Cal Poly football has PSU flavor

Published 12:00 am Thursday, October 18, 2012

When Cal Poly plays host to Portland State Saturday night in San Luis Obispo, it will be an emotional time for Tim Walsh.

Right?

“I’ve not tried to play it down,” says Walsh, the fourth-year Cal Poly head coach who ran the PSU program from 1993-2006. “But I have a philosophy on that.

“The game is for the players. It’s our 2012 team playing (the Vikings’) 2012 team.”

Going against his former school “is in the back of your mind, but the emotional part of it is where we are at this point in our season.”

For Cal Poly, it’s a comely spot. The Mustangs are 6-0 and ranked 12th in the FCS in their first Big Sky year.

After going 4-7, 7-4 and 6-5 in his first three seasons, Walsh appears to be establishing the program he envisioned at Cal Poly. The Mustangs are averaging 38.2 points in the triple-option offense that Walsh embraced during his second and final season as offensive coordinator at Army in 2008.

“We’re pretty good,” Walsh says.

A big part of that is quarterback Andre Broadous, the 6-foot, 210-pound senior out of Grant High. He has passed for 605 yards and nine touchdowns and rushed for 292 yards and four TDs.

“Andre is the catalyst,” Walsh says. “His numbers aren’t as good as a year ago, but he has more of a target on his chest. In our offense, the quarterback has to make progression decisions instantly in the option game. You have to decide to give (the ball) to the fullback or pull it out.

“He has done a tremendous job operating the offense. He has unselfishly distributed the ball to a lot of guys.”

Last Saturday in a 56-28 rout of Northern Colorado, Broadous ran for 68 yards and completed 9 of 12 passes for 195 yards and a pair of scores. Cal Poly is averaging fewer than 13 passes a game.

“When we throw, we’re pretty efficient,” Walsh says.

Slotback Deonte Williams is Cal Poly’s other big offensive weapon. The 5-10, 205-pound senior has rushed for 757 yards and nine TDs. The Big Sky offensive freshman of the year at Northern Arizona in 2008, he transferred to Sierra (Calif.) College the next year, then signed with San Diego State, but didn’t qualify academically. Williams wound up at Cal Poly and has become the Big Sky’s No. 2 rusher.

Cal Poly beat Wyoming — the preseason pick to finish third in the FBS Mountain West — 24-22 at Laramie in its second game Sept. 15.

“That has a lot to do with our success,” Walsh says. “Our confidence level went far up after that game.”

The Mustangs were supposed to be pretty good this season, but not this good.

“If you’d asked me in July if we’d be 6-0 at this point, I’d say probably not,” Walsh says. “We’re way ahead of pace, so to speak. Now we’re going to try to keep the streak alive.”

Walsh has four assistant coaches with deep Portland ties. Three of them played for him at Portland State — Saga Tuitele (co-offensive coordinator/line), Juston Wood (wide receivers) and Neil Fendall (secondary). A fourth, Aristotle Thompson (slotbacks/recruiting coordinator), is a former star tailback at Jesuit High.

“For them, I’m sure there’s some emotion involved with this game,” Walsh says. “And I know Andre is fired up. He knows a lot of those (Portland State players). He wishes the game were being played in Portland.”

I always thought Walsh was underappreciated during his time at Portland State, when the Vikings were 90-68 and always competitive despite being underfunded and with facilities less than ideal. It’s not an easy place to win. Walsh’s successor, Nigel Burton, has found that out, though he has improved his chances by upgrading facilities and working hard at recruiting in-state.

Now Walsh, 57, has re-invented himself running the triple-option at Cal Poly. He might not admit it, but I’ll bet there’ll be more than a little emotion on his part Saturday night as he goes against the program he coached for so many years.

kerryeggers@portlandtribune.com Twitter: @kerryeggers