Transfer portal: 2 Sac State QBs depart, Caden Pinnick leaves UC Davis for Pac-12
At the end of the regular season, after UC Davis edged past Sacramento State in Causeway Classic, Caden Pinnick beamed about his time with the Aggies.
After passing for 306 yards and two touchdowns in the 31-27 victory, the quarterback star from Del Oro High School in Placer County raved about his teammates. He credited his head coach, Tim Plough, for helping mentor and mold him, and he spoke about how his redshirt freshman season was “a blast.”
Pinnick also said he was looking forward to playing baseball with the Aggies this spring, having starred in multiple sports growing up.
On Tuesday, Pinnick signed with Washington State of the revamped Pac-12 Conference.
He didn’t leave UCD because of any fallout with coaches or teammates. Pinnick tested the transfer portal waters to see if there were nibbles of interest from higher-level FBS programs, including lucrative offers through NIL — name, image and likeness. FBS programs generally have much more resources, in the form of boosters and money, than FCS programs like UC Davis.
Pinnick’s dream coming out of Del Oro as a dual-threat 6-footer was to play at the FBS level. He received no full scholarship offers from FBS programs, and that perceived slight that he wasn’t quite tall enough or big enough for the big-boy level of college football infuriated and inspired him. It led him to UCD, where he flourished under Plough.
Pinnick passed for 3,206 yards and 32 touchdowns with 437 yards rushing and three scores in 2025 for a 9-4 Aggies squad that reached the FCS quarterfinals. He earned Big Sky Conference Freshman of the Year accolades and FCS Freshman All-American honors.
Plough knew Pinnick was considering the portal while also encouraging him to finish his career as an Aggie, with Plough reminding him that he could bow out as an all-time Aggies great.
Pinnick entered the portal on the first day of the Jan. 2-16 portal window and received immediate interest. This Monday, he took a campus visit to the University of Colorado to meet with Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders and with newly hired offensive coordinator Brennan Marion.
Marion raved about Pinnick’s skills and drive and drive after the Causeway Classic game, Marion’s last contest in his lone season with Sacramento State.
Sac State’s two QBs in 2025 are in portal
The starting quarterback for Marion and Sac State to open the 2025 season was a transfer portal product in Jaden Rashada, the well-traveled, 4-star prep prospect from Contra Costa County. Rashada was not on the Hornets depth chart for the Nov. 22 Causeway Classic, nor did he make the trip to Yolo County to cap the season. He left the program weeks earlier, and this week he entered the transfer portal, seeking another fresh start.
Rashada is in the portal for the third time. He initially signed with the Florida Gators in December 2022 as an early graduate at Pittsburg High in the East Bay. He never suited up for Florida, filing a lawsuit over an NIL package that never materialized. He landed at Arizona State before jumping back into the portal after one season. Rashada signed with the Georgia Bulldogs, where he did not play in 2024.
A year ago this week, Rashada entered the portal again. He was in the portal for weeks before being plucked by Marion and Sacramento State. Rashada was hurt in the second game of the 2025 season, the result of a targeting hit by a Nevada Wolf Pack player. Rashada saw limited time the rest of the season as Hornets transfer portal signee Cardell Williams assumed the starting role on Sept. 13.
Though Williams dazzled at times as a runner, including rushing for the game winning score to beat Idaho a week before the Causeway clash, he struggled as a passer. Against the Aggies, Williams passed for 17 yards on 3-of-9 passing with an interception.
Williams is also now in the portal, leaving new Hornets coach Alonzo Carter and his staff to seek out options as the program looks to improve on a 7-5 season. Jamar Malone, a 6-foot-2, dual-threat true freshman last fall for Sac State out of Los Angeles, entered the portal but has stepped out to remain with the program. He was a 3-star prep prospect.
Carter said he wants to retain as much of the 2025 roster as he can as Sac State brought in 73 new players before the 2025, more than 50 of them from the portal. An immediate need for the Hornets: Quarterbacks.
UC Davis coach Plough: ‘Disappointed’
Pinnick posted on his X social media page that he was “grateful for the journey so far”, adding in part that entering the portal “wasn’t an easy decision, and it comes with immense respect and appreciation for the coaches, teammates, staff and the Davis community that welcomed me, supported me, and believed in me from Day One...I’ve grown tremendously because of the people around me, and I’ll always carry that with me.”
Plough in a Monday media session on campus said he wishes Pinnick well. The UCD alum said he understands the nature of college athletics with the portal and that players will continue to come and go via that route. He has also said the grim reality is that FCS teams cannot compete with the better-financed FBS programs when it comes to offering financial packages to players.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was disappointed,” the UCD coach said of Pinnick’s departure. “I really want guys to come to Davis and get the full experience. And to me, the full experience is to get a degree from UC Davis, and to let that degree open up a really important door for you. If you leave before that opportunity, you’re really closing a door that can affect you for the rest of your life.”
Plough added, “I think it’s a risk (to transfer out), but it’s a risk that some guys are willing to take. As unfortunate as that is, I’m really proud of what we were able to accomplish with Caden. I’m really proud of the financial offer we were able to provide him, which was competitive to all the top FCS programs in the country. But him and his team of people, and his agent and everybody felt like it was better for him to move on. I love Caden and wish him the best and hope it works out for him.”
UCD has options
As for replacing Pinnick, Plough reminded that the Aggies quarterback room is stocked full of talent. This includes Treynor Cleeland, a prep star from Oregon who was a UCD freshman in 2025; and Axel Eason, an Aggies freshman in 2025 who was a prep star in Southern California.
Eason’s father, Bo Eason, was a 1980s UCD star defensive back who played four years in the NFL and has his jersey number retired with the Aggies. Axel Eason’s uncle is Tony Eason, a prep star at Delta High on the Sacramento River who was a 1983 NFL first-round draft pick out of Illinois and who quarterbacked the New England Patriots to their first Super Bowl, following the 1985 season.
UCD also has the option of poring over the transfer portal. History shows that FBS players sometimes commit to FCS programs for a chance to start and win. This was true for Justin Lamson, the Oak Ridge High School of El Dorado Hills product who on Monday quarterbacked Montana State of the Big Sky Conference to the FCS national championship in earning game MVP honors. Lamson, The Bee’s 2019 Player of the Year transferred in before the 2025 season after playing at Stanford.
Plough also reiterated his coaching worth.
“The quarterback position here will be fine,” Plough said. “At Davis, we know how to coach quarterbacks, and whoever the quarterback is will be successful. I’ve worked really hard to build a career and I feel that I can develop and coach the quarterback as well as anyone in the country.”
This story was originally published January 7, 2026 at 12:52 PM.