The Sporting News, USA Today Rank Cal QBs Near the Bottom of ACC – Sports Illustrated

The Sporting News and USA Today this week released their rankings of ACC quarterbacks for the 2025 season, and Cal’s quarterbacks did not fare well. The 247 Sports website posted its ACC quarterback rankings back in May, and it was not optimistic about the Golden Bears' quarterbacks either.
None of the three outlets ranked Cal’s quarterback higher than 15th among its 17 ACC quarterback choices. We’ll see if Cal’s new offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin and senior offensive assistant Nick Rolovich can make the Bears’ quarterback position better than expected.
The assumption is that Ohio State quarterback Devin Brown will be the Golden Bears’ quarterback for the 2025 opener, although freshman Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele and redshirt freshman EJ Caminong remain in the competition entering fall camp.
USA Today ranked Cal’s quarterback 16th of the projected 17 ACC starting quarterbacks, ahead of only Stanford’s quarterbacks. USA Today provided this comment about Brown:
16. Devin Brown, California
Cal faithful are hopeful that signing a guy who has been in Ohio State’s quarterback room works out as well as McCord did at Syracuse. Brown completed just 11 passes on 20 attempts with a touchdown in mop-up duty behind Will Howard on the Buckeyes’ title team.
Here are the USA Today ACC quarterback rankings:
— 1. Cade Klubnik, Clemson
— 2. Haynes King, Georgia Tech
— 3. Kevin Jennings, SMU
— 4. Carson Beck, Miami
— 5. Darian Mensah, Duke
— 6. Chandler Morris Virgina
— 7. Max Johnson or Gio Lopez, North Carolina
— 8. Miller Moss, Louisville
— 9. Thomas Castellanos, Florida State
— 10. Kyron Drones, Virginia Tech
— 11. Robby Ashford or Deshawn Purdie, Wake Forest
— 12. Eli Holstein, Pittsburgh
— 13. Grayson James, Boston College
— 14. Rickie Collins, Syracuse
— 15. C.J. Bailey, North Carolina State
— 16. Devin Brown, Cal
— 17. Elijah Brown or Ben Gulbranson, Stanford
The Sporting News ACC quarterback rankings, provided via On3, placed Cal at No. 15, with this On3 comment:
No. 15 Devin Brown, California
Devin Brown is yet another career backup quarterback transferring to the ACC for a starting job.
Brown spent three seasons at Ohio State, where he attempted just 48 passes for 331 yards, three touchdowns and just one interception. He was the No. 24 ranked QB and the No. 228 overall transfer in On3’s Transfer Portal Rankings.
Here are The Sporting News’ ACC quarterback rankings:
— 1. Cade Klubnik, Clemson
— 2. Haynes King, Georgia Tech
— 3. Carson Beck, Miami
— 4. Kevin Jennings, SMU
— 5. Miller Moss, Louisville
— 6. Darian Mensah, Duke
— 7. Chandler Morris, Virginia
— 8. Kyron Drones, Virginia Tech
— 9. Grayson James, Boston College
— 10. Tommy Castellanos, Florida State
— 11. CJ Bailey, NC State
— 12. Max Johnson, North Carolina
— 13. Eli Holstein, Pittsburgh
— 14. Rickie Collins, Syracuse
— 15. Devin Brown, California
— 16. Robby Ashford, Wake Forest
— 17. Elijah Brown, Stanford
The 247 Sports site also ranked Cal’s quarterback 15th in the ACC, although it did not specify a starting quarterback for the Bears and added this comment.
15. Devin Brown/EJ Caminong/Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, California
It is a three-man battle at California, and each candidate has a unique profile.  Devin Brown is the most veteran option after he joined the program on the heels of a lengthy backup stint at Ohio State. EJ Caminong has the most experience with the Golden Bears, though that is not saying much as he redshirted last year and made just one appearance. But Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele is the quarterback of the future after he transferred in from Oregon prior to his true freshman campaign, and he may just get a running start and break fall camp as the man for the job.
Here are 247 Sports’ rankings of ACC quarterback for 2025:
— 1. Cade Klubnik, Clemson
— 2. Carson Beck, Miami
— 3. Kevin Jennings, SMU
— 4. Haynes King, Georgia Tech
— 5. Miller Moss, Louisville
— 6. Darian Mensah, Duke
— 7. Eli Holstein, Pittsburgh
— 8. CJ Bailey, NC State
— 9. Kyron Drones, Virginia Tech
— 10. Steve Angeli/Rickie Collins, Syracuse
— 11. Tommy Castellanos, Florida State
— 12. Chandler Morris, Virginia
— 13. Gio Lopez, North Carolina
— 14. Dylan Lonergan/Grayson James, Boston College
— 15. Devin Brown/EJ Caminong/Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, California
— 16. Elijah Brown, Stanford
— 17. Deshawn Purdie/Robby Ashford, Wake Forest
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Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.
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