Southern Utah's football team hits the road for the first time during the 2009 season Saturday when the Thunderbirds travel to meet San Deigo State.
    Southern Utah (1-0, 0-0 Great West) is coming off a 36-7 win over Division II Dixie State. The Thunderbirds sputtered offensively early in that game but came alive after DSC took a 7-6 lead midway through the second period. Following the Dixie State touchdown SUU marched down the field for its first TD of the day and never looked back in cruising to the 29-point win.
    San Diego State (0-1, 0-0 Mountain West) opened with a 33-14 loss at UCLA last week. The Aztecs scored the first touchdown and led 14-3 with three minutes to go in the first period but UCLA scored the final 30 points of the game to secure the win.
    Southern Utah will be looking for just its second-ever win against an FBS school and its first against a team from the Mountain West Conference. The Thunderbirds' only other win against an FBS school came back in 1997 when they topped Arkansas State, 34-24.
    San Diego State will be trying to avoid a second straight loss to an FCS school and its second straight at the hands of a team from the Great West Conference. Cal Poly snuck out a 29-27 win against the Aztecs in the season-opener last season.

    The Game: Southern Utah (1-0) at San Diego State (0-1), Saturday at 5:30 p.m. (Pacific), Qualcomm Stadium (54,000).

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

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

    Radio: All of Southern Utah's 2009 football games will be 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 entering his 34th season as the Thunderbirds' football voice. He will be joined on home games by Chris Holmes and on road broadcasts by Holmes or Neil Gardner.

    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 5-7 one game into 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. SDSU.
    San Diego State's Brady Hoke (Ball State, 1982 is 0-1 in his first season at SDSU and 34-39 overall in his seventh year as a head coach. Prior to taking over the Aztec program Hoke spent six seasons as head coach at Ball State. He led the Cardinals to a 12-1 record last year and to bowl appearances the past two seasons. Prior to taking the reins at BSU he spent eight seasons on the staff at Michigan, six at Oregon State, two at Toledo and three at Western Michigan. Coach Hoke is 0-0 vs. SUU.

    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 affiliated with The Summit League in all its other sports except women's gymnastics, which competes in the Western Athletic Conference. San Diego State is an NCAA Division I (FBS) member of the Mountain West Conference. 

    SUU In Road-Openers: Southern Utah is 13-33 in road-openers since becoming a four-year school in 1963. SUU will be looking to stop a four-game streak of losses in road-openers, including a 41-7 setback at Air Force last season. The last time the Thunderbirds won their first road game of the season was in 2004 when they took a 34-31 win at Weber State.
   
    SUU Versus the FBS and the Mountain West: This will be Southern Utah's 13th game against an NCAA Football Bowl Series opponent and its second against a team from the Mountain West Conference. All 13 contests have come on the road. The Thunderbirds' only previous match-up with a MWC team came in last year's season-opener, when they lost a 41-7 decision at Air Force. Southern Utah is 1-11 against FBS foes. The Thunderbirds' only win over an FBS team came at Arkansas State, a 34-24 win back in 1997. SUU's losses to FBS teams were at Florida Atlantic (32-7 in 2006),  at Nevada (24-23 in 2003), at Arkansas State (38-16 in 2002), two at Troy State (20-17 in 2001 and 40-15 in 2002), at South Florida (42-12 in 2001), at San Jose State (47-4 in 2000), at Utah State (30-14 in 2000) and at Boise State (35-27 in 1999). For the record, SUU has met one more team currently in the MWC, UNLV, but the last time was back in 1970 when SUU competed at the NAIA level and UNLV was an NCAA Division II competitor in football. The Thunderbirds ore 0-3 vs. UNLV in football.

SUU In The FCS National Ranks: 
    Individuals: SUU had individuals ranked among the nation's top-50 FCS performers in seven offensive and defensive categories in last year's season-ending statistics. Wide receivers Nick Miller (now playing with the Oakland Raiders) and Tysson Poots each appeared in three different categories. Miller led the nation in all-purpose yards with an average of 195.4 per game and also ranked fifth in punt return average at 16.0 yards per returning and 50th in receiving yards at 69.4 yards per game. Poots was third in both receiving yards per game (112.4) and receptions per game (7.6) and was 24th in scoring at 7.64 points per game. Punter Trevor Ward ranked eighth with an average of 42.8 yards per punt, while since-graduated quarterback Cody Stone ranked 27th in total offense with an average of 244.4 yards per game. Defensively, defensive tackle Austin Curtis (who has also graduated) ranked 45th in tackles for loss with an average of 1.23 per game.
    Team: As a team, the Thunderbirds ranked among I-AA's top-50 in four categories: punt returns, where they were third at 16.92 ypr; net punting, where they were sixth at 35.89 ypp; tackles for loss, where they were 18th with 7.18 per game; and passing offense where SUU checked in at No. 19 with 249.27 ypg.

