Burton De Koning and his fellow linebackers like to call Cal Poly “Linebacker U.” Sure, they are well aware that the adage is most similarly associated with Penn State or Miami. But Cal Poly’s current group of linebackers do it to remind themselves of the past standouts who came before them.
“There’s definitely a prestigious standard here for linebackers,” the Cal Poly senior captain said. “Being a linebacker here, being a starter, that’s definitely something you can take with pride because you know that the guys have come before you have done great things, both at Cal Poly and at the next level. We definitely want to take that torch keep that legacy going.”
Nick Dzubnar
Big Sky Conference fans best remember Cal Poly standouts Nick Dzubnar and Cameron Ontko. Last season, Dzubnar was the captain middle linebacker and a tackling machine in the middle of Cal Poly’s defense. He led the FCS with 167 tackles last season to earn All-America honors. He’s now a backup for the San Diego Chargers. Ontko, a Wisconsin transfer, was an intimidating presence with his physical play next to Dzubnar. The 6-foot-2, 230-pounder piled up more than 100 tackles to earn first-team All-Big Sky honors. He’s now with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League.
Between 2004 and 2006, when Cal Poly was a member of the Great West and the Mustangs were running Rich Ellerson’s famed ‘Flex’ defense, three straight Cal Poly linebackers won the Buck Buchanan Award given to the best defensive player in the FCS.
In 2004, Jordan Beck piled up a school-record 135 tackles en route to the Buck. He was a third-round draft pick by the Atlanta Falcons and spent four total seasons in the NFL.
In 2005, Chris Gocong set an FCS record with 23.5 sacks from his hybrid outside spot and led all of Division I football with 31 tackles for loss in taking home the Buck. He finished with an NCAA career record of 42 sacks. He was a third-round draft pick by the Eagles and played in Philadelphia for four seasons before spending three more with the Cleveland Browns.
In 2006, Kyle Shotwell followed up a junior year in which he broke Beck’s single-season tackle record with 158 by notching 122 tackles, 21 tackles for loss, seven sacks and three forced fumbles to claim the Buck. Shotwell was an undrafted free agent that received contracts from five NFL teams but never appeared in a game.
Kennith Jackson
In 2012, Kennith Jackson earned first-team All-Big Sky honors by leading Cal Poly to a share of the Big Sky crown with Montana State and Eastern Washington. He earned a tryout with the Oakland Raiders. In 2013, Johnny Millard earned second-team All-Big Sky honors and signed a free agent contract with the St. Louis Rams.
Since 1980, nine Cal Poly linebackers have earned NFL or CFL contracts, including seven in the last decade.
“At Cal Poly, we have big standards for the linebackers,” said Tu’Uta Inoke, Cal Poly’s senior starting middle linebacker. “I remember my freshman year, I came in as a quarterback so I had no experience on defense and had never played linebacker in my life. Coming in and watching film and seeing how those who came before me did it has really helped me. They played with speed, they played with physicality. They were great players. There’s big standards here with Cal Poly for the linebackers unit.”
Cal Poly’s new trio of linebackers have done their best to live up to the legacy while enduring a brutal non-conference schedule. De Koning is playing in Ontko’s spot on the strong side. The athletic 6-foot-3, 230-pounder has 17 tackles, two tackles for loss and a sack, notched in Cal Poly’s 35-21 loss at Arizona State. Inoke has been a jackhammer in the middle, bulldozing his way to 16 tackles in a season-opening 20-19 win over Montana in Missoula. The 6-foot-2, 248-pounder former quarterback now leads Cal Poly with 29 tackles, including two for loss.
Joe Gigantino, a 6-foot-2, 230-pound junior, was the Northern California Defensive Player of the Year at Bellarmine Prep but he’s struggled to come back from a broken leg suffered in 2013. Now he’s the main man at the third linebacker spot that De Koning and Inoke split time at last season next to Ontko and Dzubnar. Gigantino has 22 tackles and a team-high three tackles for loss as Cal Poly brings a 1-2 record and a two-game losing streak to Bozeman to face at No. 15 Montana State on Saturday afternoon.
