Saturday, October 22, 2011

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:
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:
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:
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):
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:
Close...but no cigar.

10 comments:

Googleboy said...

Perfect football weather

WSU FAN said...

T-Birds up 3-0 with a field goal, first play of the 2d quarter!

WSUFAN said...

WSU drives to the T-Bird one yard line, then gets pushed back on two consecutive plays, and then... Scores, on a third and five!  WSU 7-3 with the PAT!

WSUFAN said...

Wildcats stop the T-Birds on a 4th down attempt at the WSU 37!

WSU FAN said...

TD Weber State, with 7 seconds left in the half!

WSU 14-3!

WSU FAN said...

TD T-birds, early in the third quarter... WSU 14, SUU 10...

rudizink said...

Two quick scores early in the third, including a rushing touchdown by
Tanner Hinds. Weber State leading 21-10 8:00 to play 3rd quarter

WSU FAN said...

Wildcats are getting killed by penalties.  SUU 35-20 with six to play.

WSU FAN said...

"WSU delivers the SUU T-birds a vary gracious reception..."

Well... look at the bright side... at least it wasn't a conference game.

Bob Becker said...

I presume experimenting with rugby style kicks on punts will, after tonight, no longer be in the WSU playbook.   Ever.

They did not play a smart game. Got hurt by a very bad call by a ref late in the game, but the Wildcats served this one up to their opponents on a silver platter. 

The coaches helped. With the rugby style punt experiment [disaster].  And by continually running plays straight up the middle for minimal gain against a SUU defensive line that was not being moved.  Period.  First quarter, ok. You test them out.  Nothing up the middle. Continued in the second quarter, and again in the fourth. For minimal gain .  There just was nothing there all night long.  

In the first quarter, I suspected WSU defense were all Catholics and had decided to get an early start on giving up something for lent. What they gave up was tackling.  

Football is played in four quarters. WSU decided to play one of those four quarters, and still nearly survived.  

They gave this one away.  

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