It would be foolish to believe that the Cal Poly offense will be anywhere near as good as they were last year.
Now that’s not a knock on the current players — it’s a testament to the absolute studs that Cal Poly lost after last season.
Former Mustangs wide receiver Tre’dale Tolver was good enough to earn a tryout with the Cleveland Browns at their rookie mini-camp this upcoming weekend. Tolver had a very solid career at Cal Poly as both a receiver and a return man.
When a receiver from a Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) team gets even a sniff at an NFL roster, that means they are generally among the best in their class. When an FCS receiver gets taken in the third round of the draft — they are simply amazing.
Nothing more needs to be said about Ramses Barden, who had not just one of the greatest careers in Cal Poly history, but in all of college football over the last four years.
Throw in the loss of FCS’ top rated passer in Jonathan Dally, running backs James Noble and Ryan Mole, and All-American offensive lineman Stephen Field, along with a completely new coaching staff and altered philosophy and the Mustangs have quite a reclamation project on offense.
That puts the pressure squarely on the transitioning Cal Poly defense. The Mustangs are replacing former coach Rich Ellerson’s flex defense with a more traditional 4-3 package.
Freshman linebacker Kenny Jackson is one of the young guns expected to help Cal Poly’s defense take the next step towards regaining the defensive prowess that saw players drafted in three consecutive years.
“We’re relatively young and basically those young guys got to step it up in the fall and look to those big guys to lead us and we can go real far,” he said.
If the Mustangs are to return to the national spotlight next year, the defense will be key.
Cal Poly released its football schedule last week, and let me say, new head coach Tim Walsh was true to his word.
Walsh said at his introductory press conference that in his tenure as head coach at Portland State that the Vikings played some quality opponents and that he wanted to challenge his Mustangs with a similar schedule.
He didn’t lie.
The Mustangs will face two Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) teams next season. While neither will have the marquee name of a Wisconsin, San Jose State and Ohio University are likely to be two stiff tests for the Mustangs on the road.
The FCS games aren’t much easier.
The Mustangs will travel to play at Montana, a team that beat Cal Poly last season and went on to the FCS national championship game.
In the final game of the regular season they will visit Weber State, the team that knocked Cal Poly out of the playoffs a year ago. The Wildcats gained 564 yards of total offense in that game including over 400 yards in the air.
The Mustangs are expecting things to change via their new scheme, but also with some young talent in the secondary including last season’s freshman of the year, cornerback Asa Jackson.
“The secondary is going to be good,” said defensive coordinator Greg Lupfer. “With Asa coming back, Xavier Gardner, David Fullerton, and on top of that you include (incoming freshmen) Xavier Ramos and Johnny Millard — there’s going to be some good talent back there.”
Lupfer isn’t the only believer in the new defense. Junior quarterback Tony Smith who is expected to fight for the starting job in the fall said that the defense will play well.
“Our defense will take care of us and put us in good situations and we’ll do the best we can to put them in good situations,” he said.
Fullerton conceded that this season would be more difficult for the defense with key losses on both sides of the ball including defensively when captain and linebacker Fred Hives II graduated.
“It’s rough when your offense is the No. 1 offense in the nation and then you lose all your guys, but one of our goals coming into defense is to limit other teams to 17 points,” he said. “We feel like if we do that, we’ll win some games out here.”
Win or lose, next season looks to be the beginning of a new chapter in Cal Poly’s rich football history.
Scott Silvey is a journalism senior and the Mustang Daily Sports Editor. Mustang Daily staff writer Clinton McGue contributed to this report.