It's still a relatively small slate of games in men's college rugby, but it will pick up markedly soon.

Cal hosts UCSB just after beating Santa Clara 91-0 and usually in a big score like that we try to focus on one player who scored a lot or something like that, but in this case 11 different players put points on the scoreboard for Cal. Nate Comiskey did score three tries but a cadre of a relatively new Cal players showed well.

Still, Cal Head Coach Jack Clark was magnanimous. 

“That Santa Clara team punched above their weight tonight,” said Clark. “They had the run of play for the first quarter of the match. They got around us several times and went through us a couple times. In the end, it got away from them, but Santa Clara displayed a lot of character throughout the match. Our boys were really good at times, but we had a lot of turnovers and gave away too many penalties.”

Weather kiboshed a couple of games last weekend and we'll see if the weather in British Columbia is nicer this week and Central Washington can get their game in against the Vikes.

The game of the week is probably BYU at Cal Poly. Both sides are feeling pretty good; BYU won the Rocky Mountain Conference in the fall (no surprise there) and Cal Poly went a creditable 2-1 at the Storer Classic last week. They lost to Cal, but did get over the tryline and Head Coach Chris O'Brien was please with a lot of things he saw.

"Storer was good for us," O’Brien told GRR. "We ran our A side out against Cal; we need to play those higher-level games and play them early. So BYU will be another one of those. They're such a good quality team and [Coach] Steve [St. Pierre] does such a good job there. So for us it's about learning how to get to that level, and we can only do that if we play them."

The Mustangs will play Central Washington, Saint Mary's, and UCLA this season.

O'Brien is in his third season with Cal Poly and he is leaning on players who have been in San Luis Obipso with him through that time. Quinton Tindel captains the side with Coby Baker, Ryan Wenstrom, and, back from an ACL injury, Pat Casey adding experience.

"We feel really good," said O'Brien. "We’re taking steps in the right direction, but we've also got a long way to go."

For BYU, they will welcome the warmer weather and a chance to get outside—most of their winter training is indoors and they share the space with the women's team.

"We're happy, for the most part, with how the fall went," said St. Pierre. "We got a lot of playing time for those new players."

But they ended the fall with a loss at Lindenwood, a tough lesson in the jump to the upper echelon of D1A.

"The Lindenwood game was tough but it was important for us in learning about our progression as a team," said St. Pierre. "I am excited to see where we're going and that tough game at the end of the fall is really about self assessment."

Stepping into the fray for the Cougars are several players who were reserves in 2022-23, but are now starting.

James Tenney is one of those, as is Kaiki Piena, who both now help anchor the forward pack.

Next up for BYU after this? Cal. So it continues to get harder for them. 

"We just need to work within our system and pattern a little bit better," cautioned St. Pierre. "And we need to keep improving in technical aspects of our game. For now we're just excited to get back on the field."