Rich Ellerson’s not a mind reader. Still, the head coach of the Cal Poly football team had a pretty good idea Monday what the focus of the school’s weekly athletics news conference at Mott Gym would be.
“Yes, we have another bye,” he said, beginning a rapid-fire satire while reporters situated their microphones and recorders before asking any questions. “Yes, it’s a positive. Yes, it’ll be fine.”
He’s had plenty of recent experience providing those kinds of answers, and more than enough reason to anticipate inquiries of the same nature.
After all, the Mustangs, whose third-week meeting with McNeese State in Lake Charles, La. was canceled due to Hurricane Ike, are beginning their third bye week over a five-week period, leaving the program with its first regular season featuring fewer than 11 games since moving to the Football Championship Subdivision (then Division I-AA) level in 1994.
“It’s definitely a different kind of season,” Cal Poly junior defensive end Ryan Shotwell said. “To have three (byes) is really unusual.”
Mustangs senior linebacker Fred Hives II even called the trio of off dates an “unheard of” occurrence.
“It would definitely have to be the most unusual season I’ve been a part of,” he said. “Having three bye weeks, I’ve never seen that before.”
A typical 11-game schedule was hard enough to string together before the season even started. The causes were numerous and varied. The Mustangs play in the FCS state with the fewest FCS teams per capita – and a part of the state that is not easy to travel to. Sacramento State ducked renewing a non-conference series that spanned from 1983 to 2006 after Cal Poly soundly won its last four installments. And five consecutive seasons with at least seven wins, coupled with 10 starters returning from a 2007 offense that finished behind only national champion Appalachian State led to a handful of top-15 rankings that surely scared some would-be sparring partners off.
Consequently, Cal Poly – which contacted every FCS team in the country, athletic director Alison Cone said – found itself looking ahead to two Football Bowl Subdivision (I-A) foes and one in transition from Division II.
The same problems that existed before the season were complicated with the rest of the country already playing, making midseason efforts to fill Saturday’s open date unsuccessful.
Needing at least seven wins against fully-fledged Division I competition for playoff consideration, Cal Poly’s urgency heading into its opportunities was intensified by McNeese State’s cancellation.
But the Mustangs (3-1), ranked No. 7 in both the FCS coaches and Sports Network media polls, are staying upbeat.
“Unlike the first (bye), we anticipated this one,” Ellerson said. “Unlike the last one, we didn’t necessarily want to have a bye this week.”
Even so, it could be fortuitous heading into an Oct. 18 match-up at No. 23/25 South Dakota State (3-3), also entering a bye week.
“The silver lining on this is that it allows us to prepare for the stretch and go into the stretch as well conditioned, as strong and as healthy as any team in the country,” Ellerson added.
Last year, the Mustangs fell to the Jackrabbits 48-35 – also in Brookings, S.D. – as Cory Koenig rushed for 259 yards, the second-most by an opponent in Cal Poly history.
“A year ago they beat us up,” Ellerson said. “Some of the things that were a challenge in that game were a challenge the other night.”
He was referring to Saturday’s 49-22 win over South Dakota at Alex G. Spanos Stadium, where the Mustangs allowed a 14-play, 98-yard touchdown drive in the second quarter, yielded 447 total yards, didn’t have any sacks and surrendered 15 fourth-quarter points.
Cal Poly’s offense kept putting its defense back on the field, as five of its seven touchdown drives took five or fewer plays.
“We’re not going to do anything to slow our offense down,” Ellerson said. “If the defense is tired, all they’ve got to do is stop them and they can get a break.
“Our offense is not designed to get first downs – it’s designed to get touchdowns,” he added. “We have to learn to deal with that. What we need to do is raise our level of play consistently on defense.”
The Mustangs entered last week leading the country in sacks per game, with five, and recorded two takeaways.
“I like where we’re at,” Hives explained. “I like the fact we’re still growing and we haven’t reached our potential yet.”
The recent quick-strike tendencies of the offense, Hives said, have posed a new challenge, but also a little entertainment.
“We’ll walk over to the bench and (soon) hear the crowd go crazy,” he laughed. “It’s kind of like, ‘Can you take a little bit more time to score?’ But at the same time it’s so fun and exciting to watch.”
Shotwell wouldn’t have it any other way, either.
“Defensively, we really thrive on it and want to get the ball back in the offense’s hands,” he said. “Putting that many points up early puts the other team in a position where they’re playing from behind. It really narrows down what they can do offensively.”
Having another week off before a “crucial part of the season” and what could amount to a “one-game playoff,” Shotwell said, could be a “blessing and advantage,” even if it wasn’t expected to be the third of its kind.
“We have a serious chip on our shoulder for this game,” he explained. “We remember last year very vividly.”