Cal Poly Remains On the Road, Visiting Sacramento State Saturday Night
10/13/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Cal Poly (3-3, 2-1 Big Sky), armed with its first two-game winning streak of the 2014 season as well as its initial victory on the road, continues Big Sky play Saturday night with a trip to the state capital to face Sacramento State (4-3, 1-2 Big Sky) in Hornet Stadium (21,195).
Kickoff is set for 6:05 p.m. PDT and the game will be broadcast live on ESPN Radio (1280 am) with Tom Barket providing the play-by-play and Eric Burdick serving as an analyst. The game also will be available via audio and video streams. Links for those as well as live stats are available at www.GoPoly.com.
Sacramento State earned its first Big Sky win in three tries, defeating Northern Colorado 43-38 last Saturday in Greeley, Colo. The Hornets, who have generated 499 or more yards offensively for four straight weeks, were led by quarterback Garrett Safron with 269 yards and three touchdowns passing and 84 yards rushing. DeAndre Carter caught nine passes for 133 yards while De'Jon Coleman rushed for 57 yards and two touchdowns and also recovered a blocked punt for a touchdown.
Trailing 43-30 with 13 minutes to play, Northern Colorado scored a safety and touchdown, but was stopped in four plays at the Sacramento State 1-yard line and an onside kick went out of bounds.
Coached by Tim Walsh (sixth season, 35-28, UC Riverside '77), Cal Poly opened the year with two games on the road, dropping a 28-10 decision at New Mexico State and 44-18 at South Dakota State. After a bye week, the Mustangs compiled 470 yards on the ground and scored the first 35 points of the game en route to a 42-14 non-conference victory over Big Sky rival Portland State in their home opener.
Northern Arizona scored with 21 seconds left to hand Cal Poly a heartbreaking 38-35 loss in the Big Sky opener before the Mustangs bounced back with their win over Southern Utah behind 97 plays and 593 yards in total offense, 33 first downs, 452 rushing yards, a pair of 100-yard rushers and a 17-minute advantage in time of possession.
Last week, Cal Poly snapped a 24-24 tie with a one-yard dive by senior fullback Brandon Howe with 13:46 to play and held on to beat Weber State 30-24 in Ogden, Utah, the Mustangs' first win in four road games. Junior quarterback Chris Brown rushed one yard for a score, passed 11 yards to Kori Garcia for another touchdown and caught a 23-yard halfback pass from Garcia for a third score, becoming the first Mustang in 21 Division I seasons to run for, pass for and receive a touchdown in a single game.
Cal Poly joined Sacramento State and 11 other schools in the Big Sky Conference prior to the 2012 season. The Hornets, bidding for their third winning season in the last five years and members of the Big Sky Conference since 1996, are still seeking their first FCS playoff berth and appeared in the NCAA Division II playoffs three times, the last in 1988.
Cal Poly football, presented by French Hospital Medical Center, opened Fall Camp with 61 returning lettermen, including 16 players who started at least four games in 2013. Topping the list of returnees are senior linebacker Nick Dzubnar and senior defensive lineman Jake Irwin, both third-team All-Big Sky Conference selections a year ago, and four others who earned All-Big Sky honorable mention praise -- offensive linemen Matt Fisher and Stephen Sippel, defensive tackle Chris Lawrence and linebacker Cameron Ontko.
Juniors Chris Brown and Dano Graves return at quarterback and waged a two-man battle throughout the spring and fall. The duo combined for 10 starts, 1,052 rushing yards and 111 of the team's 136 pass completions a year ago.
Brown, who has started the first six contests this season, started six games last year and passed for 836 yards and 11 touchdowns while rushing for eight scores and 685 additional yards, including 195 yards in a win at UC Davis, a school record for a quarterback. Graves started four games and rushed for 367 yards while passing for 416 yards.
Getting most of the carries this fall are Garcia and seniors Chris Nicholls and Kenny Mitchell at slotback and seniors Brandon Howe (pictured above) and Brent Michaels at fullback. Among the top receivers on the roster are juniors Jordan Hines and Roland Jackson and sophomore Carson McMurtrey at wide receiver and senior Austin Albison at tight end.
With numerous vacancies to fill on both sides of the ball, several transfers and even some true freshmen have stepped in right away, including freshman Lance Mudd at slotback, Nevada transfer Burton De Koning at linebacker, Washington State transfer Logan Mayes at defensive end and Wake Forest transfer Andrew Hauser and freshman Fino Elisaia at defensive tackle. American River College transfer Tyler Alsey at defensive tackle and freshman fullback Joe Protheroe also have played this season.
A year ago, Cal Poly was No. 1 in the FCS in rushing offense (309.1). Two years ago, the Mustangs broke the Big Sky record for rushing yards in a season with 3,890 yards in 12 games. Expect more of the same from the Mustangs' Triple Option in 2014. The Mustangs netted 259 yards against New Mexico State, averaging 5.3 yards per carry, added 226 more yards at South Dakota State, 470 against Portland State, 271 at Northern Arizona and 452 against Southern Utah. Cal Poly leads the Big Sky and the FCS in rushing offense, averaging 327.8 yards a game.
