Cal Poly to Host No. 8 Montana State With First Place in Big Sky at Stake
10/30/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | MONTANA STATE | BIG SKY
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — First-place Montana State (6-2, 4-0 Big Sky) and second-place Cal Poly (5-3, 4-1 Big Sky) clash in a midseason Big Sky Conference showdown Saturday night in Alex G. Spanos Stadium (11,075). The Mustangs have won four straight games and will celebrate Homecoming while the No. 8 Bobcats are coming off a bye and making their first trip to San Luis Obispo since 2005.
Kickoff is set for 6:07 p.m. PDT and the game will be broadcast live on ESPN Radio (1280 am) with Tom Barket calling the play-by-play and Lloyd Nelson serving as an analyst. The game also will be televised by Cowles Media to Montana markets and relayed live via KSBY-TV to the Central Coast. Chris Byers (play-by-play), Mike Callaghan (analyst) and Rob Jesselson (sideline) will provide the call. Links for video and audio streams as well as live stats are available at www.GoPoly.com.
Montana State entered its bye week with a 23-13 victory over Weber State in Bozeman, Mont., and will be making its third trip to California, having beaten Sacramento State 59-56 and UC Davis 77-37. The Bobcats compiled 136 points and 1,356 total yards in the pair of wins. Against Weber State, Montana State rushed for 304 yards and passed for 160 more. Shawn Johnson led the way with 153 yards on just 14 carries, scoring once, while Dakota Prukop completed 11 of 18 passes for 160 yards.
Coached by Tim Walsh (sixth season, 37-28, 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 a 42-39 win at home over Southern Utah, igniting their current four-game winning streak.
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, and the Mustangs earned their second road win at Sacramento State, 56-27, erasing a 17-7 second-quarter deficit by outscoring the Hornets 42-3 over the next 27 minutes and dominating the third quarter with a 230-26 advantage in total offense and 21-0 on the scoreboard.
Last week, Cal Poly fell behind Montana 14-7 before scoring 27 unanswered points over a 25-minute span from late in the second quarter to early in the fourth period. Junior quarterback Chris Brown rushed for 226 yards, a school record for a quarterback, and two touchdowns while also completing nine of 17 passes for 107 yards and another score.
Cal Poly joined Montana State and 11 other schools in the Big Sky Conference prior to the 2012 season. The Bobcats won three straight Big Sky titles from 2010-12 and have earned 16 total Big Sky championships in the 51-year history of the league along with seven FCS playoff berths. Montana State claimed the 1976 NCAA Division II national championship as well as the 1984 Football Championship Subdivision title.
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 returned 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 eight 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 sophomore Kori Garcia and seniors Chris Nicholls and Kenny Mitchell at slotback and seniors Brandon Howe and Brent Michaels at fullback. Among the top receivers on the roster are juniors Roland Jackson Jr. and Jordan Hines 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 Protheroe, a freshman fullback, 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, 452 against Southern Utah, 393 at Sacramento State and 421 versus Montana. Cal Poly leads the Big Sky and the FCS in rushing offense, averaging 347.6 yards a game.
Coached by Rob Ash (eighth season at Montana State (63-29), 35th season overall (232-123-5), Cornell (Iowa) '73), Montana State returned 34 lettermen, including 12 offensive and defensive starters, off last year's team which finished 7-5 overall and tied for fourth in the Big Sky at 5-3, missing the FCS playoffs for the first time in four years. The Bobcats opened the season with a 37-10 loss at Arkansas State but have won six of their last seven games, losing 52-51 at home to Eastern Washington in a non-conference contest. In addition to its wins over Sacramento State and UC Davis, Montana State has beaten North Dakota 29-18 and Weber State 23-13 in Big Sky games.
Montana State's offensive leaders through eight games are running backs Shawn Johnson (528 yards, 6.6 average, four TDs and Anthony Knight (306 yards, 4.4 average, seven TDs), quarterback Dakota Prukop (668 rushing yards, 5.4 average, 11 TDs; 132 of 193 passing (68 percent) for 2,019 yards, 17 TDs) and wide receiver Mitch Griebel (29 catches, 255 yards), one of seven Bobcat receivers with 10 or more receptions. Free safety Khari Garcia has two interceptions, returning one for a touchdown, while linebacker Alex Singleton is the leading tackler with 71 (47 solo). Odis Cole has 6.0 sacks and Robert Marshall has recovered two fumbles. Trevor Bolton is among the nation's leaders in punting with a 45.1 average.
Montana State is averaging 244 rushing yards, 268 passing yards and 44 points per game this season while giving up 156 rushing yards, 320 passing yards and 32 points a contest. The Bobcats are second in the FCS in completion percentage (69.4), first in net punting (43.3), 11th in rushing offense (243.5), fourth in scoring offense (43.6) and sixth in total offense (511.1).
Ash was head coach at Division III Juniata for nine seasons (51-36-3) and Drake for 18 years (125-63-2) before he was hired at Montana State in 2007. He has led the Bobcats to seven straight winning seasons and three Big Sky titles (2010-12). A 1973 graduate of Cornell College (Iowa) in 1973, Ash was an assistant coach at his alma mater for four seasons (1976-79). He was a quarterback at Cornell from 1969-72 and has earned master's degrees in history (Michigan) and physical education (Iowa).
The Mustangs and Bobcats are meeting for the first time in nine years Saturday and for the 14th time since the series began in 1958. Cal Poly owns a 9-4 advantage in the series, winning the last seven contests. The last meeting, in 2005 in San Luis Obispo, was won by Cal Poly 38-10 as Chris Gocong and Courtney Brown scored defensive touchdowns in the first half. Brown returned an interception 28 yards for a first-quarter touchdown and Gocong recovered a Montana State fumble in the end zone for another score as Cal Poly built a 28-7 halftime lead. Freshman running back James Noble rushed for 157 yards on 18 carries, scoring one touchdown on a 49-yard scamper in the third quarter for Cal Poly, while senior quarterback Anthony Garnett completed seven of 12 passes for 180 yards and ran for a pair of touchdowns spanning one and six yards.
Rob Ash is 0-0 against Cal Poly while Tim Walsh is 6-5 against Montana State, all while at Portland State from 1993 to 2006. The Mustangs are 5-2 against the Bobcats in San Luis Obispo and 4-2 against the Bobcats in Bozeman. Cal Poly travels to Montana State in 2015.
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 eight games are Brown (856 rushing yards and 10 TDs, 1,034 passing yards and eight TDs), slotback Kori Garcia (622 yards, 6.0 average per carry, five TDs) and fullback Brandon Howe (566 yards, seven TDs). Chris Nicholls has rushed for 239 yards and is among Cal Poly's top receivers with 10 catches. Jordan Hines and Kenny Mitchell both have 11 catches.
Linebacker Nick Dzubnar, added to the Buck Buchanan Award watch list last week, tops all defensive players with 109 tackles, reaching double digits in each of Cal Poly's first seven games this season. Linebacker Cameron Ontko has 76 tackles while Karlton Dennis and Jordan Williams have 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 is in a stretch of playing three of four at home. The Mustangs visit Idaho State next week before hosting UC Davis on Nov. 15 in the Battle for the Golden Horseshoe.
Photo of fullback Brandon Howe courtesy of Alexander Bohlen
