Mike Pawlawski has seen enough football to know when a quarterback has something different. And when it comes to Cal sophomore Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, the former Bears star and longtime radio analyst isn’t shy about the ceiling.
Sagapoluele, Pawlawski said, is “insanely skilled.”
But the conversation doesn’t stop there. For all the arm talent and natural feel Sagapolutele showed as a true freshman, Pawlawski believes the next leap is less about throwing the ball and more about owning the position mentally.
“He’s got a new offense. He came in as a freshman and didn’t have huge expectations last year.
Now he has expectations. Now he has leadership opportunities and demands of leadership on him,” Pawlawski said.
That’s the job now, in Pawlawski’s view: not just playing loose, but running the show.
“He needs to take the step into that leadership role. Not just the guy who can sling it around the field and play free.
He needs to be the guy now that gets people in the right position. That gets the offense set, that gets the team into the right play, that sets the mood.”
Sagapolutele’s first season at Cal gave everyone a glimpse of why the buzz is so loud. He became just the second Cal quarterback, along with Jared Goff, to start as a true freshman. And he didn’t merely survive the assignment - he thrived in it, throwing for at least 200 yards in every game and finishing with 3,454 yards, a 64.2 completion percentage and 18 touchdowns against nine interceptions.
Pawlawski thinks the growth was real during the season, but says the most important piece still has room to blossom.
“One of the underrated skills for quarterbacks these days is their leadership potential,” he said. “ I don’t care about a big arm, I don’t care about height, I don’t care about anything else. Show me a guy who can lead and a guy that cares and a guy who has the charisma to bring his team with you, somebody who makes their teammates better, you’re going to show me a great quarterback.”
That’s the same trait Pawlawski saw become a separator for Fernando Mendoza, who played at Cal before taking his undergraduate degree to Indiana last season. Mendoza then won the Heisman while leading the Hoosiers to an undefeated national championship, then turned that season into the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft by the Las Vegas Raiders.
Pawlawski worked with Mendoza and was with him on draft night. He says the two quarterbacks reached that point in different ways, shaped by very different paths.
“Fernando was the underdog his whole life, so he was fighting the underdog mentality,” Pawlawski said. “And that drove him to do the the things that he does, to be the way that he is, to always work harder.
He had this bug in him that comes from his parents to always do the next thing and to grind on that. That’s how Fernando got to greatness and that’s how he’s doing to continue to get to greatness.
“JKS is the other side of the coin. He’s the guy who’s always had the talent, always had the tools.
The game has been super-fun for him. He’s going to have to pick up some of what Fernando has in terms of grinding, doing the work and being insatiable about how you prepare.”
For Pawlawski, that’s the formula. Sagapolutele already has the rare stuff: the accuracy, the feel, the ability to put the ball exactly where he wants it.
“JKS has insane tools. He has just innate accuracy, ridiculous in terms of how he can throw the ball on a dime.
“If he can put together the study habits, the maturity and the leadership at that position, he can be real special.”
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