Coached by Jody Sears (first season at Sacramento State (third overall), 4-3 (8-22 overall), Washington State '91), Sacramento State returned 43 lettermen, including 17 offensive and defensive starters, off last year's team which finished 5-7 and tied for eighth in the Big Sky at 4-4. The Hornets won three of their first four games against Incarnate Word, Weber State and Menlo and snapped a two-game losing streak with last week's win at Northern Colorado. Hornet losses are to Cal, Idaho State and Montana State.
Sacramento State's offensive leaders through seven games are running back Jordan Robinson (93 rushes, 559 yards, 6.0 avg. per carry), four TDs), quarterback Garrett Safron (68-552-8.1-2 rushing, 143 of 235 passes for 1,919 yards, 20 TDs, six int.) and receivers DeAndre Carter (52 catches, 682 yards, nine TDs) and Nnamdi Agude (40-707-7).
Smith Heath averages 40.1 yards per punt, middle linebacker Darnell Sankey leads the defense with 89 tackles and both Sankey and cornerback Josh Armstrong have returned interceptions for touchdowns. Isiah Hennie has returned a kickoff 89 yards for a score.
Sacramento State is averaging 198 rushing yards, 292 passing yards and 41 points per game this season while giving up 166 rushing yards, 317 passing yards and 36.3 points a contest. The Hornets are fourth in the FCS in first downs and ninth in both passing offense and scoring.
Sears was head coach at Weber State in both 2012 and 2013, compiling a 4-22 mark, and has served as defensive coordinator at Washington State (2008-11), Eastern Washington (2000-07) and St. Ambrose (1997). He also was an assistant at Army (1998-99) and Iowa State (1994-96). Sears was a two-year receiver at Washington State before earning his bachelor's degree in 1991 and obtained his master's degree at Iowa State in 1996.
Weber State has produced one Walter Payton Award winner -- former Arroyo Grande High School standout Jamie Martin, who still holds numerous passing records and, despite not being drafted, played 16 seasons (1993-2008) in the NFL with the Los Angeles and St. Louis Rams, Washington Redskins, Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns, New York Jets, New Orleans Saints and San Francisco 49ers.
Cal Poly and Sacramento State are meeting for the 34th time in football this weekend and the Mustangs grabbed a 17-16 advantage in the series with a 42-7 win at Alex G. Spanos Stadium as Chris Brown threw four touchdown passes and Akaninyene Umoh and Kristaan Ivory both rushed for over 100 yards. Umoh rushed for 129 yards on 17 carries, one of them a 69-yard touchdown romp, and Ivory added 118 yards on 11 trips. Sacramento State was held to 54 yards rushing and 258 total yards. The Hornets evened the series at 16-16 with a 35-29 victory in 2012 in the state capital as Garrett Safron passed for 303 yards and four touchdowns.
Cal Poly won five straight games in the series by a combined score of 181-72, capped by a 38-19 triumph in the 2009 season opener in San Luis Obispo, the only meeting between the two teams from 2007-11. The series began in 1967 with a 17-7 Mustang victory in Sacramento. Cal Poly is 10-8 against Sacramento State at home and 7-8 against the Hornets in Sacramento. Tim Walsh is 14-2 against Sacramento State, including a 12-1 mark while he was head coach at Portland State, while Jody Sears is 0-2 against Cal Poly.
A year ago, the Mustangs, 3-3 at home and 3-3 on the road, were ranked as high as No. 10 before losing to Yale and falling out of the top 25 for the rest of the year. Among the milestones achieved by Mustang players last fall, Alex Hubbard's 31.9 kickoff return average is No. 2 all-time at Cal Poly while Bobby Zalud's 148 total points by kicking is No. 4 and his 88 career PAT kicks made is No. 5. Paul Hundley's 43.8 punting average is No. 3 and he finished the season with a 41.65 career average, No. 2 on the list.
Three Mustangs, all linebackers, secured over 100 tackles, the first time that has been accomplished in one season. Dzubnar's 112 tackles is No. 8 all-time while both Ontko and Johnny Millard had 108, tied for No. 9.
This year's leaders through six games are Brown (603 rushing yards and eight TDs, 818 passing yards and five TDs), slotback Kori Garcia (434 yards, 5.6 average per carry, three TDs) and fullback Brandon Howe (420 yards, five TDs). Chris Nicholls has rushed for 193 yards and is Cal Poly's top receiver with nine catches. Jordan Hines also has nine catches, two for touchdowns. Linebacker Nick Dzubnar tops all defensive players with 83 tackles, reaching double digits in each of Cal Poly's first six games this season. Linebacker Cameron Ontko has 51 tackles while Karlton Dennis has a pair of interceptions.
Brown is on pace to become the first Mustang quarterback to rush for over 1,000 yards in a season. The previous 16 Mustang 1,000-yard rushers all were running backs. The Big Sky single-season record for rushing yards by a quarterback is 1,060 by Connor Kavanaugh of Portland State in 2011.
Cal Poly, which captured the 2012 Big Sky title in its first year in the conference, was picked by head coaches this summer to finish fourth in the Big Sky for the second straight season. The Mustangs shared fourth place with Southern Utah, Montana State and UC Davis in 2013.
After playing five of its first seven games on the road, Cal Poly will play three of its next four at home, beginning Saturday, Oct. 25, with Montana at 6:05 p.m. in Alex G. Spanos Stadium. The Mustangs also host Montana State on Nov. 1 and UC Davis on Nov. 15.
