Big Sky Conference

Cal Poly hopes to carry over playoff mentality

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Tim Walsh characterizes his team’s 2015 season as one filled with missed opportunities. From injuries to an inability to take care of the football, a Cal Poly squad with high aspirations stumbled to a 4-7 finish.

Those disappointments fueled a turnaround in 2016 that has Cal Poly in the FCS playoffs for the first time since 2012 and the second time under Walsh, who has been the head coach in San Luis Obispo since 2009. Cal Poly surged to a 6-2 start and looked like a playoff shoe-in before back-to-back losses pushed the Mustangs to the brink.

Following a 22-15 loss at Weber State, it looked like Cal Poly could be on the outside looking in. But around the country, teams lost and Cal Poly found itself thrust into playoff mode a week early. CP held on for a 55-48 win in a wild regular-season finale against Northern Colorado to seal its seventh victory. On Sunday, Cal Poly was announced as part of the 24-team playoff field. The Mustangs will host Pioneer League champion San Diego at 5 p.m. MST on Saturday afternoon at Alex G. Spanos Stadium.

Cal Poly fullback Joe Protheroe/by CP Athletics

Cal Poly fullback Joe Protheroe led the Big Sky with 1,202 rushing yards this season/by CP Athletics

“This year, the motto was if we had the opportunity, we had to do everything we could to get into the playoffs if not through a championship, then through an at-large bid,” Walsh said. “Having the opportunity through some of the graces of the football gods above, enough people lost the week we lost to Weber State. It put us back in contention to win one game and get in so it became a playoff game last week against Northern Colorado.”

Walsh has never won a playoff game in three previous trips between his 16 seasons at Portland State and his eight at Cal Poly. The Mustangs have not won a playoff game since 2005. But this collection of seniors, many who have Big Sky Conference championship rings for CP’s shared title in 2012, have led the way to reach this point. He doesn’t want missed opportunities to define the group once again.

“We are not satisfied and our guys get it,” Walsh said. “There are a lot of guys who have played big games before but in the playoffs, it’s one and done. If you don’t play well, you are out. That’s when you have those woulda, coulda, shouldas in your life and we don’t want to be that kind of team.”

Cal Poly’s early-season surge included an overtime loss at Nevada that could have been an FBS upset if not for a penalty on a two-point conversion that would’ve put the Mustangs ahead in regulation. CP followed with three straight wins, including a 38-16 win over San Diego followed by wins over No. 9 South Dakota State (38-31) and No. 6 Montana (42-41).

With two-time first-team All-Big Sky fullback Joe Protheroe, the Big Sky’s leading rusher, on the shelf, Cal Poly lost 31-24 at eventual Big Sky champion North Dakota but rallied to win three straight again. A 42-21 loss to No. 3 Eastern Washington did not hurt Cal Poly’s playoff hopes but a 22-15 loss at Weber State in which the hosts held the Mustangs to just 190 yards rushing (171 yards below their season average) pushed CP to the edge of elimination.

Northern Colorado came to SLO hot, fresh off a pinnacle win in its program history, a 28-25 defeat of the Griz in Greeley. Cal Poly jumped out to a 21-7 lead but the Bears never stopped giving chase, cutting the lead to 34-31 on Stephen Miller’s touchdown catch with 9:25 left in the third quarter and to 41-38 on Hakeem Deggs’ TD grab with 13 minutes left.

Cal Poly quarterback Dano Graves (7)/by CP Athletics

Cal Poly quarterback Dano Graves (7)/by CP Athletics

Senior quarterback Dano Graves ripped off a 42-yard touchdown run, his ninth of the season, with 2:03 to play to put Cal Poly up 55-41 seal the team’s seventh win even after UNC scored on more time. Graves finished his regular-season finale with 147 yards rushing and completed 14-of-15 passes for 191 yards and two more touchdowns.

“One hundred percent, it was a playoff mentality last week,” Graves, a sixth-year senior captain, said on Wednesday. “Win and we are in, lose and that’s the last time we get to play for sure on our home field and for the seniors, the last time most of us would play the game at all. It was a do or die situation and we went into it that way. Hopefully we can maintain that mentality every week throughout the playoffs.”

