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Game #5
MONTANA STATE vs. WEBER STATE
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2009 * 1:35 P.M. (MDT)
STEWART STADIUM * OGDEN, UTAH
MONTANA STATE "Bobcats"
HEAD COACH
ROB ASH is in his 3rd season as head coach of the Bobcats. ... Coming into Saturday's game in Ogden vs. Weber State, Ash is 15-11 overall a MSU and 10-7 in Big Sky Conference regular season games. ... Ash is 1-1 vs. Weber State and 1-0 vs. the Wildcats in Ogden. ... Before coming to MSU, Ash spent 17 seasons as the head coach at Drake University.
SERIES HISTORY
Montana State leads this long, fierce series, 25-20-1. ... The Bobcats have won 10 of the last 12 meetings. ... The Wildcats snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Bobcats with a 35-12 win last year in Bozeman. ... The series began in 1963 when both schools became charter members of the Big Sky Conference. ... MSU is 12-11-0 overall when playing the Wildcats in Ogden and come into Saturday's game having won five straight times in Stewart Stadium. ... WSU's last win over MSU in Ogden was a 17-7 victory in 1996. ... There have been only three SHUTOUTS recorded in the series, all by MSU. The Bobcats won 24-0 in Ogden (1964), 33-0 in Bozeman (1973) and 48-0 in Ogden (1984). That 1984 game is MSU's largest margin of victory over the Wildcats in the series. ... Weber State's largest margin of victory in the series was a 56-13 win at Stewart Stadium in 1970.... The 35 points scored by the Wildcats last season is the most against the Bobcats since 1994 when the Wildcats won 41-13 in Ogden. ... During the seven game win streak by MSU from 2001 through 2007, the Bobcats allowed Weber State an average of just 13.43 points per game. ... There has not been an OVERTIME game played in the series.
LAST MEETING: Oct. 11, 2008 - Bozeman, Montana
On a cold, snowy and windy afternoon. WSU quarterback CAMERON HIGGINS had a near perfect game. He completed 29-36-1 passes for 366 yards and four touchdowns, leading the Wildcats to a 35-12 win and snapping a seven-game losing streak to the Bobcats. ... MSU took a 9-7 lead on a 14-yard run by CODY KEMPT with 29 seconds left in the 1st quarter. MSU got the ball on the WSU 30 after MIKE SNOY was forced to punt from the WSU three-yard line into the wind. ... WSU scored first on a 19-yd pass from HIGGINS to TREVYN SMITH. ... MSU got a safety when on fourth down, the snap to SNOY for the punt went over his head and into the end zone where SNOY knocked it out of the end zone to prevent a touchdowns. ... That would be MSU's last points until the beginning of the 4th quarter when JASON CUNNINGHAM kicked a 25-yd field goal to make it a 22-12 game. ... The Wildcats got a 58-yd touchdown pass from HIGGINS to MIKE PHILLIPS to take a 14-9 half time lead. ... The WSU defense shutout the Bobcats in the 3rd quarter and use a two-yard run by SMITH, and a two-point conversion pass to take a 22-9 lead. ... Following CUNNINGHAMS's field goal, the Wildcats drove 61 yards in nine plays with HIGGINS finding TIM TOONE on a five-yard pass. ... The Wildcats sealed the deal with 1:04 left on a five-yard TD pass from HIGGINS to fullback MARCUS MAILEI. ... MSU held the Wildcats to just 33 rushing yards (thanks mainly to the -43 on the snap in the end zone), and held TREVYN SMITH to just 73 yards on 21 carries. .. TOONE had a big afternoon with 11 catches for 130 yards. ... KEMPT was 13-29-1 for 169 yards and DEMETRIUS CRAWFORD carried 18 times for 75 yards. ... WSU held the bal l for 33:50.
