Weber State Game Day Thread: WSU Wildcats at Home v. SUU Thunderbirds

Hopefully the Wildcats' stingy defense will be ready for the T-birds' hot young SUU junior quarterback BYU transfer

The Weber State Wildcats are back at home this afternoon for the second straight week, in what Big Sky Conference muckey-mucks are hoping to be the beginning of a big cross-state conference rivalry. Here's the lede:

OGDEN -- This rivalry is about to get rebooted.

Weber State and Southern Utah have met 17 times over the years, the last time in 2006, but today marks the final time the Wildcats and Thunderbirds will meet as non-conference opponents.

SUU officially joins the Big Sky Conference on July 1, 2012, making today's 4 p.m. contest at Stewart Stadium the first of what will become an annual showdown for in-state FCS supremacy. Once in the expanded 14-team Big Sky, the Cedar City-based T-Birds will be one of two league-designated rivals (with Idaho State) to appear on the Wildcats' schedule every year.

And that's not merely humdrum pre-game hype, as Coach Mac expands a little more on the WSU/SUU rivalry concept:

Weber State coach Ron McBride has a grand vision for what 'Cats-'Birds rivalry could become.

"I could see in the next couple of years that this thing with Southern Utah will be a huge game in the state," McBride said. "I could see them possibly moving the game to a central site where both sides of the ball, the fans could get there and make it convenient for both sides. I could see it becoming a real windfall for both programs as far as financially and every other way because they have a very good team and I think they're going to continue to have a good team. It should be a positive for the conference and it should be a positive outcome for both schools."

Read the full SE story here, just to get your pre-game juices going:

• Wildcats vs. T-Birds rivalry gets reboot

Don't neglect to check out this SLTrib story, by the way, which hypes up the significance of today's grid battle a little bit, at least:

• Weber-Southern Utah game could have had national significance

Hopefully the Wildcats' stingy defense will be ready for the T-birds' talented young "SUU junior quarterback Brad Sorensen, a BYU transfer who has the T-Birds ranked 10th in the country in passing offense."

For those Wildcats fans attending the game, don't forget that it's WSU's annual "blackout game," (which is NOT a reference to the lack of a video broadcast, but rather a reminder that WSU is asking fans to wear black attire today, rather than the usual purple and white).

For those fans who are stuck at home, work or anywhere but Stewart Stadium, be sure to catch the online audio via the Wildcats' new radio station flagship, KZNS-AM 1280:

• KZNS (1280 The Zone) Live Broadcast

And here's the WSU Athletics Twitter feed, for what it's worth (somebody's been asleep at the switch so far this afternoon, wethinks):

• WSU Athletics Twitter Feed

See ya'll around here at or about 4:00 p.m.!

Go Wildcats!

Update 10/22/11 7:12 p.m.: WSU delivers the SUU T-birds a very gracious reception at Stewart Stadium, in a game littered by ten dumb WSU penalties, among many other blunders, resulting in a final score of SUU 35, WSU 28!

What a bummer, eh?

Update 10/21/11 10:00 a.m.: The Standard provides the game post-mortem:

• Southern Utah rallies past Weber State

Close...but no cigar.