The Qualities Cal GM Ron Rivera Wants in a Quarterback

The key to Cal’s 2025 season will be the play of its quarterback, and Cal football general manager Ron Rivera has some specific ideas about what makes an outstanding quarterback.

Rivera will not select the Golden Bears’ starting quarterback for 2025, which presumably will be either Ohio State transfer Devin Brown or freshman Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele.  That decision will be made by head coach Justin Wilcox and offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin.

But as a two-time NFL coach of the year, Rivera will share an opinion the decision-makers will take into account.

And Rivera does not resort to the coach-speak claim that every position on the field is of equal significance.

“This is a quarterback-driven sport,” Rivera said. “It doesn’t matter what level. If you have a quarterback, you have a chance to win.”

He admits there are other elements that enable the quarterback to be successful.

“You have three other components,” he said this week. “You have to protext him, put playmakers around him, and you have to have a defense that’s complementary. By that I mean a defense that’s going to take the ball away when it has to and create a positive field position, lessen the distance you have to go to score.”

Rivera is then willing to provide a pecking order of the skills he believes a player needs to be a winning quarterback.

“For me personally, what I always look for a quarterback’s leadership,” he said, “and what his leadership is about. I believe this: Leadership is never about the individual but it starts with the individual. That to me is really important.

“So when I watch a guy making it only about him or making it about his teammates. When he throws a good pass, is he pointing to his guy and telling him, ‘Great catch’? When he throws a bad pass, is he taking responsibility – ‘My fault, I messed it up. I got to give you a ball that you can catch.’ So you look for that.

“Once you get past that – if he is like that, hey, you got the team guy – the second thing is athleticism, because you can help a guy become a great quarterback with a great athlete, you really can. The guy may be a great quarterback but he may not have the athleticism to escape and get away from people. So I’d put that just a little bit ahead. Competitive spirit is another thing that’s important.

“I’ve always said this: The really great ones are game managers that have the ability to take over the game. You watch Tom Brady, there’s a guy that managed the game, and when he had to, what did he do? He took it over and won.

“Those are the skill sets to me you’re looking for. And it’s more so than anything else, it’s the guy that has the ability to manage a game, make a decision, protect the football, but now ‘Son of gun, let’s go, man, we got to score. And we’re going to take you down and we’re going to score.’ And that’s what you want in a quarterback.

So we have leadership, athleticism and the ability to deliver the big plays at the game-winning moments. No mention of arm strength or throwing accuracy. Perhaps those as assumed skills. But perhaps they not as important as everyone thinks. Former Cal head coach Jeff Tedford said the most important quality in a quarterback is toughness, with arm strength and accuracy being well down the list.

When Rivera led the Carolina Panthers to the Super Bowl in the 2015 season, his quarterback, Cam Newton, was the NFL MVP that season. Newton was a leader with athleticism who did not fear the big moment, and engineered 16 fourth-quarter comebacks, including four in his MVP season.

With regard to Cal’s leading quarterback candidates this season, Rivera said he has been impressed with Brown’s leadership qualities, and he likes the way Sagapolutele performs as a passer, including his ability to throw from different arm angles.

“He throws off platform as well as a lot of people I’ve seen in the NFL,” Rivera said of Sagapolutele. “He’s special as a freshman.”

The question: Can either Brown or Sagapolutele drive his team to a game-winning score in the fourth quarter?

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