Cal Poly Plays Final Road Game Saturday at Sacramento State

Saturday, November 6

Sacramento, CA

6 p.m.

Sacramento State

Matt Shotwell and Laipeli Palu at San Diego.

Linebackers Matt Shotwell (42) and Laipeli Palu (7) are Cal Poly's top two tacklers this season with 89 and 42, respectively.

Photo by: Owen Main | Cal Poly Athletics

Cal Poly Plays Final Road Game Saturday at Sacramento State

11/1/2021 1:23:00 PM | Football

WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY (PDF) | SACRAMENTO STATE | BIG SKY
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (1-7, 0-5 Big Sky), which played six consecutive games against teams ranked at some time this season before falling at unranked Portland State last week, plays a seventh ranked foe this weekend, visiting Nos. 16/22 Sacramento State (6-2, 5-0 Big Sky) for a Big Sky Conference game Saturday night inside Hornet Stadium (cap.: 21,195) in the state capital.

Kickoff is set for 6:05 p.m. PDT. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN Radio (1280 AM and 101.7 FM) in San Luis Obispo County and northern Santa Barbara County and KRKC (1490 AM and 104.9 FM) in southern Monterey County with Zachary Anderson-Yoxsimer (play-by-play) and Stephan Hodges (analyst) calling the action. Pregame show starts at 5:30 p.m. The game also will be televised by CW31 in the Sacramento area and available on ESPN+. Links for video and audio streams as well as live stats are available on the football schedule page at www.GoPoly.com.

The Beau Baldwin Era at Cal Poly officially opened last spring, more than 15 months after he was named Cal Poly's 17th head football coach on Dec. 11, 2019. The Mustangs fell 34-24 to Southern Utah at home and dropped a 73-24 decision at UC Davis and a 62-10 verdict at Eastern Washington.

The fall season opened victoriously, however, as sophomore quarterback Spencer Brasch completed 23 of 38 passes for 316 yards — the most by a Mustang signal caller in 12 years — and two touchdowns and redshirt freshman linebacker Elijah Ponder returned an interception 75 yards for the clinching score midway through the fourth quarter of a 28-17 verdict at San Diego.

Cal Poly has been held to 21 points or less in each game since and seeks to snap a seven-game losing streak Saturday. The Mustangs have fallen to Fresno State, South Dakota and, in Big Sky games, Montana, Weber State, Montana State, UC Davis and Portland State. Each of the first six opponents has been ranked in the top 25 this season and Sacramento State moved up to No. 16 in the media poll and 22nd in the coaches poll following its 27-24 win at Northern Colorado last week.

Baldwin was head coach at Eastern Washington for nine seasons (2008-16) and was an assistant coach for the Eagles from 2003-06. An offensive coordinator at Cal for three years (2017-19) before coming to Cal Poly, Baldwin guided Eastern Washington to an 85-32 mark, five Big Sky titles and six FCS playoff berths, including the 2010 national championship.

In Sacramento State's win at Northern Colorado, Cameron Skattebo rushed for 111 yards and one touchdown while Chris Miller caught four passes for 62 yards. Jake Dunniway completed 11 of 24 passes for 138 yards. Trailing 27-17, Northern Colorado scored on Dylan McCaffrey's one-yard run with 3:11 to play and got the ball back with 33 seconds left before a Hornet sack dashed the Bears' comeback hopes.

With the win, Sacramento State moved into a first-place tie with idle Montana State (both 5-0) in the Big Sky and has guaranteed itself a winning overall record in consecutive seasons for the second time in the school's Division I era (1993-present). The previous time came in 1999 (6-5) and 2000 (7-4). The Hornets have produced back-to-back winning Big Sky seasons for the first time since joining the league in 1996 and Sacramento State has won eight consecutive Big Sky games, a school record.

