Cal gets ready for 1st season under coach Tosh Lupoi with QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele at the helm

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — There's plenty of new around the California football program as the Golden Bears get set to open fall camp for the upcoming season.

First-year coach Tosh Lupoi has overhauled the staff, the roster has been infused by more than 30 transfers and the expectations are rising for a program that has won more than seven games just once in the past 10 seasons.

One of the main reasons for those hopes and one of the most important pieces that is back at Cal is sophomore quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, who is looking to build on his successful freshman campaign.

“I’m thankful that he’s here,” Lupoi said Tuesday, the day before the first practice of the summer. “He’s an incredible part of our future. Just as good of a player he is, just as far as a character standpoint, his commitment. ... He’s a driving force in our culture. So thankful to have them and he’s done a great job and excited now to go to camp here and let it rip and attack this next chapter.”

The first order of business when Lupoi was hired in December to replace the fired Justin Wilcox was to get on a plane immediately following his introductory news conference and fly to Hawaii, where he got Sagapolutele to commit to remaining at Cal.

Sagapolutele made a major impact last year, throwing for 3,454 yards and 18 touchdowns. He now is one of the top returning quarterbacks in the country and looks to raise his game another level starting with being more of a leader on advice of quarterbacks coach Nick Rolovich, one of the few remaining coaches from last year's staff.

“Being one of the younger guys, you’re in your shell a little bit,” Sagapolutele said. “Now being year two, I’ve definitely come out a lot more and just something that Coach Roll likes to talk about, just being a natural leader. Guys gravitate around them and just being able to be myself and just allowing the guys to be themselves around me as well.”

Lupoi has been aggressive since taking over at Cal, bringing in a large transfer class including wide receivers Ian Strong, Chase Hendricks and Cooper Perry to give Sagapolutele more options.

He also has started to put together a strong high school recruiting class for next season, which will be his preferred method of roster building.

“We were only active because of forced to,” Lupoi said about his use of the transfer portal. "I wasn’t the head coach here for national signing day for high school. There was only one possible way to impact the roster and so that’s exactly what we did."

Sagapolutele got time in the spring with his new receivers and now will use the next few weeks to work out any kinks before the season opener on Sept. 5 against UCLA.

His new teammates are already impressed.

“This guy, he’s the real deal,” said Hendricks, who had 1,037 yards receiving at Ohio last season, including 312 in three games against power conference opponents. “He’s not a fraud, this guy can really throw the ball. He has natural talent."

The new coaching staff, bolstered roster and promising quarterback have raised the expectations at Cal, a program that hasn't had much success for nearly two decades.

Lupoi was a player at Cal when Jeff Tedford took over a 1-10 team following the 2001 season and built it into one of the best programs on the West Coast. The Bears challenged power USC in the Pac-10 with the second-most wins in the conference over a seven-year span.

But the Bears haven't had a winning conference record since 2009 and posted a losing overall record every season from 2020-24 before going 7-6 last season.

Lupoi was an assistant under Tedford for some of Cal's best years and then went on to have success as an assistant at Alabama and Oregon. Now he has the team believing that getting back to the old standard is possible.

“I think we can be as good as we want to be,” said cornerback Ricky Fletcher, who transferred from Ole Miss. “We’re around coaches that have won at other places and a lot of players that have been brought on board that have won, so I feel it’s going to be a good transition for us to come here and bring a new culture.”

AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

FILE - California head football coach Tosh Lupoi looks on before a baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and the Miami Marlins in San Francisco, April 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

FILE - California quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele runs with the ball during the first half of an NCAA college football game against SMU, Nov. 29, 2025, in Berkeley, Calif. (AP Photo/Justine Willard, File)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Fans fainting at a baseball park. Lions dying at a zoo. A woman taking shelter in a car found dead. A doctor advising people to eat dog meat to promote stamina.

The scenes caused by a record heat wave in Northeast Asia illustrate how extreme temperatures have gripped South Korea, North Korea and Japan.

In most of South Korea, a major heat wave advisory was in place Wednesday as temperatures in densely populated greater Seoul, home to 20 million people, and adjacent areas soared as high as 39 degrees Celsius (102.2 degrees Fahrenheit).

North Korean authorities have issued a heat wave advisory in many areas and called for people to take safety steps to avoid heat-related health problems.

Japan's anti-disaster agency reported more than 18,000 people with heat stroke symptoms were transported to hospitals during the week of July 20 to 26.

Since mid-May in South Korea, about 2,220 people have been diagnosed with heat-related illnesses and 19 have died, according to a report from Interior and Safety Ministry. About 17,140 livestock, such as chickens, ducks and pigs, and about 160,000 farmed fishes also have died.

On Sunday, the southeastern city of Yangsan saw temperatures reaching 42.5 Celsius (108.5 Fahrenheit), the highest figure recorded since weather observation began in Korea in 1904.

In a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, President Lee Jae Myung instructed officials to view the ongoing heat wave as “a national disaster” and make all-out efforts to protect lives.

On Tuesday night, a spectator in his 20s collapsed while watching a baseball game between SSG Landers and LG Twins at a stadium in Incheon city, west of Seoul. Emergency personnel administered CPR and transported him to a hospital, halting the game for about 10 minutes.

Another fan in his 20s fell unconscious and received treatment at the stadium after the game, according to the Korea Baseball Organization, which announced Wednesday that all 10 games scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday were canceled and would be rescheduled.

Min Son Yong, deputy director of the internal medicine department at Pyongyang General Hospital, told North Korea’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Sunday that people should eat dog meat and fish porridge to supplement protein to beat the heat.

Euphemistically known as “dangogi,” or sweet meat, dog meat has long been considered a stamina food in North Korea and is traditionally eaten during the hottest time of the year.

Min also recommended watermelons, cucumbers, tomatoes, mung beans and ginger to cool down, the newspaper reported.

Dog meat also has been eaten in China, Vietnam and African countries, as well as in South Korea, which plans to formally ban slaughtering, breeding or selling dog meat for human consumption beginning next year.

Japan’s Environment Ministry issued a heat stroke alert for most of the western and southern Japan on Wednesday. While temperatures in the Tokyo region temporarily fell this week, intense heat continued to hit southern Japan.

In the southwestern city of Kumamoto, relief and cleanup work continued following a magnitude 7.1 earthquake on July 28 that killed 38 people, including a woman in her 70s who developed heat stroke while taking shelter in a car. More than 43,000 households were still without water on Wednesday.

Three lions have died at a Tokyo zoo, with a number of their animal peers developing apparent heatstroke symptoms.

Tama Zoological Park said, Mugi, a 3-year-old female lion, developed a loss of appetite on July 19 and was unable to stand the following day. Suspecting heat problem, zoo keepers provided ventilation and a water sprinkler to cool her down. The lion eventually died on July 28 despite treatment with subcutaneous fluid, liver tonics and vitamins, the zoo said.

Two other female lions, Ichigo, 11, and Luena, 15, also died within a few days, the zoo said.

Autopsies showed dehydration and multiple organ failure in all three animals and officials say they believe heat was the cause of the health problems.

Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo.

Visitors holding umbrellas to avoid sunshine leave the Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

The outdoor fitness equipments are empty due to the heat in Goyang, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

People sit in the shade to avoid the heat in Goyang, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Visitors hold umbrellas to avoid sunshine at the Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)