Cal Poly’s football team is doing something the program hasn’t seen in years, and that’s winning games. The Mustangs started the season 2-0, surprising some. But over the weekend, the Mustangs played their first road game and fell to FBS opponent San Jose State.
“It was a good game,” quarterback Anthony Grigsby Jr. said. “Obviously it didn’t end the way we wanted to. But we knew going into it that it was going to be a lot closer than everybody on the outside thought.”
Cal Poly competes at the FCS level in the Big Sky Conference, while San Jose State plays at the FBS level in the Mountain West Conference. But to Grigsby Jr., the label doesn’t matter. Grigsby said Cal Poly knows it can compete with anyone, regardless of the level of football or the opponent across the field.
“Yeah, we didn’t win the game, but we proved we have the ability to play on that level,” he said.
The Mustangs came up short, with San Jose State exposing some weaknesses in Cal Poly’s offense, starting with the lack of production on the ground compared with the passing game.
“It is a little harder when you’re playing against an FBS opponent because I know they have a lot more; they’re known for just being bigger in the trenches, so for us to not be able to establish a run game early on, that kind of hindered us just later on and just down the road during that game. So going into the future, I know we’re going to predominantly focus on just establishing that run game.”
Cal Poly was held to just 91 rushing yards while Grigsby threw for a total of 249 yards. As Cal Poly prepares for its homecoming game against San Diego on Saturday, head coach Tim Skipper said all facets of the team’s play need to be fine-tuned before kickoff.
“We won’t stop working on every aspect, everything,” Skipper said. “As soon as you think something is exactly where you want it, you’re gonna lose it, so we’re just gonna keep on working.”
