No one just hands out a college football nickname like “Pain Train.” You have to earn it. And no one earned it quite like Cal football’s Zack Follett. After a 2005 game against No. 1 USC, he was suspended for ramming his facemask into a helmet-less LenDale White. In 2007, the linebacker absolutely destroyed Tennessee quarterback Erik Ainge with a blindside hit Golden Bears fans still talk about to this day. In 2008, Follett sent Arizona State quarterback Rudy Carpenter home on literal crutches, fueled by the simple fact that Carpenter called him “Zack” during a Sun Devils win a year prior.
“He was calling me by my first name, like we’re best friends or something,” a sincerely aggrieved Follett told reporters at the time.
There have been a lot of bad, bad men who’ve played for the Cal defense over the program’s 140-year history, but maybe none badder than Follett. He didn’t just inflict pain — he told you, very loudly, in advance, that the Pain Train was coming.
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The one time ABC mic’d up Follett (during warmups of that 2008 ASU-Cal game), he sounded like an absolute maniac.
Cal’s Zack Follett nearly sacks Tennessee’s Erik Ainge during a game at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Calif., on Sept. 1, 2007. California defeated Tennessee 45-31.
Michael J. Burns/Courtesy of Cal Athletics
Zack Follett of California celebrates after a big play during the game at Reser Stadium in Corvallis, Ore., on Nov. 15, 2008. Oregon State defeated California 34-21.
Michael Pimentel /Courtesy of Cal Athletics
Zack Follett, 56, grabs onto Coby Fleener, 82, during the 111th Big Game. California defeated Stanford 37-16 on Nov. 22, 2008, at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley.
Kelley Cox/Courtesy of Cal Athletics
“Woo. Woo. Coming for Carpenter, baby, all day,” Follett said, before later spotting the ASU quarterback warming up on the opposite end of the field. “… There he is. There he is. 1-2. Carpenter about to get the business. … The Pain Train’s coming today, baby.”
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Legendary Cal head coach Jeff Tedford, now 64 and retired, says there’s really only one reason Follett could be so vocal.
“He was in a position to do it because he made a lot of plays. It wasn’t just talk,” Tedford says. “He could do something about it.”
Follett finished his four-year Cal career in the top 10 all-time in tackles (245), tackles for loss (51) and sacks (23.5). Oh, and he set a school record and tied a Pac-10 record for forced fumbles (13). He also remains the only Cal football player in history to show up to the conference’s Media Day with tiger stripes and a giant “Z” dyed in his hair.
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“He played middle linebacker,” Tedford says matter-of-factly. “You’ve gotta have a little bit of recklessness to you.”
Follett parlayed that recklessness into his name being called on the third day of the 2009 NFL Draft, as a seventh-round pick by the Detroit Lions. In a single season, he went from being released by the Lions in preseason cuts to reclaiming a roster spot, and being named one of the team’s starting linebackers in year two.
Zack Follett went on to a brief career for the Detroit Lions after his time at Cal.
Gavin Smith/Courtesy of Cal Athletics
And then, in the blink of an eye, his career ended. A horrific special teams hit in a game against the New York Giants in October of 2010 left him unable to move. Momentarily paralyzed, Follett was carted off the field. While he regained feeling in his neck and spine later that day, a year’s worth of visits to specialists couldn’t alleviate what Follett described to reporters repeatedly as his neck being “on fire” while practicing.
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In 2011, he was released by the Lions, joining the small handful of players who always come up whenever a group of Cal fans, usually after a beer to two, start a round of “I wonder what happened to that guy?”
The thing is, if I gave you a thousand guesses, you’d never guess what actually happened to Zack Follett.
At left, Tennessee quarterback Erik Ainge prepares to throw a pass as Cal’s Zach Follett closes in at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley on Sept. 1, 2007. Cal defeated Tennessee 45-31. At right, Cal head coach Jeff Tedford hugs Zack Follett, foreground.
