After a promising start to the season, the 2025 season is quickly turning into a nightmare for Cal Poly Football.
Cal Poly lost their fifth straight game on Saturday, this time to Idaho State 27-17 inside the ICCU Dome in Pocatello, Idaho.
Their season continued to spiral against the Bengals (4-6, 3-3 Big Sky), as the Mustangs (3-7, 1-5 Big Sky) haven’t collected a win since Sept. 27 when they defeated a ranked Sacramento State squad to open Big Sky play.
In that losing streak the Mustangs have lost to three ranked squads, but lost their last time out to a winless Portland State team that was dead in the water heading into their matchup.
Unlike the past couple of weeks, Cal Poly stuck with one quarterback for the entirety of the game. That would be Ty Dieffenbach, whose success in that Portland State loss earned him the job under center on Saturday.
It has been almost expected that head coach Paul Wulff would turn to the two-quarterback system with Bo Kelly, but that was not the case against Idaho State.
The Bengals were able to take the lead on the opening drive and go wire-to-wire in front of their home crowd.
Familiar problems would cause issues for the Mustangs, mainly the lack of rushing attack from the lead backs. Dieffenbach led the team in rushing with 142 yards, which was almost as many as his 172 yards through the air.
It was Dieffenbach who got Cal Poly on the board, ending a 17-yard dash by powering through a Bengal defender at the goal line.
That touchdown was all the Mustangs could muster offensively until garbage time. Idaho State took a 21-7 lead into the halftime break, where the Cal Poly defense rallied and held them to just a pair of field goals the rest of the way.
Wide receiver Fidel Pitts hauled in a 15-yard touchdown pass, but at that point it was too late for Cal Poly to really threaten the Bengals.
Cal Poly went a measly 4-for-14 on third down conversions, but were able to convert all four of their fourth down attempts.
Michael Briscoe was a frequent target of Dieffenbach, collecting five catches for 81 yards. Briscoe has not found the endzone since Sept. 20 against Stephen F. Austin, but he remains tied for second in the conference with seven on the season.
The Mustangs have two more games on the schedule with a shot at the playoffs looking highly unlikely. Before the finale at home against Eastern Washington, Cal Poly will head to the Copper State to take on Northern Arizona, Saturday Nov. 15 at 5 p.m.