Hornets head coach Troy Taylor welcomed back 40 lettermen, including 12 starters (eight on offense, four on defense) to Fall Camp. Sacramento State did not play any games last spring after posting a 9-4 mark in 2019, which included a first-place tie with Weber State in the Big Sky and a second-round berth in the FCS playoffs. Leading the group of returning veterans are running back Elijah Dotson (151 carries, 742 yards, seven TDs rushing; 70 catches, 702 yards, four TDs receiving in 2019), receivers Pierre Williams (54 catches, 931 yards, seven TDs in 2019) and Marshel Martin (39-550-7), linebacker Marcus Hawkins (43-38—81 tackles, 9.5 TFLs) and punter Sam Clark (53 punts, 2,107 yards, 39.8 average).

Hornet leaders so far this fall are Dunniway (108 of 177, 1,555 yards, 10 TDs), Asher O'Hara (72 of 115, 778 yards, four TDs; 118 carries, 453 yards, six TDs rushing), Williams (39 catches, 602 yards, two TDs), Martin (32 catches, 404 yards, four TDs) and Hawkins (22-31—53 tackles, 9.5 TFLs). Clark is averaging 45.3 yards per punt, defensive lineman Josiah Erickson has seven sacks among his 40 tackles and defensive back Marte Mapu has three interceptions, seven pass breakups and 44 tackles.

The Hornets are No. 3 in the nation in time of possession (34:07), fourth in first downs (208), third in net punting (42.36), No. 8 in total offense (461.0), No. 14 in passing offense (293.6) and 16th in winning percentage (.750). Sacramento State is averaging 167 yards rushing and 294 yards passing for 461 yards in total offense per game while giving up 121 yards rushing, 200 passing and 321 in total offense.

The Hornets had won just two games three of the previous four years, including a 2-8 mark in 2018, before hiring Taylor (second season, 15-6, California '89), who was offensive coordinator at Utah (2017-18), co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Eastern Washington (2016) and co-head coach at Folsom High School (2002-04, 2012-15) among other coaching stints.

Taylor was a quarterback for the 14-0 Cordova High School football team in 1985 and was starting quarterback at Cal from 1986-89, leading the Pac-10 in total offense as a senior and leaving the Bears program as the all-time leading passer with 8,126 yards. He was drafted by the New York Jets in the fourth round of the 1990 NFL Draft and played in seven games over two seasons.

Cal Poly and Sacramento State are meeting for the 40th time in football this weekend and the Mustangs lead the series 21-18. The Hornets earned a 38-14 victory in the last meeting between the two Golden State rivals in 2019 inside Alex G. Spanos Stadium as Dotson rushed for 175 yards and three touchdowns. Dotson, who carried the ball 18 times, scored on runs of 19, 1 and 30 yards for the Hornets, who were ranked Nos. 7 and 8 at the time and held Cal Poly to 202 yards in total offense, including a season-low 116 on the ground.

Cal Poly beat Sacramento State 41-27 in its last trip to the state capital in 2018 as J.J. Koski scored twice, once on a punt return and the other on a long run on an end around, and five Cal Poly ball carriers rushed for over 60 yards, led by Drew Hernandez with 113 yards on 12 carries and Joe Protheroe with 128 yards on 32 trips.

The series began in 1967 with a 17-7 Mustang victory in Sacramento. Cal Poly, which has won 10 of the last 13 meetings versus the Hornets, is 11-10 against Sacramento State at home and 10-8 against the Hornets in Sacramento. Beau Baldwin is 5-1 against Sacramento State, all while he was head coach at Eastern Washington, while Troy Taylor is 1-0 versus Cal Poly.

Cal Poly fans have seen major changes, particularly on offense, with Baldwin at the helm. The Triple Option is gone and the new offensive package features three or four wide receivers on most plays with one running back instead of two slots, a fullback and a pair of receivers in the old Triple Option formation.

Baldwin and his staff welcomed 48 returning lettermen to Fall Camp in August, including 23 on offense, 21 on defense and four specialists on special teams. The returnees include 26 players who started at least one game during the shortened spring season -- 13 on both offense and defense.

Also on the fall roster are 31 players who were redshirts last spring or injured, and almost 40 newcomers, including up to eight transfers from other four-year schools.

