From left, Spencer Brasch, Bo Kelly, Sam Huard and Jaden Jones lead a six-man quarterback competition during Spring Camp, which opens Tuesday at Doerr Family Field.
First Spring Camp Under Paul Wulff Opens Next Tuesday Morning
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- It's been a busy three months for Paul Wulff since he was hired as Cal Poly's 18th head football coach on Dec. 6.
Though the 2023 football season doesn't start until September, the fruits of his labor will be determined in part by the success of his team in Spring Camp, which opens Tuesday morning (April 4) at Doerr Family Field.
What has Coach Wulff accomplished in the 115 days since director of athletics Don Oberhelman announced at a press conference in the lobby of Mott Athletics Center that the former Eastern Washington and Washington State head coach would take the controls of the Mustang football program?
"The No. 1 thing has been recruiting," said Wulff. "We started off as fast as we could, picking up where we left off (after former head coach Beau Baldwin left to become offensive coordinator at Arizona State), finishing our high school recruiting and then we were able to recruit some transfers. That took a lot of our time.
"Other parts of the things we've done internally is building our nutrition program, to feed our players, and to move into a new weight room that is temporary until we move into the John Madden Football Center but a much more functional space in terms of area for our student-athletes," Wulff added. "To watch what has happened with the growth of our players over the last two-and-a-half months has been exciting. So it has been a really good first few months for the players on our campus, and then of course getting ready for spring practice.
Paul Wulff prepares for his first Spring Camp as head coach at Cal Poly.
"We moved into the natatorium, which has been a blessing for us. It's a major game changer for our athletes to have a facility big enough and have things structured and organized. It has had an immediate impact for our players and their weight room development.
"I also met and greeted people throughout the state, which is very important for me, to get a better feel for how people feel on the outside and what their past is and get a better feel for Cal Poly football and their alumni," Wulff said.
Now it's time to put on some football gear, start running and throwing the ball, rushing and catching it, block and tackle, etc.
The Mustangs will cram 15 practice days into a four-week Spring Camp that wraps up with the annual Spring Game on Saturday, April 29, at 11 a.m. inside Alex G. Spanos Stadium.
Most practice sessions will be held on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 8:30 a.m. at Doerr Family Field, with a scrimmage planned for Saturday, April 22, at 10 a.m.
Wulff, who compiled a 53-40 record in eight seasons (2000-07) at Eastern Washington before coaching at Washington State from 2008-11, takes over a program that has struggled in recent years, winning just 13 of 58 games in the six years since earning an NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision playoff berth in 2016.
"This year's team has an opportunity to set the tone for the future of Cal Poly football, what our identity is going to be, because we haven't been in a position the last few years to rebuild and set a tone for anything," said Wulff. "I think this will be a year of really truly setting a baseline for this program moving forward.
"What does that really mean? It means really establishing something really good on each side of the ball and on special teams. We want to become a more physical overall football team, period. We need to establish that kind of physicality week in and week out. That's our No. 1 goal.
"We've got to become a physical football team and show people we can go toe to toe with anybody and that's our challenge," Wulff said.
Excitement has been building almost from day one of the Wulff regime, starting with the signing of a dozen recruits to the National Letter of Intent just before Christmas, followed by the hiring of four new full-time assistant coaches, the announcement of several transfers and, finally, adding seven more NLI signees in early February.
Offensive coordinator and running backs coach Sheldon Cross was the first to be added to Wulff's staff after coaching Interlake and Kennedy Catholic high schools to six Washington state playoff berths and 71 wins in 10 seasons combined.
Ryan Payne will coach the offensive line and serve as run game coordinator while Brandyn Thompson will coach the cornerbacks. One other major change on the coaching staff is the move by Asa Jackson, who coached the cornerbacks last season, to the wide receivers.
The roster for this year's Spring Camp includes 90 returnees, five transfers from Division I schools and a pair of high school graduates.
The returnees include 20 (nine on offense, 11 on defense) who started at least four games last fall and 36 others who earned letters by playing in at least one game. The Mustangs lost just five starters to graduation or the transfer portal.
