Football 11/18/2009 8:00:00 PM Southern Utah Athletics

T-Birds Close Football Schedule At San Diego

Southern Utah's football team closes out its 2009 season Saturday at the University of San Diego.

The Thunderbirds (4-5, 2-2 Great West) will be looking to finish on a high note after losing back-to-back games the last two weeks. The Thunderbirds had won two straight and three of four until falling at South Dakota, 45-21, two weeks ago, then losing for the first time at home this year in a 41-28 setback against Eastern Washington last Saturday. The Thunderbirds have not won on the road, however, this season.

San Diego (3-6, 2-5 Pioneer Football League) snapped a four-game skid last Saturday with a 13-7 win at Morehead State. Prior to that game the Toreros had lost at home to Drake, Jacksonville and Davidson as well as on the road at Dayton. San Diego is 1-3 at home this season.

Saturday's game will be a homecoming of sorts for SUU Coach Ed Lamb, who spent three seasons as Torero special teams coordinator and secondary coach.

The Game: Southern Utah (4-6, 2-2) at San Diego (4-6, 3-5), Saturday 6:00 p.m. (Pacific) at Torero Stadium (7,000, grass).

The Series: Saturday's game will mark the first meeting between the two schools on the football field.

TV: Saturday's game will not be televised. Highlight clips of all the Thunderbirds' home games are available via SUU's FTP site shortly after the conclusion of each game. For information on obtaining those highlights contact SUU Director of Athletic Media Relations Neil Gardner.

Radio: All of Southern Utah's 2009 football games are available over the Thunderbird Sports Network. SUU flagship station KSUU (91.1 FM) will carry every game live as well as on the worldwide web at www.suu.edu/ksuu. The games will also be carried live over Thunderbird Radio Network affiliate KSUB AM (590), which covers southwest Utah. Art Challis is in his 35th season as the Thunderbirds' football voice. He will be joined on the broadcast by SUU Director of Athletic Media Relations Neil Gardner, who attempts to provide color(ful) analysis.

GWC Teleconference: The Great West Conference holds a weekly teleconference, beginning at 12:45 p.m. (Mountain). The conference's head coaches all address their previous and upcoming games. For information on accessing the teleconferences, contact SUU Director of Athletic Media Relations Neil Gardner. The schedule follows:

12:45 p.m. - Introduction by Great West Commissioner Ed Grom

12:47 p.m. - Cal Poly Coach Tim Walsh

12:55 p.m. - USD Coach Ed Meierkort

1:03 p.m. - UND Coach Chris Mussman

1:11 p.m. - SUU Coach Ed Lamb

1:19 p.m. - UC Davis coach Bob Biggs

Thunderbird Club Luncheons: The Thunderbird Club's weekly no-host luncheon is held Mondays at noon at the Cedar City Crystal Inn. The public is invited to attend the luncheons where Southern Utah's in-season coaches talk about their upcoming contests and review the past week's action.

The Coaches: SUU's Ed Lamb (BYU, 1996) has a record of 8-13 in his second season as the Thunderbird head coach and his second season as a head coach overall. Last year Lamb guided the Thunderbirds to their most successful season since 2004. Prior to taking over at SUU, Lamb spent three seasons at the University of San Diego where he coordinated the special teams and recruiting and was the Toreros' defensive backs coach. Prior to his time at USD Lamb spent two seasons as defensive coordinator at Idaho. He also served a season at BYU as a linebackers coach and four seasons at Redlands, three as defensive coordinator and one as defensive line coach. Coach Lamb is 0-0 vs. San Diego.

San Diego's Ron Caragher (UCLA, 1990) is 18-14 (PLUS THIS YEAR) in his third season at USD and his third season as a head coach. Caragher is 0-0 vs. the Thunderbirds.

Affiliations: Southern Utah is in its sixth season in the Great West Conference after eight seasons as an NCAA Division I (FCS) independent. SUU is a football-only member of the GWC and its other sports are affiliated with The Summit League in all its other sports except women's gymnastics, which competes in the Western Athletic Conference. In football, San Diego is a member of the Pioneer Football League; the majority of the Toreros sports compete in the West Coast Conference.

