Cal Poly Football Opens Fall Camp Thursday Morning

Cal Poly's offensive and defensive lines square off in Spring Camp.

Photo by: Eyasu Betwos

Cal Poly Football Opens Fall Camp Thursday Morning

8/2/2023 9:00:00 AM | Football

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Cal Poly football will officially begin a new era this week with the beginning of fall camp starting Thursday morning in preparation for the 2023 season which kicks off in just four weeks.

Nearly 120 players will don the Green and Gold for the first time since spring camp ended in April. Practices will be from 9-11 a.m. and will primarily take place at Mustang Memorial Field Presented by Dignity Health French Hospital at Alex G. Spanos Stadium. There will not be practices on Sundays. There will be two scrimmages which will take place August 19 at 4 p.m. and the final day of camp August 25 at 2:30 p.m.

2023 will be the first season under head coach Paul Wulff after he took over this past winter following Beau Baldwin's departure to Arizona State. Wulff had already been the Mustangs' offensive line coach and run game coordinator the last three years. Wulff is no stranger to running a program as he has 12 years of head coaching experience under his belt at Eastern Washington and Washington State.

Wulff has made some changes to the coaching staff, bringing in Sheldon Cross to be as the Offensive Coordinator/Running Backs Coach, Ryan Payne to be the Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Coach, Brandyn Thompson as the Cornerbacks Coach while moving Asa Jackson from Cornerbacks Coach to Wide Receivers Coach. He has also brought Lee Yerty in as the new Director of Football Operations and Wes Yerty as the Recruiting Coordinator.

Wulff and his staff will welcome back 61 returners off last year's roster and 13 players who were true freshmen last year that played in at least one game but no more than four to preserve their redshirt year.

Added for this season are five transfers, all from the FBS level, four of whom are on the offensive side of the ball and one on the defensive side. Those include Carlton Brown - a tight end from Nevada, Ethan Calvert – a linebacker from Utah, Thomas Cole – an offensive lineman from UCLA, Sam Huard – a quarterback from Washington, and Reed Shumpert – a wide receiver from Washington State.

Huard, a five-star recruit out of Kennedy High School before spending the last two years at Washington, threw for over 13,000 yards and 158 touchdowns during his prep career where he was coached by now offensive coordinator Sheldon Cross and was teammates with Shumpert.

In addition, there will be four players who redshirted that did not play in any games last year and 33 true freshmen from the high school ranks.

The Mustangs bring back plenty of experience from a year ago. 22 players return who started at least five games last season, nine on offense, 10 on defense, and three specialists while only losing eight players who started at least five games.

Cal Poly will have six home games this year, the most since 2018, beginning Sept. 2 against San Diego. Tickets are available for purchase at GoPoly.com/tickets.

A look at each position:

Offensive Line - One of the positions that is bringing back a ton of continuity from last year is the offensive line. They return three players who started all 11 games – Garrett Weichman at center, Austin Anderson at right tackle, Payson Campisano at right guard, and an additional two guys who made at five starts on the offensive line – Vatulele Finau and Ava Leota.

Getting back senior Charles Lincoln, who suffered a season-ending injury in the first game of last year, as well as the additions of Thomas Cole (transfer) and having three redshirt freshmen who played in a handful of games last year in Kavika Fitisemanu, Jasdvev Banwait, and Tanner Hirschler will provide depth to an experienced O-line group.

Quarterback – Huard joins a crowded and competitive quarterback room for the Mustangs. Jaden Jones started the first three games of the 2022 season before suffering a season-ending knee injury. Spencer Brasch then stepped in and threw for 2,604 yards, No. 2 all-time in Cal Poly history, and 19 touchdowns. His 206 completions is a school record while his 19 touchdowns are No. 6 all-time.

Both Jones and Brasch return in 2023 in addition to Bo Kelly. Add Huard and a pair of true freshmen this year to make for a competitive quarterback room that will be battled for throughout camp to see who is named the starter. Regardless of who starts week one, one thing that the Mustangs learned last year is that it is good to have depth at the quarterback position.