GWC Players of the Week
    Ryan Griffith didn't waste any time being named the Great West Conference's Special Teams Player of the Week. The senior from Hemet, Calif., who was kicking in his first game after moving over from wide receiver, nailed all five of his field goal attempts and was a perfect 3-for-3 on extra points against Dixie State to earn the GWC honor this week. Griffith hit attempts from 20, 21, 23, 32 and 37 yards, and with his PATs he accounted for half the Thunderbirds' points. His five field goals set the SUU single-game record.
    QB Cade Cooper and LB Robert Takeno were the Thunderbirds other nominees this week. North Dakota's Noah Shepard and Joel Schwezfeier won the respective offensive and defensive awards after the Fighting Sioux's loss at Texas Tech.

Thunderbird Quick Hits:

• Three Thunderbirds, senior kicker Ryan Griffith, sophomore running back Austin Minefee and senior quarterback Cade Cooper had outstanding debut performances last week, details below.
• Griffith had a debut most kickers can only dream of. After playing wide receiver for the Thunderbirds the past three seasons, Griffith was pressed into place kicking duties during spring ball, as there were no kickers in camp (Steve Pulver's eligibility expired following last season). Griffith had kicked in high school but not since, in fact, he went through spring kicking in receiver's cleats. After experiencing quite a bit of success in the spring, including a perfect Red/White game which included a 48-yard field goal into the wind to win the spring game for his squad, Griffith worked all summer on improving his technique. Although the Thunderbirds brought in two kickers to vie for the job, Griffith held on to the position. Back to that debut, Griffith was 5-of-5 on field goals and 3-for-3 on extra points against Dixie State, this time wearing kicking cleats. He says he misses playing receiver, but will do whatever the team needs him to do.
• Minefee, a redshirt sophomore, tallied 147 rushing yards against Dixie State. It was Minefee's first game action in three years, since his senior year in high school. “It was worth the wait,”he noted following the game. His rushing total was the highest by a Thunderbird in two seasons. Last year SUU had just one game in which an individual broke the 100-yard mark, at Texas State where Deckar Alexander finished with 118.
• Minefee wasn't the only Thunderbird to see his first action in some time. Senior QB Cade Cooper saw the field for the first time in a game in three seasons when he started against Dixie State. He responded well, completing 16-of-19 passes for 179 yards and two TDs and also rushed for 48 yards on seven carries. He wasn't sacked and he didn't throw an interception. Cooper, the 2006 junior college player of the year at Snow College, initially signed with and attended BYU but with QB Max Hall entrenched in Provo he transferred to Oregon. The Ducks wound up with a cupboard full of quarterbacks as well, so he moved on to Cedar City last year but had to sit because of the NCAA's double-transfer rule.
• Junior WR Fesi Sitake caught a career-best eight passes against Dixie State, two of them for touchdowns. It was the first time he had caught two scoring passes in the same game at SUU.
• The Thunderbirds rolled up 244 rushing yards against Dixie State, their highest total since they combined for 280 yards on the ground at McNeese State in the sixth game of 2007. 
• Southern Utah's offensive line lived up to pre-season expectations in the opener. The group, whose starters average 6-foot-4 and 312 pounds, didn't give up a sack and opened the holes that allowed the team's rushing success. Both Cooper and Minefee gave the line credit for their success in the game, with Minefee noting “the line was opening a lot of holes for me to run through”and Cooper pointing out “the line did a great job tonight. I had a lot of time to look over the field.”
• A good group of first or second-year defensive players also had outstanding games against Dixie State. Sophomore nickle back Erron Vonner led the team with eight tackles, while pair of players with little or no collegiate experience, true freshman corner Cameron Morgan and sophomore LB Drew Willard, each had four tackles, including three solo stops. Willard was also in on a sack and had the team's only interception of the night.
• In addition to the young defenders, junior safety Akeem Anifowoshe and senior linebacker Robert Takeno were near the top of the defensive charts against DSC, as has been their custom. Anifowoshe was second with six tackles, two solo, while Takeno had five, two solo. Anifowoshe's exploits included a TD saving stop on the two-yard line as time expired in the half, while Takeno scooped up a fumble and returned it 32 yards for a touchdown, only to have it denied by an inadvertent official's whistle, which placed the ball at the 10 yard line.
• Junior LB Troy Bunting, junior CB Colin Pretlow and sophomore FS Dion Turner each had four tackles vs. DSC, all with three solo stops. Pretlow and Turner each broke up a pass and Pretlow also forced a fumble.
• Southern Utah's standing-room only home crowd of 10,028 against Dixie State was the largest in Eccles Coliseum history. The stadium opened in 1997 and has a seating capacity of 8,500 but also large grass areas and concrete walkways to accomodate several thousand additional fans.
• SUU is in its 47th season as a four-year football-playing institution and its 24th as a member of the NCAA. The 2009 season also marks the Thunderbirds' 17th as a member of the NCAA's Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA) and is the school's sixth in the Great West Conference.
• The Thunderbirds have two all-Americans and six first team all-conference players returning, including senior punter Trevor Ward and junior receiver Tysson Poots, who both earned honorable mention all-America and first-team all-conference honors last year. In addition to Ward and Poots, senior linebacker Robert Takeno, junior cornerback Colin Pretlow, junior safety Akeem Anifowoshe and senior center Stephen Boyer all earned first-team all GWC honors last year. In addition to the first-teamers, senior guard Aarron Po'uha earned second-team recognition last year.
• SUU also returns three academic all-GWC honorees from the 2008 squad: Poots, Pretlow and Ward. In addition to those three, senior running back Brandon Godfrey, who sat out last year with an injury, earned academic all-GWC honors in 2006 and 2007.
• SUU plays just six of its 11 games against FCS opponents this year, with the exceptions being the games at FBS opponents San Diego State and Utah State, the opener against Division II Dixie State, and the games vs. North Dakota and South Dakota, a pair of teams making the transition from Division II to Division I status.

