Weber State University Athletics
Weber State University
Northern Colorado
Game 5: Wildcats hit the road at Northern Colorado
9/26/2023 1:26:00 PM | Football
Weber State will play its first game in Greeley in eight years Saturday. Wildcats and Bears kickoff at 1 p.m. on ESPN+ and 103.1 FM "The Wave".
• Weber State football returns to the road for more Big Sky action this week as the Wildcats head to Greeley, Colorado to take on the Northern Colorado Bears.
• Weber State is 2-2 overall and coming off a 40-0 home loss to No. 3 Montana State on Saturday night in the Big Sky opener. The Wildcats are ranked 13th in the country in the Stats Perform poll and 14th in the AFCA Coaches poll.
• Northern Colorado is 0-4 on the season and 0-1 in Big Sky play, following the conference opening loss at Idaho State on Saturday.
• This will be Weber State's first trip to Northern Colorado in eight years.
• The Wildcats are 10-1 all-time against the Bears and have won three-straight games. WSU is a perfect 4-0 all-time in games in Greeley.
Media coverage
Saturday's game will kickoff at 1 p.m. from Nottingham Field in Greeley. The game will be televised on ESPN+ and the ESPN app.
Weber State's radio coverage will be on 103.1 FM "The Wave" with Steve Klauke and former Wildcat head coach and athletic director Jerry Graybeal on the call.
Live stats available at WeberStateSports.com and the Weber State Wildcats app.
Hear from Wildcat head coach @mmental7 heading into this Saturday's game at Northern Colorado. #WeAreWeber pic.twitter.com/kEsASbzK28
— Weber State Football ?? (@weberstatefb) September 25, 2023
Wildcats one of seven ranked Big Sky teams
Despite the loss to third-ranked Montana State, Weber State is one of seven teams from the Big Sky Conference that are ranked in the top 25. Montana State is still third in the country in the Stats Perform poll with Idaho ranked fourth. Sacramento State is eighth, Weber State is 13th, Montana is 18th, Eastern Washington 19th, and UC Davis 21st.
National rankings
Weber State is fourth in the nation in kickoff returns, averaging 30.3 yards per return. Abraham Williams is second in the country at 37.6 per return.
The Wildcats are also fourth in the country in net punting and 18th in sacks.
Two sacks for Brayden Wilson
Wildcat sophomore defensive end Brayden Wilson had a career game in Saturday's game with Montana State. Wilson had two sacks, three tackles for loss, and five total tackles in the game. The two sacks accounted for losses of 16 yards.
Wilson, a native of Kaysville, Utah, leads the Big Sky and is 12th in the country in tackles for loss. He has seven tackles for loss for an average of 1.75 per game. He is also sixth in the conference in sacks with 2.5 and is third on the Wildcat team in tackles with 21. Wilson has played in 18 games in his career with the Wildcats and has 50 total tackles, 14 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks.
Winston Reid leading Wildcat defense
Weber State senior All-American linebacker continues to lead the Big Sky and is ninth in the country in tackles after four games. He is also second in the conference and 29th in the country in tackles for loss.
Reid is averaging 11.0 tackles per game after four games. He has 26 unassisted tackles and 18 assisted tackles for his 44 tackles, which is twice as many as the second-place tackler on the Wildcat team. He has 5.5 tackles for loss for an average of 1.4 per game.
Reid began his Wildcat career in 2018 as a walk-on and now, prior to the season, was named the Big Sky Preseason Defensive MVP. He earned first-team All-Big Sky honors and earned All-America honors last season as he started all 13 games and finished sixth in the Big Sky in tackles with 112 for an average of 8.6 per game. He had 68 solo tackles, the sixth-most in a season in WSU history, and had 10 or more tackles in a game five times. He also finished in a tie for first in the conference with five forced fumbles.
In addition, Reid has been named to the watch list for the 2024 Reese's Senior Bowl, the prestigious pre-draft game next February. He is one of five players from the Big Sky on the preseason watch list.
Abraham Williams second nation in kickoff returns
Wildcat junior All-American kick returner Abraham Williams had just one kickoff return in Saturday's game and now ranks second in the country in kickoff returns, averaging 37.6 yards per return. He has seven returns for 263 yards this season. In the season-opening win over Central Washington, Williams returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown. It was his fifth career kickoff return touchdown and all five returns have been 100 yards.
Last season, Williams was a consensus All-American after returning four kickoffs for 100 yards. He led the country in kickoff return yards last year at 37.4 per return. He was the only player in all divisions of the NCAA to have more than two kickoff returns in a season last year.
He is WSU's all-time leader in average at 37.5 yards per return and is fifth in career yards. He is also second in WSU history with five touchdowns, behind Rashid Shaheed, now with the New Orleans Saints, who is tied for the FCS record with seven touchdowns.
Jack Burgess first in Big Sky and third in nation in punting
Wildcat junior punter Jack Burgess leads the Big Sky and is third in the nation in punting. Burgess has 26 punts for 1,213 yards in four games, averaging 46.7 yards per punt. He has eight punts of over 50 yards, including a long of 70 yards.
Burgess, a native of Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia, has 72 punts in his two seasons with the Wildcats and has an average of 42.7 yards per punt, which is currently the fifth-best career average in school history. He averaged 49.3 yards per punt in seven punt attempts in Saturday's game against Montana State.
