Cal Poly Opens 2014 Football Campaign Thursday at New Mexico State
8/25/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | NEW MEXICO STATE | BIG SKY
AUDIO STREAM | VIDEO STREAM | LIVE STATS
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (6-6, 5-3 Big Sky in 2013), just a couple key plays short of earning another NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision playoff berth in 2013, opens its 2014 campaign, its 21st in Division I and 96th overall, on Thursday night, visiting New Mexico State (2-10, Independent in 2013) at Aggie Memorial Stadium (30,343) in Las Cruces, N.M.
Kickoff on the newly installed synthetic turf is set for 5 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 non-conference season opener also will be video streamed on ESPN3. Links for audio and video streams as well as live stats are available at www.GoPoly.com.
Fox Sports Arizona also will broadcast the game live. On the Central Coast, the telecast is available on DirecTV (channel 686) and Dish Network (channel 415).
Cal Poly's 26-yard field goal attempt for a 10-point lead with 2:17 left at Montana was blocked and the Grizzlies drove 88 yards in 15 plays to tie the game and send it into overtime. Montana scored on its second play of the extra period, then intercepted a Mustang pass to clinch the 21-14 win.
Northern Arizona took the lead for good on a 96-yard kickoff return moments after Cal Poly had kicked a field goal to snap a 10-10 tie on the first play of the fourth quarter and the Lumberjacks held on for the 17-13 victory.
The Mustangs also let a 10-7 halftime lead slip away in a 24-10 loss to Yale, finishing 6-6 in Tim Walsh's fifth season at the helm of the Cal Poly football program. Turn those three losses around and Cal Poly would have finished the regular season 9-3 overall and 7-1 in Big Sky games.
The Mustangs open their 2014 campaign with the earliest game in school history. Cal Poly's 2002 squad opened August 29 at Toledo and the Mustangs will be playing just their fourth game ever in the month of August, all in the last 13 years.
In Cal Poly's last trip to Las Cruces, the Mustangs earned a 38-35 overtime victory on Oct. 4, 1997, in Larry Welsh's first season as head coach. Alan Beilke kicked a 34-yard field goal for Cal Poly's first win against a Football Bowl Subdivision program in 18 years. Beilke's kick came moments after New Mexico State's Nick Cecava missed from 29 yards out on the Aggies' first possession in overtime.
Under then-first-year head coach Doug Martin, the Aggies finished the 2013 campaign 2-10, winning their finale against Idaho at home, 24-16. New Mexico State also beat Abilene Christian, 34-29, after losing its first seven games of the year. The Aggies were an independent in 2013 and will play in the Sun Belt Conference this fall.
Cal Poly also defeated New Mexico State 32-7 in 1956 and 10-8 in 1957 and sports a 3-0 mark in the all-time series.
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, a third-team All-Big Sky Conference selection 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 have waged a two-man battle since spring camp opened in early April. The duo combined for 10 starts, 1,052 rushing yards and 111 of the team's 136 pass completions a year ago. Expect both signal callers to play in the season opener and perhaps each of the 12 games this season.
Brown 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 likely will be 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 in camp 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, expect several transfers and even some true freshmen to step in right away, including freshmen Alex Suchesk and/or 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 at defensive tackle. American River College transfer Tyler Alsey at defensive tackle and freshman Jonathan LaBonty at safety also could get some playing time this week along with freshman fullback Joe Protheroe.
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.
Coached by Doug Martin (second season at New Mexico State (2-10), ninth season overall (31-63), Kentucky '85), New Mexico State returns 37 lettermen, including 12 offensive and defensive starters, off last year's team which went 2-10 overall.
Nearly 70 percent of the New Mexico State team consists of underclassmen. Senior tailback Brandon Betancourt rushed for 415 yards in his junior campaign, joined by sophomore running back Xavier Hall, who scored twice on the ground as a freshman. The Aggies also return four of their top five receivers from a year ago.
Senior linebacker Clint Barnard, of Melrose. N.M., will be counted on to lead a very young defense as the leading returning tackler from last year. Sophomore defensive back Kawe Johnson also returns to the secondary after a freshman campaign featuring two interceptions.
Martin was head coach at Kent State for seven seasons (2004-10) and offensive coordinator at East Carolina for seven years (1996-02). He was offensive coordinator at Boston College in 2012 and at New Mexico State in 2011.
Walsh is 4-1 in season openers at Cal Poly, defeating San Diego each of the last two years and losing only to San Diego State in 2011.
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. The Mustangs rushed for over 400 yards in three of their 12 games (Portland State, UC Davis, Sacramento State) and held five opponents (Weber State, Montana, Northern Arizona, Sacramento State and Northern Colorado) to 100 or fewer yards on the ground.
Special teams play hurt the Mustangs at times during the season. Three Cal Poly field goals and a pair of Mustang punts were blocked by the opposition, two Mustang punts and one kickoff were returned for touchdowns and two punts by the opposition hit Cal Poly players and were recovered by their foes. Two fake field goal attempts were turned into first downs or touchdowns by the opposition as well.
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.
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.
Cal Poly captured four Great West Conference titles in the eight-year history of the league (2004, 2005, 2008, 2011) before moving to the Big Sky in 2012 and has earned NCAA Division I FCS playoff berths in 2005, 2008 and 2012, reaching the quarterfinals in 2005 with a win at Montana before falling at Texas State. The Mustangs have won 80 of their last 126 games (63 percent) dating back to the 2002 season finale and have won 31 of their last 61 games on the road (51 percent).
Photos of Chris Brown (left) and Dano Graves from 2014 Spring Game by Ray Ambler