Courtesy of Cal Athletics
It’s a few hours before kickoff for Cal-Boston College, a game that will eventually become one of the most electric wins from the Golden Bears’ 2025 campaign thanks to some late heroics from quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele and tight end Mason Mini. I’m in the basement floor of Lyons Hall on the Boston College campus, which is filled with Old Blues in full Cal regalia here for a pre-game alumni tailgate on a picture-perfect September afternoon. The Golden Bears’ mascot Oski is on hand, as are Chancellor Rich Lyons, football general manager Ron Rivera and “Teddy’s Bears” — a group of storied Cal football alums who all played for Tedford during his 11-year tenure in the Strawberry Canyon. Assembled by former Cal quarterback and forever Big Game hero Steve Levy, Teddy’s Bears are a who’s-who of Golden Bears greats who now get together to share a game with their former coach every year.
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“Tedford had a fatherly presence with all of us, it’s like we all shared the same dad,” Cal receiving legend Geoff McArthur explains. Tedford is here with a graying goatee and a head-to-toe Cal outfit, and he’s coincidentally seated just one table away from a woman in the tie-dyed “Ted Head” shirt that every fan who watched the team in the 2000s will remember instantly.
After the assembled crowd has had a few local brews and some mostly mediocre Boston clam chowder, the cheer team shows up and the tailgate rally gets underway. Lyons shares a few words, Rivera gets on stage to talk about the bright future of Cal football, then, finally, it’s time for a surprise closer: Tedford himself. And what a surprise closer he is — the former Cal coach (who used to work so late into the night in Berkeley he’d oftentimes sleep in a cot in Memorial Stadium) finished his career in Berkeley with the most bowl wins (5), conference wins (50) and games coached (139) in the school’s history, plus tied the legendary Pappy Waldorf for the most Big Game wins (7) against rival Stanford before being let go by Cal in 2012.
In a rarity, he’s back at a Cal game today, and he’s giving a fiery speech probably not all that different from the ones he used to give in the Golden Bears’ locker room. Toward the end of his football sermon, he gives a shoutout to his former charges standing in the back of the room, naming them one by one before coming to a pause.
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“The Pain Train is here,” he says after a beat, to an uproarious response from the alums in attendance. Follett gives a sheepish wave before turning and pacing a bit in the other direction while looking down at his sneakers — uninterested in a spotlight that had shown so brightly on him for so many years.
Zack Follett of California points to the sky after his sack during the Big Game between Cal and Stanford, at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley on Nov. 22, 2008. California defeated Stanford 37-16.
Michael Burns/Courtesy of Cal Athletics
The 111th Big Game between California and Stanford at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley on Nov. 22, 2008. Cal defeated Stanford 37-16.
Michael Pimentel /Courtesy of Cal Athletics
Zack Follett plays in a game against USC at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley on Nov. 3, 2007.
Michael Burns/Courtesy of Cal Athletics
Tedford tells the hundred or so Old Blues that when Follett was a junior, he ended up in his office one day and told Cal’s head coach he was lost. Everyone in Follett’s life knew who No. 56 was: one of the game’s meanest, most ferocious linebackers. But none of them knew who Zack was. While he’s forgotten a few of Follett’s biggest hits all these years later, Tedford still vividly remembers that office visit.
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“He was trying to figure life out. And with the pressures of academics and high-level football and expectation, he hit a point in there where he was really trying to do some soul-searching about who he was — why did people like him? What were his relationships about? Were they because of him or because of football?” Tedford says on a phone call when I ask him about that Boston College speech months later. “He was trying to find an identity. The football piece was evident that he was a great football player, but as people, young people at that stage in their life, there’s just a lot more stuff to figure out.”
Zack the football player and Zack the person had been diametrically opposed since birth.
“He always has been a rough player,” his mom, Naomi Follett, told the Oakland Tribune in 2006, Zack’s sophomore at Cal. “I remember that year when Zack was in fifth grade. This kid had a birthday party, but Zack didn’t get invited because he played too rough. The mom didn’t want her house messed up.”
Zack Follett of California puts pressure on Oregon State’s quarterback Lyle Moevao during a game at Reser Stadium in Corvallis, Ore., Nov. 15, 2008. Oregon State defeated California 34-21.
Michael Pimentel /Courtesy of Cal Athletics
In that same interview, Naomi Follett told the story of Zack going hunting with his dad, shooting a squirrel, seeing it dead and telling his dad: “I don’t think I want to do this anymore.”
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“It broke his heart,” his mom said.
