Cal Poly Football headed to Portland

Cal Poly football’s bye week couldn’t have come at a better time. The Mustangs, 3-2 on the season and ranked in the top-20 nationally, played at North Dakota two weeks ago without their preseason All-American fullback Joe Protheroe and came away with a close loss. With three weeks between games, Tim Walsh expects Protheroe back to face the Vikings, who are no strangers to rushing the ball.

Game time is set for 2:30pm in Portland’s Providence Park, which Portland State shares with the Portland Timbers MLS franchise.

While the bye week helped Cal Poly on offense, it didn’t do much for the linebacking corps, which is very thin coming into this game. With multiple injuries, true freshman Jayson Lee will get the start. Walsh said Lee, a native of Oakhurst California, is excited for the opportunity. Under normal circumstances, Cal Poly generally redshirts a lot of freshmen, but Lee will get his shot on Saturday in an important road game.

Other players had opportunities to nurse nicks and bruises during the bye week too.

For their part, the Vikings are 1-2 in Big Sky play, having beaten Idaho State in Portland and lost to both Weber State and Southern Utah on the road. Last season, Portland State beat Cal Poly 38-35 in San Luis Obispo and Tim Walsh’s former team is always a tough opponent on their home (artificial) turf.

Portland State can rush the ball and have a really dynamic quarterback in Alex Kuresa, who will put a ton of pressure on all of Cal Poly’s linebackers. That seems to be the key matchup for the Mustangs’ defense. On offense, as always, the big question will be whether Cal Poly can avoid turnovers and score touchdowns in the red zone.

Randomness

I loved this quote from Portland State coach Bruce Barnum from the weekly press conference:

Barnum said he recruited and offered Cal Poly QB Dano Graves when he was at Folsom High School. "He looked at me like I was a mud puddle.”

— Lucas Clark (@LucasClark_SLO) October 12, 2016

Luckily for everyone, Portland’s Providence Park has artificial turf. There may be some puddles, but they shouldn’t be muddy.