Where Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele Ranks Among Top Freshman QBs

Cal is beginning to promote quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele as a freshman All-American, and his accomplishments certainly warrant the effort.

He delivered perhaps his best performance of the season last Saturday, passing for a season-high 323 yards and two touchdowns, the second one a 3-yarder on fourth down to Jacob De Jesus in overtime that lifted Cal to a 29-26 overtime victory at No. 15 Louisville.

Sagapolutele was named ACC Quarterback of the Week and ACC Rookie of the Week, then was honored as the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback of the Week. On Wednesday, the 19-year-old picked up Manning Award Quarterback of the Week plaudits.

Even so, Sagapolutele faces stiff competition from at least four other true freshman quarterbacks at the FBS level. We provide a look at their achievements plus relevant context below.

We’ve also included rankings published this week by ESPN and CBS Sports. ESPN ranked the quarterbacks for each of the 68 Power Four conference teams while CBS rates the top 50 QBs in the land, including those from non-Power Four teams.

Sagapolutele winds up at No. 46 on both lists, which have different players in the No. 1 slot.

ESPN’s Bill Connelly puts Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin atop his list, while acknowledging it can be difficult to grade players who have differing supporting casts around them.

Here’s part of what Connelly said about Sayin, whose Buckeyes are ranked No. 1 in the country: “As Ohio State has opened up the playbook and asked more of Sayin, he has responded with near perfection. He's first in the nation in Total QBR, completion rate (80.9%) and success rate* (62.0%).”

David Cobb of CBS Sports gives his No. 1 ranking to someone you may not know much about: “UConn quarterback Joe Fagnano accomplished something last week that no college passer had done since 2019, leading the Huskies to a 37-34 win over Duke. For the fifth consecutive game, he surpassed 250 passing yards while throwing at least three touchdowns without an interception. The last player to do that? Joe Burrow at LSU.”

Here’s Connelly’s evaluation of Sagapolutele:

“Like (Maryland freshman) Malik Washington, JKS has been playing on the highest difficulty level and hasn't always shined. But after one of his worst performances of the season in a loss to Virginia, he responded with his best game to date, a 323-yard, two-touchdown performance in an upset of Louisville. He's resilient and exciting; you could sort of say the same about Cal.”

Cobb did not provide comments on players ranked below the top 20.

Here is a look at how the nation’s top five true freshmen compare (listed alphabetically):

BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier | Rob Gray-Imagn Images

— BEAR BACHMEIER, BYU

Status: 9 games, 9 starts

Team’s record: 8-1

CFP/AP ranking: No. 12/12

ESPN’s Power 4 QB ranking: No. 24

CBS Sports Overall Top-50 QB ranking: No. 19

Last game: 23 for 38 (60.5%), 188 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT; 11 rush, 12 yards (1.1), 0 TD in 29-7 loss at Texas Tech

Season: 149 for 239 (62.3%), 1,881 yards, 12 TD, 4 INT, 141.68 passer rating; 105 rushes 420 yards (4.0), 9 TD

This week: vs. TCU on Saturday

Comment: Bachmeier was kept largely under wraps by Texas Tech, which took away his running threat, allowed him just 4.9 yards per attempt and held the BYU offense 29 points below its season scoring average entering the game.

Pittsburgh quarterback Mason Heintschel | Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

— MASON HEINTSCHEL, Pittsburgh

Status: 6 games, 5 starts

Team’s record: 7-2

CFP/AP ranking: No. 22/23

ESPN’s Power 4 QB ranking: No. 25

CBS Sports Overall Top-50 QB ranking: No. 8

Last game: 22 for 38 (57.9%), 304 yards, 3 TD, 2 INT; 8 rush, 21 yards (2.6), 0 TD in 35-20 win vs. Stanford on Nov. 1

Season: 118 for 184 (64.1%), 1,547 yards, 12 TD, 5 INT, 150.8 passer rating; 49 rushes, 143 yards (2.9), 1 TD

This week: vs. No. 9 Notre Dame on Saturday

Comment: Promoted to starting quarterback for the Oct. 10 game vs. Boston College and has led Pitt to a 5-0 record while averaging 40 points per game against teams with a combined win-loss record of 16-32.

Cal quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

— JARON-KEAWE SAGAPOLUTELE, Cal

Status: 10 games, 10 starts

Team’s record: 6-4

CFP/AP ranking: NR/NR

ESPN’s Power 4 QB ranking: 46

CBS Sports Overall Top-50 QB ranking: No. 46

Last game: 30 for 47 (63.8%), 323 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT; 4 rushes, minus-15 yards (minus-3.8) in 29-26 overtime win at Louisville

Season: 234 for 364 (61.5%), 2,518 yards, 13 TD, 9 INT, 126.49 passer rating; 47 rushes, minus-111 yards (minus-2.4), 2 TD

This week: bye (at Stanford on Nov. 22)

Comment: Has passed for 200-plus yards in every game and leads all freshman (and is 12th nationally overall) in total passing yards. .

Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

— BRYCE UNDERWOOD, Michigan

Status: 9 games, 9 starts

Team’s record: 7-2

CFP/AP ranking: No. 18/18

ESPN’s Power 4 QB ranking: No. 38

CBS Sports Overall Top-50 QB ranking: NR

Last game: 13 for 22 (59.1%), 145 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT; 7 rushes, 44 yards (6.3), 0 TD in 21-16 win over Purdue on Oct. 1 (had bye last weekend)

Season: 134 for 220 (60.9%), 1,671 yards, 7 TD, 3 INT, 132.48 passer rating; 51 rushes, 272 yards (5.3), 4 TD

This week: vs. Northwestern at Wrigley Field in Chicago on Saturday

Comment: Underwood has attempted fewer passes per game than anyone in this group and benefits from a Michigan ground game that ranks 12th in the NCAA, generating nearly 224 yards per game.