Cal Poly needs to hang in there

The moment of truth in the triple option. By Owen Main

Cal Poly needs to hang in there.

Like when someone comes up to you in the middle of a crazy busy work day, just as you are about to go be super productive and get a bunch of things done.

“How are you doing?” someone asks you.

“Hanging in there,” you reply.

You know there is lots to do. You understand that there are things that need to be worked on and improved. Hanging in there is often times, what is necessary.

Hanging in there is what can get a team back to normalcy. What happened last Saturday definitely was not the norm for the Cal Poly football team.

In Cal Poly’ case, hanging in there means rallying around a third starting quarterback in six games. On Saturday, Air Force transfer and former National High School Player of the Year Dano Graves makes his first start with Cal Poly. Graves didn’t make a huge impact as part of the four-man quarterback battle at the beginning of the season, but if head coach Tim Walsh is going to go back to the basics of the triple option, Graves is probably a good place to start.

There has been some criticism I’ve heard over the past week of the play-calling and offense. Graves will bring the team back to the basics — depending on the read of the quarterback in the triple option. Chris Brown said he had “slow eyes” after last week’s game and Cal Poly fans will hope that Graves’ eyes can be quicker to read the defense.

For an offense that often makes a defense primarily stop a fullback run up the middle, there wasn’t much smash-mouth running last week. Akaninyene Umoh and Brandon Howe combined for only 8 rushes (including Cal Poly’s only touchdown of the game), while Brown and Kristaan Ivory combined for 31 attempts — mostly trying to get to the edge.

Much of the time, the fullback dive is based on a quarterback read in the triple option, and I would imagine that Graves will probably be spreading the ball around much more evenly. While he hasn’t looked particularly flashy, Graves may be much more willing to hand it to the dive back up the middle. The more the ball goes up the middle, the better the second and third parts of the triple option can work. If we are making the “point guard” comparison, maybe Chris Brown is more like a point guard who scores more (Stephen Curry?) and Graves might be more like Rajon Rondo, who doesn’t have to score himself to dominate. The team and fans hope, though, that nobody looks like Chris Duhon.

I think most fans were excited about the “brand” or “style” adjustment that was possible with the multiple positive aspects of Brown’s game. He was the best passer of the group and did well making defenders miss in the open field. In the end though, without the gives up the middle, I think teams started being able to key on the edge with Brown. We’ll see on Saturday whether Graves has the right mixture of “up the middle” versus “on the edge” to come up with a win.

Fans need to hang in there too. After a poor mid-afternoon showing last weekend, fans should be ready to get a little louder on a Saturday evening game. With no soccer games all weekend, perhaps a larger, more influential student section will also make the atmosphere much more like what everyone is used to. After going undefeated at home last year, the Spanos crowd is definitely used to winning.