UCLA Coach Bob Chesney Lavishes Praise on Cal QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele

Chesney had a Monday press conference leading into his first game as the Bruins' head coach against Cal on Saturday

Bob Chesney, who was James Madison's head coach last season, is now the head coach at UCLA | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

New UCLA head coach Bob Chesney on Monday gave his first press conference about facing Cal in both teams' opener in Berkeley on Saturday night, and, as you would expect, he had a lot of praise for sophomore Cal quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele.

"He does a lot of things really well," Chesney said of Sagapolutele. "First of all, he's mobile, but he's not like he's going to just break away on a long run, because he's going to keep his eyes downfield and trust his arm phenomenally.

"He will do a real good job of throwing people open; even if they're covered he finds back-shoulders and back-hips and puts it in places where the defender's back is. And he trusts his receivers to make those plays, does a lot of good there.

"Controls the offense really, really well. Then when you get into some of just the craftiness of his game. Sometimes he's under duress and throwing off his back foot and sometimes he's actually in the air throwing the ball, still seems to be able to put it right on the money. Just a kid that is really hard to fluster."

Like UCLA, Cal has lot of new players via the transfer portal as well as a new coaching staff, which makes it difficult for the Bruins to know exactly what to expect from the Bears in the opener. So Chesney says he is relying on the past schemes of Cal's current coaches.

"Ultimately for us we understand where these guys have been and what they've been through, and what they have done in the past," Chesney said. "Obviously defensively with a defensive head coach, a lot of it is going look like that [at Oregon]. But there is enough that the [defensive] coordinator [Michael Hutchings] has from the Vikings that I think will bring some different pressures and things we are preparing for."

Still it will be matter of adjusting things once the Bruins get a feel for what Cal is doing."

Chesney was asked what he thought of the so-called Calimony, which requires UCLA to pay Cal $10 million a year for three years until the 2026-27 academic year. The UC Regents required UCLA to pay that to Cal for leaving the Pac-12 to the Big Ten while Cal was left to struggle to find a spot in the ACC

"It is what it is," Chesney said. "I don't know if I would have agreed to that. I guess that's how it all went down."