Four All-Americans and eight All-Big Sky performers returning
Weber State has four returning All-Americans from last year's squad. In addition to Abraham Williams and Winston Reid, Maxwell Anderson and Noah Atagi also return as All-Americans. Atagi was an All-American last year and earned first-team All-Big Sky honors for the third-straight year.
Also returning are four other players that earned All-Big Sky honors in 2022. Haze Hadley (punt returner) and Jordan Lutui (offensive line) earned second-team honors, Ethan Atagi (offensive line) earned third-team honors and Damon Bankston (running back) earned honorable mention honors in 2022.
Mickey Mental takes over as new Wildcat head coach
Weber State is under the direction of first year head coach Mickey Mental who was named the 12th head coach in Weber State history in December. Mental served as the offensive coordinator for the Wildcats in 2022 before being named head coach. He took over for Jay Hill who left for BYU in December after nine seasons as head coach. Hill is Weber State's all-time leader in coaching wins with 68 and led the Wildcats to four Big Sky titles and six trips to the FCS Playoffs.
This is not the first time for Mental as a head coach. The Olmstead Falls, Ohio native spent two seasons as head coach at Division II Notre Dame College in Ohio, prior to coming to Weber State. In two seasons as head coach he posted a 16-2 overall record and a 13-1 record in conference play. In the spring 2021 season, he led the Falcons to a conference championship.
Wildcats fourth in Big Sky preseason polls
The Wildcats were also ranked fourth in the Big Sky preseason media and coaches polls for the second-straight year. Montana State was selected as the preseason favorite in both polls with UC Davis second and Sacramento State third in the coaches poll and Idaho second and Montana third in the media poll.
Oh brother
This year's Wildcat squad includes six sets of brothers. LJ and Maxwell Anderson, Ethan and Noah Atagi, Garrett and Trevor Beck, Bronson and Jagger Childs, Ishaan and Rishi Daniels, and Jordan and Masi Lutui are all on the Wildcat team this season.
Team captains
As selected by their teammates, Weber State has named four captains for the 2023 season. This year's captains are senior offensive lineman Noah Atagi, senior cornerback Maxwell Anderson, senior cornerback Marque Collins, and senior linebacker Winston Reid. This is the third-straight year for Atagi as a captain and Reid was also a captain in 2022.
About Northern Colorado
Northern Colorado enters Saturday's game 0-4 overall. The Bears have losses at Abilene Christian, home to Incarnate Word, at Washington State, and at Idaho State on Saturday in the Big Sky opener.
The Bears were 3-8 overall and 2-6 in Big Sky play last year and were picked to finish 10th in the conference this year.
David Afari is fourth in the Big Sky in rushing at 78.3 yards per game and Kaleb Quammie is third in the conference in interceptions.
The Bears are coached by Ed Lamb who is in his first season at Northern Colorado but very familiar with Big Sky football. Lamb played football at BYU and later coached at BYU and Idaho, among other schools. He was an assistant coach at Southern Utah from 2008-11 before becoming the head coach at Southern Utah in 2012 where he helped lead the Thunderbirds to the FCS Playoffs twice and the 2015 Big Sky Championship. He was 19-13 in Big Sky play during his four seasons as head coach. He then spent the last seven years as an associate head coach at BYU before coming to Northern Colorado.
Northern Colorado's defensive coordinator is Preston Hadley who was an assistant coach at Weber State in 2016 and 2017. Hadley was part of WSU's first of four-straight Big Sky Championship teams in 2017. He then went to BYU as an assistant coach for five seasons before going to Northern Colorado.
Justin Walterscheid, the special teams coordinator for the Bears, was a defensive assistant at Weber State in 2008, a year the Wildcats won the Big Sky title under coach Ron McBride, before spending several years as an assistant coach at Southern Utah.
Series history
This will be the 12th all-time meeting between the two schools but the two teams have only played twice in the last seven years. Weber State is 10-1 all-time against Northern Colorado and has won the last three games played. UNC's only win in the series was in Ogden in 2012.
In games in Greeley, Weber State is 4-0 all-time but this is WSU's first trip to Greeley in eight years, since September 24, 2015. The Wildcats beat the Bears 38-17 in that game, in the second season under coach Jay Hill. WSU jumped out to a 31-0 lead and had 435 yards of offense with 254 rushing yards and three touchdowns.
Weber State beat the Bears in 2018 and 2021 in Ogden. In the last game in 2021, the Wildcats picked off three passes in the fourth quarter to seal a 48-17 win.
Quick hits
Junior Haze Hadley has moved into second-place on the WSU career punt return list. He has 60 returns for 668 yards, the second-most yards in school history, and has an average of 11.1 yards per return...Damon Bankston is third in the conference in rushing at 89.5 yards a game...Saturday's loss was WSU's first time being shutout in a Big Sky game since 2015 to Southern Utah...Weber State has 39 players on this years roster from the state of Utah. California is next with 21 followed by Texas with 12 and Idaho with 10.
Up next
After Saturday Weber State will return home for two-straight home games. The Wildcats will host Northern Arizona on October 7 in the Red Rock Rivalry game. WSU will then host UC Davis on October 14 in the annual Homecoming game. Both games will kickoff at 6 p.m. at Stewart Stadium.
Players Mentioned