Cal Poly has been a dangerous matchup since joining and winning the league in 2012. Graves and former All-Big Sky quarterback Chris Brown battled for the right to replace standout signal caller Andre Broadus before the 2013 season. They rotated back and forth with Graves pushing Montana into overtime before losing 21-14 in Missoula. But an injury sidelined him, Brown took over and did not relinquish the starting role for most of the next two and a half seasons.

Cal Poly quarterback Dano Graves/by Robert Casey

Cal Poly quarterback Dano Graves/by Robert Casey

Before 2015, Graves made the difficult and now, in retrospect, wise decision to redshirt. The 2011 National Prep Player of the Year spent two years at the Air Force Prep Academy after graduating from Folsom High. He came to Cal Poly before the 2013 season, so he has been out of high school for six years now. Choosing to delay his senior year has paid huge dividends for the Mustangs.

“I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for a long time,” Graves said. “It was tough the last few seasons just watching and seeing the team not necessarily have the success everyone thought we could’ve had. It was a growing process for me and it gave me the opportunity to control my attitude in all situations and growing up and becoming a man.”

The savvy, elusive 5-foot-10, 181-pounder is the maestro for a Mustangs’ offense that averaged 36 points and 497 yards per game. Graves operated the triple option attack complete with added passing elements flawlessly at times as Cal Poly averaged six yards per rush and more than 16 yards per pass completion.

Graves himself rushed for 684 yards and nine touchdowns. He completed 66 percent of his passes for 1,445 yards and 17 more touchdowns. His quarterback efficiency rating of 187.4 would be the Big Sky’s best if he had enough attempts. In a league filled with prolific passers like Big Sky MVP Gage Gubrud of Eastern Washington, Brady Gustafson at Montana and Kyle Sloter at Northern Colorado, Graves emerged as the second-team All-Big Sky quarterback behind Gubrud, the unanimous first-team pick.

“Numbers drive everything when you look at all-conference and players of the year, but when you really talk about true value to who you are and what you are and to what your team is, there is no question we wouldn’t be where we are right now without Dano Graves,” Walsh said. “He makes decisions at the line of scrimmage that are accurate and on point and his overall leadership and work ethic, you can match it, but I don’t know if you can beat it.

“What he brings to the table for us is everything that every other number that is out there bring to there teams and if you are really putting a value tag on somebody, he is our most valuable player and therefore, one of the better players in our conference.”

San Diego comes to Spanos Stadium with a 9-1 record and on an eight-game winning streak. The Toreros’ lone loss came at Cal Poly on September 10. Cal Poly has won the previous five games in the in-state series. San Diego went undefeated in the Pioneer to claim the league title for the eighth time in 12 seasons. This is San Diego’s second playoff berth in three seasons — the Pioneer did not receive an auto-bid until before the 2014 season.

San Diego head coach Dale Lindsey, an NFL linebacker for nearly a decade in the 1960s/ Contributed

San Diego head coach Dale Lindsey, an NFL linebacker for nearly a decade in the 1960s/ Contributed

“Any time you have to play an opponent twice, it’s difficult,” Walsh said. “Coach (Dale) Lindsey has done a tremendous job of preparing for us the four or five times we have played them. It will be difficult to beat them twice. They are rolling right now. If you look at it, we played 11 grueling games to get to where we are. Their schedule allowed them to play some games in the third quarter where their guys were out and resting. That’s a healthy, rested football team we are going to play.”

Cal Poly rushed for 354 yards on 60 runs in the win in September, including 132 and two touchdowns from Protheroe and 98 and a score from Graves. The Mustang quarterback also threw a 57-yard touchdown to Kyle Lewis and a 27-yard scoring pass to Kori Garcia.

The Toreros lead the nation in scoring defense (12.1 points per game allowed), and total defense (249.6 yards per game). Take away the 484 yards and 38 points scored by Cal Poly and USD is giving up 220 yards and 9.2 points per game.

Senior running back Jonah Hodges has rushed for 1,190 yards and 15 touchdowns. Sophomore quarterback Anthony Lawrence is completing 69 percent of his passes for 2,515 yards, 22 touchdowns and just five interceptions. Junior defensive end Jonathan Petersen leads the USD defense with 11.5 sacks and 19.5 tackles for loss.

 “We expect a real quality football team to come up here with a chip on their shoulder,” Walsh said. “If we don’t play with that same playoff attitude, that’s on us.”

 Photos attributed. All Rights Reserved. 

 

About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

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