Zack the football player and Zack the person finally found balance just a few nights after that junior-year visit to Tedford’s office. That’s when, he says, he first found religion while walking down Telegraph Avenue with his cousin, former Cal baseball player Brad Steele.
He wasn’t sure exactly what had changed, but he went to sleep that night feeling like a different person.
“I wake up next morning and I’m like, now how does this work? Does this mean I can sin as much as I want?” Follett says. He freely admits that his church prior to that Telegraph Avenue walk included a holy trinity of football, girls and partying. He wasn’t sure where to start. Fortunately, clues came from a familiar place: the football locker room.
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Zack Follett was immediately recognizable by his tiger-striped hair, featuring a huge Z on the back of his head.
Courtesy of Cal Athletics
Zack Follett acknowledges the fans after receiving Defensive Player of the Game at the Emerald Bowl between the California Golden Bears and Miami Hurricanes. California defeated Miami 24-17 at AT&T Park in San Francisco on Dec. 27, 2008.
Kelley Cox/Courtesy of Cal Athletics
“Scott Smith was a senior when I was a freshman, he was a Christian, and he had purchased a Bible for everyone on the team and had our names inscribed on it and our number,” Follett says. “The Bible sat on my desk, I never opened it one time.”
On this morning, though, Follett opened it to a random page, read a few lines and in a split second, reconsidered his entire life.
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“I’m the type of guy who can’t keep anything to myself, I always speak the truth. So the next day — I wasn’t raised in this, I didn’t know people don’t like Jesus — but I’m in Berkeley, at training table the next day. And I say to my teammates, ‘Bro, have you guys all heard about Jesus? Do you know you’ve sinned and you need to repent?’ And they’re like, ‘Bro, you were just holding a beer bong for me last week, what are you talking about?’”
Cal punting legend Nick Harris would teach Follett how to read the Bible during visits to Berkeley’s beloved Raleigh’s Pub. Game-day eye black that read “Jesus” and “Christ” followed soon after, along with one of the most unforgettable seasons for a defender in Cal’s history. His senior year, Follett led the country in tackles for loss (23), was sixth in forced fumbles (5) and 14th in sacks (10.5 sacks). It was one of the program’s best statistical seasons ever. The team finished 9-4 — only the fifth season with nine or more wins for a Cal team since the 1950s — and Follett was a semifinalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award, given to the country’s best defensive player. He was a first-team All-Pac-10 honoree and the defensive MVP of the Emerald Bowl.
The 111th Big Game between California and Stanford at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley on Nov. 22, 2008. Cal defeated Stanford 37-16.
Michael Burns/Courtesy of Cal Athletics
The greatest season of his football life, though, somehow still felt hollow.
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“Being a good person, tackling Erik Ainge, winning games, that’s not what gets you into heaven,” Follett says.
If you’re wondering where Zack Follett ended up all these years later, the answer is a Christian coffee shop in Clovis, California.
After his NFL career ended, he briefly moved to the U.K., where he joined the Sky Sports broadcast team in London for its coverage of the NFL. He appeared on the desk during four weeks of the 2011 season, including the NFL Wild Card Playoff round. Then one night in Marlow, England — the same town T.S. Eliot lived in during World War I — Follett found the unlikeliest of callings at a quaint British cafe called Costa Coffee, in a town of just 14,000 people.
Zack Follett, owner of several Kuppa Joy Coffee House locations, stands in his grand cafe in Fresno, Calif., on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026.
Garry Kazanjian for SFGATE
“I had never been to a coffee shop except Starbucks in my life,” he says. “But there was a different atmosphere there.”
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As he sat by the window at Costa Coffee with his Bible in hand, he couldn’t get over the sight of people connecting over coffee. Something spiritual inside of him told him he needed to bring that experience to his hometown.
So he moved back to California. And at the end of 2012, in the heart of Old Town Clovis almost 200 miles from Memorial Stadium, he opened Kuppa Joy.
To call it a Christian coffee shop might actually be underselling Kuppa Joy. It’s an extremely Christian coffee shop: There’s an ornate throne reserved for God that’s elevated in the middle of the business. The paper cups have a dramatic drawing of Jesus on the cross with a serpent with wings staring him down. “KINGJESUS” is their Wi-Fi password. And the most popular drink is the “Hallelujah,” so that everyone ordering it would automatically be praising God, as in: “Can I get a Hallelujah?”