The group of transfers is headed by quarterback Sam Huard, a five-star recruit out of Kennedy Catholic who was on the Washington Huskies' roster the last two seasons. Under his prep head coach, Cross, Huard passed for 13,214 yards and 153 touchdowns, completing 804 of 1,297 passes (62 percent), in four varsity seasons.
Brown is a Mission Prep graduate while Cole played at San Luis Obispo High School. Like Huard, Shumpert also played under Cross at Kennedy Catholic and Calvert is an Oaks Christian product.
Cornerback Delano Franklin (Bishop Amat High School) and offensive lineman Jayden Smith (McNair High School) graduated early and have enrolled at Cal Poly in time for Spring Camp.
Expect some philosophical changes on offense this fall.
"We're definitely going to do some things a little bit different offensively," Wulff said. "At the end of the day, we want to spread people out. But we also want to run the ball equally like we do passing the ball, so there will be some changes in what we have done before.
"We want to be balanced. You can't be all run or all pass. We need to be able to be as balanced as we possibly can. There may be some games in which we throw the ball 60 percent of the time and there may be some games in which we run the ball. We just have to have that balance and I believe we will ultimately get there, but through this process we have to evaluate our quarterbacks and give them a lot of opportunities in prepping them in practice and see how they are playing," Wulff added.
The defense also will have a new look, Wulff believes.
"We need to become a more physical, consistent defensive unit. We have to become more physical with our front seven and the back end as well. In the past, it wasn't so much a man-to-man issue for us in terms of covering people. It was more getting off blocks and making tackles," Wulff said.
"Our ability to be a more physical tackling football team has got to be the first and foremost thing we do on defense to get better. That's what our focus is going to be. We've got to continue to work on all the other elements of playing defense, but we've got to become a stingier defense and that's going to come with some physicality and discipline with our assignments."
A look at each of the position groups:
Quarterback
Huard, who has three seasons of eligibility remaining, joins a crowded group of quarterbacks at Cal Poly. Jaden Jones started the first three games of the Mustangs' 2022 season before sustaining a knee injury and Spencer Brasch, his replacement, passed for a career-high 415 yards and equaled his career high with four touchdowns in a season-ending 49-42 victory over Portland State and finished with 2,604 yards through the air, No. 2 all-time in the Cal Poly record book.
Brasch finished the season completing 206 of 348 passes with 19 touchdowns. His 206 completions is a school record, surpassing the 196 passes completed by Robert Perez in 1986, while his 348 attempts is No. 2 behind Mike Fisher's 386 attempts in 1994. The 19 touchdowns are No. 6 all-time. Add his statistics from the 2021 season and Brasch now is No. 4 in career passing yards (4,329), No. 3 in completions (351), No. 3 in attempts (615) and seventh with 29 touchdowns.
Huard is by no means a lock as the starter this fall.
"Sam is going to come in and he's going to get an opportunity to get a lot of reps in practice, then we're going to evaluate Sam," said Wulff. "We've not been able have him in person yet, but we know he will improve.
"We have to see how Sam performs. We envision he will do very well, but we also believe that the position is going to be a very healthy spot for this football team and our program and we're excited about what that is going to unveil for us.
"Like all positions, we've got players who will be battling to play and improve. Start with Spencer Brasch, who has the most experience, and then you have Bo Kelly sitting there, you've got Bryce Weiner, you got Jackson Pavitt and then you have Jaden Jones who is coming off a knee injury and will be limited in the spring, and then you add Sam Huard into that mix.
"So we've got a number of guys competing for the job. Unfortunately there are only so many reps at practice, so we'll have to do our best to give the players who we feel have potential upside their individual reps, practice reps and team reps. We'll let things play out between spring and fall.
"We are not in any position to name any starter, and that goes for all positions," Wulff added. "You improve yourself in the spring and then you earn your spot in the fall."
"It starts up front first and I think our offensive line needs to take a big step and I believe they can and they will, along with our tight ends as they also block up front (for the running backs)," said Wulff.
"We played a couple young guys who did some good things in there for us last year. Harper is the most veteran player with a lot of reps. You always have to play two or three running backs in a game anyway, so we're excited to see how those guys unfold between Shakobe coming back, Garwood, Holyfield and Fletcher. Those guys are coming back healthy and we're anxious to watch them all get their opportunities in the spring.