    Coaching Lineup: The staff returns virtually intact for the 2009 season, with Lamb as head coach/defensive coordinator. Former Weber State all-American and NFL standout Al Pupunu returns as assistant head/tight ends and running backs coach while former BYU and Utah assistant Steve Clark will again handle offensive coordinator duties. Another NFL veteran, former BYU standout Justin Ena is back as special teams coordinator and linebackers coach, and Paul Peterson, a former JC all-American at Snow College who was also a successful QB at Boston College, will again handle the quarterbacks and receivers as well as heading up recruiting. Ryan Hunt, a former all-conference performer at offensive tackle for SUU, returns as defensive line coach while Demario Warren, who played running back at UC Davis before injuries cut short his career, returns as secondary coach, and another NFL veteran and BYU grad, Jason Andersen, is slated to coach the offensive line. In addition to those coaches, Shane Braman returns as an offensive assistant. New to the staff this year will be graduate assistants Teag Whiting, another former BYU player with NFL experience, and Ronnie Pentz, who was an all-conference performer for Lamb at University of San Diego. Rounding out the staff will be student assistant Aaron Fernandez, a two-time all-GWC performer for the Thunderbirds.

    2009 Schedule: Lamb says he likes the way the 2009 schedule is set up, with a variety of tough opponents in the first five games before the GWC opener at Cal Poly, Oct. 17, then the conference schedule, and finally a pair of non-conference tilts to wrap up the campaign.
    “The thing I really like about our schedule is the way it's set up,” he explains. “We have five non-conference games before we even have to think about a conference game and I really like the way that's set up. We've got time to grow as a team, we've got time to have success, have struggles and respond to both before we have to get into our conference. The mark of a good team is the team that wins the conference championship so I expect us to be well prepared before we ever play a conference game.
    “Then we've got all four of our conference games in a row. If at that point we have learned in the first five games enough to win our conference in the next four, then we play two very well respected teams, with a shot to get into the [FCS] national playoffs. First things first, setting ourselves up in the first five games and win the conference. That would be a really nice position to be in, to have a conference championship in hand and then be playing Eastern Washington and San Diego in two highly visible games at the end of the season.
    “I think the schedule is perfect for us,” he adds. “The philosophy here has been to schedule the best teams we can get to come and play us and for us to play on the road. [SUU Athletic Director Ken Beazer] had a vision for us to become a national contender and I want it to stay that way.
    “We play two Division I-A teams [San Diego State and Utah State]; we play Texas State, a playoff team last year; obviously Cal Poly is in our league, they're a playoff team; UC Davis is a pre-season top-25; we round out our non-conference schedule with two traditional top-level FCS teams, Northern Arizona and Eastern Washington, who have both been in the top-half of the standings in the Big Sky; and we've got the University of San Diego, who averages nine or 10 wins over the past four years, the best [Division I] non-scholarship team we could schedule; so it's a challenging schedule, which is good. We also have the Dixie game, which will be a great game for community involvement, will be great for the southern Utah area.”

