Squeezed by a tight week, Northern Colorado didn’t have much time to prepare for tonight’s game at Weber State. With his staff working long hours, first-year Bears coach Scott Downing feels confident all the X’s and O’s are in place.
Downing only wishes he could wave a magic wand and add, say, 25 pounds of muscle to every UNC lineman.
The Bears (1-3) were pushed around on both sides of the ball Saturday in a 42-28 home loss to Western Illinois.
“Some of those arms on the guys at Western Illinois, holy cow,” Downing said. “They have these big ol’ tattoos. Heck, it must have taken a whole gallon of ink to put the tattoo on them.
“Weber State has guys like that, too. Everybody in our league does.”
Weber State enters tonight’s game in Ogden, Utah, with the same record (1-3) as Northern Colorado. But in the case of Weber State, its record may be deceiving because of the competition. The Wildcats opened their season with a 30-6 loss at Colorado State and fell 20-10 at home on Saturday to Big Sky Conference foe Portland State, now ranked No. 14 in the Division I-AA poll. By comparison, UNC lost 45-3 at Portland State on Sept. 9.
Weber State’s defense ranks first among Big Sky teams in yards allowed (253.8 per game). The Wildcats are coached by Ron McBride, who guided them to a 6-5 record in 2005, his first season. McBride was 88-63 in 13 seasons at Utah from 1990-2002.
Downing coached against McBride’s Utah teams as an assistant at Wyoming.
“Ron’s teams play hard and play tough,” Downing said.
Nobody promised Downing that UNC’s first season in the Big Sky would be a rose garden. The Bears, in their final year of transition from Division II to I-AA, figure to take some hard knocks while learning where they need to improve by next season, when UNC becomes eligible for the conference championship.
Recruiting burly linemen will be an offseason priority for Downing and his staff. For now, UNC must battle brawn with offensive and defensive schemes that create mismatches.
“We’re trying to show (opponents) something they haven’t seen,” Downing said.
Tom Kensler can be reached at 303-954-1280 or tkensler@denverpost.com.
