The Weber State football team opened up fall camp on Aug. 8 in advance to the 2015 season. This year they travel on the road to Corvallis, Oregon to play the Oregon State Beavers of the PAC-12 conference.
Junior defensive tackle Jake Gallegos is excited for the matchup against the Beavers. “They are a big time program in a big time conference,” Gallegos said “we are excited to see what our team can do.”
Local school Fremont High School will be well-represented in the season opener held Friday, September 4th. Aside from Gallegos, former Weber State University defensive end Luke Hollingsworth will now be suiting up for the Beavers by way of Snow College in Ephraim, Utah.
Gallegos and Hollingsworth played together in junior high and high school until going their separate ways for college. Gallegos originally attended Utah State and Hollingsworth Weber State. Both players were Utah Class 5A, first-team, all-state as seniors at Fremont High School.
Weber State was picked 11th out of 13 teams in the coaches poll in a pre season ranking and 10th in the media poll. Coach Jay Hill thinks the ranking is about right basing that on their record over the past three seasons.
Weber State junior wide receiver, Cameron Livingston, is back after receiving All-Conference honors as a sophomore in 2014. He played in all 24 games in his two years at Weber State. “Oregon State is a good team, but this is also not the same Weber State team of the past,” Livingston said, speaking of the excitement for the upcoming season. “Do not sleep on us this year.”
Oregon State’s new head coach, Gary Andersen, is also a familiar face to defensive tackle Gallegos since the junior played for Coach Andersen at Utah State for one season. Defensive coordinator, Kalani Sitake, has a familiar name to Utahns after spending his college days playing at BYU and the past 10 seasons as a coach at the University of Utah.
Jay Hill is entering his second year as the head coach of Weber State, after reportedly turning down an offer to become the University of Utah’s Defensive Coordinator replacing Sitake. Hill mentioned “unfinished business” and the “commitment to the players” as reasons why he stayed at WSU.
The Wildcats are looking to make noise in the Big Sky Conference and if all goes well, they could be a surprise team. The defensive line has nicknamed themselves the “Goon Squad” and will strive to create an impenetrable force against the opposing team.
After the Beavers, the schedule doesn’t get any easier, as the Wildcats will then play four-time defending FCS champion North Dakota State in Fargo. The following week, the Wildcats will play Sacramento State, a solid Big Sky opponent, for the homecoming game. The game will start at 6 p.m. on Saturday, September 19 at Stewart Stadium.