LAST TIME IN OGDEN, UTAH: SEPT. 22, 2007
The "Jimmy Barnes" quarterback experience came to an end. Barnes, a transfer from Alabama who was heralded during Fall camp, was just 1-5 passing and threw two interceptions which were returned for touchdowns as the Bobcats strolled out of Stewart Stadium with a 21-5 victory. ... Both teams got two first quarter possessions in the first five minutes of the game. ... On WSU's third possession, BARNES was intercepted by CHASE GAZZERRO on the 3rd-and-eight play and returned it 26 yards for a touchdowns. ... WSU got two more 1st quarter possessions but were forced to punt and lost a fumble. ... Both teams had missed field goals in the 2nd quarter (25-yds by MSU's ERIC FISHER, 33-yard by WSU's MIKE SNOY). ... Following SNOY's miss, the Bobcats drove 80 yards in eight plays with JACK ROLOVICH finding JAMELLE BANKS on a 29-yd TD pass to take a 10-7 lead at half. Red-shirt freshman quarterback CAMERON HIGGINS completed 7-10 passes in the 2nd quarter for 92 yards and played throughout most of the 3rd quarter. ... The Wildcats got a big break when DEREK JOHNSON blocked an MSU field goal attempt of 22-yds and took over. BARNES was inserted back into the line up and on 2nd-and-four, was picked off by MICHAEL BEACH and returned 12-yds for a touchdown. ... BRENDON DOYLE then came in as the third quarterback of the day and finished the game. ... WSU got a safety in the 4th quarter when DEREK JOHNSON sacked ROLOVICH in the end zone. ... ROLOVICH was 16-33-0 for 141 yards and DEMETRIUS CRAWFORD rushed 13 times for 95 yards. ... HIGGINS was 9-17-0 for 113 yards and TREVYN SMITH had 78 rushing yards on 17 carries.
SCOUTING THE BOBCATS
Montana State comes into Ogden with a 2-1 record overall and a 1-0 mark in Big Sky Conference play. The Bobcats opened up league play last week with a 25-7 win on the road against Northern Colorado. ... They opened the season with a big paycheck and big loss at Michigan State, 44-3 on Sept. 5, but returned home to defeat a pesky Dixie State College team 23-20. ... The Bobcats have another stout defense which is allowing just 82.7 yards of rushing per game and ranked 2nd in the Big Sky behind Montana (49.5), and are 2nd behind Montana in Total Defense allowing just 352.0 yards per contest. ... The Bobcats have what WSU head coach Ron McBride calls "...as good a front seven as we have seen all season. ..." . ... That seven is led by linebacker JEFF PRICE (6-0, 215 Sr.) who had 24 total tackles this season with 15 unassisted. DANE FLETCHER (6-2, 245 Sr. DE) has 20 tackles (11 unassisted) and 5.5 tackles for loss. ... On offense, JEFF HANSEN (6-4, 297 Sr. OG) has been one of the best linemen in the Big Sky Conference over the past three seasons.
WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY "Wildcats"
COACH RON McBRIDE
Weber State head coach RON McBRIDE enters into his 5th season as head coach of the Wildcats and his 18th overall as a head coach on the NCAA Division I level. ... McBride is now 27-24 (.529) at WSU and 115-87 (.569) overall. McBride is 1-1 lifetime vs. Montana State. ... In 2008 McBride was named the Big Sky Conference Coach-of-the-Year after leading the Wildcats to a 10-4 record overall and a 7-1 mark and the conference co-championship in Big Sky Conference play. It marked the first time since 1968 that the Wildcats had captured the Big Sky Conference championship. ... McBride guided his Wildcats to a 45-28 win over #2 ranked Montana during the regular season and a stunning 49-35 road win over #3 ranked Cal Poly in the first round of the NCAA Division I FCS playoffs. Twelve of McBride's athletes earned First Team All-Big Sky Conference, the most by any team in a single season in the 47-year history of the league. Twenty Wildcats earned some type of all-conference honor in 2008. ... Ten Wildcats earned Second or Third Team All-America honors either by The Associated Press or The Sports Network.
RADIO / TV
Back for his 11th season as the football radio voice of Weber State football is Wildcat Carl Arky. He will be joined in the broadcast booth for all home games by former WSU standout defensive back TY SPARROW. ... Once again, all Weber State football games will be carried LIVE on KLO (1430 AM) with the Pre-Game Show beginning 30 minutes for each kickoff. ... New this year is the NCAA Division I FCS Round Up Show which airs 30 minutes before each Pre-Game Show.
