Sunday morning quarterback

I’m off Monday, so I figured I’d check in today with some brief notes, just to help you get ready for Horseshoe week. UCD will bus to the Central Coast Friday morning for Saturday night’s game. Word is that it’s already sold out, although I haven’t confirmed that. For the uninitiated, Cal Poly views UC Davis as its biggest football rival. Those Mustang teams that don’t beat the Aggies won’t have their pictures posted in the team locker room. So the stakes are pretty high.

--This week is vital for Cal Poly. Everyone picked the Mustangs to win the Great West this season, and some even had them progressing deep into the I-AA postseason. But after a month’s worth of games, I think the Mustangs are going to have some real trouble fending off North Dakota State (4-0, including a D-I-A win over Ball State) and UC Davis in conference. Cal Poly has always relied heavily on its defense, but this year’s offense is lagging even by those standards. Part of that has been the absence of running back James Noble (ankle). But he ran for 130 yards last night and the Mustangs still needed last minute heroics to beat Southern Utah.

--From a personal point of view, it was really nice to wake up this morning and not have to hop on an airplane to get home. I can only imagine what it was like for the players, who, in addition to traveling, have had to play football games.

--It is getting harder and harder to fill in the bottom seven of my ballot in the Sports Network’s Division I-AA Top 25. I want to give an honest opinion, while also rewarding teams for winning and punishing them for exceptionally bad losses. On the other hand, having watched East Coast I-AA football for four years in college, I have a pretty severe bias against it. And I can’t believe I included non-scholarship San Diego (which comes to Toomey on Nov. 25), but the Toreros are 4-0 and absolutely killing people.

Here’s how I voted: 1. New Hampshire; 2. Appalachian St.; 3. Cal Poly; 4. Illinois St.; 5. Montana; 6. Youngstown; 7. Umass; 8. Richmond; 9. Furman; 10. NDSU; 11. Northern Iowa; 12. Hampton; 13. Southern Illinois; 14. James Madison; 15. UCD; 16. Eastern Ill.; 17. Portland St.; 18. Harvard; 19. Delaware; 20. Towson; 21. Alabama A&M; 22. Central Conn. St; 23. Georgia Southern; 24. Tenn-Martin; 25. San Diego.