The group of veterans includes seven seniors who opted out of the second half of the spring schedule in order to preserve one final full season of eligibility this fall. They include linebackers Matt Shotwell and Lance Vecchio along with running backs Lepi Lataimua and Chuby Dunu and tight ends Nick White and Quentin Harrison. Defensive back Freddie Gaines, a member of the 2019 Big Sky Conference Football Community Service Team, also returns for a sixth year with the program.

Shotwell led the Mustangs in tackles for the third straight year last spring and has notched 307 career tackles, No. 6 on Cal Poly's all-time career tackles list and eight shy of the top five. Vecchio made 19 tackles, including a sack, last spring while Lataimua (143 rushing yards in three games last spring) and Dunu (100 yards) head the list of returning ball carriers.

Topping the depth chart at the three wide receiver positions are Chris Coleman at X, Xavier Moore at Z and Zedakiah Centers at F. Moore made three catches in the spring and caught a touchdown pass for Cal Poly's only points against Oregon State in 2019. Centers caught eight passes. Coleman is one of three Mustang transfers from Fresno State this fall. The others are tight end Micah Pasion and defensive end Emeka Ndoh. Coleman and Ndoh are Bulldog graduates while Pasion is a sophomore.

Harrison, who led the team with 10 catches, two for touchdowns, last spring, has moved to the tight end spot while Michael Roth has switched from tight end to wide receiver after making four catches in the spring.

Brasch, winning a six-man battle for the starting nod at quarterback during Fall Camp, is a transfer from Cal, where he played two games in 2019 against Utah and Oregon State, after completing 359 of 602 passes for 5,522 yards with 78 touchdown passes and 13 interceptions over his final two prep seasons at Higley High School in Gilbert, Ariz. Brasch returned to the lineup in the UC Davis game two weeks ago after missing four games with a fracture in his throwing hand. Due primarily to injuries, Cal Poly has started seven different quarterbacks over the last two seasons.

At running back, Duy Tran-Sampson, Mark Biggins and CJ Cole all suffered injuries in last spring's shortened season. Tran-Sampson, a 1,000-yard rusher in 2019, and Cole, a Santa Maria St. Joseph High School graduate who was a 1,000-yard rusher as a senior and caught 64 passes as a junior, have retired from football due to their injuries. Biggins is back for his sophomore season.

Xavier Oliphant, Dawson Hurst, Dylan Wyatt and Trevor Owens head the group of players at the cornerback position. The offensive line features veterans Wade Willet (left guard) and Nicolo DiFronzo (center) while San Luis Obispo High graduate Charles Lincoln has filled the open spot at right tackle. Redshirt freshman Austin Anderson is No. 1 on the depth chart at left tackle while Mohab Wahdan, Hunter Jones and D.J. Stuckey continue to battle for the starting nod at right guard.

Brasch has completed 83 of 148 passes (56 percent) for 1,106 yards and six touchdowns in his four starts while the other four signal callers this year have connected on 60 of 131 (46 percent) for 602 yards and two scores. Coleman leads all Mustang receivers with 27 catches for 456 yards and four scores. Giancarlo Woods has 24 catches, Centers 22, Roth and running back Shakobe Harper 11 each and Evan Burkhart 10. Harper has rushed for 251 yards and three touchdowns. Shotwell has 89 tackles, 18 against Montana State and 14 versus UC Davis, while Laipeli Palu has notched 42 stops, including a career-high 12 at Montana last month. Freshman defensive end Elijah Ponder has seven sacks while senior cornerback Trevor Owens has recorded six pass breakups and Illinois transfer Dylan Wyatt has five.

Cal Poly, which captured the 2012 Big Sky title in its first year in the conference, claimed four Great West Conference titles in the eight-year history of the league (2004, 2005, 2008, 2011) and has earned NCAA Division I FCS playoff berths in 2005, 2008, 2012 and 2016.

The Mustangs close out the 2021 season with home games Nov. 13 against Idaho State and Nov. 20 versus Northern Arizona, both kicking off at 5:05 p.m.