Experience, veterans highlight Weber State prior to season opener at Utah State


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LOGAN — With the 2016 season-opener between Weber State and Utah State just two days away, it is time to take a look at what the Wildcats will bring to the newly renovated Maverik Stadium on Thursday night.

Experience

Wildcats head coach Jay Hill returns 17 starters from the 2015 squad that went 6-5 overall and 5-3 in Big Sky competition. He also returns 44 letter winners from a squad that defeated Montana in Missoula and gave Oregon State a run for its money to kick off the season.

Veteran quarterback

Jadrian Clark is a fifth-year senior who started all 11 games for the Wildcats in 2015. He is 16th on the all-time career passing yards list with 2,782 yards. He has started 16 games overall in his career as he started the final five games of the 2014 season, when the Wildcats went 2-3.

Shifty running backs

Utah State head coach Matt Wells called Weber State running backs Eric Wilkes, Treshawn Garrett, Emmanuel Pooler and Zach Smith "shifty and hard to tackle." All four have rushed for over 100 yards in a game at one point during their time in Ogden. Wilkes led the Wildcats in rushing in 2015 with 697 yards and five touchdowns.

Solid linebacker play

Linebackers Tre'von Johnson and Emmett Tela, who both earned second team All-Big Sky honors in 2015, return to anchor the Wildcat defense. Johnson has played in 34 career games and has 166 tackles and 4.5 sacks. Tela led the Wildcats in tackles in 2015 with 72 and also had 7.5 tackles for loss on the season.

Coordinator change

Jason Kaufusi, who enters his fifth season on the Wildcats staff, is the new defensive coordinator after helping the Wildcat defense lead the Big Sky Conference in total defense in 2015. Fesi Sitake takes over the offensive coordinator position as well as the quarterbacks coach after being the passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach in 2015.

Big Sky respect

The Big Sky Conference is no slouch when it comes to playing football, and the coaches in the FCS have taken notice. Six teams from the Big Sky made the preseason top-25 FCS poll. Portland State is the highest ranked team at 12th. Montana (13), Eastern Washington (17), North Dakota (21) and Southern Utah (24) are the other schools in the top-25 poll. Montana State and Weber State both received votes in the poll.


Kyle McDonald is sports fan who loves the Chicago Cubs and the Utah Valley University Wolverines. He is a communication major at UVU and will graduate in the spring of 2017. Follow him on Twitter at @kylesportsbias

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