native of Manteca in the California Central Valley, De Jesus has 73 receptions on the season to share the ACC lead with Lewis Bond of Boston College. The two are tied for third nationally in total receptions.
Masses, a transfer from Florida International, made his fifth pass interception of the season, which is equal to the most of any player in the country. He also had six tackles and a pass breakup vs. Louisvile.
Masses had just two picks in his three seasons at FIU.
Cal (6-4, 3-3 ACC) has a bye this week before facing Stanford on the road in the 128th Big Game on Nov. 22. The Bears, having clinched bowl eligibility for a third straight year, close their regular-season schedule at home vs. SMU on Nov. 29.
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Jeff Faraudo was a sports writer for Bay Area daily newspapers since he was 17 years old, and was the Oakland Tribune's Cal beat writer for 24 years. He covered eight Final Fours, four NBA Finals and four Summer Olympics.