Running Backs - Four of Cal Poly's top five running backs of 2022 return. Shakobe Harper (307 yards, one TD), Paul Holyfield (126 yards, one TD), Troy Fletcher (176 yards, two TDs), and Zion Hall (83 yards) all will make return appearances in 2023.

Add in redshirt senior Mark Biggins, who missed the entire 2022 season due to injury, as well as freshman Aidan Ramos and the Mustangs will have plenty of options of who to give the ball to on the ground this season.

Wide Receivers – Chris Coleman, the Mustangs' leading receiver each of the last two seasons moved on to the NFL, but there is plenty of other talent ready to take over the top spot. Logan Booher - who caught 22 passes with two touchdowns, Bryson Allen – 20 catches and one touchdown, Giancarlo Woods – 10 catches with two touchdowns, and Tyrece Fairly-Diyem – five catches, one touchdown are all back this year.

Also returning is redshirt sophomore Michael Briscoe, who missed the entire 2022 season due to injury. During the spring game this year, he caught two passes for 15 yards. He enters camp No. 1 on the depth chart at Z-Back (wide receiver). With Reed Shumpert transferring in from Washington State, there will be plenty of potential candidates to take over the No. 1 receiving spot this season.

Tight Ends – The Mustangs saw Josh Cuevas, who was second on the team in receptions in 2022 en route to Freshman All-American honors, transfer to Washington during the offseason. However, the Mustangs have plenty of good candidates ready to take over in 2023.

Sophomore 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. At Mission Prep, Brown caught 43 passes over two seasons (2018 and 2019) for 812 yards and 16 touchdowns. Junior DeMarcus Oandasan, who played in nine games last season and caught a touchdown pass during the 2023 spring game, currently tops the tight end depth chart with redshirt freshmen Tyler Hoffman and Alex Grywalski also in the mix.

Defensive Line – The defensive line is poised to be one of the strong suits of the team in 2023. Junior Josh Ngaluafe is set to return and start at nose tackle after he missed the final seven games of last season. In the four games he played, he had 16 tackles. In 2021, he started all 11 games at defensive end, recording 28 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and two sacks.

Also back is two-time All-Big Sky Honorable Mention honoree Elijah Ponder at defensive end. He had 37 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, and two sacks in 2022. As a freshman in 2021, he had eight sacks, 11 tackles for loss, and 28 solo tackles.

In addition, Robbie Greer, who played in all 11 games, Antonio Vakameilalo, who played 11 games with seven starts, Thomas Bouda, who played in nine games, Soni Finau, who played in nine games, Elijah Satcher, who played in eight games, and Ethan Rodriguez, who played in eight games. Combined, the aforementioned group of players had 98 tackles.

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. Meyer was named to the Big Sky Preseason All-Conference team.

Also back are Judaea Moon, who recorded 32 tackles in 10 games, Je'kob Jones, who had 42 in 11 contests, Drew Sulick, who had 19 in seven games, and Michael Otterstedt, who had 19 tackles and two sacks in 10 games.

The Mustangs' added depth at linebacker by adding redshirt sophomore transfer Ethan Calvert from Utah. Calvert played in 11 of Utah's 13 games last fall, recording three tackles, two of them against Stanford.

Secondary – The Mustangs had plenty of youth in the secondary a season ago but hope that experience last year will pay dividends this season. 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 Jr. (61 tackles, two interceptions, five pass breakups).

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. 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.

A freshman to watch out for at corner will be Delano Franklin, who graduated from Bishop Amat High School early and enrolled at Cal Poly in the spring. He impressed coaches throughout spring camp. Two guys who will also play a big role are redshirt freshmen Boston Wilson and Kai Rapolla.

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 Kevin Ryan (seven kickoffs in 2021). Jesse Ehrlich, 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.