Little has gone right for Sacramento State since the end of last season. Graduate senior Ivan Garza quit after 36 consecutive stats on the offensive line. Junior Nathan Mejia, who started at center the past two yers, broke his leg in training camp. And now senior quarterback Kaiden Bennett has left.
Second-year head coach Andy Thompson and the Hornets are 0-2 in the Big Sky Conference and have fallen out of both FCS polls after being ranked No. 8 by Stats Perform and 10th by the AFCA Coaches in preseason polls. Making the FCS playoffs for a fifth consecutive season seems unlikely.
A home victory against Weber State on Saturday would be a big boost for the Hornets in trying to salvage their season. The Wildcats were riding high after a 55-48 overtime win at No. 8 Montana on Oct. 5. Their five-game winning streak against Northern Colorado ended Oct. 12 with a 21-18 loss.
Weber State has had Sacramento State’s number in recent seasons, winning five in a row before a 33-30 loss in 2022. Vacaville High graduate Jacob Edmonds is in his first season at Weber State after redshirting at Utah in 2023. The offensive lineman has gotten a few snaps in three of the past four games.
Bennett went from starting the first two games this season to not taking a single snap in the home opener against Nicholls on Sept. 14. Offensive coordinator Bobby Fresques said before the season that he would not rotate quarterbacks as Troy Taylor did in 2019-2022 and as Fresques did in 2023 with three quarterbacks.
Redshirt freshman Carson Conklin also played in the first two games, He tossed three touchdown passes in the 46-30 loss to Fresno State on Sept. 7. The first cut the Bulldogs’ lead to 25-17. The last two did not mean anything to anyone except Conklin, who made a strong case to be the starter. Fresques agreed.
Conklin threw for two touchdowns in each of his two starts. The Hornets won both to climb to 2-2. Conkiln’s three turnovers, including a fumble returned for a touchdown, were costly in a 34-16 loss Sept. 28 at Northern Arizona. Then came the 38-25 loss at home to Eastern Washington last week.
Sacramento State has lost just four regular-season games at home since 2019. Weber State was responsible for one in 2019. The teams last met two years ago in Ogden, Utah. The Hornets escaped with a 33-30 win by recovering an onside kick after the Wildcats scored with 16 seconds to go.
An onside kick got away from Sacramento State last Saturday because the Hornets had no reason to expect it. Eastern Washington opened the third quarter with a 75-yard touchdown drive to tie the score at 21-all. The Eagles then tried an onside kick, recovered it and scored again to take the lead for good.
The Hornets did not touch the ball for seven minutes. And whey they finally did, they had it for all of 49 seconds before Conklin threw an interception. The Eagles then took six more minutes off the clock by going 55 yards in 13 plays only to have Soren McKee shank a 24-yard field-goal attempt.
Eastern Washington put the game away with a 10-play, 99-yard touchdown drive that lasted 5:36. The Eagles rushed for 194 yards in their three second-half scoring drives and the one ending with the missed field goal. This was against a defense that had allowed just 67.8 rushing yards a game.
Eastern Washington ranks third in the Big Sky with an average of 213.3 rushing yards a game after a season-high 286 last week. Weber State is fourth at 202.6 and Sacramento State is ninth (145.2). The Hornets have the fewest rushing touchdowns (five) in the Big Sky. Montana is the leader with 26.
Montana State and UC Davis are both 3-0 in the Big Sky and vastly different in rushing averages. The Bobcats are first (308.3) and the Aggies last (111.6). UC Davis has lost 97 yards on 14 sacks. Sacramento State leads the conference in sacks with 20 and in fewest sacks allowed with five.