SUU In The FCS National Ranks:

Individuals: SUU has individuals ranked among the nation's leaders (NCAA FCS top-50) in eight categories this week, and would rank in another if punter Trevor Ward had enough attempts. Ward would lead the nation with a punting average of 47.8 yards per boot, but he has punted just 34 times through 10 games, leaving him two kicks shy of the NCAA minimum of 3.6 per game. WR Tysson Poots ranks second in both receptions per game and receiving yards per game with 9.38 catches and 116.5 yards per game, ranks sixth in scoring, at 9.75 ppg, and is 44th in all-purpose yards, with 116.5 per game. WR Fesi Sitake ranks in three categories: seventh in punt return average (15.58 ypr), ninth in receptions per game (7.2) and 33rd in receiving yards per game (76.5). Kicker Ryan Griffith is 26th in field goals per game with an average 1.2 per, and is 29th in scoring at 7.5 points per game. In addition to those players, quarterback Cade Cooper is seventh in total offense, with 282.2 yards per game, and 25th in passing efficiency, at 140.93.

Team: As a team, the Thunderbirds lead the nation in net punting, at 45.18 yards per punt, and are seventh in punt returns, at 15.58 yards per return. SUU also ranks ninth in passing offense (279.3 ypg), 13th in scoring (32.9 ppg), 21st in total offense (394.5 ypg), 22nd in passing efficiency (140.6 rating) and 47th in turnover margin (plus 0.2).

GWC Players of the Week

SUU has had eight GWC players of the week this season, including this week's special teams player of the week, punter Trevor Ward. Running back Major Gray, cornerback Colin Pretlow, and return specialist Fesi Sitake all earned recognition vs. Davis, while CB Erron Vonner, WR Tysson Poots, QB Cade Cooper and PK Ryan Griffith were honored earlier in the season.

Ward, a senior from Ogden, Utah (Bonneville HS) punted five times for 250 yards, stopped four kicks inside the 20 and had a long punt of 61 yards against Eastern Washington. This is his fourth game averaging at least 50 yards per punt, including his third in the last four games. His 47.8 yards per punt average leads the conference and would be the NCAA's top mark but he falls one punt short of the necessary number of kicks to qualify for the national rankings. His 47.8 yard per-punt average is also the best in SUU history as is his 42.218 yard career average.

Eastern Washington Game Notes:

Cade Cooper's 35 completions against the Eagles set the SUU single-game record, while his three TD passes extended his own record to 28.
Akeem Anifowoshe tallied a career-high 15 tackles, including 10 solo stops vs. the Eagles. He also blocked a field goal near the end of the half to keep Southern Utah within striking distance. His 15 tackles are a team-season high this year as well as a personal-best.
Trevor Ward punted five times for 250 yards, put four inside the 20, had a long punt of 61 yards. This was his fourth game averaging at least 50 yards per punt, including his third in the last four games. His 47.8 yards per punt average leads the conference and would be the NCAA's top mark but he falls one punt short of the necessary number of kicks to qualify for the national rankings. His 47.8 yard per-punt average is also the best in SUU history as is his 42.218 yard career average.
Tysson Poots caught three more TD passes to extend his school career receiving touchdowns record to 30 and to move him into seventh place on the SUU career scoring list with 168 points. He needs just one more receiving TD to tie his own single-season record of 14, set last year. Poots' 932 receiving yards this year rank fourth on the SUU single-season list, despite the fact he missed the first two games of the season with a foot injury.
Fesi Sitake caught a career-high 12 passes for a career-best 143 yards. He also had a career-long-tying 50-yard reception.
SUU rushed for just 71 yards. It was the second straight game the Thunderbirds failed to break the 100-yard mark after going over 100 in the first eight games of the season.
SUU gave up a season-high 608 yards of total offense to Eastern Washington, four yards more than Northern Arizona piled up in week four. The Eagles' 380 passing yards were also an opponent high this year.
The Thunderbirds went without an interception for the first time in four games.

Torero Tale: San Diego is no stranger to close games this season. Six of the Torero's contests have been decided by a touchdown or less and only two have had final margins of more than two touchdowns. SUU won at Valparaiso, 48-7, and at home to Jacksonville, 34-16, all the other games have been decided by fewer than 14 points.

The Toreros' offense leans toward the pass but is fairly balanced, with an average of 194.0 yards coming through the air and 125.4 on the ground. Defensively, USD has allowed an average of 170.4 rushing and 165.5 passing yards per game.

