Eastern faces Mustangs’ explosive triple-option

Every football team needs heroes – unless that team is playing Cal Poly.

The Mustangs run a triple-option offense that demands much from the opponents who must defend against it. At the top of the list: discipline.

“Everyone knows they have to go out and to your job,” Ketner Kupp, a linebacker for Eastern Washington, who figures to be in the middle of the action when the Eagles visit the Mustangs in a crucial Big Sky Conference game Saturday night.

“It’s assignment football,” Kupp said. “No heroes, just do your job.”

That didn’t happen last week in Sacramento, where 14th-ranked Cal Poly – the top rushing team in the Football Championship Subdivision – rolled up 527 yards on the ground against Sac State to improve to 6-2 overall.

That game also produced a trio of hundred-yard rushing efforts from quarterback Dana Graves, slotback Kori Garcia and fullback Joe Protheroe – a lot for ponder for every defense.

And if opponents who get too caught up in the run, Graves will punish them; with a rating of 206.9, he’s the most efficient quarterback in the conference with 15 touchdowns passes on just 97 pass attempts.

“They know who they are and they buy into it 100 percent,” said EWU coach Beau Baldwin, whose team gave up 505 rushing yards and needed overtime to beat Cal Poly, 42-41 last year in Cheney.

That won’t be good enough against a veteran Cal Poly offense. The key may be Protheroe, the who has a conference-leading 921 rushing yards along with eight touchdowns.

Protheroe’s at home between the tackles, but eighth-year coach Tim Walsh is seeing more versatility from the 6-foot, 225-pounder.

“He’s also athletic enough to get the ball on the perimeter,” Walsh said.

Meanwhile, Garcia is coming off a season-high 146-yard game at Sac State and now has 2,709 career rushing yards, good for sixth place on the Mustangs’ all-time list.

“There’s a lot of people to defend,” Walsh said.

Plenty at stake

Saturday’s game at Alex G. Spanos Stadium will have a major bearing on the Big Sky race. Eastern is 5-0 in the conference, but needs to keep pace with North Dakota (6-0), as the teams don’t meet this year.

Cal Poly is tied for third with Weber State at 4-1, but could share the title by winning out while North Dakota stumbles against Northern Colorado or Northern Arizona. The Mustangs also need to finish strong to have a shot at a berth in the FCS playoffs.

“We talk about each week as an opportunity,” Walsh said. “But there are only a few teams with a chance to win a conference championship.”

At 7-1 against a difficult schedule, third-ranked Eastern has a postseason spot locked up, but needs to improve its résumé. By winning out, the Eagles would guarantee themselves home-field advantage at least through the quarterfinal round on Dec. 9-10.

Homecoming for Ena

Saturday’s game also serves as a homecoming of sorts for Eastern defensive line coach Eti Ena, who worked in the same capacity at Cal Poly from 2013-15.

That presents a problem for Walsh.

“Eti did a great job for us, but he also knows us,” Walsh said. “We’ll have to do some things differently than we want to at this point in the season, but we’ll give it our best shot.”

Cal Poly’s staff includes former Eastern safety Allen Brown, who played for the Eagles from 2010-13 and joined Walsh’s staff in 2015.