2018 Weber State Wildcats football team

2018 Weber State Wildcats football
Big Sky co-champion
FCS Playoffs Quarterfinals, L 18–23 vs. Maine
Conference	Big Sky Conference
Ranking
STATS	No. 6
FCS Coaches	No. 6
2018 record	10–3 (7–1 Big Sky)
Head coach	Jay Hill (5th season)
Offensive coordinator	Dave Schramm (1st season)
Home stadium	Stewart Stadium (Capacity: 17,312)
Seasons ← 2017 2019 →

2018 Big Sky Conference football standings
v t	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
No. 6 Weber State +^		7	–	1					10	–	3
No. 2 Eastern Washington +^		7	–	1					12	–	3
No. 7 UC Davis +^		7	–	1					10	–	3
No. 17 Montana State ^		5	–	3					8	–	5
Idaho State		5	–	3					6	–	5
Montana		4	–	4					6	–	5
Cal Poly		4	–	4					5	–	6
Northern Arizona		3	–	4					4	–	6
Portland State		3	–	5					4	–	7
Idaho		3	–	5					4	–	7
Northern Colorado		2	–	6					2	–	9
Southern Utah		1	–	7					1	–	10
Sacramento State		0	–	7					2	–	8
$ – Conference champion ^ – FCS playoff participant Although North Dakota was classified as an independent, games against them still counted as Big Sky Conference games. Rankings from STATS Poll

The 2018 Weber State Wildcats football team represented Weber State University in the 2018 NCAA Division I FCS football season. The Wildcats were led by fourth-year head coach Jay Hill and played their games at Stewart Stadium as members of the Big Sky Conference. They finished the season 10–3, 7–1 in Big Sky play to finish in a three-way tie for the Big Sky championship with Eastern Washington and UC Davis. They received the Big Sky's automatic bid to the FCS Playoffs where, after a first round bye, they defeated Southeast Missouri State in the second round before losing in the quarterfinals to Maine.

Previous season[]

The Wildcats finished the 2017 season 11–3, 7–1 in Big Sky play to finish in a tie for the Big Sky championship with Southern Utah. Due to their head-to-head loss to Southern Utah in the regular season, they did not receive the Big Sky's automatic bid to the FCS Playoffs, but did receive an at-large bid to the FCS Playoffs, their second straight trip to the playoffs. In the first round, they defeated Western Illinois. In the second round, they avenged their regular season loss to Southern Utah. In the quarterfinals, they lost to eventual national runner-up, James Madison.

Preseason[]

Polls[]

On July 16, 2018, during the Big Sky Kickoff in Spokane, Washington, the Wildcats were predicted to finish in second place by both the coaches and media.^[1]

Coaches poll

Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	Eastern Washington	134 (6)
2	Weber State	124 (3)
3	Northern Arizona	121 (3)
4	Idaho	101 (1)
5	Sacramento State	94
6	Southern Utah	91
7	Montana	82
8	Montana State	76
9	UC Davis	64
10	Cal Poly	40
11	Northern Colorado	30
12	Idaho State	29
13	Portland State	21

Media poll

Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	Eastern Washington	651 (27)
2	Weber State	636 (19)
3	Northern Arizona	535 (1)
4	Montana	496 (2)
5	Idaho	483 (3)
6	Southern Utah	449 (1)
7	Sacramento State	415
8	Montana State	391 (1)
9	UC Davis	331 (1)
10	Idaho State	170
11	Cal Poly	169
12	Northern Colorado	166
13	Portland State	103

Preseason All-Conference Team[]

The Wildcats had a conference leading six players selected to the Preseason All-Conference Team.^[2]

Iosua Opeta – Sr. OT

Trey Tuttle, – So. K

Rashid Shaheed – So. KR

Jonah Williams – Jr. DE

LeGrand Toia, – Sr. LB

Brady May – Sr. ST Specialist

Schedule[]

