Big Sky · Alex G. Spanos Stadium · 11,075 · 9,610 avg in 2026
LastL 20–30 at San José State · Sat Sep 12 · Fidel Tau Pitts 2 rush yds, 1 TD, 103 rec yds
Nextvs San Diego · Sat Sep 19 · 8 pm ET · Alex G. Spanos Stadium · series 9-2 · Game preview
Updated Tue Sep 15 · through week 2
Program Prestige · Cal Poly
Program outlook
Cal Poly has a Pro Football Hall of Fame coach (John Madden) and a Hall of Fame executive (Bobby Beathard) in its past, plus an unmatched run of three straight FCS defensive players of the year — but the Mustangs haven't had a winning season since 2016.
Cal Poly's deepest football history predates its FCS era. Under Joe Harper (1968-1981), the Mustangs won 12 CCAA titles and the program's only national championship — a 21-13 win over Eastern Illinois in the 1980 NCAA Division II title game. Two Cal Poly alumni later reached the Pro Football Hall of Fame: John Madden, whose playing career at Cal Poly ended with a training-camp knee injury before he ever played in an NFL regular-season game, redirecting him toward the coaching and broadcasting career that defined him; and Bobby Beathard, Cal Poly's quarterback in the late 1950s, who spent four decades as an NFL personnel executive and built rosters that reached seven Super Bowls.
Cal Poly moved to Division I-AA (now FCS) in 1994 and joined the Big Sky Conference in 2012. Its clearest FCS-era peak came under Rich Ellerson (2001-2008, 56-34), whose tenure included a run matched only by Montana in FCS history: Cal Poly linebackers Jordan Beck (2004), Chris Gocong (2005), and Kyle Shotwell (2006) each won the Buck Buchanan Award as the nation's top defensive player in three consecutive seasons. Gocong's 23.5 sacks in 2005 remain an FCS single-season record.
Since Tim Walsh's 2016 team went 7-5 and reached the playoffs, Cal Poly has not posted a winning season. The program has cycled through three head coaches in six years — Beau Baldwin (4-21, 2020-2022) and Paul Wulff (10-24, 2023-2025, fired Nov. 23, 2025) — before hiring Tim Skipper, UCLA's interim head coach for the final nine games of 2025, to a five-year deal on December 3, 2025. Skipper inherits a program that just opened the $45 million John Madden Football Center in June 2026, a bet that new facilities plus new leadership can finally end the post-2016 drought.
Cal Poly's identity leans on real, verifiable history — a Division II national title, an unmatched Buck Buchanan three-peat, two Pro Football Hall of Famers — more than on recent won-loss record. The Golden Horseshoe rivalry with UC Davis (first played 1939, named rivalry since 2004) remains the program's most visible annual moment.
All-time record · Cal Poly
123-157-1 all-time · 55 seasons · 1935–2026
Program memory
Most weeks vanish. These didn’t.
A chartered plane carrying the Cal Poly football team crashes on takeoff from Toledo, Ohio, following a game at Bowling Green, killing 16 players, the student manager, a booster, and both pilots -- 22 people in total. Surviving quarterback Ted Tollner later became a head coach at USC and San Diego State. Cal Poly still honors the victims at a memorial rock before every game.
Heartbreak
Cal Poly beats Eastern Illinois 21-13 in the Zia Bowl in Albuquerque to win the program's only national football title, capping a 10-3 season under Joe Harper.
Jordan Beck (2004), Chris Gocong (2005), and Kyle Shotwell (2006) each win the Buck Buchanan Award as FCS Defensive Player of the Year in consecutive seasons -- a streak matched only by Montana.
2020
Since the program's last winning season (2016), Cal Poly has gone through three head coaches -- Beau Baldwin (4-21), Paul Wulff (10-24, fired Nov. 2025) -- without a return to .500, before hiring Tim Skipper in December 2025.
Heartbreak
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Big Sky standing · 2026
Cal Poly is 2nd in the Big Sky at 1-0. 1 team above — that's the direct path to the title game.
| # | Program | Record |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Montana | 2-0 |
| 2 | Cal Poly | 1-0 |
| 3 | Montana State | 1-0 |
| 4 | Northern Arizona | 1-0 |
| 5 | UC Davis | 1-0 |
| 6 | Southern Utah | 1-1 |
| 7 | Weber State | 1-1 |
| – | Idaho State | 0-0 |
| 9 | Eastern Washington | 0-1 |
| 10 | Idaho | 0-1 |
| 11 | Northern Colorado | 0-1 |
| 12 | Portland State | 0-1 |
| 13 | Utah Tech | 0-2 |
Three gameday rituals — the ones outsiders never quite catch.
since 1960
Cal Poly players visit a memorial rock near Alex G. Spanos Stadium to pay tribute to the 16 players, the student manager, and others killed in the October 29, 1960 plane crash following a game at Bowling Green in Toledo, Ohio — one of the worst air disasters in American sports history. For road games, the team stops at the rock before boarding buses to the airport. (The exact year the tribute became a fixed pregame ritual, as opposed to periodic commemoration, is not independently confirmed; 1960 marks the tragedy itself.)
since 1939
Cal Poly and UC Davis first met in 1939, but the rivalry took its current name and trophy in 2004, when both schools showed up with a horseshoe trophy they'd each built independently; UC Davis won the inaugural named game 36-33 and its trophy became the permanent one. UC Davis leads the all-time series 29-20-2 and the trophy era 15-7, including a 9-game win streak dating to 2017.
Program Prestige · Cal Poly