"We're going to do a few things differently in the running game and that will help all the running backs," Wulff added. "We may simplify some things in what we do. I think we have a very healthy position at running back. There is going to be some great competition."
Chris Coleman, Cal Poly's leading receiver the last two seasons (43 receptions in 2021, 60 in 2022) after his transfer from Fresno State, is gone, but there is a bevy of young players ready to take over the top spot in the receiving corps. Zedakiah Centers caught 36 passes (five TDs), Logan Booher 22 (two TDs) and Bryson Allen 20 (one TD) in 2022 for the Mustangs.
"It's a position which we need to have them step up and prove themselves," said Wulff. "We have some veteran players, but we also have some youth with a little bit of experience, such as Centers, Allen and Booher. Giancarlo Woods will also factor in there and we'll see how he comes off his injury of a year and a half ago. We're anxious to watch his development."
Woods caught 27 passes, one for a touchdown) in 2021 before suffering a season-ending knee injury in Week 9 at Sacramento State. After his offseason recovery, he made 10 catches, two for touchdowns, last fall.
"We also have Shumpert coming in as well. We're going to watch all these young men and see how spring goes. I am anxious to watch that group. We also have Michael Briscoe, who sat out last year. He's back, a big athletic young man, and we're expecting some big things from him as well."
Tight Ends
Josh Cuevas, second on the team with 57 receptions, six for touchdowns, en route to Freshman All-American honors, transferred to Washington during the offseason while Ryan Rivera (eight catches) made the move to Louisiana Tech. But the 2023 Mustang roster lists eight candidates at the position, ready to fill the vacancies.
Carlton Brown of San Luis Obispo's Mission Prep played in eight games with one start at Nevada last fall, making four catches for 44 yards, and has three seasons of eligibility remaining. At Mission Prep, Brown caught 43 passes over two seasons (2018 and 2019) for 812 yards and 16 touchdowns.
"We lost a couple tight ends after the season, but we're very fortunate to bring in Carlton Brown, a local man transferring in," said Wulff. "We're very excited to also watch the development of some of the guys we have there. All those men were young a year ago and I think they're going to step up and improve. We're anxious to watch those guys develop as well."
The offensive line could be deep this fall with Garrett Weichman, Austin Anderson and Payson Campisano, all of whom made 11 starts last fall, returning. Charles Lincoln, who made six starts in 2021 before suffering a season-ending injury and also missed the final 10 games of 2022 for the same reason, returns as well.
"Lincoln hurt his knee in the first game of the year, but he's coming back and doing well," said Wulff. "He's not going to be ready to participate in spring practice, but he'll be a great addition when we get into the fall.
"Weichman, Campisano and Anderson all have now played a full season or two under their belt, which is going to be very important moving forward in their development," Wulff added.
Several others "have been stepping up" will get some playing time on the offensive front, such as Keith Marco (who missed the 2022 season due to injury), Tyler Charbonneau (played 10 games last fall), Hunter Jones (played all 11 games in 2021 after his transfer from Rice but injured in 2022), Hayden Jones (a redshirt in 2022), Jasdev Banwait (redshirt, played four games in 2022), Kavika Fitisemanu (redshirt, started three games in 2022), Ava Leota (played in 10 games last fall), Ethan Bronson (played in five games) and Tanner Hirschler (redshirt, played in three games in 2022).
"And we're adding Thomas Cole and he'll get an opportunity to go through spring," Wulff added. "We'll have some competition in there. We're anxious to see how these guys evolve. Several of these young men will all get their opportunity. All of them have been working hard, everyone. "We're anxious to see them work together in the spring."
While a pair of returnees are still dealing with injuries and won't be able to participate fully in spring drills, they should be ready by fall. Josh Ngaluafe broke his foot in Week 4 while Dustin Grein missed the final five weeks of the 2022 season with a fractured hand. Grein also is hoping for a sixth season if he is accepted into graduate school.
Ngaluafe had 28 tackles in 2021 and 16 as a freshman in 2021 while Grein made 29 stops last year, 36 in 2021 and 81 so far in his Mustang career.