Tu’Uta Inoke
“To me, the linebackers look the same as in the past,” Montana State ninth-year head coach Rob Ash said. “They get smart guys who are fast. They recruit well. They have a beautiful place to recruit to, a great school. They have great talent on their team. They are a very well-coached football team, very sound.”
Cal Poly head coach Tim Walsh knew he had three capable athletes waiting in the wings when Dzubnar and Ontko moved on. Gigantino had 12 sacks his senior year, including two in the California Division I state title game for his San Jose-based prep school. He was a Division I first-team All-State selection. Inoke led the city of Sacramento in rushing yards by piling up 2,325 and scoring 19 touchdowns as a senior in high school. His nine 100-yard and four 200-yard rushing games earned him Metropolitan Conference MVP honors.
De Koning, a former Nevada transfer, is the best athlete of the bunch and may be one of the most versatile athletes in the Big Sky. When Chris Ault retired at Nevada, De Koning wanted some new scenery. Former Folsom High standouts like Dano Graves, Carson McMurtrey and Stephen Sippel were at Cal Poly. That coupled with San Luis Obispo’s almost perfect weather and the opportunity to play baseball again led him to Cal Poly.
Last summer, Walsh allowed De Koning to play for the SLO Blues, a member of the prestigious California Collegiate League, one of the top wood bat and flat seam baseball summer leagues in the country.
Burton De Koning – Brooks Nuanez
“Oh, he’s an athlete, Burton is an athlete and if he had his way, he would’ve played baseball the last couple of years but we let him play this summer because if football doesn’t work out, he might want to give baseball another swing,” Walsh said. “To not play baseball almost four years and to step into that wood bat league and the teams have pitchers from Stanford and UCLA and hit .300, that’s not bad.”
Last summer, De Koning hit .304 with 17 hits and six walks in 66 plate appearances. He ripped six extra-base hits, including a pair of triples and he drove in 10 runs in 22 games. The outfielder also provides great range from his centerfield and rightfield positions. It took De Koning some time to adjust to 95-mile per hour fastballs and curveballs substantially sharper than he saw in his high school days. But toward the end of the season, he found a groove that he hopes he can find again once football is finished.
“The love for the game stuck with me and I wanted to come back and give it another shot,” De Koning said. “Sure enough, I played on the Division I summer team this summer in San Luis Obispo, played with guys from all over the nation and ended up hitting fourth-best on the team. I proved I could play the game at a high level even after time off.”
Junior defensive tackle Marcus Paige-Allen in the anchor of Cal Poly’s defensive front and junior safety B.J. Nard has proven to be a stalwart in the secondary. But the linebackers will be Cal Poly’s key in their Big Sky opener against explosive Montana State.
Cal Poly celebrates a turnover against Montana 2015 – Brooks Nuanez
Stark question marks still exist for a Bobcat defense that gave up 55 points in less than 22 minutes of possession to Eastern Washington in a five-point loss last week. But the Montana State offense looks locked and loaded after running 104 plays for 718 yards, notching 40 first downs and scoring 50 points over the last 45 minutes of game time.
Cal Poly’s defense looked smothering in Missoula and solid until the fourth quarter in Tempe. Last week, Northern Iowa used its potent zone-read option attack to rush for 204 yards, including three quick first-quarter drives to build a 21-0 lead in the 34-20 victory. MSU quarterback Dakota Prukop and the Bobcats are zone-read specialists so Cal Poly will have to adjust on Saturday.
“We played really well on defense the first two weeks but last week we were not any good,” Walsh said. “If we play like we did against Northern Iowa, Dakota Prukop and company will give us a lot more than we want. It starts with our front seven. They have to set the tone.”
Photos courtesy of Cal Poly Athletics unless otherwise noted. All Rights Reserved.
