Mustang Daily Staff Report
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The Big Sky Conference announced Wednesday the selection of head coach Tim Walsh as the Co-Coach of the Year, sharing the honor with Eastern Washington’s Beau Baldwin.
Walsh, who has coached the Mustangs to a 26-18 record in his four seasons at Cal Poly, celebrated his first coach of the year honor. Before his tenure at Cal Poly, Walsh spent 14 seasons as a head coach at Portland State, 11 of which were in the Big Sky. As a head coach, he has achieved an overall record of 143-101 in 22 seasons.
Achieving a perfect record in its first seven games of the season, the Cal Poly football team now has a 9-2 overall record, going 7-1 in the Big Sky.
Most recently, the team clinched a share of the Big West title when it defeated Northern Arizona 42-34. Both Cal Poly and Eastern Washington shared the regular-season title with Montana State, which went 7-1 in conference and 10-1 overall.
Rushing for a total of 3,343 yards, the Mustangs set a single-season Big Sky rushing record and rank third in the nation for rushing yards per game with an average of 334.3.
Also, for the first time in Cal Poly history, seniors running back Deonte Williams and linebacker Kennith Jackson have been selected to the All-Big Sky Conference first team. In addition, defensive tackle Sullivan Grosz and outside linebacker Johnny Millard earned spots on the all-conference second team. Eleven other Mustangs also have received honorable mentions.
The Mustangs will hope to put their awards to the test as they travel to Sam Houston State on Saturday for the second round of playoffs.
Jefferson P. Nolan contributed to this article.