San Diego has used three starting quarterbacks this season. Sebastian Trujillo was the starter at the beginning of the year, but left the team for personal reasons after three games. Redshirt freshman Sam Cudellari took over for Trujillo but was lost in the Jacksonville game to injury. Bo Stompro (5-11, 183, Fr) has taken over and has completed 41-of-77 passes for 577 yards and three touchdowns with four interceptions in the three games since. Wideouts John McGough (6-3, 215, So), Godfrey Smith (6-2, 195, Jr) and Eric Fiege (5-9, 170, So) are the team's top three receivers. McGough has 42 catches for 617 yards and five scores, while Godreey has 26 receptions for 294 yards and a TD and Feige has 25 catches for 334 yards and two touchdowns. J.T. Rogan (5-10, 200, Grad.) is the team's top rusher, with 485 yards and seven touchdowns in 123 carries.

Defensively, the Toreros have been led by free safety Derek Pilkington (6-2, 215, Sr) and middle linebacker Derek Martin (6-0, 220, Sr). Pilkington has 68 tackles with four TFLs while Marten has 58 tackles with 5.5 TFLs. LInebacker Loka Kanongataa (5-11, 220, So) has 52 tackles and a team-high 10.5 for loss, including three sacks, while end Mario Kurn (6-2, 225, So) has 10 TFLs and a team-best four sacks. Cornerback Al-Rilwan Adeyemi (5-10, 183, So) is tops on the team in interceptions (two) and passes broken up (seven).

Records Watch:

Tysson Poots moved to the top of the SUU career receiving yards list with his 150 at South Dakota State. He passed Doug Berry, who had 2,393 yards from 1967-to-1970 and with 147 more yards vs. Eastern Washington he now has 2,591 career receiving yards yards. Earlier in the season Poots broke the career touchdowns and receptions records. As noted above, he caught three more TD passes to extend his school career receiving touchdowns record to 30 and he has 187 career catches. His 168 career points rank seventh on the SUU list. He needs just one more receiving TD to tie his own single-season record of 14, set last year, and his 932 receiving yards this year rank fourth on the SUU single-season list.
In the single-season lists Poots' 75 receptions this year rank third and his 932 yards rank fifth.
Trevor Ward's current season average of 47.8 yards per punt and his career average of 42.2 yards per punt are both the best in SUU history.
Senior linebacker Robert Takeno has 335 career tackles, which rank second on SUU's all-time list. The only player ahead of him is John Lundstrom, who had 554 stops from 1976 to 1979.
In just one season Ryan Griffith has moved into SUU's career top-10 for field goal kicking. His 12 this year rank fifth on the career list and are third on the single-season list - behind Dave Pretzer (2001) and Herkey Marxen (1989) - who each had 13. Marxen and Pretzer are 1-2 on the career list, with 38 and 28, respectively.
Griffith has 39 PATs this season, the third-best total in SUU history. He needs one more to move into a tie with Dave Pretzer's 2 marks of 40, hit in 1999, while Pretzer's school-record mark of 43, hit in 2000, is in reach as well.
Griffith set an SUU record with five field goals in a game vs. Dixie State.
Cade Cooper set a new SUU single-season record for touchdown passes in a season at South Dakota State, with 25 and extended it to 28 against Eastern Washington. He also set the SUU single-season completions record (as well as the single game record of 35) against the Eagles, he now has 254 completions this year, while his 2,715 passing yards rank second as do his 392 attempts.
Cooper's 2,822 total yards this season rank second on the SUU list, while his 459 plays rank third. Ahead of him on the yards list is Casey Rehrer, who set the SUU total yards record with 3,439 in 2004; Rehrer is also the total plays record-holder, with 543 in '04. Second on the total plays list is Cody Stone, who had 464 last year.
Cooper's 425 passing yards at NAU were the second-most in a game at SUU, behind Stone's 469 at Cal Poly last year. His 33 completions were also second to Stone's 34 at Cal Poly and his 48 attempts tied for the third-most in a game at SUU (Ryan Zimmerman vs. McNeese State in 2003 and Rick Robins vs. St. Mary's in 1995). He also completed 31 passes vs. North Dakota, the third-most in a game in SUU history. Earlier in the season he completed 33 at NAU, the second-most in a game at SUU, a his 27 completions against both Texas State and Cal Poly are tied as the sixth-best efforts in SUU history.
Fesi Sitake moved into 10th place on the SUU single-season punt return yardage list against Eastern Washington. His 195 yards on 13 returns moved him past Clint Brown's 193 in 1998. Sitake's 15.0 yards-per-return average ranks seventh.
Sitake's 72 receptions this year also rank fifth, while his 765 receiving yards rank 11th.