This story was originally published by Dead Spin
There will be one ranked team taking the field Saturday night at Husky Stadium, but it won’t be Washington.
Weber State, which is No. 22 in the preseason Football Championship Subdivision poll, travels to Seattle for the season opener.
The host Huskies, coming off a trip to the College Football Playoff championship game, have a new coach in Jedd Fisch — after Kalen DeBoer replaced Nick Saban at Alabama — and an overhauled roster.
“We certainly are bringing a different team this year than years past,” said Fisch, who led Arizona to a 10-3 record last season and a No. 11 ranking in the final poll. “I made the comment that … it’s almost the first time ever that you would have 46 to 48 new players on a roster, along with 30 new staff members, coming off a 14-1 season.”
Will Rogers, the No. 2 all-time leading passer in Southeastern Conference history, will start at quarterback for the Huskies after transferring from Mississippi State.
“I don’t have two or three years to kind of learn the offense, develop relationships,” Rogers said. “I have one year to kind of get this thing right. So it’s kind of a weird situation.”
Weber State went 6-5 last season, its ninth straight with a winning record. Quarterback Richie Munoz returns after guiding the Wildcats to three straight victories to end his freshman campaign, including a 329-yard, five-touchdown performance at Cal Poly.
“I’m just looking for this team to go and play the best we can,” Munoz said. “I truly believe we’re going to surprise a lot of people … take care of the ball, play great defense.”
Wildcats defensive end Brayden Wilson led the Big Sky Conference last season with 16.5 tackles for loss.
Weber State’s last preseason scrimmage was interrupted by a thunderstorm, but Wildcats coach Mickey Mental looked for the silver lining.
“Hopefully it doesn’t rain in Seattle for our first game but if it does, we got to play with a wet ball,” Mental said.
–Field Level Media
