Cal's Player Grades: Safety Kingston Lopa, DB Daniel Harris Top the List

If you watched Cal’s 45-24 loss to UCLA on Saturday or studied the statistics from that game, you might conclude that running back Adam Mohammed was the best player on the field for the Golden Bears.

Well, if you consider all the metrics that go into determining a player’s success, as Pro Football Focus (PFF) does, you would see that he was not Cal’s best player on Saturday.

Mohammed certainly did some good things, as his 120 rushing yards and seven receptions for 46 yards indicate. However, he had a poor rating as a blocker in pass protection, giving him an overall PFF rating of 68.3

It turns out that four other Cal players received the highest grades: safety Kingston Lopa, offensive tackles Frederick Williams III and Jimothy Lewis and defensive back Daniel Harris. They were the only four Golden Bears who received a grades better than 70, and the two defensive backs – Lopa and Harris – received the best grades. PFF grades each player on a play-by-play basis.

Cal quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele admitted after the game that he needs to be better against Syracuse on Saturday, and his PFF grade of 68.1 was the 134th highest rating of all quarterbacks in the country with a qualifying number of snaps and seventh-best among ACC quarterbacks.

Here is the breakdown, with grade, national ranking, ACC ranking (compared with other players with a minimum number of snaps) and number of snaps the player was on the field on offense or defense.

Players are presented from highest grade to lowest in each position group:

OFFENSE

Quarterback

Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele – Grade: 68.1. National rank: 134. ACC rank: 7. Snaps: 86

Note: Two interceptions hurt Sagapolutele’s grade, although only one was his fault.

Running back

Adam Mohammed – Grade: 68.3. National rank: 116. ACC rank: 7. Snaps: 72. Note: Mohammed had only an 18.3 grade in pass protection, and that is an important element of being a complete running back.

Carter Vargas – Grade: 62.5. Snaps: 17. Note: Although he rushed just four times for 14 yards and caught only one pass from 2 yards, Vargas had a high grade of 72.7 in pass protection, albeit in a limited smaple size.

Ashten Emory – Grade: 61.6. Snaps: 9.

Anthony League – Grade: 55.7. Snaps: 1. Note League had one carry for 1 yard in his only play.

Note: Vargas left Saturday’s game with an injury and he is questionable for the game against Syracuse.

Wide Receiver

Chase Hendricks – Grade: 61.9. National rank: 402. ACC rank: 16. Snaps: 88

Ian Strong – Grade: 58.0. National rank: 567. ACC rank: 26. Snaps: 90

Cooper Perry – Grade: 54.4. Snaps: 31

Jordan King – Grade: 52.0. Snaps: 35

Note: Hendricks had six catches for 66 yards and a touchdown, and Strong had five receptions for 94 yards.

Tight End

Mason Mini – Grade: 67.6. National rank: 60. ACC rank: 7. Snaps: 83

Taimane Purcell – Grade: 48.3. Snaps: 32

Note: Dorian Thomas did not play against UCLA and he is questionable for the game against Syracuse

Center

Bastian Swinney – Grade: 61.7. National rank: 149. ACC rank: 11. Snaps: 57

Ashton Rivera – Grade: 57.6. Snaps: 35

Note: Swinney is questionable for the game against Syracuse.

Guard

Tyson Ruffins – Grade: 69.0. National rank: 65. ACC rank: 8. Snaps: 92

Sioape Vatikani – Grade: 64.5. National rank: 156. ACC rank: 16. Snaps: 92

Offensive Tackle

Jimothy Lewis – Grade: 72.0. National rank: 74. ACC rank: 7. Snaps: 85

Frederick Williams III – Grade: 70.3. National rank: 95. ACC rank: 8. Snaps: 86

Note: Despite the postgame assessment that the Bears offensive line was outplayed by UCLA defensive front, the Cal offensive linemen received decent grades.

DEFENSE

Interior defensive line

Jayden Williams -- Grade: 62.3. Snaps: 12

Jericho Johnson – Grade: 54.2. National rank: 717. ACC rank: 26. Snaps: 38

Derek Wilkins – Grade: 53.8. National rank: 726. ACC rank: 27. Snaps: 32.

Ashun Shepphard – Grade: 43.1. Snaps: 19

Note: Defensive line and linebacker were the Cal position groups that received the lowest grades, which may account for UCLA’s 227 rushing yards.

Edge

Solomon Williams – Grade: 69.6. Snaps: 12

Odera Okaka -- Grade: 66.1. Snaps: 14

Jayden Wayne – Grade: 64.8. Snaps: 15

Nate Burrell – Grade: 62.2. National rank: 382. ACC rank: 21. Snaps: 36

Kamar Mothudi – Grade: 52.0. National rank: 557. ACC rank: 50. Snaps: 33

Note: Burrell is listed as an edge by PFF, although he is generally considered an interior defensive lineman.

Linebacker

AJ Tuitele – Grade 63.5. National rank: 635. ACC rank: 47. Snaps: 21

Tristan Jernigan -- Grade: 58.8. Snaps: 29

JD McKinley – Grade: 48.9. Snaps: 40

Aaron Hampton – Grade: 35.3. Snaps 28

Note: True freshman McKinley had by far the most defensive snaps among the Cal linebackers. Tuitele was ejected from the UCLA game for targeting, but because of a new NCAA rule he is eligible to play the entire game against Syracuse.

Cornerback

Daniel Harris – Grade: 72.6. National rank: 129. ACC rank: 15. Snaps: 35

Ricky Fletcher – Grade: 62.3. National rank: 445. ACC rank: 60. Snaps: 40

Jae’on Young – Grade: 58.1. Snaps: 16

Khamani Hudson – Grade 53.3. Snaps: 23

Note: Marquis Groves-Killebrew and Jasiah Wagoner are Cal cornerbacks who were expected see significant playing time but did not play against UCLA, presumably because of injuries.

Safety

Kingston Lopa – Grade: 72.5. National rank: 74. ACC rank: 7. Snaps: 47

Aiden Manutai – Grade: 60.1. Snaps: 13

Quimari Shemwell – Grade: 51.3. Snaps: 14

Michael Hurst Jr. – Grade: 48.9. Snaps: 24

Cam Sidney – Grade: 48.0. Snaps: 30

Isaiah Crosby – Grade: 47.0. Snaps: 30

Note: A lot of mixing a matching at these two safety spots in the opener.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Kicker

Towns McGough – Grade: 64.4

Punter

Angus Davies – Grade: 63.0

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