Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara both won over the weekend in California D1A action and that matters for both of them.
With Cal State Long Beach's game with UCSC being postponed there were only two games in the conference. Cal Poly is now 6-0 in the conference after beating an improving UC Davis side 63-14. The Mustangs have won every game by a wide margin, and in fact 63 is the low-water-mark in conference play for Cal Poly so far.
So far, of course, because they haven't played 4-0 Saint Mary's yet, and do so this coming season. But Cal Poly is playing a fast, wide style and should cause Saint Mary's some problems.
Meanwhile, UC Santa Barbara has won four in a row. That's really nice, but when you consider they have never won more than two games in any previous D1A season, you can see how much of a turnaround that it.
Neil Foote became the Head Coach back in 2021 and he has been building the squad since then. The vast majority of the players have not played rugby before, but he has been molding them and getting them to embrace the little cultural things about rugby (respect for opponents, intrasquad camaraderie). It has worked. After opening their conference season with losses to Saint Mary's and Cal State Long Beach, the Gauchos have beaten Sacramento State, UC Davis, San Diego State, and, most recently, Santa Clara. Those results hhave not been especially close.
And they're doing it in different ways.
