SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Coming off last weekend's season-opening 28-17 win at the University of San Diego, Beau Baldwin's first as head coach of the Mustangs, Cal Poly (1-0, 0-0 Big Sky) plays its second game of 2021 on the road as well, visiting central California rival Fresno State (1-1, 0-0 Mountain West) on Saturday inside Bulldog Stadium (cap.: 40,727).
Kickoff is set for 7:05 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN Radio (1280 AM and 101.7 FM) with Zachary Anderson-Yoxsimer (play-by-play) and Stephan Hodges (analyst) calling the action. Pregame show starts at 6:30 p.m. 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. Cal Poly elevated its series advantage over San Diego to 7-1.
Xavier Moore holds on to the football
for a touchdown Saturday at San Diego.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.
Fresno State blanked UConn 45-0 at home two weeks ago before falling 31-24 at Oregon last Saturday. The Bulldogs led 24-21 with 13 minutes left in the game before surrendering a 25-yard field goal and a 30-yard touchdown run that snapped a 24-24 tie with 2:57 to play. Fresno State lost despite small advantages in first downs (23-20), total yards (373-358) and time of possession (30:33 to 29:27). Bulldog quarterback Jake Haener completed 30 of 43 passes for 298 yards and one score and Jalen Cropper was his favorite target with seven receptions for 49 yards, including a 17-yard touchdown catch.
Second-year head coach Kalen DeBoer (4-4, Sioux Falls '98), who guided the Bulldogs to a 3-3 mark last fall, welcomed back 49 lettermen, including 21 starters (nine on offense, 10 on defense, two specialists). Leading the group of returning veterans are Haener (150 of 232 for 2,021 yards, 14 TDs, five interceptions in 2020), running backs Ronnie Rivers (100 carries, 507 yards, seven TDs; 27 catches, 265 yards, two TDs) and Jordan Mims (28-145-1) and wide receivers Cropper (37-520-5), Keric Wheatfall (23-363-1) and Josh Kelly (22-330-1). On defense, end David Perales (28 tackles, four sacks, four forced fumbles in 2020), linebacker Malachi Langley (25 tackles), cornerback Bralyn Lux (30 tackles, four pass breakups) and defensive back Evan Williams (27 tackles) also return.
In two games this season, Haener has completed 72 percent of his pass attempts (50 of 69) for 629 yards and four touchdowns. Cropper has caught 10 passes and Kelly and Wheatfall eight each. Williams and linebacker Tyson Maeva both have made 13 tackles.
Cal Poly fans are anticipating major changes, particularly on offense, with Baldwin at the helm. The Triple Option is gone and the new offensive package likely will result in three or four wide receivers on most plays with one running back instead of two slotbacks, 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.
Linebacker Matt Shotwell fends off a San Diego blocker.Shotwell led the Mustangs in tackles for the third straight year last spring and has notched 228 career tackles, No. 17 on Cal Poly's all-time career tackles list. 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's chief challengers for the No. 1 spot on the depth chart were freshman Kahliq Paulette from Converse, Texas, and junior Conor Bruce.
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.
Linebacker Judaea Moon notched a dozen tackles last Saturday.DeBoer was named the 20th head coach in Fresno State history on Dec. 17, 2019, succeeding Jeff Tedford. He was Tedford's offensive coordinator in 2017 and 2018 before departing for a one-year stint in 2019 at Indiana in the same capacity. The Bulldogs were 22-6 during DeBoer's two years as offensive coordinator, including a Mountain West title and Las Vegas Bowl victory, all after a 1-11 campaign in 2016.
DeBoer also has spent three seasons as the offensive coordinator at Eastern Michigan (2014-16), four seasons as offensive coordinator at Southern Illinois (2010-13) and five years as head coach at Sioux Falls (2005-09), where he was named a three-time NAIA National Coach of the Year and compiled an astonishing 67-3 (.957) record while guiding the Cougars to three national championships. He won four Great Plains Athletic Conference Championships, 50 straight home games and 29 consecutive games overall in his final two seasons.
Fresno State has won 28 conference titles in 99 seasons of football with 20 bowl appearances, winning 14. Fresno State is 619-437-27 overall, including a 183-60-2 mark in Bulldog Stadium. There have been 33 crowds of 40,000 or more in Bulldog Stadium, which opened in 1980. A total of 117 Bulldogs have earned All-America honors, including 18 on the first team.
Fresno State leads Cal Poly 32-10-2 in the all-time series which began in 1922. The Bulldogs have won the last seven meetings, including a 41-25 verdict in 2013 at Bulldog Stadium. The Mustangs turned a 41-3 third-quarter deficit into a two-possession game with three touchdowns in the second half, but could get no closer. Seven of Cal Poly's 10 wins against Fresno State occurred from 1969-79 when Joe Harper was head coach.
Baldwin is coaching against Fresno State for the first time while DeBoer is 0-0 against Cal Poly.
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.
Next week, Cal Poly plays the first of its five home games on the 2021 schedule, hosting South Dakota on Saturday, Sept. 18. Kickoff inside Alex G. Spanos Stadium is set for 5:05 p.m.
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