Biblical cups are served to every customer at Zack Follett’s Kuppa Joy Coffee House in Clovis, Calif., pictured Monday, March 9, 2026. Follett was an NFL linebacker for the Detroit Lions before a career-ending injury.
Garry Kazanjian for SFGATE
A barista prepares a latte at Zack Follett’s Kuppa Joy Coffee House grand cafe in Fresno, Calif., on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026.
Garry Kazanjian for SFGATE
A throne is the centerpiece at Zack Follett’s Kuppa Joy Coffee House location in Clovis, Calif., pictured Monday, March 9, 2026.
Garry Kazanjian for SFGATE
Follett says he was a Folgers coffee drinker at the time he decided to open Kuppa Joy. His mom and sister told him he was crazy for even considering it. He told his mom he could “never sit behind a desk.” So he dove in: He did a weeklong coffee school in Portland, Oregon, learning the ins and outs of the coffee business. He turned his kitchen into an espresso test kitchen. He toured every high-end San Francisco coffee shop with former Cal tight end Eric Beegun, from Blue Bottle to Verve.
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“I’d never had a job before. My first job was ‘NFL football player.’ And now I’m trying to make a schedule and employee handbooks,” Follett remembers. “Everyone kept saying, ‘You’re going to be a year in business before your [profit and loss] is out of the red.’ Month one it was in the black. We were overwhelmed, there was a line out the door when we first opened.”
Fourteen years later, Follett now has eight Kuppa Joy locations, 150 employees, a bakery, a roastery, a commissary kitchen and four Best Coffee House in Central California awards from the Fresno Bee. He regularly goes on mission trips to Guatemala, where he also directly sources enormous shipping containers of beans from local farmers. Three years ago, he assembled a weekly outreach team that serves coffee and baked goods to Fresno’s homeless population at a local shelter.
A busy morning at Kuppa Joy Coffee House in Fresno, Calif., on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026.
Garry Kazanjian for SFGATE
Zack Follett, center, owner of several Kuppa Joy Coffee House locations, shares a laugh with two customers at his grand cafe in Fresno, Calif., on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026.
Garry Kazanjian for SFGATE
A busy afternoon at Zack Follett’s Kuppa Joy Coffee House location in Clovis, Calif., on Saturday, Feb. 28 2026.
Garry Kazanjian for SFGATE
“I want it to be known that I cannot take credit for this. I have ADHD. Thank God for AI emails,” he jokes. “Even when I was at Berkeley, I looked like a high school kid turning in a paper next to these smart brilliant people. I had no clue what I was doing this whole time, every day is a trial. But I just had faith. You can do anything with it.”
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Just after Tedford finished talking about Follett during his Boston College speech, a woman came up to the ex-Cal player. “While Coach Tedford was talking, she got a text that her daughter was being taken to a hospital in New York,” Follett says. “She said, ‘You’re the only Christian I know, I need to pray with someone.’ So we prayed.”
Zack Follett, owner of several Kuppa Joy Coffee House locations, is shown at his grand cafe in Fresno, Calif., on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026.
Garry Kazanjian for SFGATE
Zack Follett spent decades wrestling with who he was. On that bluebird September day in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, it couldn’t have been clearer. To that woman. To Tedford. And maybe even finally to Zack.
“I remember him as a great player. He was someone you could count on on the football field, he worked really hard, never had one issue with him off the field, academically or disciplinary,” Tedford says. “But the one thing that always sticks out is his transformation of his faith. The strength and vision that gave him is really special. I remember that more than any of those plays.
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“I forgot about the headbutt until he reminded me of it.”
On Saturday, Cal football is set to host its spring game with a new head coach at the helm: Tosh Lupoi, who worked directly with Follett during his first season as a graduate assistant coach in Berkeley in 2008.
“Me as a linebacker having 10.5 sacks was not possible without Tosh Lupoi. He had fire and tenacity that matched me. I think he gets it, I think he’s going to build a powerhouse program,” he says. And Follett says he’s already looking for ways he can help — he wants nothing more than to give back to a place that changed his life forever.
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“Berkeley is one of the happiest places on Earth for me,” Follett says. “There’s a freedom in Berkeley. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Christian, you can be anything.”