CEDAR CITY, Utah -- The Southern Utah Thunderbird football team will be looking to get back on the right track this weekend as they head to Corvallis to take on the Oregon State Beavers out of the Pac-12 Conference.

Last Time Out

The Thunderbirds opened their season last Saturday at home inside Eccles Coliseum, where they fell to the University of North Alabama 34-30.

After the two teams traded field goal drives, the Lions jumped out ahead 10-3 with quarterback Christian Lopez running it in from two yards out. The T-Birds responded on their next drive with a touchdown of their own to tie the contest up at 10-10.

Before the break the Thunderbirds struck on the ground after a Lion field goal to take a 16-13 lead into the break.

The T-Birds and Lions traded touchdown drives in the third quarter, and SUU went into the fourth quarter with a three-point lead.

After the two teams traded touchdown drives once again, the Lions drove the ball 75 yards and broke into the endzone with 12 seconds to play. The Thunderbirds made two interceptions in the endzone on the Lions' final drive that were both called back due to penalties.

The loss was only Southern Utah's third at home since the start of the 2015 season.

QB1

After a quarterback battle that lasted the entirety of Fall Camp, transfer Chris Helbig took every snap at quarterback for the Thunderbirds against the Lions.

Helbig completed 28 of his 38 passes for 316 yards. He tossed two touchdowns, one to Ty Rutledge and another to Judd Cockett, and also scored a touchdown on the ground to go along with 31 rushing yards.

The Butler Community College transfer is originally from Thornton, Colorado.  

Receiving Leader

To go along with Helbig having a big opening game, Rutledge had a huge contest for the Thunderbirds catching passes.

The senior receiver from St. George caught seven passes for 161 yards and a touchdown. Rutledge and Helbig also connected for a 43-yard pass play.

Rutledge is the veteran in a diverse group of receivers. Against the Lions 11 different players caught a pass for the Thunderbirds.  

Rushing Attack

The Thunderbirds were able to do quite a bit of damage on the ground against the Lions as well, rushing for a combined 216 yards.

Coming back off an injury that ended his 2017 campaign, James Felila rushed for 83 yards and a touchdown for the T-Birds. Terrance Beasley carried the ball nine times for the Thunderbirds for a total of 67 yards. Jay Green Jr. also had quite a bit of run, rushing for 39 yards on five attempts.

The T-Birds were fairly balanced offensively against UNA, running the ball 45 times and throwing it 38 times.

Defensive Leaders

Chinedu Ahanonu had a big comeback game for the Thunderbirds last Saturday, leading the team with 10 tackles. Kyle Hannemann had an interception early in the contest and finished the game with five tackles after missing the 2017 season.

Taelin Webb had a big evening as well, finishing the game with five tackles, four pass breakups and a tackle for loss.

In his first game in a Thunderbird uniform Oscar Burgueno had two tackles for loss for SUU.

Opponent Preview: Oregon State Beavers (0-1, 0-0)

After taking on the No. 5 Ohio State Buckeyes to kick off their season, the Beavers of Oregon State will be playing their first home game of the season against the Thunderbirds at Reser Stadium.

The Buckeyes scored the victory over the Beavers 77-31 in Columbus, Ohio.

Conor Blount took the majority of the snaps for the Beavers at quarterback, completing 12 passes for 169 yards and two touchdowns. Blount ended up getting sacked five times by the Buckeye defense. He hooked up with Trevon Bradford six times for 104 yards and two touchdowns through the air.

Running back Artavis Pierce had a huge day for the Beavers on the ground, rushing for 168 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries.

Beaver head coach Jonathan Smith is in his first season with the program after being hired on November 29, 2017. He is the first ever OSU graduate to serve as the head coach of the Beavers. Prior to joining the Beavers as the head coach, he was at Washington serving as their offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He was part of Washington's Pac-12 Championship run in 2016 where the team made an appearance in the College Football Playoff.

Smith has former Idaho quarterback Brian Lindgren on staff as offensive coordinator, and former North Dakota linebacker Tim Tibesar as his defensive coordinator.

Recent History vs. Pac-12 Opponents

The Thunderbirds have had a number of contests against Pac-12 opponents in the last handful of years, but are still seeking their first win against a team from the conference.  

In 2017 the Thunderbirds opened their season at Oregon where they fell to the Ducks 77-21. In 2016 the T-Birds opened the season against the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, where the Utes prevailed 24-0.

The T-Birds took on Washington State in 2013, in a contest the Cougars won 48-10. And in arguably their best performance against a Pac-12 opponent, the T-Birds faced off against Cal in 2012 and lost 50-31. The Golden Bears scored 30 points in the fourth quarter to come away with the victory in that contest.   

Big Sky At A Glance

Several Big Sky Conference members picked up large victories in the opening weekend of college football, including a few knocking off FBS opponents.

UC Davis kicked things off for the league last Thursday when they beat San Jose State out of the Mountain West Conference 44-38. That same night Montana State knocked off Western Illinois in their home opener.

Northern Arizona highlighted the Big Sky's efforts last Saturday, as they knocked off UTEP 30-10. Case Cookus and Emmanuel Butler linked up twice in the contest for touchdowns.

As a league the Big Sky went 7-6 on the opening weekend.

Words From Coach Warren

On how he's seen the team bounce back…

"I thought they responded well," he said. "I mean obviously it sucks to lose at home, we're not used to that, but I think the guys came out and showed some great effort, some great intensity and we know our backs are against the wall. If we don't come out swinging we'll get embarrassed, so we're preparing to play the best game we can this weekend."

On what he saw out of Helbig game one…

"He had a great game, I thought he did really well," he said. "He commanded the offense, scored when we needed to score to try to win the ball game. He played well and got the ball to the right places. Obviously there's some mistakes and he's got to get better at those but I was pleased with his first start."

On what he's seen from Oregon State…

"They've got a lot of speed on offense," he said. "Defensively they fly around and play a three down front, which is something we don't practice against all the time so that's something our offense has to prepare for. They're a good team, they're a Pac-12 team, so they've got a lot of talent and they're going to be a lot better than North Alabama so we've really got to step our game up."

On how playing Utah and Oregon has helped him prepare for this game…

"Just understanding that we are the underdogs," he said. "I think we've gone into those games sometimes and thought we're better than we are, but we're the underdogs. We've got to play like that and make sure we have the focus to pull off the upset."

Where To Watch / Listen / Follow Along

Saturday's game will be aired on the Pac-12 Network and streamed online at pac-12.com/live.

The game will be broadcast locally over the airwaves on KSUB 590 AM in Cedar City and ESPN 97.7 in St. George.

A link to live stats will be available on www.osubeavers.com and www.suutbirds.com prior to kickoff.

Follow Us

Keep tabs on the Thunderbirds by following @SUUFB on Twitter and Instagram and by liking the Southern Utah Football page on Facebook.

Tickets

Single game tickets for the 2018 season can be purchased online at www.tbirdtickets.com or at the America First Event Center Ticket Office.