SAN LUIS OBISPO, Ca. — After some confusion, a bit of a protest, and an official restart, Cal Poly’s title defense went off without a hitch as they cruised past Alabama A&M 44-28. The Mustangs put up 306 rushing yards and 470 yards of total offense as they jumped out to a 31-14 lead by halftime. New Cal Poly head coach Keyo was glad to win the first game of the new season and start out on the right foot.

“Its a big burden off my shoulders for sure. I was confident going into the game obviously but there’s a lot of pressure knowing that there is only 1 outcome of this season that isn’t seen as a regression for the team, and that’s winning another championship. The first win was without a doubt the biggest hurdle to jump and I’m glad we got it week 1 and can look forward without that particular [stress].”

With only two turnovers on the day and 17 minutes of possession, the Mustang offense was humming right along without missing a beat. Coach Keyo was asked what he believed to be the biggest hurdle for his team going forward.

“Playing in the Big Sky, my end of season schedule is brutal in regards to the quality of opponents there. I’m very confident that I can get a result or at least put up a fight in every game on my schedule this season, but the quality of opponents week in and week out is certainly not something I can take lightly. I feel as if I can adapt and overcome any obstacle they throw in my way, but I will always take a one week at a time approach to that, so my attention is solely on playing my former team Stony Brook next week.”

It will be interesting to see the reception that the fans will give their former coach as he takes the 1-0 Mustangs to upstate New York. As the press conference was winding down, Keyo was asked about the confusion that lead to the game being officially restarted. Alabama A&M was leading 14-0 before the officials blew the whistle, erased the score, and reset the clocks, causing some fans to be indignant and voice suspicions of collusion.

“Its unfortunate for sure, and I certainly wish it didn’t have to happen that way, but clerical errors do happen and I think it would have been unfair to punish me (or anyone put in that situation) with continuing the game there while it was only 2 minutes into the first quarter.”

Keyo added another tidbit before walking away from the microphone to focus on his week 2 opponent.

“And for what its worth the total score after the restart was 44-42 in favor of me still, so as unfortunate as it was to lose the 2 minutes I can say with confidence that the only think affected would have been the score line. I also have no doubts that Alabama A&M will bounce back from it, it was a much better performance than most first time coaches can say they had all things considered.”

Alabama A&M head coach Cam Joseph took the podium shortly afterwards with apparent exhaustion on his face. After one reporter pointed out that the Bulldogs in fact had won the second half, Coach Joseph nodded in approval.

“Surprisingly, my team won the turnover battle. I started the second half recovering his fumble on the kick. That was a nice jump start to a dismal end to the first [half].”

Coach Joseph saw his team turn the ball over three times on the day and gain only half as many yards as his opponent did. However he has already filed away the lessons learned and is looking ahead to Week 2.

“I found myself so so wrapped up in the numbers and trying to guess his next move rather than play my own game. The artful skill (it seems) with this sport is the balance of intuition and analysis, you can’t have too much of one. Keyo is a competitor and kept me on my toes. I’m definitely looking forward to playing a school with admittedly lower notoriety in Alcorn State, to see how large the playing gap is.”

He was also asked about the supposed controversy but he waved his hand at the question and shook his head, accepting the blame for his team’s poor performance the second time out.

“It definitely threw off my mental momentum of the game; it also probably made me a little more aggressive and nonchalant with my play calling . . . it’s unfortunate because I would have loved to get a marquee win in my first game ever. But fair is fair and I would have wanted the same process had I been him. I’ll request they make my record 0.25-1.”

The last sentence was said with a wry smile and wink in the direction of the cameras before Joseph made his way to the locker room. The good news is that its still early in the season and both teams have much work to do in preparation for their Week 2 opponents.