Road warriors: Weber State heads into bye week after seventh-straight road win

OGDEN — Weber State kept its perfect season intact on Saturday with a grind-it-out road win over a tough UC Davis football team.

A close win is still a win, and the Wildcats kept their spotless record intact for at least another two weeks, as the team gets a bye before its next challenge against Eastern Washington on Oct. 8.

Weber State went into Davis already having achieved some big wins to start the season but knew the Aggies would bring the heat; UC Davis was picked to finish fifth in the Big Sky preseason polls by both the coaches and media, one spot behind the Wildcats. Though Weber State played perhaps its sloppiest game of the season, the team still came away with the conference opening win.

"I thought there were a lot of players and coaches that felt like we should have played much better than we did," said head coach Jay Hill a few days after the game. "So there was kind of a weird lull amongst the coaches and players, but I'm not gonna be that way. If you can go into a really good opponent and lose the turnover margin minus three and still win, you better be happy and grateful that you were able to pull it out, and I was."

The win was Weber State's seventh consecutive win on the road dating back to last season, which set a new school record. The last time the Wildcats lost on the road was to FBS opponent Utah, in the 2021 season opener in Salt Lake City. Since then, Hill's team has had big wins on the road, including a win at Utah State this year and at Eastern Washington last year, who was ranked No. 2 in the country at the time.

In addition to seven consecutive road wins, Weber State has now won 21 of its last 23 road games against Big Sky opponents. The only two losses in that span came against No. 5 Montana in 2019 and Northern Arizona in 2018.

When it comes to road games, Hill and his staff don't take anything for granted. Consistency in game preparation is key, and when talking about his team's stats and success on the road he said a lot of the credit goes to the players.

"I like the way we travel; I think it's fun and keeps the players engaged," Hill said. "Tough players. The ability to go into a bunch of different atmospheres and play well.

"It's not easy to travel in the Big Sky. You've got long road trips, you've got buses on top of flights. And it's not necessarily easy locations to get into always. So those are great stats and things that I know our program is very proud of."

To go along with the big win last weekend, Weber State was rewarded with a boost in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 to No. 8 and No. 7 in the FCS Coaches Poll. The Wildcats are one of five teams with a 4-0 record in the Top 25 and will have extra time to prepare for their next opponent in No. 20 ranked Eastern Washington.

Bye weeks can be both a blessing and curse for teams depending on when they come during the season; but for Hill, he believes this year's comes at the perfect time for his team.

"It's a great opportunity for preparation," Hill said. "To get a couple of days ahead of your next opponent is a big deal. It's a great opportunity to get players back and healthy — the ones that are banged up, which we have a few. So that will be big. ... It's coming at a great time, in my opinion."

As the Wildcats near the halfway mark of the season, they've shown they can win in any and all environments. They'll stay home to take on the Eagles from Eastern Washington in about two weeks. But home or away, this Weber State team is ready to continue to make noise in the Big Sky conference and across the nation in the FCS rankings.

Hill and his team appear ready for the challenges ahead.

"We gotta handle (the bye week) the right way, and we gotta keep things rolling when we come back," Hill said.

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