Cal Poly football matchup to watch: Kori Garcia vs. UND’s John Santiago

Three of the top 10 rushers in the Big Sky Conference this season reside in Cal Poly’s starting backfield.

Of course, All-American Joe Protheroe, the national rushing leader at nearly 140 yards per game, garners plenty of attention from opponents. The same can be said for senior quarterback Dano Graves, who is averaging 127.5 yards passing and 82 yards rushing through four games.

Perhaps the odd man out is senior Kori Garcia. That’s hard to comprehend considering Garcia has tallied more than 2,300 yards and 15 touchdowns in his career. This fall, Garcia, a 5-foot-10, 195-pound Los Angeles native, has rushed for 285 yards and two touchdowns on 43 carries, an average of 6.6 yards per attempt.

His counterpart on the North Dakota sideline Saturday will be John Santiago, the co-Big Sky Freshman of the Year and a unanimous first-team all-conference performer in 2015.

The slight but shifty Santiago is averaging 91.8 rushing yards per contest — fifth in the Big Sky — and has scored three times on 75 carries.

During the Fighting Hawks’ win at Montana State last week, Santiago was bottled up and held to 57 yards on 19 attempts, averaging three yards per rush. That opened things up for sophomore Brady Oliveira, who ran for a career-high 171 yards and two touchdowns to hold off the Bobcats in Bozeman.

“We think Brady can really bring a different style of running to our attack,” UND coach Bubba Schweigert said. “I think that challenges defenses when you have guys that are different.”

This story was originally published September 30, 2016 at 5:50 PM with the headline "Cal Poly football matchup to watch: Kori Garcia vs. UND’s John Santiago."