Cal Poly to Host San Diego for Home Opener Saturday Afternoon

Saturday, September 10

San Luis Obispo, CA

2:02 p.m.

U. San Diego

Jaden Jones rolls right, looking for Josh Cuevas.

Quarterback Jaden Jones rolls right and looks downfield for fellow redshirt freshman Josh Cuevas in season opener at Fresno State last week. The Mustangs host San Diego on Saturday at 2 o'clock.

Photo by: Owen Main | Cal Poly Athletics

Cal Poly to Host San Diego for Home Opener Saturday Afternoon

9/5/2022 3:28:00 PM | Football

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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (0-1, 0-0 Big Sky), which plays 10 of the 11 opponents from the 2021 season again this fall and opened its 2022 football campaign last Thursday night with a 35-7 loss at Fresno State, plays its home opener Saturday afternoon, hosting San Diego (1-0, 0-0 Pioneer) inside Alex G. Spanos Stadium (cap.: 11,075).

Kickoff for the non-conference game is set for 2:02 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 1:30 p.m. The game also will be video streamed on ESPN+ with Chris Sylvester (play-by-play), John Kane (analyst) and Casey Buscher (sideline) on the mic. Links for audio and video streams as well as live stats can be found on the football schedule page at www.GoPoly.com.

It is Youth Day on Saturday with all children 13 and under admitted free. In addition, the 1972 Cal Poly Camellia Bowl team will be honored this weekend.

Despite four offensive drives of 70 or more yards, Cal Poly fell to the Central California rival Bulldogs 35-7. The Mustangs cashed in on just one of the drives, a nine-yard pass from Jaden Jones to Bryson Allen early in the second quarter after Fresno State had jumped to a 21-0 lead. Cal Poly also produced drives of 84, 70 and 73 yards but was turned away each time.

"Our resiliency after being down 21-0 showed up everywhere," said third-year Mustang head coach Beau Baldwin. "No one was planning on being down 21-0 that early and things don't always go as planned, but our resiliency — keeping calm, staying very focused and determined on our mindset — helped us get back into the game and not hang our heads.

"We fought back — it was almost 21-14 right before half — that said a lot about our guys," Baldwin added. "I like how we moved the ball from the 10 to the 10 and we also did not turn the ball over once."

Baldwin also saw some positives on defense. though Fresno State produced advantages of 549 to 317 in total offense, 33-17 in first downs and 33:41 to 26:19 in time of possession.

"Defensively, we won a lot of the one-on-one situations on the pass rush, winning a lot of those reps against their offensive linemen," Baldwin noted, "and we also confused a veteran quarterback enough. That's not taking anything away from (Jake) Haener. He's very good, but there were a couple times he threw into some things that were near picks. I thought we did a great job of execution and design in the way our guys operated."

Jones played in three games in a reserve role as a true freshman a year ago, preserving his redshirt year, and in his first collegiate start last Thursday completed 20 of 38 passes for 211 yards and one score while also showing off his scrambling ability, netting 59 yards on nine rushes.

"For the environment and everything else, I thought he did a lot of really good things," Baldwin said of the Oxnard High School graduate. "He stayed calm, learned from things that may not have gone perfectly for him and got better as the game went along. He provided extending plays, a couple third-down conversions and operated really well, especially considering this was his first start.

San Diego played NCAA Division III member La Verne in another season opener Saturday at home, coming away with a 58-0 victory with advantages of 492 to 94 in offensive yards, 20-7 in first downs and 37 minutes to 23 minutes in time of possession.Quarterback Judd Erickson completed 12 of 26 passes for 228 yards and two touchdowns while Chris Childers rushed for 92 yards on 17 trips, scoring once. Vance Jefferson caught four passes for 107 yards and both Erickson touchdown tosses.

The Torero defense held La Verne to 14 yards rushing and 94 yards passing.

The first full season of Mustang football under Cal Poly head coach Beau Baldwin, which began 21 months after he was named Cal Poly's 17th head football coach on Dec. 11, 2019,  ended with a 2-9 mark. The Mustangs defeated San Diego 28-17 in the opener as Spencer Brasch, in his first game as a Mustang after transferring from Cal, completed 23 of 38 passes for 316 yards, the most by a Mustang quarterback in 12 years, and two touchdowns with no interceptions and Elijah Ponder returned an interception 75 yards for another score. Cal Poly also beat Idaho State 42-39 in the penultimate contest as Jaden Ohlsen kicked a 41-yard field goal with four seconds remaining and Brasch completed 25 of 50 passes for 233 yards and three touchdowns.

The offseason was highlighted with some firsts for Baldwin in his tenure at Cal Poly, namely seven uninterrupted months of conditioning from January through July, a Spring Camp that ended with a successful Spring Game, the hiring of five new assistant coaches to replace those who moved on to the NFL or FBS schools, and an explosive six-touchdown performance in the first of two Fall Camp scrimmages on the new FieldTurf inside Alex G. Spanos Stadium.

San Diego is coming off a 7-4 campaign in 2021 which included a 7-1 mark for a first-place tie with Davidson in the Pioneer League. The Toreros, who won seven straight games after losing their first four contests, did not qualify for the FCS playoffs by virtue of a 28-16 loss to Davidson.

