Cal Poly Remains on the Road for Second Game, Visiting South Dakota St.
9/1/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | SOUTH DAKOTA STATE | BIG SKY
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (0-1, 0-0 Big Sky), which opened its 2014 campaign, its 21st in Division I and 96th overall, last Thursday night with a 28-10 loss at New Mexico State, remains on the road for its second game of the football season Saturday night, visiting No. 11/12 South Dakota State (0-1, 0-0 Missouri Valley) in Coughlin-Alumni Stadium (15,000) at Brookings, S.D.
Kickoff is set for 4 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. Links for audio and video streams as well as live stats are available at www.GoPoly.com.
South Dakota State also opened its campaign with a road game against a Football Bowl Subdivision member, falling 38-18 at No. 24 Missouri on Saturday. The Jackrabbits are 0-7 against FBS schools since moving to Division I in 2004.
Cal Poly tied New Mexico State 7-7 on a three-yard touchdown run by senior fullback Brandon Howe and pulled to within 14-10 shortly before halftime on a 24-yard field goal by junior placekicker Stephen Pyle. The Aggies, however, dominated the second half, holding the Mustangs scoreless and to 78 total yards. Sophomore slotback Kori Garcia rushed for 84 yards on 11 carries, senior linebacker Nick Dzubnar and sophomore defensive end Josh Letuligasenoa (pictured at right) combined for 23 tackles and junior cornerback Chris Fletcher corralled his first career interception.
The Mustangs opened their 2014 campaign with the earliest game in school history. Cal Poly's 2002 squad opened August 29 at Toledo and the Mustangs played just their fourth game ever in the month of August, all in the last 13 years.
South Dakota State was a member of the Great West Conference from 2004-07 before joining the Missouri Valley Football Conference in 2008. The Jackrabbits were 9-5 a year ago, finished tied for second place in the MVFC and reached the second round of the NCAA Division I FCS playoffs, their third playoff appearance in five years, before falling to Eastern Washington 41-17. Cal Poly owns a 5-2 advantage in the series with the Jackrabbits, winning the last meeting 48-14 in 2011 inside Alex G. Spanos Stadium.
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 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 earned the starting nod against New Mexico State and rushed for 66 yards on 17 carries while completing one of four passes. Graves played the final nine minutes of the game, rushing three times for 12 yards and connecting on one of three passes.
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 this fall likely will be Garcia and seniors Chris Nicholls and Kenny Mitchell at slotback and Howe and senior 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. Jackson and Nicholls each had one reception last weekend.
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 and freshman Fino Elisaia at defensive tackle. American River College transfer Tyler Alsey at defensive tackle and freshman Jonathan LaBonty at safety also could get some playing time 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. The Mustangs netted 259 yards against New Mexico State, averaging 5.3 yards per carry.
Coached by John Stiegelmeier (18th season, 111-82, South Dakota State '79), South Dakota State returned 40 lettermen, including 14 offensive and defensive starters, off last year's team. The Jackrabbits claimed the 2007 Great West title, and among the former Jackrabbits who have enjoyed long NFL careers are kicker Adam Vinatieri, tight end Steve Heiden and offensive lineman Adam Timmerman.
In the 2011 meeting between the Mustangs and Jackrabbits, Asa Jackson returned an interception 100 yards for a touchdown while Andre Broadous ran for two touchdowns and threw for two more scores. The two teams last met in Brookings in 2008 and Cal Poly recorded 10 sacks and 287 yards rushing en route to a 42-28 win. Stiegelmeier is 2-5 against Cal Poly while Tim Walsh is 2-0 against South Dakota State.
South Dakota State senior quarterback Austin Sumner passed for 7,824 yards in his first three seasons with the Jackrabbits, completing 631 of 1,085 passes (58 percent), 50 for touchdowns. Sumner, however, broke three bones in his foot in the first quarter at Missouri and will be sidelined several weeks. His backup, sophomore Zach Lujan, connected on 21 of 28 passes last week for 239 yards.
Leading South Dakota State's ground game is senior Zach Zenner, who rushed for over 2,000 yards in each of the last two seasons. Zenner gained 103 yards on 17 carries against Missouri, scoring twice and lifting his career totals to 4,632 yards and 39 touchdowns, averaging 6.1 yards per carry. He has scored a rushing touchdown in 16 of his last 18 games and his three-yard scoring run early in the second half pulled the Jackrabbits to within 21-18 before Missouri pulled away by scoring 17 unanswered points.
Zenner, who also caught seven passes Saturday, now has 22 career 100-yard rushing games.
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 127 games (62 percent) dating back to the 2002 season finale and have won 31 of their last 62 games on the road (50 percent).
Cal Poly has a bye next week and will play its home opener on Saturday, Sept. 20, a non-conference Youth Day game against Big Sky rival Portland State, at 6 p.m. in Alex G. Spanos Stadium.