WEEKLY POLLS
There will be TWO major weekly top 25 polls for NCAA Division I FCS this season. ... THE SPORTS NETWORK poll is voted upon by sports information directors from all 125 FCS schools plus members of the media who cover those schools. ... THE FCS COACHES poll is just that. Coaches from various FCS schools representing each conference and independents vote each week. Both polls are released each Monday afternoon. ... The Wildcats stayed at the #11 position in both polls this week following their 36-29 win at Portland State.
48th SEASON OF WEBER STATE FOOTBALL
This is the 48th season of Weber State University on the four-year level, and the 47th season as a member of the Big Sky Conference. ... Weber State attained four-year status in 1962 and played as an NCAA Division II member until 1978 when, along with the rest of the Big Sky Conference, moved up to the newly created NCAA I-AA (now FCS) level. ... Weber State's all-time football record stands at 246-261-3 (.482) coming into this week's game vs. Montana State.
,b>TEAM CAPTAINS
The 2009 DEFENSIVE CAPTAINS will be: Brighton Barkdull (6-3, 250 Sr. DE), Beau Hadley (6-0, 185 Sr. Safety), Kevin Linehan (6-3, 245 Sr. DE), Josh Morris (6-0, 190 Sr. CB) and Taylor Sedillo (5-11, 235 Jr. MLB). .. The OFFENSIVE CAPTAINS will be: Cameron Higgins (6-2, 210 Jr. QB), Kyle Mutcher (6-3, 300 Sr. OC), Treyvn Smith (5-9, 210 Sr. RB) and Tim Toone (5-10, 175 Sr. WR). ... The SPECIAL TEAMS captain will be Mike Snoy (6-2, 180 Sr. Punter).
HIGGINS IS BIG SKY TRI-OFFENSIVE POW
In a rarity, three players earned Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Week. Montana's Andrew Selle, Weber State's Cameron Higgins and Eastern Washington's Taiwan Jones earned the honor. Higgins completed 31-47 passes, no interceptions, for 410 yards and four touchdowns leading the Wildcats to their 36-29 win at Portland State. He took the ‘Cats 84 yards in six plays in the span of 55 seconds, hitting Tim Toone with a 38-yd TD pass to win the game.
BOBCATS HAVE BOTTLED TREVYN SMITH
In his 40 game career, WSU running back TREVYN SMITH has had some great games, particularly against teams from the Big Sky Conference. But one team which has pretty well bottled him up has been Montana State. ... Smith has rushed for at least 100 OR MORE YARDS against every team in the Big Sky Conference EXCEPT FOR MONTANA STATE. In three games Smith has rushed for 65, 78 and 73 yards (216 yards on 60 carries). That's an average of 20 rushes per game and 72 yards rushing per game. ... As receiver, SMITH had eight catches for 63 yards and a touchdown vs. the Bobcats last year. ... With his four receptions last week at Portland State, SMITH became the 18th player in WSU history with 100 or more career receptions. His 104 are now 16th best on the WSU career charts. ... He is 265 yards and 18 catches away from become the most prolific RUNNING BACK RECEIVER in Weber State history.
KICKING'S A HABIT
Weber State punter MIKE SNOY (6-2, 175 Sr.) has been on a tear over the last three games. After averaging just 34.66 yards per boot in the season opener @Wyoming, Snoy has averaged an eye-popping 48.27 yard per punt in the last three games. ... At Colorado State, he punted three times for an average of 49.66, vs. Idaho State he had four punts for an average of 47.00, and last Saturday at Portland State averaged 48.50 yards on four attempts. ... Five of his 17 punts this year have been downed inside the 20, and three of those five have been downed inside the five-yard line. ... Last week @Portland State, two of his punts rolled to the PSU two and three yard lines where they rolled until they stopped. ... In 40 career games, Snoy has punted 1987 times for an average of 40.48. ... His is currently ranked 8th this season in NCAA Division I FCS, and 2nd in the Big Sky. ... Weber State LEADS the Big Sky, and ranks 3rd in NCAA Division I FCS in NET PUNTING with an average of 41.1 yards. Opponents have averaged just 1.2 Punt Return Yards per game vs. the Wildcats this season. ... SNOY also handles the Kickoff duties. His 22 kickoffs this season have averaged 64.20 yards per boot.