Tenth-year head coach Dale Lindsey greeted 44 lettermen, including 16 starters (seven on offense, six on defense, three on special teams) to Fall Camp. Top Toreros to watch for include Erickson (23 of 43 passes for 343 yards, three touchdowns, seven interceptions in four games in 2021), running back Rhyle Hanson (33-172-1) and receivers Jefferson (44-498-3), Christian Brown (37-446-5) and Michael Carner (30-400-2). Linebacker David Ambagtsheer made 73 tackles, including 4.5 for lost yardage, a year ago while safety Hunter Nichols added 59 tackles, three interceptions and seven pass breakups.

San Diego won or shared nine Pioneer League championships in a row prior to the 2021 spring season. The Toreros won four straight Pioneer League titles (2016-19) with perfect 8-0 marks before losing a conference game in the spring of 2021 -- 31-25 to Davidson -- for the first time since Oct. 10, 2015. San Diego has qualified for the FCS playoffs five times in the last eight years.

The Mustangs are 7-1 all-time against San Diego. The two clubs first met in 1959 — won by Cal Poly 36-14 in San Luis Obispo — and played a three-game series from 2012-14 as well as on the second weekend of the 2016 campaign, all won by the Mustangs. The 5-0 streak ended 11 weeks later in the 2016 FCS playoffs as the Toreros posted a 35-21 victory on a wet Saturday afternoon in San Luis Obispo.

Last meeting between the Mustangs and Toreros was in the 2021 season opener at Torero Stadium, won by Cal Poly 28-17. Elijah Ponder returned an interception for a touchdown midway through the fourth quarter and Spencer Brasch passed for 316 yards and two scores as Cal Poly earned its first win under Baldwin.

Brasch completed 23 of 38 passes with no interceptions and was sacked twice in his Mustang debut. The transfer from Cal connected with Chris Coleman on a 35-yard scoring pass midway through the second quarter and with Xavier Moore on a nine-yard touchdown toss a minute into the final period. Moore finished with five catches for 61 yards and Coleman had four for 76.

San Diego had the advantage in total yards, 425 to 362, and a large 17-minute advantage in time of possession, but a pair of Torero turnovers — interceptions by Ponder and Laipeli Palu — were key to the outcome of the game.

Judaea Moon led all defensive players in the game with 12 tackles for Cal Poly.

Baldwin is 1-0 as a head coach against San Diego while Lindsey is 1-5 versus Cal Poly.

Lindsey has guided the Toreros to eight straight winning seasons and FCS playoff berths in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. He was hired as San Diego's head coach on December 29, 2012, replacing Ron Caragher, who was hired as head coach at San Jose State.

Lindsey, San Diego's defensive coordinator in 2012 and linebackers coach in 2008, was at New Mexico State from 2009-11 as an assistant head coach and linebackers coach. His resume also includes over 30 years of football coaching at the high school, college and professional ranks.

Most recently with the Washington Redskins (2004-06), Lindsey also spent time on the San Diego Chargers staff as defensive coordinator (2002-03) and linebackers coach (1992-96). Lindsey played both linebacker and fullback for two years at Western Kentucky.

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.

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 62 returning lettermen to Fall Camp in August, including 30 on offense, 27 on defense and five specialists on special teams. The returnees include 27 players who started at least five games during the 2021 season -- 13 on offense, nine on defense and five on special teams.

Also on the 108-man fall roster are 22 players who were true freshmen and played in at least one game but no more than four, preserving their redshirt year, five transfers from four-year schools, two community college transfers, 13 redshirts or squad members who did not play at all in 2021 and 28 newcomers from the high school ranks.

The group of veterans includes quarterback Spencer Brasch (145 of 267 passes for 1,725 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2021), wide receiver Chris Coleman (43-590-4), linebacker Laipeli Palu (51 tackles) and defensive linemen Dustin Grein (36 tackles, one sack), Elijah Ponder (35 tackles, eight sacks) and Josh Ngaluafe (28 tackles, two sacks), who combined for 22 tackles for lost yardage in 2021.

Other top returnees include wide receiver/punt returner Giancarlo Woods (27-339-1 receiving, 6.8 punt return average), wide receiver Zedakiah Centers (35-310-0) and offensive linemen Charles Lincoln, Austin Anderson, Mohab Wahdan, Hunter Jones and Payson Campisano, all of whom started at least five games a year ago.

Cal Poly played the fifth-toughest schedule in the NCAA's Division I Football Championship Subdivision last fall and faces 10 of the 11 teams again this season, replacing Weber State with Eastern Washington. The 11 opponents on the Mustangs' 2021 schedule compiled an 80-52 win-loss record for a .606 winning percentage and five of them -- South Dakota, Montana, Montana State, UC Davis and Sacramento State -- qualified for the FCS playoffs. In addition, Fresno State played in a bowl game.

Weber State, which won or shared four straight Big Sky titles heading into the 2021 season, didn't make the postseason but was one of seven Cal Poly opponents ranked at one time or another in 2021. San Diego finished 7-4 with a share of the Pioneer League crown, its 10th in the last 11 years.

Cal Poly tackled that schedule with as many as 10 freshmen and seven sophomores in the starting lineup last fall. The 22 starters last week at Fresno State included three freshmen, seven sophomores and six juniors along with three seniors and three graduate students.

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 its second road game, visiting South Dakota on Saturday, Sept. 17, inside the DakotaDome in Vermillion, S.D. Kickoff is set for 11 a.m. PDT. The Coyotes were shut out by Kansas State 34-0 last week.