It's rare for a true freshman to play a big role on the offensive line. It's rarer for a true freshman to start on the offensive line. That's what projected starting

In Cal’s contest against USC a year ago, Saffell was in on a 4th and 1 play. Right guard. A simple pin and pull, where Saffell came across the formation, freed Vic Enwere, and managed to avoid a holding penalty as it led to the Bears' first touchdown of the game.

From there, Saffell went on to start in two games as a true freshman at right guard, while playing in seven, becoming the first true freshman to start on the offensive line since Chris Borrayo in 2013.

"It’s not common, it’s not common at any level to play as a freshman," offensive coordinator Beau Baldwin noted, "It says a lot about his readiness, his body’s ready, he came in ready that way, but more than anything, mentally too. The mental toughness to not worry about, ‘hey, my first start is against USC, or my first action.’"

A few plays before this one, Saffell actually fell on a similar pull, but the former Edison center was kept in the game, at a new position, and played it all the way out through the season. Now, he's poised to start full time at right guard for the Bears.

"In high school I never played guard," Saffell noted, "and getting as much experience as I did there last year, the transition from spring to now, (the game) really slows down. That's the biggest thing coming into year two, now I'm able to, instead of thinking about what the call is, I'm able to look at defensive alignments, just having more awareness."

The year to year transition has helped the Cal offensive line, as every start returns from a year ago. With that, offensive line coach has been able to move many of the linemen around to see where they fit, including testing lines with Saffell at his more natural center spot.

"He’s very versatile, if something happened to Addy, knock on wood, he’d be our guy to go in there at center," Greatwood said, "so you’ve got to keep him somewhat up to speed on that."

As a true sophomore, Saffell's the youngest likely starter on the offensive line, but Greatwood's philosophy is essentially that it takes a village to lead an offensive line.

"He's fostered a culture of non-vertical leadership," Saffell said, "we don't have to be seniors before becoming a leader, and even those freshman kids now, you see Cindric out there commanding that OL, he's got to be making calls and stuff. He's fostered a group culture that makes everyone want to see each other succeed."

Since there's a young group in on the offensive line, with five true freshmen in, Saffell, alongside some of his older fellow starters, has taken on the job of holding the younger players accountable.

"I got so lucky coming in with this group, they welcomed me with open arms," Saffell said. "Guys like Patrick Mekari and Addy Ooms, I really took advantage of their knowledge of the game, asking them tons of questions about what they were seeing. Once you start getting older, once you start getting into that role where you've got take young guys under your wing, you've really got to help those guys along. They're the future, you're gonna playing with them potentially this year or years in the future."

It helps that Saffell's one of the most detail-oriented players on this team. During his first recruiting interview with GoldenBearReport.com, he talked about pass blocking techniques for a solid ten minutes. He knows what he's talking about, and he's backed it up in becoming a starter.

"He’s just been a vocal guy," Greatwood noted, "a confident guy, and a very good football player since the day he walked in here, and he’s earned everything he’s gotten, as far as the respect I think he garners from the rest of the team."

On the student side of the student athlete coin, Saffell's been looking to go into the Haas School of Business, and has been a part of the Sports Business Group on campus (co-founded by current Cal TE Colin Moore). As part of that, Saffell worked with the San Jose Earthquakes last semester, working with the MLS franchise on their fan experience and fan optics.

"It was an awesome experience, obviously sports has been a big experience in my life. Moving forward in the future," Saffell said, "having to get an actual career, not just being a student-athlete, staying in the sports world is very important to me, getting that experience with having access to so many intelligent people at a campus like Berkeley, so many great minds to learn from, with alumni coming back and telling us the ins and outs of the industry was pretty pivotal in my major choices going forward and some of the choices I could make in terms of internships and things like that."

For now though, the Bears have football season coming quick, and Saffell's going to start when the offense trots out for their first series against North Carolina on September 1st. With that, the guy he plays next to had a comparison for the man likely to assume the center role next year.

"We had Jordan Rigsbee a couple years ago," Addison Ooms noted, "He’s got that same kind of mindset. I love it. That dude gets off the ball, he’ll get off the ball and he’s just trying to put them on the ground every time, it’s great playing with a guy like that."

Rigsbee played in all 49 games he was available for in his career at multiple positions. If Saffell can come close to that (he has 45 games tops that he can play in going forward), the Bears will be plenty happy.