Last week marked the end of the long wait for college football’s return. As teams across the nation kicked off and fans eagerly watched every minute of the action, a common theme began to emerge: upset.
Many of the teams doing the upsetting were facing squads out of their league — literally. Over the weekend, eight FCS teams (formerly Division I-AA), beat their FBS opponents. These upsets included McNeese State routing South Florida 53-21, North Dakota State beating Kansas State 24-21 and Eastern Washington shocking No. 25 Oregon State 49-46.
Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham is well aware of the slew of upsets by lower-profile FCS teams and doesn’t plan on joining the trend as Weber State comes to Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday. In team meetings on Monday, he discussed these games with his players to ensure they don’t look past the Wildcats.
“The main objective this week is to shore up those areas of weakness we had against Utah State,” Whittingham said. “Football coaches study film and look for weaknesses … [Pac-12 coaches] are going to try to exploit everything we haven’t done well. We have to address those things, or else teams will see them week after week.”
In studying film of Weber State’s game from last week, what stuck out most to Utah coaches was the offense. The Wildcats put up 484 total yards of offense in their 50-40 victory over Stephen F. Austin State. It was Weber State’s first win in a season debut over a Division I school since 1996.
Two Wildcat players rushed for more than 80 yards, and Josh Booker tallied 77. Wide receiver Erik Walker hauled in seven catches for 127 yards and a touchdown. He also had one rush in the game’s opening drive that resulted in a 39-yard touchdown.
“That win was huge, especially coming off a season like last year,” Walker said in an interview this week, referencing Weber State’s 2-9 campaign in 2012. “We really wanted to start our season with some momentum, especially going into this next game against Utah.”
According to Walker, the Wildcats are hungry to prove they can play with anybody.
“It’s obviously possible for smaller teams to go up against bigger programs and beat them,” Walker said. “It’s been proven, especially this year. We’d love to come out fast and hard and put up some quick points and hopefully get a win in Salt Lake.”
Walker and the rest of the Weber State receiving corps are focused on trusting their offensive system and winning the man-to-man battle against Utah’s secondary.
“Utah plays a lot of man, and it’s going to be a lot of one-on-one match ups,” Walker said. “It’s key for us to win those match ups, get a step on our defenders and get ourselves open to make big plays.”
The Utes are 3-0 all-time against the Wildcats, with their last win coming in 2008, but considering the way this season has already started, Utah isn’t taking anything for granted against this in-state FCS opponent.