Ahhh, the Big Sky bye week (technically the “bye” week is officially called an open week, but everyone just calls it a bye week). Anyways I digress.
The past couple of seasons, Cal Poly has had either one or zero wins in the Big Sky before taking their week off of conference play. That’s true this season as well.
The bye week is usually a much needed break for the Mustangs. This season? Not necessarily.
The teams record in conference is 1-2, and the team has lost their last two games. There are questions surrounding the health of players every week. Seems like a great time to reset things.
Unfortunately the bye comes at a time where Cal Poly has been on a bit of a sun run, being essentially a couple plays away from upsetting UC Davis and Montana.
I wrote about the UC Davis game earlier in the month and while I won’t get into the Montana loss that in depth, it boiled down to maybe the worst second half in recent program history.
All of that to say, sitting at 3-4 overall and 1-2 in conference at roughly the midway point of the season is not all that bad.
Especially when you look at the schedule the Mustangs have played so far this season, my goodness. Utah is No. 23 in FBS, Stephen F. Austin has crept its way into the FCS rankings, Sacramento State was ranked at the time and is still receiving votes, UC Davis is currently ranked No. 6 and Montana is currently ranked No. 4
The two teams not mentioned were Division II Western Oregon and preseason favorites to win the Pioneer league San Diego.
After the bye Cal Poly gets No. 5 Montana State and No. 19 Northern Arizona, but the schedule should be friendlier than the first seven games.
That being said the Mustangs have a couple of question marks to answer during their week off.
Decide who is going to be under center for the rest of the year
Here is a positive stat, Cal Poly has one of the best air attacks in the FCS. They are 13th in yards per game with 265.
The rub? There are some question marks surrounding who is spinning the football on Saturdays. Ty Dieffenbach looked solid to start the season, but in his return from injury against Montana he looked uneven.
So uneven in fact, that the Mustangs turned to Bo Kelly to try and spark the offense. Kelly led the team in the win against Sacramento State, and the close loss to UC Davis. He did not provide much relief in what was ultimately a loss.
Where does Cal Poly go from here? That’s the number one question for the team to figure out over the bye week. The one thing that the Mustangs can’t do is run a two quarterback system again. Take Football Hall of Famer and Cal Poly alumni John Madden’s word for it, “If you have two quarterbacks you have none.”
Get the run game going
One thing that would alleviate pressure on that top passing attack is a consistent run game.
I have banged the drum on this since game one, there have been some good games on the ground. Cal Poly rushed for 111 yards on 18 carries against Montana. They also rushed 32 times for 69 yards against Stephen F. Austin.
When the ground game gains 120 yards or more, Cal Poly is 3-0. 120 rushing yards per game would be 94th in FCS, which is in the bottom 25% of FCS.
Third Down Woes
This might be a smaller problem than I am making it out to be, but the ability to stay on the field has reared its head in winnable games.
Against Montana it was a 2-14 mark on third downs, and against Stephen F. Austin it was a 4-17 showing. In both the defense wore down in the second half.
35% across the season isn’t a horrific mark, but it is bottom third in FCS.
