Weber St. disappoints, but future looks bright

OGDEN — When Ron McBride's name was announced as head coach at Weber State about two years ago, many Wildcat fans were understandably excited. The former coach at Utah had recruiting ties up and down the state and rebuilt the Utes into a conference power.

Why, then, should he do anything less at Weber State?

"I expect to be contending for championships," McBride said after the current season ended. "I always expect my teams to compete for a championship."

With that in mind, McBride said the 2006 football season was a disappointment. Not only did the Wildcats fail to contend for a Big Sky championship, they failed to break the .500 mark and had problems offensively for much of the season.

The Wildcats, which finished 4-7 overall and 3-5 in the Big Sky, might have had a much better year if not for one seemingly problem long before the season started. Drew Dukeshire, an all-conference tight end and a focal point of McBride's offensive planning, was declared academically ineligible. His replacement blew an ACL in the first few days of fall camp and Weber State was never able to find a dependable tight end until the last two weeks of the season when former tight end B.A. Harrell was moved back across the line from his defensive end position.

"We kind of built our offense around Dukeshire this year and when he was gone, that screwed everything up," McBride said. "We never really were able to overcome that."

When the season ended, only 13 seniors were found on the 46-man two deep roster. That means Weber State was playing a lot of young, inexperienced players.

Adding to Weber State's problems on offense were season-ending injuries to the top two running backs and a revolving door on the offensive coordinator's office that saw three different men hold the title between the end of spring ball and the start of fall camp.

The lack of continuity created havoc in ways and, coupled with some tough opponents to open the season, caused starting quarterback Ian Pizarro to start the season in a funk. He was eventually benched in favor of Shawn Woods, but regained the starting job a few games later.

"It took us a long time to get things going," McBride said. "Too long. Our defense was strong all season long, but we had a really hard time getting the offense to match that."

The Wildcats did, indeed, have a great defense.

Led by cornerback Bo Smith, linebacker Tyler DeBry and linemen Derek Johnson and Rio Stotler, Weber State was consistently ranked at the top of the Big Sky in several statistical categories.