Mustangs trying to do what 2002 team couldn't

The Cal Poly football team is off to an 0-2 start for the first time since the 2002 season when the Mustangs lost five straight to open the year and finished the season 3-8 – the Mustangs’ only losing season under seventh-year head coach Rich Ellerson.
Like the 2002 team, this year’s club is young and inexperienced but has the offensive firepower the ’02 team was lacking.
The Mustangs also have an easier schedule than the ’02 team, which would make a turnaround more likely considering the ’02 team faced I-A Toledo and I-A Kent State along with a rash of solid Big Sky Conference squads that season.
The problem with this year’s schedule is that it could be too soft in the eyes of the playoff committee in the event that Cal Poly finishes strong and ends the regular season with say three or four losses.
North Dakota State is the only top-25 caliber team on the Mustangs’ schedule at this point.
Sure, Texas State was ranked 19th last week after its win over Cal Poly, but the Bobcats backed up that performance with a brutal 45-27 loss to Division II Abilene Christian and should be in the top 25 no longer (so much for the reader comments about Texas State being underrated).
The Mustangs could drop out of the rankings as well this week but might hang on considering they lost to a I-A team.
So two weeks into the season, not only is Cal Poly 0-2 and sliding in the polls, two of the Mustangs’ better opponents (Texas State and UC Davis) have already lost to Division II schools. That’s certainly not going to help the Mustangs’ strength of schedule if they put together a storybook turnaround this year.