Sagapolute and Manutai Excited to Rep The Bears at Home in Hawaii

It’s been a fairy tale season for Cal’s pair of 2025 recruiting class signees Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele‍ and Aiden Manutai‍ since signing with the Bears in December and January. Now both players will have the chance to represent the Bears competing at home in front of friends, families and old teammates in the 2025 Sheraton Hawaii Bowl on Wednesday.

Just 11 months ago, both players were repping their culture in the Polynesian Bowl and preparing to launch their collegiate careers. Now less than a year later, they're back in Honolulu repping the Bears after amazingly successful true freshman seasons.

"It was just really a blessing," Sagapolutele said of the Bears getting the Hawaii Bowl berth. "To be able to play in any bowl game is a blessing. All thanks to my Lord and Savior, Jesus for allowing us to come back home and be able to play in front of family and friends. I think it was just a big opportunity for us to play against guys we played before, played against, guys we played with before, and just being able to do that and play in front of our family, it meant the world. So I'm just really, truly grateful and blessed.”

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Cal QB Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele, safety Aiden Manutai and interim HC Nick Rolovich

"Yeah, I would say it was pretty exciting once we got to know that we were in the Hawaii bowl," Manutai said.. "We had a long season. I think sometimes we get caught up and forget Hawaii is our home. So we're just super grateful and super excited to show our other teammates around."

The Bears' super frosh QB rocketed to stardom right out of the gate, though he took a circuitous route to end up as the Bears’ starting QB after flipping his commitment to Oregon on signing day. He eventually flipped back to Cal the following month after being on the Oregon sideline in the Ducks’ Rose Bowl loss to Ohio State before transferring back to Cal in the spring portal weeks later.

Battling head-to-head with Ohio State transfer QB Devin Brown‍, the early entry frosh gradually pulled away from the veteran Brown to earn the starting nod in the season opening win over Oregon State where he completed his first eight passes of his collegiate career, several of them of a most difficult variety. The frosh finished completing 20-of-30 passes for 234 yards and 3 TDs with no interceptions in the 34-15 win. Sagapolutele went on to complete 288-of-453 passes (63.6%) for 3,113 yards and 17 TDs and 9 INT in the regular season, including leading the Bears to their regular season finale upset win over #21 SMU in his best performance of the season. 

Following Cal's upset loss to Stanford in the Big Game in November, 9-year head coach Justin Wilcox was relieved of his duties, with offensive assistant/QB coach Nick Rolovich taking over as interim head coach.

The move was a bittersweet moment for the frosh QB as he'd developed a close relationship with Wilcox over the past 11 months but he'd also developed a strong comfort level with Rolovich, who was subsequently named the new assistant head coach and QB coach under incoming head coach Tosh Lupoi.

"Man, you know, I could definitely say it wasn't the easiest moment for me," Sagapolutele said. "Coach Wilcox was a man that I highly respected, highly loved and definitely the team respected, for sure. Losing him, it was a heavy loss. But I just want to send all love to him. He's meant the world to me. He gave me the opportunity to be able to play my first year as a freshman.

"But having coach Rolo step up, it meant the world as well because when I first came to Cal, we run a really pro style type of offense snd it wasn't easy for me. Coach Rolo would be there late nights, helping me. And you know, he wasn't just there for football. He was also there to just check up on me, on me as a person, making sure my mentals were good, making sure that I was okay in everything I did, even taking me home sometimes. It just felt like having another father there. It just really meant the world that he was a key, stepped up big time for us, especially for the team. And he really rallied us together, you know, to just to play for us, for that last game against SMU.

And you know, we were able to get things down. We played for each other, and we also played for Coach Wilcox, a man that led us the whole season. It just really meant the world that Coach Rolo - the team really loves Coach Rolo - and we're all supporting him. We're all behind him, we all have his back, and we're just so excited to play in this game snd just represent those that have led us this season."

Manutai didn’t make as flashy a start but became a rare true freshman starter at safety and acquitted himself well throughout the season, though his freshman campaign almost came to an early close after a scary injury suffered in the Bears’ loss at Virginia Tech in October.

"I had a bunch of great leaders all over the team, a bunch of coaches as well, great leaders that were able to take me under their wing and teach me and I just was able to listen and take things in," Manutai said. "This whole season has been a journey that's a little different for me. The past two months, were very mental. I had to think about things a lot on whether or not I should finish out the season, but I had a cardiac contusion, something where I had to go to the hospital right after the Virginia Tech game. I was stuck out there. Had to monitor my heart and everything, but they kind of left it up to me on whether or not I wanted to play.

“These players and coaches mean a lot to me. The decision to play was because of them. I really love my teammates and my coaches, just because of all the stuff that they poured into me and what it means to me is very special, and especially to play behind another true freshman quarterback that's from here. That's just different. And having Coach Rolo is something I'm very grateful for, that everybody is grateful for." 

As a native Hawaiian,  Sagapolutele is relishing the opportunity to play his first bowl game with two Hawaii QB legends and former teammates Rolovich and Hawaii head coach Timmy Chang going toe to toe in tomorrow's Sheraton Hawaii Bowl.

"Especially if you're a QB, you grow up watching these guys or knowing who they are," Sagapolutele said. Obviously they played before I was born, but just being able to go back watch all their past games, like Rolo against BYU and Coach Timmy and just everything that they've done, just learning about them. And always growing up a Hawaii fan, and just being able to see what they've done and helped Hawaii do. It's just been amazing for me to follow in that legacy and in those footsteps. And it's just really a blessing to be able to be inspired by guys such as these two great people that I always look up to."

Tomorrow's Hawaii Bowl kickoff will be at 5 pm PST on ESPN