Cal’s Spring Football Will Be More Physical Than in the Past

Asked Tuesday how much hitting Cal will be doing when spring football practice begins Wednesday, head coach Tosh Lupo answered with two shot words:

“A lot.”

Some college football programs, including Cal’s under Justin Wilcox, have done minimal full-contact work in the spring, hoping to avoid injuries.

However, Lupoi expects Cal’s spring practice to be “extremely physical” with players in full pads for most practices as he tries to develop a physical identity for his team.

“We need to establish ourselves as a physical group, and we’ve got to earn the right to perform in that manner, so we got to go practice it," he said. “Certainly anticipating an extremely physical spring. A majority of our practices will be in full pads and getting after it.”

New Cal offensive coordinator Jordan Somerville is on board with a lot of contact during the spring.

“Hitting, that’s part of the game,” he said. “Hitting content is all part of football, so that’s to be expected.”

It’s also a way for coaches to find out what they’ve got.

“The honeymoon is a little bit over now,” Lupoi said.

“Now we’re in true physical combat here,” he added, “so I think we find out a lot about each other, and truly find out who our real football players are.”

Most of the installation of offensive and defensive schemes will take place over the next four weeks.

Lupoi plans to have “the majority of our entire playbook” installed by the end of spring ball, which finishes with the Spring Game on April 18.

“We incorporate our scheme throughout [spring],” Lupoi said, “and then spring ball there will be approximately 10 installations on offense and defense as well as our special teams, and so the majority of our whole package is focused on there.

“We’ll really go into depth in some situational training throughout spring ball as well, and the goal is put our players into as many situations as possible, so it’s never new coming into game day.”

There is a lot to address during 15 days of spring practice, especially with 44 new players from last season.

The focal point, of course, will be sophomore quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, who ESPN recenlty ranked as the 22nd-best quarterback for 2026 among Power 4 conference schools, with this comment:

22. Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele California Golden Bears

2025 stat line: 58.5 QBR, 3,454 passing yards, 18 TDs, nine INTs, 64.2% completion rate, 10.9 yards per completion

He was a true freshman, he got no support from his run game, he averaged over 40 dropbacks per game, and he had only one receiver he trusted (slot man Jacob De Jesus, targeted 158 times). JKS played at All-Madden level difficulty in 2025, and he certainly didn't thrive consistently, but the bright moments were awfully bright and they became more frequent late in the season.

By the way, Sagapolutele’s launched his new clothing line on Monday at the university store, which attracted the attention of TV news media:

He’s 19, Cal Bears Star QB, recent Pop Warner Award winner as the best collegiate football player on the west coast and today…his clothing merch dropped in Berkeley. It’s JKS’s World. #JKSagapulotele @calFBfeedr @KPIXtv pic.twitter.com/PQOGRgMRLO
— vernkpix (@vernKPIX) March 17, 2026