Bear Insider Video: Cal QB Dominic Ingrassia
The Bears head into the 2025 season with a completely different QB room, adding prep QB Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele after a short stint at Oregon, Ohio State redshirt junior portal transfer QB Devin Brown and College of San Mateo soph Dominic Ingrassia.
Expecting to learn behind a returning starting QB, an injury thrust the frosh QB into a starting role for the Bulldogs, leading College of San Mateo to the 2024 California junior college state championship, thowing for 1,590 yards and 13 touchdowns along with two rushing touchdowns for the Bulldogs in 2024 after taking over the starting role.
"I was actually planning to greyshirt, which is like the redshirting for junior college, my first three games, and then we had an injury happen, so I played the rest of the 10 games, and ended up going 10-0, undefeated national champion,” Ingrassia said. “So that was that was great.
"The defense,obviously was great at San Mateo, so just going against them, competing against them every week, just helped me become a better player. And then the coaches prepared me.
"It was a crazy experience. That was always the goal throughout the year. We always talked about it fell short the year before, before I was there. But just the standard and the culture there is amazing. That's what we strive for over there. And it shows when we have four guys go to a great program like Cal."
Asked about the strengths of his game, the soph QB noted accuracy and ability to process what he’s seeing are at the top of the list.
"I'd probably say accuracy," Ingrassia said. "Just a part of being a quarterback is definitely like above the shoulders. Just thinking that in the mental game, is probably a huge part. So I'd say that's one of my strengths. Accuracy, arm strength, so just those things.
"Stuff just slows down. And as you get comfortable with the playbook and you know all the plays, then that's like last year, where it just comes automatic to you, and then you start reading the coverages and start doing stuff pre snap and post snap, and it just slows down for you."
The transition from CSM to Cal has gone well for Ingrassia. Though he played JC ball in 2024, as a full qualifier, the Novato native found himself at Cal just eight months after graduating high school.
"It's been great so far, just learning picking it up pretty fast," the new Cal QB said. "I love the QB room. We've only been here for a couple weeks, but we're already super tight. We do stuff outside of football too, as well, and talk a lot. So it's been great. We're all competing, but also great friends as well.
"We're all competing, but that's in the back of my mind. We're trying to build a close group of guys right now, help each other get better and help our teammates get better.”
As a prep at San Marin, Ingrassia won a state title at San Marin High School as a junior and passed for 40 touchdown passes with just 2 interceptions for his 12-1 team as a senior while working with Cal offensive assistant Nick Rolovich as his offensive coordinator.
"In high school, he just taught me how to be mentally tough, mentally strong," Ingrassia said of Rolovich. "I think that's something you're born with, but just to handle things. And he helped me through a lot of stuff, just with the college recruiting process. And now I'm here, and that was a big reason that I came to Cal and the other offensive staff is huge. I love them. Those guys, we have special relationships. But he just helped me, physically, mentally, just with everything. He's a big role model in my life, and I look up to him and love him as a coach."
The new QB has also been impressed by new Cal OC Bryan Harsin.
"(Coach) Harsin - super smart guy, Ingrassia said "Cares about his players. I love Coach Harsin. He really cares about us and you can tell he wants to get us better, and it's gonna be a great offense this year."
On the academic side, the size of the university and the rigor of the classes are an adjustment for the new QB but the transition has good well so far.
"The transition has been good, a little different," Ingrassia noted. "Junior college classes are somewhat like high school classes where there'd be like 30 people in classes, and then you get here and it's a bunch of big lectures and a bunch of people. So it's been different. But I'm suddenly, 'Well, it's Cal, so it's gonna be pretty tough, but here we have so many resources that we can utilize and take advantage of so that's been helpful. Makes the transition easy."
As for what he’s most looking forward to in spring ball:
"I'm looking forward to, like right now we're just doing some workouts in our winter phase,” Ingrassia said. “We're still throwing and stuff with the guys, but no coaches are out there. So just looking forward to putting all the pieces together and start getting moving full speed."
Stay tuned for more from Cal’s 2025 newest arrivals in days to come.
Related:
Bear Insider Video: Cal Quarterback Devin Brown
Bear Insider Video: Cal Quarterback Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele