Day two of Cal Poly football camp began a little after 9:00am on Saturday morning. As the morning sun bathed over Doerr Family Field, Cal Poly’s offense, specifically the skill position players were the most vocal and energetic. 

Coming off injury

Quarterback Khaleel Jenkins looks as though he hasn’t missed a beat after missing most of last season due to injury. Cal Poly actually has five quarterbacks in camp, including Jake Jeffrey — who took most of the snaps last season — and redshirt freshman Kyle Reid. 

A new addition

Preseason All-American Joe Protheroe was not at practice, and for good reason. His wife gave birth to their third child this week. I don’t think Cal Poly fans will lose any sleep over Protheroe knowing the plays. He is expected to begin practicing in plenty of time to be available for their first game.

Hold onto the ball

It’s clear from talking with Cal Poly head coach Tim Walsh and others around the program that ball security is a priority this season. Things happening in practice also made that apparent to anybody watching. Fumbling is a weird beast, but here’s hoping the added conscious awareness can help the Mustangs win the turnover battle. When they don’t, things can go downhill fast. 

Odds and ends

• Bradley Mickey, a redshirt sophomore from Arroyo Grande who missed the beginning of last season with an injury, has switched his number to 17 this season. Seventeen is the number of Mickey’s friend Ryan Teixeira, who passed away in March 2017. It is also the namesake of the charity — 17 Strong — that he started. You can find it at seventeenstrong.org .
• A few freshman were interesting to see out on the field. As they start practice at the college level for the first time, it’s always fun to observe who is still wide-eyed and who comes into camp with a college football mentality. Among the guys I caught a glimpse of, quarterback Jalen Hamler (Lawndale) was probably the one I watched the most. He looks fast. 
  This season, freshmen can play in up to four games and still keep their redshirt. This is a big deal for a Cal Poly program that has traditionally redshirted a LOT of their players. If the rule had been in place a season ago, Cal Poly might have used players like quarterback Kyle Reid alongside Jake Jeffrey as the season wound down. 
• Cal Poly will play their first game on September 1st in Fargo, North Dakota against the best FCS team in the nation — North Dakota State. The Bison seem like they win the national championship every season. The Mustangs’ schedule, start to finish, is probably more difficult than last year’s, despite having no FBS opponents on the slate (a rarity). In conference play the Mustangs will take on Montana at home and Montana State, Eastern Washington, and Northern Arizona all on the road. 
• I taped a podcast with head coach Tim Walsh last week that I’m hoping goes up before the weekend is over. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher — just search Fansmanship. 

Photos by Owen Main. Browse the gallery online and purchase photos here. 

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Cal Poly football isn’t always in the national spotlight and any recognition that comes their way is certainly earned. By Owen Main

Don’t get bent out of shape — at least not until tonight. Because, maybe Northern Iowa will win. Maybe the Panthers will beat Cal Poly in the Mustangs’ home opener at Alex G. Spanos stadium tonight. Perhaps Cal Poly won’t go 2-1 in what is, almost certainly, the toughest opening three games in the entire FCS.

What’s on the line

IF Cal Poly can beat Northern Iowa tonight — and it’s a BIG if — they will have beaten Montana on the road, been tied with FBS preseason top-25 Arizona State through the middle of the fourth quarter, and beaten Northern Iowa, ranked 9th or 11th depending on which poll you look at.

Montana, now ranked 7th/8th, actually saw their ranking go up after beating North Dakota State and losing to the Mustangs at home in back to back weeks, but in that same week, a 1-0 Cal Poly didn’t crack the top 15. Yep, that’s the same Cal Poly team who did what top-five North Dakota State couldn’t do in beating the Grizzlies in Montana. If they win this week and pollsters still don’t put the Mustangs in the top five, people in San Luis Obispo will have something to cry foul about.

Let’s look at it the other way too. A close home loss to (favored) Northern Iowa tonight would theoretically not be a really bad loss. Would pollsters keep Cal Poly in the Top-25 at that point, even though their only two losses were to a top-10 FCS team and Arizona State? Surely voters wouldn’t be as gracious about Cal Poly’s losses as they were about Montana’s. I would actually be surprised if a close loss didn’t put the Mustangs out of the rankings, at least for a week.

So, I guess all that’s left to do is play the game and let the chips (and votes) fall where they may.

Playoffs?

The best thing about this level of football is that rankings shouldn’t matter as much. Things are settled on the field, via a playoff, and rankings gripes are generally pretty limited at this level. A team who is ranked anywhere in the top 15 or so at the end of the season should be pretty comfortable with their spot in the playoffs. Unfortunately for those in San Luis Obispo, Cal Poly is on the West Coast and was ranked out of the Top-25 to start the season.

Nothing is given here. Everything must be earned. It might not be fair, but if I’m a Cal Poly fan, maybe I like it that way.

The efficiency of Vince Moraga and Kristaan Ivory in Cal poly’s offense will be a key in tomorrow’s game. By Owen Main

A solid win at home against San Diego followed by a road game against a Mountain West opponent.

Sound familiar?

Last season, it was a recipe for Cal Poly to upset Wyoming in Laramie 24-22.

All the dominoes were set-up in Cal Poly’s favor — an injured quarterback, an early two-touchdown lead, and an opponent whose offense was far from dynamic.

This year, though, it’s a different story. Fresno State’s quarterback is not only healthy, he’s getting as much publicity as any other player in college football this week. Derek Carr, younger brother of Bulldogs legend David, has been featured on the Jim Rome show and CBS Sports’ main webpage.

Against Rutgers a week ago, Carr’s offense put up 52 points.

Cal Poly’s offense looked good as well, racking up 533 yards of total offense and 38 points. Here’s where numbers can be deceiving, though.

To beat an FBS school, a team like Cal Poly must do a few things very well. They must score early. They must play very good defense, probably forcing at least 2-3 turnovers, if not more. They also must dominate possession, keeping a potent offensive attack off the field.

Against Wyoming last season, they did all of these things. Andre Broadous and company ran more plays (81-62), had more first downs (20-14), and dominated time of possession (35:39-24:21).

But last week, despite the comfortable winning margin, Cal Poly lost in each of these areas. They didn’t run as many plays as San Diego (62-69), didn’t get as many first downs (17-19), and were dominated in time of possession (37:41-22:19).

You might say that it’s because the Mustangs scored too quickly. Their offense had too many explosive big plays for any of that to matter. And you would be right.

Except that against a really talented Fresno State team, if you leave your defense out on the field for as long as they were last weekend, you are going to be in for a long, long day.

Best-case scenario for Cal Poly

Vince Moraga’s offense finds a little more consistency, with lots of second and third down conversions, chewing up the clock and keeping Derek Carr and his offense off the field.

Cal Poly’s defense comes up with some big plays to keep Fresno State off the scoreboard and keep the team within striking distance going into the fourth quarter (maybe with both teams somewhere in the 20’s…). At that point, anything could happen.

Worst-cast scenario for Cal Poly

Fresno State scores first. Cal Poly runs 3 plays, doesn’t get a first down, and Fresno State scores again on the ensuing possession. In the words of Maude Lebowski – “You can imagine where it goes from there.”

In this worst-case scenario, it’s a certainty that nobody will fix the cable.

What will probably happen

Something in between. Cal Poly may hang close for a few quarters, but Fresno State is very good. The betting line is 27 points, meaning the oddsmakers are envisioning something closer to the “worst case.” I won’t make a prediction, but I would be surprised to see Cal Poly lose by more than three touchdowns, even to a very good Fresno State team.