Cal Poly’s head football coach is retiring after third straight losing season
Cal Poly’s head football coach for the past 11 seasons is retiring, according to the university.
Tim Walsh, 64, who guided Cal Poly to a Big Sky Conference Championship in 2012, announced his retirement Monday.
“On behalf of our department staff, and the hundreds of young men who have received the benefit of Tim’s mentorship, we thank Tim for his leadership over our football program,” Cal Poly director of athletics Don Oberhelman said in a statement.
Walsh led the Mustangs program to a 59-66 record during his tenure, and a 32-32 in the university’s first eight season in the Big Sky Conference conference. (Cal Poly was in the Great West Conference in Walsh’s first three years as head coach.)
Walsh also led Cal Poly to a pair of NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision playoff berths during his tenure.
The team finished the 2019 season at 3-8, with a 28-21 victory at Northern Colorado, the program’s third straight losing season.
The Mustangs were 5-6 in 2018 and 1-10 in 2017, after a 7-5 record in 2016. This year, the team went 2-6 in Big Sky Conference play, sharing ninth place with four other teams.
Under Walsh, Cal Poly led the Big Sky Conference in its Academic Progress Rate scores each of the past three years.
The Mustangs’ APR rate was near perfect at 997 in the 2015-2016 school year and the program compiled a four-year rate of 975 between 2015-16 and 2017-18, which was 11 points higher than the national average.
“The academic standing of this football program is top notch, and the APR and graduation rates reflect the high expectations we have as a university,” Oberhelman said in his statement.
Walsh earned a salary of about $246,000 in 2018, according to the Sacramento Bee salary database.
Walsh enjoyed his best overall record in 2012, the program’s first year after moving over from the Great West, when he led the Mustangs to a 9-3 mark and a first-place tie in the Big Sky.
A former quarterback at UC Riverside in the 1970s, Walsh previously coached at Portland State for 14 years between 1993 and 2006. He spent four years coaching at Sonoma State between 1989 and 1992.
Walsh has served as offensive coordinator at Army West Point in 2007 and 2008.
Walsh compiled a 176-148 win-loss record in 29 years as a collegiate head coach.
Inducted into halls of fame at both Portland State and Sonoma State, Walsh was a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Award (FCS Coach of the Year) in both 1999 and 2012, according to Cal Poly officials.
This story was originally published November 25, 2019 at 4:59 PM with the headline "Cal Poly’s head football coach is retiring after third straight losing season."
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