Elijah Ponder, who played in all 11 games, 10 as the starter, in 2022 and earned eight sacks in 2021, Robbie Greer, who also played all 11 games (four starts), Antonio Vakameilalo (11 games, seven starts), Soni Finau (nine games, three starts), Thomas Bouda (nine games) and Elijah Satcher (eight games) all return after combining for 115 tackles in 2022.
"We feel very strong about Elijah Ponder and the success he has had," said Wulff. "Finau played a lot as a freshman last year, and we're very excited about some of the other young guys, such as Jordan Sanders, Ethan Rodriguez, Mason Barbour, Zach Denis and Julius Jordan. We have a lot of quality young players in there and we're excited to watch them develop. They should be one of the strong suits on the defense.
Linebacker David Meyer led Cal Poly in tackles with 85 last fall.Linebackers
David Meyer, Cal Poly's leading tackler in 2022 with 85 stops (57 solo), including seven for lost yardage and 4.5 sacks, heads the list of returnees in the linebacking corps. Judaea Moon recorded 32 tackles in 10 games, Je'kob Jones 42 in 11 contests and Drew Sulick 19 in seven games.
"We've got some solid guys coming back and we have some young guys like Kenny Olsen, Grady Liddell, Reed Mercer and Carson Jones, who are going to go in and compete," said Wulff.
"We feel good about Ethan Calvert, the transfer from Utah, and his development so far since he came here in January," Wulff added. We just moved Michael Otterstedt from defensive end to linebacker. We feel like we've got several good players in there. We've got the right mindset of young men at that position and now we just have to go out and play."
Calvert played in 11 of Utah's 13 games last fall, recording three tackles, two of them against Stanford.
Brian Dukes made 61 tackles and added two interceptions
and five pass breakups as a freshman last fall.Defensive Backs
The secondary, particularly the cornerbacks, will be thin due to injury this spring. In addition, Dylan Wyatt will sit out the spring as he awaits a decision on his effort to enter graduate school.
"There's some talent in the secondary, particularly in the safety position," noted Wulff.
At safety, top returnees include Dominic McCormick (29 tackles, one interception), Mason Rivera (36 tackles, two pass breakups), Jeremy Justice (18 tackles, two pass breakups) and Brian Dukes (61 tackles, two interceptions, five pass breakups).
"They played a lot of football and we feel like those guys should make a huge step this spring and fall," said Wulff.
Other prospects include Jake East (redshirt)and Kai Rappola (three games), who "will factor in as impact players," Wulff said. "I feel like we've got some guys who really could do some good things."
At cornerback, Xavier Oliphant, who started the first three games a year ago before he was sidelined with a season-ending injury, returns. Oliphant, who notched 23 tackles and five pass breakups in 2021, also returned a missed Northern Arizona field goal attempt an NCAA record 100 yards for a touchdown. "He won't be ready medically for spring, but he should be back in the fall," said Wulff.
Donovan Saunders, who played in seven games with two starts, returns as well after making nine tackles and intercepting a pair of passes last fall. "He played a lot as a true freshman and we feel real good about him, but he had offseason surgery as well and won't participate in the spring," Wulff said.
"We've got some young guys coming in and some others in the summer, so during the spring our corner position will be thin, but they will be back in the summer," Wulff said.
Cornerback Delano Franklin graduated early from Bishop Amat, is enrolled at Cal Poly and will participate in Spring Camp. Franklin made 26 tackles (16 solo), including one for lost yardage, and intercepted three passes as a senior. He also caught 57 passes for 908 yards and 12 touchdowns as a wide receiver and averaged 36 yards on 15 kickoff returns and 14 yards on 13 punt returns.
Jay'Vion Cole, who made nine starts and played in all 11 games last fall, has transferred to San Jose State.
Special Teams
Jaden Ohlsen, who averaged 55.9 yards on 47 kickoffs last fall and made all 31 PAT kicks and four of eight field goals, returns along with Bryant Thao (10 kickoffs in 2021) and Kevin Ryan (seven kickoffs in 2021).
Jesse Erlich, a redshirt in 2022 who averaged 38.4 yards on seven punts in limited duty, also returns along with three-year long snapper Cruz Rubio.
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