    Aztec Alert: San Diego State got the passing attack going at UCLA last week but struggled to move the ball on the ground, finishing with just 39 rushing yards on 18 attempts.
    Sophomore quarterback Ryan Lindley (6-3, 205), who was not sacked, completed 18-of-45 passes for 238 yards and two TDs but was also intercepted twice. WR Vincent Brown (6-0, 180, Jr) caught five of those passes, for 139 yards and one score, while DeMarco Sampson (6-2, 210, Sr) had four receptions for 39 yards. FB Matthew Kawulok (6-2, 235, Sr) had just one catch, but it went for the second touchdown.
    Brand Sullivan (5-11, 215, Jr) led the rushing attack with nine carries for 25 yards, while Walter Kazee (5-9, 175, Fr) carried twice of 13 yards and Anthony Miller (6-0, 220, Fr) had seven attempts but netted just one yard.
    On the defensive side of the ball the Aztecs gave up 359 yards, 144 passing and 215 through the air, to the Bruins. SDSU got to Bruin quarterback Kevin Prince for three sacks and two interceptions and had a total of 12 tackles for loss.
    Safety Dey Juan Hemmings (5-11, 190, Jr) led the team with seven tackles, six solo, while fellow safety Nick Sandford (6-2, 210, Sr) had five stops, all solo, including a sack. In addition to Sandford, DTs Jerome Long (6-5, 265, So) and Ernie Lawson (6-3, 270, Jr) each had a sack and 10 players were in on at least one TFL.

    SUU Picked Fifth In GWFC Poll: The Thunderbirds are picked fifth in the GWFC pre-season coaches poll this year.
    The coaches tabbed Cal Poly to defend its title, with UC Davis tabbed to finish second for the second straight year. Cal Poly picked up four first-place votes, with the Aggies grabbing the other. South Dakota, North Dakota and SUU were closely bunched at 3-through-5, with USD receiving 12 points, UND receiving 10 and SUU receiving nine.
    SUU has finished fifth the past four seasons. The Thunderbirds' best league finish came in 2004, when they finished third in the conference's first season.

    SUU's Eccles Coliseum is one of two football stadiums in the world sporting both the Olympic Rings and an Olympic Cauldron inside the stadium (The Los Angeles Coliseum is the other). Southern Utah's Olympic Cauldron, donated by DCI Incorporated of Utah, was lit by the Olympic Torch Feb. 5, 2002, during the Olympic Torch Relay.    

    Ed Lamb On San Diego State: “They have a really strong-armed quarterback and a fantastic receiver (Vincent Brown) who is a pre-season all-Mountain West Conference player and we're going to have to stop him.
    “I think they'll really emphasize the run. They've got a new coaching staff. They were last in the nation in rushing yards per game last year and I think the new staff said 'we're going to run the ball, we're going to be balanced.' Against UCLA they weren't able to get it done, so they're going to come out and try to run the ball. That's not to say they won't come out on the first series and try to soften us up, go with some play-action over the top to [Brown] or someone else, they have a lot of speed and an excellent quarterback, but I expect them to establish the run.
    “They have good speed on the defensive side of the ball too. They were able to force UCLA into a lot of turnovers, so they obviously have a lot of playmakers on that side of the ball.”
       
    Lamb on the Thunderbirds: “A year ago we were 3-0 when we rushed for 100 yards or more. We set in our mind, as a team, that we were going to get 100 yards every game, minimally. This game we wanted to establish the run and send a clear message that we were the bigger, stronger, more physical football team.
    “If you watched the game critically, I think you would agree with me that if we had unleashed Cade [Cooper] and our receivers we could have thrown the football up and down the field all night. I think the margin of victory could have been whatever we decided it was going to be, but we knew Dixie was going to pack the box and that it would be a stiff challenge to run the football and it was not easy to run the football, we had to insist on it, on some second and longs and some third and longs but we learned a lot doing that.
    “I was glad to be in the position to be able to run the ball in the second half and go for field goals on fourth-and-short [against Dixie State]. I don't ever see our program being at the point where we want to run [the score] up on anyone, our guys have been on the losing end often enough.”