After a grueling three-game road schedule that left the Weber State University football team bruised and battered, the Wildcats will return to the Stewart Stadium on Saturday night to face Big Sky opponent California State University, Sacramento. The game will be the first conference game of the season for both teams, and will be the annual Homecoming Game for WSU.

“Sac State is a good opponent,” said WSU head football coach Jody Sears. “They’ve got great coaches. They have great skill on offense and defense. They have a returning starting quarterback and an all-conference receiver coming back.”

The Wildcats are coming off another double-digit loss, having fallen to McNeese State University 43-6 on Saturday night. The Wildcats got on the board first, but it was all MSU after the first quarter ended.

CSUS is also coming off of a loss. The Hornets fell to Southern Utah University 24-21 in overtime on Saturday. CSUS comes into this week with the same record as WSU, 1-3. But even with both teams struggling, WSU senior linebacker Anthony Morales doesn’t look for an easy win.

“They always play us tough,” Morales said. “It is always a close game. It has been for the last three or four years that I’ve played them. I know they are going to come here and play hard. We lost a close one last year in Sacramento. They are well coached. They have some good athletes. I think, if we just execute and fix some mistakes from the past few weeks, we will be all right.”

After scoring 50 points and seven touchdowns in its first game of the season, WSU has averaged just one touchdown in each of its last three games. Wildcat opponents are averaging nearly 56 points per game this season.

“I’m looking for us to be much more consistent in our execution on both sides of the ball,” Sears said, “on getting up on the run, on executing our blocking and throwing and catching — just little detailed things that we have to make sure that we are correcting and executing on Saturday.”

WSU has won four of the last six meetings against CSUS, all against head coach Marshall Sperbeck, the most recent coming in 2010. Both teams are familiar with one another.

“They’ve got some plays that are not too complex, something that we are familiar with,” said WSU linebacker coach Colton Swan. “If we do a good job of recognizing our assignments and executing on every play, playing full speed, fast, finish, I don’t think it will be a problem for us to executing the game plan.”

Sears once again stated that the Wildcats’ focus has to be on their own team.

“I say that in generality,” he clarified. “When we are practicing certain segments in practice, we are focusing on what they do. Our focus needs to be on our effort and things that we can control. We can’t really control what they do. We talk about their strengths and how we have to attack their strengths. We talk about their weaknesses, and how to exploit their weaknesses. That is done continually.

“But again, especially with some young guys in some key spots, we have to make sure that we don’t spend all of our time divulged into exactly what our opponent is doing. It all comes back to our execution.”

The game will be begin at 6:05 p.m. For those unable to attend, the game will also be broadcast over WSU’s student radio station, KWCR 88.1 FM, and over the web at www.881weberfm.org.