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2013 Season Preview: Defending Big Sky Conference Title
or the better part of three seasons, Andre Broadous was Cal Poly's starting quarterback. No ifs, no ands, no buts. And no controversy. Ah, but this is 2013. Broadous is gone, taking with him his 1,459 career rushing yards (30 touchdowns) and 3,120 career passing yards (31 touchdowns), leading the Mustangs to back-to-back conference titles and a second-round berth in the 2012 NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. What did Broadous leave behind? How about a four-man quarterback controversy! "All four guys are different and if we could take what each of them does well and put them into one body, we would have exactly what we want," said fifth-year Cal Poly head coach Tim Walsh. "Our job
"Brown has the athleticism we're looking for and physically is probably the best of all the quarterbacks," Walsh added. "He has to learn who we are in terms of our overall offensive scheme, implement his skills in the offense we run and gain more overall knowledge of how to run the team. We also will learn in spring ball how big of a jump he has made from fall to spring. "Trosin probably has the best mentality of what we're Sullivan Grosz looking for in the position. enters senior He is a gym rat type of quarterback, has a good mix of season with talent that we're looking 13.5 career for," Walsh said. "He throws sacks the ball well enough, but has not dealt with the Triple Option before. How well he makes decisions in the Triple Option is his biggest Kristaan Ivory rushed for 728 question mark. "Graves is the biggest yards and eight touchdowns unknown because he has as a sophomore in 2012. only been here a few months, but he has experience running the Triple Option at Air Force (in prep school and on the Falcons' junior varsity team last fall). We need to find out how well he grasps the concepts of our overall offense and his ability to get the ball from Point A to Point B. We want to see how much he has progressed as far as his throwability while allowing for what we want him to do in our offense.” In addition to the battle at quarterback, emphasis in spring ball also was focused on developing depth at certain positions and sorting out the offensive line, which lost only two seniors but has a plethora of young talent ready to step in. last spring was to get one of the four to develop all of his potential to In all, Cal Poly returns 58 lettermen (29 on offense, 26 on defense the point where we know we have our guy. They all have the ability and seven specialists), including 17 players (seven on offense and 10 to get to what we want to have in a running quarterback." on defense) who started at least four games last fall. No decision was made after spring ball, but Walsh hopes to settle In addition to Broadous, the biggest holes to fill are at linebacker on the leading signal caller by the end of the second week of August with the departure of Kennith Jackson, slotback (Deonte Williams), practice. cornerback (Nico Molino) and The quartet of signal-calling candidates, in no particular order, are: the offensive line (Geoff Hyde Quarterback • Junior Vince Moraga, who played in five games last fall, comand Karl Winkelman). Vince Moraga (5-11, 190, Jr.) pleting one of two passes for 16 yards and rushing 10 times for 76 Walsh uses a baseball axiom 1-2-0, 16 Yards, 0 TD in 2012 yards. to describe his team’s chances Chris Brown (6-2, 198, So.) • Chris Brown, a sophomore who played in just one game and in 2013. 0-1-0, 0 Yards, 0 TDs in 2012 threw one incomplete pass in 2012. “The key to our season will Tanner Trosin (6-1, 185, RFr.) • Tanner Trosin, a redshirt last year who shattered school, section be how well we play up the and state records by passing for 5,185 yards and 49 touchdowns as a middle on offense,” said Redshirt in 2012 senior at Folsom High School in 2011. Walsh, noting the departures of Dano Graves (5-10, 180, So.) • Dano Graves, a transfer from Air Force who will be a sophomore Broadous at quarterback, 0-0-0, 0 Yards, 0 TD at Air Force this year after utilizing his redshirt and freshman seasons with the Williams at slotback and Hyde Falcons. In 2010 at Folsom High, Graves passed for 3,702 yards and at center. “Whoever those replacements are will determine how suc62 touchdowns while also rushing for 994 yards and 23 more scores cessful we will be.” en route to National High School Player of the Year honors from Defensively, the losses of Jackson at linebacker and Molino at corMaxPreps. His 85 total touchdowns is a state record. nerback are noted, but present the only major voids to fill. "Vince is great with all the quarterback running stuff, but needs to “With all the experience we have back -- all four starters on the work on getting the ball from Point A to Point B," said Walsh. "We defensive line, three of the top four linebackers and eight of the nine already know what he can do in the Triple Option, but he needs to defensive backs who played six or more games last fall -- it’s hard to demonstrate his ability to operate things outside of the Triple Option. believe our defense will not be better this year,” said Walsh.