Entering its inaugural season in the Big Sky Conference, the Cal Poly football team was picked to finish fifth by both the media and the coaches in the 2012 preseason polls. The polls were released last week at the Big Sky Conference Summer Football Kickoff in Park City, Utah.
Earning 30 of the 40 first-place votes in the media poll and seven in the coaches poll, defending co-champion Montana State was selected to capture the 2012 Big Sky title.
The Mustangs, who shared the Great West Conference title with North Dakota a year ago, are expected to finish behind Montana State, Eastern Washington, Montana and Portland State. Cal Poly finished with a 6-5 record last season under fourth-year head coach Tim Walsh, but failed to make the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoffs.
The Mustangs lost a lot of firepower from that team, heading into this year without key players such as fullback Jake Romanelli, or — most notably — cornerback Asa Jackson. But Jackson, who just started his professional career with the Baltimore Ravens, said the team is still poised to make a run in its new conference.
“I know the boys and the coaches won’t be satisfied with that ranking, and they shouldn’t be,” Jackson said. “We have great players on both sides of the ball who are ready to have a huge year for the program.”
It would be a huge year against new competition. Four teams from the Great West — Cal Poly, UC Davis, North Dakota and Southern Utah — were added to the Big Sky for football in 2012, expanding the conference to 13 teams and establishing it as one of the toughest leagues in the FCS.
In the fall, Cal Poly will return seven starters — four on offense and three on defense. Highlighting the returning class will be senior quarterback Andre Broadous, junior linebacker Johnny Millard and senior linebacker Kennith Jackson.
As the centerpiece of the offense in his junior year, Broadous threw for 1,235 yards with nine touchdowns while rushing for 646 yards and a school-record 18 touchdowns. The Portland, Ore. product earned second-team All-Great West Conference honors and has been placed on the College Football Performance Awards quarterback watch list for 2012. He has thrown just one interception in 235 career passing attempts at Cal Poly.
An integral part to the defensive side of the ball and a first-team All-Great West honoree last season, Jackson was recently named to the Beyond Sports Network Football Championship Subdivision Preseason All-American third team. He was Cal Poly’s second-leading tackler last season with 80 tackles and two interceptions, earning him preseason All-Big Sky honors.
“He’s a big piece of our defense and the kid plays with a great passion on the field,” Millard said of Jackson. “He sets the tone and it’s good to have a guy like that, especially right next to you (at linebacker).”
Those players will not play against arguably the two best teams in the Big Sky this year, Montana and Montana State, and their Nov. 3 matchup at 2010 national champion Eastern Washington will be counted as a non-conference contest. Their game against Portland State will be the only conference game against a team picked to finish ahead of them in the standings.
“I definitely think we’ve got the talent to be higher than that,” Millard said of Cal Poly’s billing to finish fifth in the standings. “We’re not really worried about preseason rankings; they’re not always correct, but it gives us more motivation. In order to be one of the top teams in the Big Sky we’ve got to be consistent and we got to start and finish games hard.”
Cal Poly will begin its season on Sept. 1 with a non-conference home game against San Diego at 4:05 p.m., and will travel to their lone Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) opponent Wyoming, of the Mountain West Conference, the following week.
In contrast to previous years’ four-game conference schedule, the Mustangs will play four conference games on the road and four at home this season.
The first of those conference games, however, will be a familiar one. They’ll square off against UC Davis at Alex G. Spanos Stadium on Sept. 22nd. It’ll be a chance for revenge for the Mustangs, as UC Davis has beaten Cal Poly in each of the last three installments of the Battle for the Golden Horseshoe. The Mustangs will look to reverse that trend this season.
“There’s gonna be a lot of excitement around the game not only because it’s Davis, but because it’s our first conference game,” Millard said.
Each of the Mustangs’ remaining games — with the exception of the Eastern Washington matchup — will be a conference contest. Cal Poly’s three remaining Big Sky contests are set for Oct. 13 against Northern Colorado, Oct. 20 against Portland State, and Nov. 10 against Idaho State. Northern Colorado and Idaho State combined won one game in conference play last year.
“If we could put all four quarters together we should be pretty hard to beat, but we got to be able to do that if we want to have a good season this year,” Broadous said.
The Mustangs will begin fall camp on Aug. 6th.
— Brittany Woodard contributed to this article.