Like Utah State, their larger counterparts up north, Weber State decided to mess with the scheduling gods--and cash out--by playing two huge games to begin and end their season.
It isn’t the first time the Wildcats have done this, and since many feel Weber State--currently ranked No. 19 in the preseason Sports Network/Fathead.com poll--may be a contender for the Big Sky Conference title, it makes sense.
In a way.
What it does, really, is open the door for criticism if Weber State finds themselves on the end of a 60-0 pasting in Chestnut Hill, Mass. On the afternoon of Sept. 4, only the Wildcats will know how successful they were.
“They [BC] are a big, physical team on both sides of the ball. Offensively they want to line up, knock you down, and run by you to control the clock. Defensively, they aren’t fancy. They try to take you out of your comfort zone and force you to make mistakes,” McBride said.
The nice thing is that the following week sees the Wildcats return back home for a game on Altitude TV against Northern Colorado.
Then begins a two-week September slate with Weber going to Sac State before the Cats entertain UC-Davis at Homecoming.
It gets decidedly more difficult in October, but the hope is that by then--and with a soft schedule sans the BC Eagles--Weber State will have hit its groove and its Walter Payton Award candidate of a quarterback named Cameron Higgins will be in sync.
Having running back Bo Bolen back--especially after seeing him run for over 100 yards in the final fall camp scrimmage--must be a relief to head coach Ron McBride, who welcomes back a handful of players, including Higgins and Bolen.
The catch: it’s a youthful team.
“We don’t have a lot of veterans. Sixty-five of our players on the 90 man roster are sophomores, red-shirt freshmen or first year freshmen. A lot of our sophomore saw considerable action last season, so they know what to expect,” McBride said.
So does that mean Weber State will be ready come November, when three consecutive away games will surely test the Wildcats’ mettle?
Games in Bozeman (at Montana State), Flagstaff (at Northern Arizona) and Lubbock (at Texas Tech) will probably make McBride and staff feel as though they’ve stepped into a Willie Nelson song about hauling your rig down the north 40.
It’s just that the Wildcats don’t care. They’re ready to play anyone.
“We love the challenge. It gives us an opportunity to see where we stack up,” said McBride. “When we’ve played these games, we’ve respected every team we’ve play, but we aren’t going in with any fear or awe. We going to line up and play football the way we’ve practiced each and every day of camp.”
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