SUU football preview notes

2008 schedule

Aug. 30 ... at Air Force, noon
Sept. 6 ... Adams State, 6 p.m.
Sept. 13 ... at Montana, 1 p.m.
Sept. 20 ... No. Arizona, 6 p.m.
Sept. 27 ... at Texas State, 6 p.m.
Oct. 4 ... Youngstown St., 1 p.m.
Oct. 11 ... at UC Davis, 6 p.m.
Oct. 25 ... at Cal Poly, 6 p.m.
Nov. 8 ... at No. Dakota, 7 p.m.
Nov. 15 ... South Dakota, 1 p.m.
Nov. 22 ... Northern Iowa, 1 p.m.

2007 record

0-11 overall, 0-5 Great West Conference

Predicted finish

Fifth

Returning starters

11; 5 offense, 6 defense

Names to know

Cody Stone, QB; Robert Takeno, LB; Nick Miller, WR, KR/ PR; Austin Curtis, DT; Steve Pulver, K; Trevor Ward, P

Key date

SUU has a three-game stretch in late October to early November that will be a grueling road test. Unfortunately for the T-Birds, it includes games at UC Davis and Cal Poly — the two best teams in the conference — as well as a trip to North Dakota. SUU needs to come out of that stretch with at least one win, as its home schedule includes two teams ranked in the top 12 in the FCS preseason poll.

Reasons to be excited

You never know what is going to happen with a new coach at the helm, and the players seem to be excited and are buying into their leaders' logic. It will be interesting to see whether all the talk about getting better in the weight room and attempting to win the league will really happen.

Reasons to be worried

After an 0-11 campaign last year, SUU's schedule, even at home, does not look promising: After a payoff game in Colorado Springs, SUU will face some of the toughest opponents I-AA has to offer: home games against Youngstown State, Northern Iowa and Northern Arizona, and a murderous road game in Missoula.