For Poly football team, 3 of a kind will not be forgotten

As hard as it is to believe, they were all on the field at the same time in 2004.

And at the end of their collegiate careers, Cal Poly linebackers Jordan Beck (2004) and Kyle Shotwell (2006) and defensive end Chris Gocong (2005) had all won Buck Buchanan Awards as the top defensive players in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA).

Cal Poly head coach Rich Ellerson reflected April 10 on what the bunch meant to his program.

“How did we ever lose a game?” Ellerson said with a laugh of the 2004 season. “My hope is that in a couple years we’re talking about (other) guys. We still have those kinds of people, dreams and aspirations floating around.”

The Mustangs finished 9-2 in 2004, the second of four straight winning seasons. But it wasn’t until 2005 that the program reached – and won a game in – the I-AA playoffs for the first time.

Both Beck and Gocong parlayed their senior seasons into appearances in the East-West Shrine Game and invitations to the NFL Scouting Combine before being chosen in the third round of the NFL Draft in consecutive years.

Both players also had to spend their rookie seasons on injured reserve, Beck with the Atlanta Falcons after suffering a broken left foot while returning an interception in a preseason game and Gocong with the Philadelphia Eagles after incurring a stinger/arm injury 11 days into training camp.

Beck, though, had 13 tackles (11 solo) in 15 games last season. He is now listed on the Falcons’ depth chart as the team’s starting middle linebacker. Gocong, meanwhile, is slated to compete for the stating strongside linebacker job in Philadelphia.

Ellerson deflects praise for the unprecedented run of three straight Buchanan winners from himself to the program.

“I’m not sure that I take any special pride in that,” Ellerson said. “I’ve been blessed to have that quality of guy. We play a system where we put guys in position to make plays and both of those guys – Kyle and Jordan – played the same (middle linebacker) position. That position, if we play well on defense, is going to garner a lot.”

One day after taking the award in December 2006, Shotwell was as relieved as anything else.

“I was kind of relieved because I wasn’t the guy who broke the tradition at Cal Poly,” Shotwell said. “I wanted to keep the streak alive.”

Shotwell said he felt the award became a possibility following the performance of his collegiate career in Cal Poly’s 16-14 win at San Diego State on Oct. 28, 2006. He had 12 tackles (11 solo, five for loss), four sacks and a forced fumble in that game, the Mustangs’ first win over a I-A team since a 34-13 rout at UTEP in 2003.

“Going into the games, the Buchanan is not something you think about,” Shotwell said. “Going into the season, I thought if I can play my best, I’d have a shot. After the San Diego State game, it kind of made me realize that it catapulted me into a front-runner for this thing. Toward the end of the season, you start thinking about it a little more.”

Shotwell shared Ellerson’s sense of wonder that all three Buchanan winners – along with future standout nose tackle Chris White and free safety Kenny Chicoine – were all on the field together in 2004.

“It’s crazy to think we were on the field at the same time,” Shotwell said. “If you look back at that year, we had an amazing defense. We didn’t know exactly how good we were back then. That was a pretty exciting time to be playing defense at Cal Poly.”

That mantra of team defense is something preached by Ellerson, whose coaching staff employs a double-eagle flex scheme that goes from a 3-4 to a 5-2 front during the course of a game.

But it’s the players executing that scheme, Ellerson said, who make it work.

“Whenever you listen to those guys talk about the award, they talk about it in the context of the team and I do as well,” Ellerson said. “They’re really close friends. They shared the same goals, dreams and aspirations and leaned on one another in the hard times.”