SUNSET STRIP
Weber State senior safety BEAU HADLEY (6-0, 195 Sr.) picked up his third FORCED FUMBLE of the season and the eighth of his career last Saturday in the Portland State game. ... It came at an opportune time as well. PSU running back Ben Bowen broke loose from the nine-yard line and was ready to cross the goal line and score, but Hadley reached out and knocked the ball loose and it was recovered and picked up for a four-yard gain by THYRELL LEWIS (5-9, 175 Sr. CB) to stop the scoring drive. ... HADLEY's eight career forced fumbles puts him all alone in 2nd place on the WSU career charts, just one away from leader Brady Fosmark who had nine during his four-year career with the Wildcats from 2002-2005.
TIGHT END BY COMMITTEE
When the Wildcats lost starting tight end CODY NAKAMURA (6-2, 240 Sr.) for the season in the first half of the Idaho State game on Sept. 19, they needed someone to step up and fill his shoes. In those three games, Nakamura had 21 receptions for 184 yards and four touchdowns. ... Rather than one step up, the Wildcats had three step up and make big contributions last Saturday. .. KEVIN HALFHILL (6-7, 250 Jr.) did not have a reception but played an important role in blocking. ... TYRELL FRANCISCO (6-3, 240 Jr.) had a career long catch for 26 yards to keep a drive alive in the 3rd quarter which eventually led to a WSU touchdown. ... BRIAN JANKOWSKI's (6-4, 234 RsFr.) FIRST CAREER RECEPTION as a Wildcat, came on a 4th-and-one in the middle of the 4th quarter to keep a WSU drive alive.
INJURY BUG BITES AGAIN
The Wildcats lost starting left tackle JARED WILCOX (6-5, 280 Sr.) with an apparent season-ending lower leg injury. Initial diagnosis was a broken leg, but an MRI revealed no broken bones but several torn ligaments in his ankle and a tear of the muscle sheaving. ... He will be out at least six weeks, but there is an outside chance of returning by late November. ... CALEB TURNER (6-4, 280 Soph.) will make his first collegiate start this week. Turner, though has seen extensive playing time this season in sharing time with Wilcox.
PUT A SACK OVER IT!
Weber State All-America candidate KEVIN LINEHAN (6-3, 245 Sr.) added to his career Quarterback Sack totals. The swift open end from Los Alamitos, California had six total tackles vs. Portland State, four of them unassisted. Two of those were quarterback sacks. ... Linehan now has 20 career sacks. That ranks 4th on the WSU career charts. He needs two more to move past Shane Barkdull into third. ... He currently leads the Big Sky in Sacks Per Game at 1.00 and is 3rd in Tackles for Loss per game at 1.25. ... Linehan has six career Forced Fumbles and three career Fumble Recoveries.
TOONE TOWN
Weber State wide receiver TIM TOONE (5-10, 175 Sr.) continues to shine. He had eight catches for 135 yards and two touchdowns last Saturday vs. Portland State including the game-winning snag (38-yards) with 17 seconds left. ... He comes into Saturday's game as the Big Sky LEADER in RECEPTIONS PER GAME at 7.50 (10th ranked in Division I FCS) and 2nd in RECEIVING YARDS PER GAME at 99.50 (also ranked 10th in Division I FCS). ... He has 30 catches for 398 yards and four touchdowns this season. His 23 ca reer touchdown catches is a WSU school record and is the 12th best number in Big Sky Conference history. ... For his career, Toone now has 153 catches for 2,896 yards. He needs just 27 more yards to pass Wade Orton as Weber State's career leader in Receiving Yards and 104 more to become the first player in WSU history to have 3,000 career yards. ... Toone needs 49 more catches (or an average of 7.00 per game), to pas Trevor Shaw for the Most Pass Receptions in school history as well. He would also become just the 6th player in Big Sky Conference history with over 3,000 career receiving yards
- Eric Kimble Eastern Washington 4,140
- Fred Amey Sacramento State 4,049
- Kasey Dunn Idaho 3,847
- Orshawante Bryant Portland State 3,449
- Jerry Hendren Idaho 3,435.
