SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Tim Walsh, who guided Cal Poly's football program to a Big Sky Conference championship in 2012 and a pair of NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision playoff berths, announced his retirement Monday after 11 seasons at the helm.
I think the success of UC Davis last season and Sac State this season gives Cal Poly fans hope that we can turn it around quickly IF we hire the right coach
I would steer clear of UNLV. They haven’t been relevant in years. Maybe playing in a new stadium is a recruit draw but I can’t see them being a good program anytime soon. Jay Hill would be a stronger candidate
Poly's job should be attractive to alot of coaches. they have had success at this level, just have really scuffled the past 3 years (well, at least 2 of the 3 years). next year will be a transition going from the option type offense to something more modern, similar to what Hawkins faced. They should be able to recruit in Central and Southern California. Facilities are good, great campus, decent support.
i wonder if anyone on their boards are calling for a return of Rich Ellerson? They did have alot of success with him, albeit pre-Big Sky.
Someone mention trying to pull Kris Richardson from Troy Taylor’s Sac State staff to run the spread. Only one year college coaching experience, but it might work.
I was a huge Ellerson fan, but other than maybe having him back to run the defense, I would rather go in a different direction.
Saga Tuitele spent 7 years at Cal Poly as OL coach and OC for 2 years. He spent the past 4 years at New Mexico as OL/run game coordinator. Davies was let go yesterday so he is most likely looking for a job. Would be a good choice if they wanted to continue to run the triple option.
Saga’s 2 years as OC at Cal Poly the offense averaged 34 points and 480 yard of offense a game. His offense had no resemblance to the offense the last 3 years.
if I were a Poly fan (and obviously I am not) I would want the new HC to move away from the TO. Dive the left, keep to the right, stand up, sit down, fight -fight-fight gets real old to watch and I don’t think potential recruits are going to want to be in a system like that - certainly receivers, QBs, and skill position types. Most teams that run TO are service academies and the line who cannot recruit the top talent and rely on executing an offense most others teams see only once a year. It will be interesting to see who they hire and what kind of offense they intend to run.
Cal Poly (FCS): Sources tell FootballScoop Cal Poly is pursuing Oregon running backs / run game coordinator Jim Mastro to be their next head coach. Mastro played at Cal Poly and got his start in coaching there as well, spending nearly a decade on the staff before moving on to Idaho, Nevada, UCLA, Washington State and now Oregon. Given the success Oregon’s offense has had, it seems hard to think Mario Cristobal would make it easy for Mastro to leave. Will update as more is clear.
Barring a late-stage break down in talks, Beau Baldwin is expected to be the next head coach at Cal Poly, sources told FootballScoop on Monday.
Sources told FootballScoop no signatures are in place at this time, but both sides anticipate a deal getting done.
Baldwin is currently the assistant head coach, offensive coordinator and running backs coach at Cal, a job he has held for the past three years.
Prior to that, Baldwin was the head coach at Eastern Washington — a Big Sky Conference rival of Cal Poly — from 2008-16. He went 85-32 with five Big Sky titles, six FCS playoff berths and a national championship in 2010. He was also the head coach at Central Washington in 2007, going 10-3 with a trip to the Division II quarterfinals.
That would be a good hire. Follows the ‘Troy Taylor’ path, although Troy’s move might have been preemptive since Wittingham has a history of getting rid of OC’s. Should be an easy transition going from the rigorous academic standards at EWU to Poly. :wink:
I think Baldwin is also on thin ice at Cal. He is in the last year of his contract and Cal’s offense has struggled.
I think this would be a home run hire for Cal Poly. He has 5 Big Sky Championships and a FCS National Championship on his resume.
It would be great to see all three California teams rise to the top of the Big Sky. Davis and Sac have under Hawkins and Taylor. Now let’s hope Cal Poly can get there with Baldwin.
Well, Baldwin certainly can dial up some O...Wasn't the 2010 run when Taiwan Jones was just playing out of his mind and running past everybody? If you get on YouTube, TJ's highlights were ridiculous.
The Aggies almost got to the top of the big sky one year; can’t say they did because they lost to the same conference opponent twice that year. This year they were at the top only in people’s imagination.
Davis took a step back this year, but they were most definitely one of the top FCS teams in 2018. They were about 30 seconds from beating an EWU team that played in the FCS National Championship game.
We were almost at the top, but weren’t.
Giving up a touchdown to lose after taking the lead a minute prior doesn’t show you’re on the level of the team that just went the length of the field to beat you with the game on the line.
We were not on the same level as Eastern in 2018, see first game with them for more evidence of that.
We can extrapolate that we weren’t on the same level as the other cochampion that year, Weber, because they smoked us in 2017 and 2019.
I believe the success that UC Davis had last season and the success Sac State had this season was the tide that helped raise Cal Poly’s ship. I think more than just the coaching staff has changed at Cal Poly. I think the administration finally went all in and are giving the new coach the resources to be successful.