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OGDEN -- Two years ago in Portland, Oregon, it was considered one of the craziest games in NCAA football history. The Weber State Wildcats won the game 73-68, but it was both teams that went down in the record books. The game set NCAA Division 1 records for the most combined points, the most combined touchdowns, and the most points scored for a losing team.
The quarterback match up should be one of the highlights of the entire Big Sky Conference season. In his first game against the Wildcats, the 73-68 loss, Portland State's Drew Hubel tied the NCAA Division 1 FCS record throwing nine touchdown passes. Hubel threw for 485 yards, completing 35 of 50 passes. On the other side of the ball, Weber State's Cameron Higgins threw for 334 yards and four touchdowns. He also rushed for 106 yards and three more touchdowns, giving him 440 total yards.
Both teams have a lot of weapons to their advantage, but the Wildcats found out Monday that they lost a crucial weapon on offense. Senior tight end Cody Nakamura suffered a season ending knee injury during the first half of the Idaho State game. Nakamura partially tore his ACL and completely tore his MCL and PCL.
"Losing Cody Nakamura is a huge loss to our offense," said Head Coach Ron McBride. "He was a big play guy and he never missed an assignment. We now need someone to step up and make those plays for our offense."
One of the guys that could pick up some of the slack is the team leader in receptions, Tim Toone. Toone has 22 catches for 283 yards and has two touchdowns on the young season. With 21 career touchdown receptions, Toone has the most by any player in WSU history. He only needs 162 more receiving yards to become the career leader at Weber State and only 239 more to become the first ever Wildcat with 3,000 career yards.
"Cody and I complimented each other very well," said Toone. "When I was covered, Cody was open and made the big play. When Cody was covered, I was the one that was open to make the play. Now without Cody, defenses will key in on me, so other receivers like Mike Phillips and Joe Collins will need to step up and make defenses worry about them as well."
The two teams look to get the scoring started early and often starting with kickoff at 1:05 p.m. (PDT) Saturday in Portland at PGE Park.