BOLEN THEM OVER
Back up running back BO BOLEN (5-9, 200 RsFr.) is quietly establishing himself as the possible heir apparent to Trevyn Smith. ... Bolen had carried 17 times for 91 yards and one touchdown this season. ... Last Saturday at Portland State when Smith left the game with an injury, Bolen stepped in and rushed seven times for 56 yards and did not have a lost yard. ... He also caught two passes for 21 yards including a 15-yd TD grab with put the Wildcats up 28-10. ... He has six catches for 51 yards and two touchdowns this season. ... He's also been WSU's Kickoff Return specialist this season with 14 for an average of 24.3 yards per return with a long of 42.
TO SCORE OR NOT TO SCORE
Saturday's game features the Big Sky's number two scoring OFFENSE (Weber State: 31.20) against the Big Sky number two scoring DEFENSE (Montana State: 23.7).
NO DEPOSIT, NO RETURN
Weber State has three INTERCEPTIONS this season but no return yards. .. In 2008, the Wildcats picked of 19 passes but 10 of those were not returned for yards. ... WSU defensive back JOSH MORRIS had five interceptions in 2008 with no return yards, and has one this season for no return yards.
THAT'S ANOTHER WILDCAT ... FIRST DOWN
Weber State is the Big Sky leader in First Downs this season. The Wildcats are averaging 23.8 per game just ahead of Montana (21.0). ... Montana State, on the other hand, leads the Big Sky in Least First Downs by Opponents. The Bobcats has allowed just 66 First Downs by opponents this season.
STILL STINGY ON 3RD DOWN
Weber State has held its first four opponents to just 11-46 on 3rd Down Conversions this season. Montana is second (24-64 .375). ... Montana leads the Big Sky in 3rd Down Conversions (30-60 .500) while the Wildcats are second at .485 (32-66).
BALL CONTROL
Weber State continues to lead the Big Sky in Time of Possession. The Wildcats are averaging 34:06 per game. ... In the Second Quarters this season, the Wildcats are averaging 9:20 of possession time.
THE BOBCATS ARE RANKED
For the first time since October of 2007, the Montana State Bobcats are ranked in the top 25 in NCAA Division I FCS. ... MSU came in at 25th in the FCS Coaches Poll while receiving 66 votes in The Sports Network poll.
NEXT WEEK
The Wildcats will more than likely face another ranked opponent next week, traveling to Cheney, Washington for a meeting with the Eastern Washington University Eagles. The Saturday, October 10th game will kickoff at 12:30 p.m. PDT and will be carried LIVE on Altitude TV. ... Eastern Washington is ranked 17th this week in The Sports Network poll and 18th in the FCS Coaches poll. ... The Eagles play at Idaho State this Saturday.
COACH RON McBRIDE QUOTES
ON MONTANA STATE: "In the four years I have been here, they have been one of the most solid teams on both sides of the line we have played. They are always very tough and physical on both sides of the line. On film, their front seven look to be every bit as good as anyone we've played this season. They are a veteran group. Offensively, they don't do anything fancy, but they don't make mistakes either. This is a good, solid football team.
ON THE WILDCATS: "We gave one away at Colorado State and we got one back last week at Portland State. We didn't play particularly well, especially our kickoff cover teams and our rushing game. Losing Jared up front hurts but that's why we preach to our younger players to be ready at a moments notice. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. Cameron's leadership down the stretch on that last drive shows why he's up for national honors. That's what great quarterbacks do. They make big plays in tough situations and that one was about as tough a situation as you can present to a team and they came through. It's something we practice every week and it paid off."
