2025 ACC Football Kickoff: Cal QB Devin Brown

CHARLOTTE, NC - Junior portal transfer QB Devin Brown made the trip to this year’s ACC Football Kickoff along with fellow QB Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele‍, DL Aidan Keanaaina and MLB Cade Uluave this week in Charlotte six months after tranferring in from Ohio State after the Buckeyes National Championship run.

"After our championship, my job has been coming in as a leader and showing guys how that's even possible," Brown said. "It's a possibility for this team to go do that. It's not just a goal or a dream that we should have. It's real. So the biggest thing for me has been instilling into these guys that these are the things we need to do to go do it.

“Guys really care and want to do the right things and want to go win the ACC championship, but they don't know exactly what it looks like yet. They do a little bit more now, but the steps that we had to take off the field, whether it's doing our own PRPs  - our player led workouts - after lifting, going and throwing and just getting all these little details straightened out now before they come up in season, has been the biggest things."

Though Cal’s 6-7 final season record in 2024 fell far short of his squad’s National Championship, the new Bears QB saw how close last year’s Cal team was to having a much stronger season.

“Just watching tape and then looking at the stats as well, I think in all the games last year (except SMU in the finale), they lost by a combined like 17 points or something crazy like that,” Brown said. “Every game was really close, and talking with the players as well, the main message was that they fell off because they got complacent throughout the games. There's a lot of games where they were having a big lead, like against Miami, they came back and they lost that game. And there was multiple instances like that, where they were right there, and they should have won it, and should have never gotten that situation.

“But it started with the offseason for them. It started with their training. Started with how they prepared. So there's all these little things that add up to make that one little inch different. And so that's been the biggest thing, is changing those moments now, so that one inch is the other way around.”

Brown has been the primary backup to a pair of high-level QBs in former Ohio State starters Will Howard and Kyle McCord. What will it take for Brown to take the next step and earn QB1 at Cal?

"Great question," Brown said. "I mean, it's just scoring touchdowns, right? It's actually doing it on the field. Haven't had many opportunities to do that. Stepped into some games here and there. Had one start. Didn't really play a whole lot because of injuries. So actually being healthy now and getting in, it's just going to be making efficient plays and just moving the chains. That's the biggest thing, is just being as efficient as possible." 

Having played in a backup role where he totaled 331 career passing yards, three passing touchdowns and 1 rushing TD along with 37 yards rushing have helped Brown’s ability to slow down what he sees on the field, though there’s a bit of a new learning curve executing a new offense and reading a new defensive style of play.

"Coming in, it was already slow for me,"  Brown said. "The biggest thing was just learning the language, figuring out what means what. At the end of the day, ball is ball. Four verticals is four verticals, right? So it's just how teams call it and how teams say it.

“This defense here at Cal is a lot different than I've seen so that was a little fast paced at first, trying to figure out what the things that they're good at, the things that they're trying to do, but it's definitely slowed down a ton for me. And it's obviously going to be different in-game, but in practice, you can see it's evident.”

Brown was asked what new things he’s picked up from new Cal OC Bryan Harsin and senior offensive assistant Nick Rolovich so far.

"Yeah, I mean, football is football," Brown said. "There's certain things that they would teach differently than I've learned at Ohio State. Like I said, the language is obviously different, but some of the drops are a little different, a little more open-ended on what's more comfortable for you, that's a little different than what I'm used to, mechanics-wise, with the quarterback position, of how your arm slot should be, some things like that. But I wouldn't say it's necessarily really different, but there's just little pieces that they add their own flavor to."

Though he’s not a classic dual threat quarterback, Brown is more than capable of picking up solid yardage by scrambling or called QB runs.

"Yeah, for sure," Brown said. "I think a big part of my game is being able to extend plays when something goes wrong. Something goes wrong, being able to make the most out of it, not making a bad thing worse, right? So when stuff breaks down, being able to use my legs and use my body to get five yards out of nothing is something super important." 

Stay tuned for more from this week’s 2025 ACC Football Kickoff.

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ACC Kickoff: Cal QB Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele

2025 ACC Kickoff: Cal Bears with Wilcox, Brown, Keanaaina and Uluave

2025 ACC Kickoff Day 1 Roundup