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
August 30	6:00 p.m.	at Utah*	No. 8	Rice-Eccles Stadium Salt Lake City, UT	P12N	L 10–41	45,988
September 8	7:00 p.m.	at Cal Poly*	No. 10	Alex G. Spanos Stadium San Luis Obispo, CA	Pluto TV 244	W 24–17	6,020
September 15	6:00 p.m.	No. 22 South Dakota*	No. 11	Stewart Stadium Ogden, UT	Pluto TV 235	W 27–10	8,455
September 22	6:00 p.m.	Northern Colorado	No. 7	Stewart Stadium Ogden, UT	Pluto TV 235	W 45–28	8,668
October 6	2:30 p.m.	at Northern Arizona	No. 6	Walkup Skydome Flagstaff, AZ	ELVN	L 24-28	10,000
October 13	4:00 p.m.	No. 4 Eastern Washington	No. 13	Stewart Stadium Ogden, UT	ELVN	W 14–6	8,211
October 20	4:00 p.m.	Montana State	No. 7	Stewart Stadium Ogden, UT	ATTRM	W 34–24	8,062
October 27	1:00 p.m.	at No. 22 North Dakota	No. 4	Alerus Center Grand Forks, ND	Pluto TV 240	W 35–30	8,650
November 3	12:00 p.m.	Sacramento State	No. 4	Stewart Stadium Ogden, UT	Pluto TV 235	W 26–14	7,857
November 10	5:00 p.m.	at Southern Utah	No. 3	Eccles Coliseum Cedar City, UT (Beehive Bowl)	ELVN	W 31–18	7,415
November 17	2:30 p.m.	at Idaho State	No. 3	Holt Arena Pocatello, ID	Pluto TV 243	W 26–13	10,077
December 1	2:00 p.m.	No. 20 Southeast Missouri State*	No. 3	Stewart Stadium Ogden, UT (FCS Playoffs Second Round)	ESPN3	W 48–23	8,838
December 7	6:00 p.m.	No. 12 Maine	No. 3	Stewart Stadium Ogden, UT (FCS Playoffs Quarterfinals)	ESPN2	L 18–23	7,726
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from STATS Poll released prior to the game All times are in Mountain time

• Source: Official Schedule

Despite also being a member of the Big Sky, the game against Cal Poly was considered a non-conference matchup having no effect on conference standings.

Game summaries[]

at Utah[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 8 Wildcats	10	0	0	0	10
Utes	7	10	14	10	41

at Cal Poly[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 10 Wildcats	7	3	7	7	24
Mustangs	0	3	7	7	17

South Dakota[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 22 Coyotes	0	3	0	7	10
No. 11 Wildcats	11	7	3	6	27

Northern Colorado[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bears	7	14	7	0	28
No. 7 Wildcats	14	7	14	10	45

at Northern Arizona[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 6 Wildcats	0	8	13	3	24
Lumberjacks	7	0	14	7	28

at Eastern Washington[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 13 Wildcats	14	0	0	0	14
No. 4 Eagles	0	3	3	0	6

Montana State[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bobcats	7	10	7	0	24
No. 7 Wildcats	0	14	10	10	34

at North Dakota[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 4 Wildcats	7	14	7	7	35
No. 22 Fighting Hawks	0	20	3	7	30

Sacramento State[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
Hornets	0	0	7	7	14
No. 4 Wildcats	3	10	13	0	26

at Southern Utah[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 3 Wildcats	7	14	7	3	31
Thunderbirds	6	6	6	0	18

at Idaho State[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 3 Wildcats	3	9	7	7	26
Bengals	0	0	13	0	13

FCS Playoffs[]

Southeast Missouri State–Second Round[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 20 Redhawks	7	0	7	9	23
No. 3 Wildcats	0	27	7	14	48

Maine–Quarterfinals[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 12 Black Bears	0	7	7	9	23
No. 3 Wildcats	0	3	9	6	18

Ranking movements[]

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking.
NR = Not ranked. RV = Received votes. т = Tied with team above or below. ( ) = First place votes.

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
STATS FCS	8	10	11	7	6	6	13	7	4	4	3	3	3	6
Coaches	8	13	13	8	7	7	13	9	5	5	4	4	3	6

References[]