Cal Poly football falls to Idaho Vandals 42-14 — and an even tougher matchup lies ahead

In 2021, the Idaho Vandals were a middle-of-the-pack Big Sky program with a 3-5 record.

Fast forward two years and the Vandals are now the No. 3 team in the FCS Coaches’ Poll with two ranked wins under their belt.

The Vandals were an FBS team that dropped down to the FCS with many more scholarships available, which is a different circumstance compared to where the Cal Poly football program now stands. But at the same time, Head Coach Paul Wulff believes the physical talent between the Mustangs is not a big difference compared to Idaho.

That may be, but it wasn’t reflected in Saturday’s game, where self-inflicted errors such as multiple dropped passes leading to interceptions, a fumble and other small errors added up the Mustangs (2-4, 0-3 Big Sky) falling to the Vandals 42-14 at Alex G. Spanos Stadium.

The offense for the Mustangs is still missing quarterback Sam Huard but still managed to put together its strongest passing outing in Big Sky play with 262 yards from Bo Kelly.

The redshirt freshman connected with redshirt freshman Tyrece Fairly-Diyem in the second quarter on a 62-yard touchdown catch. In the fourth quarter, Kelly connected with sophomore Logan Booher in the back left of the end zone for his second touchdown of the night.

“We just got to play with more confidence and play like we know we can,” Fairly-Diyem said after the loss. “We’re doing it everyday in practice. The recipe is there. We just got to execute more.”

Plays like the one that happened in the second quarter, where a receiver mishandled a pass from Kelly amd Vandals’ linebacker Kyrin Beechem hauled the ball in for an interception, are tough breaks for the Mustangs.

However, three plays later, sophomore defensive back Donovan Saunders returned the favor with an interception of his own.

The defense played a strong game in the first, third and fourth quarters, only allowing a touchdown in each. It was the second quarter where the Vandals racked up three touchdowns that put the Mustangs behind for good.

Kelly had one more interception where a Vandal defensive lineman deflected a screen pass before the ball ended up in the hands of another Vandals’ defender.

Fairly-Diyem, redshirt junior Elijah Ponder, who finished with two sacks on the day, and Wulff all echoed the same sentiment: The team needs to play with more confidence.

“We’ve closed the gap, but we just got to do it in games,” Wulff said. “Our confidence needs to grow. We have some players here that have talent, but they’re not complete football players yet because they’re not a seasoned veteran with supreme confidence.

“We got to grow in season, not wait for the season,” Wulff added.

The team has undergone a complete shift in its offensive approach compared to the days of Rich Ellerson and Tim Walsh, going from a triple-option scheme to the Air Raid offense under new offensive coordinator Sheldon Cross.

Even going from previous head coach Beau Baldwin, the team is still experiencing some growing pains along with the shift in identity.

“I believe we just got to keep swinging and swinging and eventually, we can get the dam to break,” Wulff said.

The Mustangs are expecting to have multiple nicked-up players on both sides of the ball return later this season and make contributions, including Huard.

For now, the Mustangs will keep swinging.

Up next, the Mustangs will face the toughest opponent they’re likely to see the rest of the way in Montana State, which currently stands as the No. 2 team in all of FCS football, next Saturday at Bozeman.