It was their worst nightmare. But when Cal Poly football players and coaches take the field against Iona in their season finale, they will be looking not only to give departing seniors a positive last memory, but also to awake from some of their pain from last week’s 19-point, fourth-quarter Homecoming collapse to North Dakota State which dealt a devastating blow to the team’s playoff hopes.
So heartrending was his team’s loss (in which the Mustangs surrendered a 28-9 lead with just more than 10 minutes to go on three Bison touchdown drives totaling eight plays in 79 seconds to fall 31-28) that head coach Rich Ellerson told reporters after the game that he ought to have been fired.
“I took accountability for the game,” Ellerson said. “The players won’t let me get away with that. If either (the coaching staff or the players) gives up, we’re doomed, but we’re not doomed because we have everyone trying to fall on their own swords.”
Ellerson’s observance of the team’s players largely taking the loss upon themselves seems to be supported by most of the team’s reactions to his remark.
“Whatever the case, that doesn’t excuse giving up big plays,” said junior defensive end Sean Lawyer, who admitted he was a “little surprised” by his head coach’s post-game statement. “It was very nice of him to take the blame, but I know in my heart we had the game in our hands.”
The defensive breakdowns, Ellerson said, could’ve been averted had the coaching staff more thoroughly emphasized the different principles of assignments given after surging ahead by such a suddenly commanding margin.
“Defensively, to compete we had to be aggressive and play over our heads,” Ellerson said. “But when it became a three-possession game, it changed, and we didn’t transition to keep them in front of us. Things got said but not coached.”
While the defense gave up the lightning-quick scores, the Mustangs offense kept the ball on the ground, passing just four times in 23 plays leading up to the Bison’s go-ahead touchdown, a span in which Cal Poly held the ball for 11 minutes and 40 seconds yet failed to offensively net any points.
“I don’t think from a coaching standpoint we let up too soon,” said junior quarterback Jonathan Dally, who finished with 25 carries for 122 yards and completed 14 of 23 passes for 181 yards and three scores, yet also two interceptions, both of which came in the red zone. “He’s not going to point fingers. Good coaches don’t do that. Any exaggerations or extremity (on Ellerson’s part) just show the passion he has.”
Alison Cone, Cal Poly’s athletics director, pointed to the program’s recent, unprecedented success and off-the-field excellence as reasons why Ellerson’s job should be – and is – secure.
“He was devastated by the loss,” said Cone, who added that the seventh-year head coach said what he did “in order to deflect the blame from the players and other coaches” after the loss. “The football program has had five winning seasons in a row. You have to look back to the ’80s to see that. From the academic standards to the competitiveness, so many good things are going on.”
That competitiveness will be put to the test when the Mustangs (6-4, 2-2 Great West Conference) host Iona (7-3, 2-1 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) at 1:05 p.m. Saturday, hoping that their Senior Day will lend itself toward more comfortable memories than their Homecoming a week ago.
“For a lot of the players, it’ll be their last chance to play the game – it’s not like tennis,” said Ellerson, who admitted that the “disheartening loss” rendered the team’s chances of being awarded a playoff berth slim to none, regardless of Saturday’s contest. “We have to be our most excited to play. If that angst or anger (from last week) helps to heal that hole in our chest, then by all means, we’ll use it.”
Junior wide receiver Tredale Tolver looks to be one of many Mustangs to do just that.
“The best way to exercise our frustrations is to come out this weekend and play like madmen,” Tolver said. “It’s a reason to come out and play even better, with more passion.”
Iona itself is coming off of a similarly crushing loss, falling to Marist 17-14 a week ago to finish in a three-way tie in its mid-major conference, likely missing the playoffs as well.
The Gaels, though, the fifth-ranked mid-major in the latest Sports Network poll, enter the season conclusion boasting the No. 1 defense in the Football Championship Subdivision.
“We’re going out there to play good football, not to go on vacation,” said Iona head coach Fred Mariani, who compared the challenge Cal Poly’s No. 2 offense poses to that of top-25 New Hampshire, which beat the Gaels 49-21 Oct. 13. “I don’t believe you can completely stop (Cal Poly’s offense) with all those weapons.”
The FCS-best Iona defensive squad given the task of impeding that offense is led by senior inside linebacker Adam Lipski, who has a team-high 92 tackles on the year, including 17.5 for losses. As a team, the Gaels defense, which allows just 254.1 yards per outing, averages an FCS-leading 9.6 tackles-for-losses a game.
Offensively, the New Rochelle, N.Y. school’s 54th-ranked unit depends on senior running back Dane Samuels, who is fifth in the subdivision in all-purpose yards at 189.9 per game, nearly 130 more than the team’s next-closest playmaker, senior wide receiver DeMarcus White, who has a team-high 46 catches for 585 yards and six touchdowns on the season.
Five of the Mustangs’ 16 seniors – defensive ends Louis Shepherd and Adam Torosian, linebacker Jason Relyea, cornerback Michael Maye and free safety Mark Cordes – start for a defensive outfit that will try to rattle sophomore quarterback Nick Rossetti, who has thrown for 172.6 yards per game en route to compiling a 14-to-10 touchdown-to-interception ratio.
“If last week would’ve been our last game, it would’ve been bad, but we do have a good team and a good game coming here, so it could end on a good note for our seniors,” Lawyer said. “We need to go out and re-establish ourselves.”
Though the offense only loses one starter, guard Daniel Bradley, called by Tolver “one of the hungriest players on the team,” such importance of the seniors’ final game is felt throughout the whole team.
“We have to put last week behind us and play more than our best game,” Dally said.
Tolver, who played at the prep level at San Diego’s Mira Mesa High, represented a gratitude for the graduating class felt throughout the locker room, exemplified by his admiration of Relyea, whom he formed a relationship with dating back to the defensive captain’s days as a star running back at nearby Poway High.
“He wasn’t big on talk, but he was big on action,” Tolver said.
Such sentiments, Tolver added, should be kept in mind Saturday.
“It was a bit of a roller coaster year with some ups and downs,” he said. “But we have to finish the last game strong and get ready for next year.”
