2018 Weber State Wildcats football team

2018 Weber State Wildcats football
2018 Weber State Wildcats football
Big Sky co-champion
FCS Playoffs Quarterfinals, L 18–23 vs. Maine
Conference	Big Sky Conference
Ranking
STATS	No. 6
FCS Coaches	No. 6
Record	10–3 (7–1 Big Sky)
Head coach	Jay Hill (5th season);
Offensive coordinator	Dave Schramm (1st season)
Home stadium	Stewart Stadium
	Seasons ← 2017 2019 →

2018 Big Sky Conference football standings
v t e
Team	W		L	W		L
No. 6 Weber State +^	7	–	1	10	–	3
No. 2 Eastern Washington +^	7	–	1	12	–	3
No. 7 UC Davis +^	7	–	1	10	–	3
No. 17 Montana State ^	5	–	3	8	–	5
Idaho State	5	–	3	6	–	5
Montana	4	–	4	6	–	5
Cal Poly	4	–	4	5	–	6
Northern Arizona	3	–	4	4	–	6
Portland State	3	–	5	4	–	7
Idaho	3	–	5	4	–	7
Northern Colorado	2	–	6	2	–	9
Southern Utah	1	–	7	1	–	10
Sacramento State	0	–	7	2	–	8

$ – Conference champion ^ – FCS playoff participant Although North Dakota was classified as an independent, games against them still counted as Big Sky Conference games. Rankings from STATS Poll

The 2018 Weber State Wildcats football team represented Weber State University in the 2018 NCAA Division I FCS football season. The Wildcats were led by fourth-year head coach Jay Hill and played their games at Stewart Stadium as members of the Big Sky Conference. They finished the season 10–3, 7–1 in Big Sky play to finish in a three-way tie for the Big Sky championship with Eastern Washington and UC Davis. They received the Big Sky's automatic bid to the FCS Playoffs where, after a first round bye, they defeated Southeast Missouri State in the second round before losing in the quarterfinals to Maine.

Preseason

Polls

On July 16, 2018, during the Big Sky Kickoff in Spokane, Washington, the Wildcats were predicted to finish in second place by both the coaches and media.^[1]

Coaches poll
Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	Eastern Washington	134 (6)
2	Weber State	124 (3)
3	Northern Arizona	121 (3)
4	Idaho	101 (1)
5	Sacramento State	94
6	Southern Utah	91
7	Montana	82
8	Montana State	76
9	UC Davis	64
10	Cal Poly	40
11	Northern Colorado	30
12	Idaho State	29
13	Portland State	21

Media poll
Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	Eastern Washington	651 (27)
2	Weber State	636 (19)
3	Northern Arizona	535 (1)
4	Montana	496 (2)
5	Idaho	483 (3)
6	Southern Utah	449 (1)
7	Sacramento State	415
8	Montana State	391 (1)
9	UC Davis	331 (1)
10	Idaho State	170
11	Cal Poly	169
12	Northern Colorado	166
13	Portland State	103

Preseason All-Conference Team

The Wildcats had a conference leading six players selected to the Preseason All-Conference Team.^[2]

Iosua Opeta – Sr. OT

Trey Tuttle, – So. K

Rashid Shaheed – So. KR

Jonah Williams – Jr. DE

LeGrand Toia, – Sr. LB

Brady May – Sr. ST Specialist

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
August 30	6:00 p.m.	at Utah*	No. 8	Rice-Eccles Stadium Salt Lake City, UT	P12N	L 10–41	45,988
September 8	7:00 p.m.	at Cal Poly*	No. 10	Alex G. Spanos Stadium San Luis Obispo, CA	Pluto TV 244	W 24–17	6,020
September 15	6:00 p.m.	No. 22 South Dakota*	No. 11	Stewart Stadium Ogden, UT	Pluto TV 235	W 27–10	8,455
September 22	6:00 p.m.	Northern Colorado	No. 7	Stewart Stadium Ogden, UT	Pluto TV 235	W 45–28	8,668
October 6	2:30 p.m.	at Northern Arizona	No. 6	Walkup Skydome Flagstaff, AZ	ELVN	L 24–28	10,000
October 13	4:00 p.m.	No. 4 Eastern Washington	No. 13	Stewart Stadium Ogden, UT	ELVN	W 14–6	8,211
October 20	4:00 p.m.	Montana State	No. 7	Stewart Stadium Ogden, UT	ATTRM	W 34–24	8,062
October 27	1:00 p.m.	at No. 22 North Dakota	No. 4	Alerus Center Grand Forks, ND	Pluto TV 240	W 35–30	8,650
November 3	12:00 p.m.	Sacramento State	No. 4	Stewart Stadium Ogden, UT	Pluto TV 235	W 26–14	7,857
November 10	5:00 p.m.	at Southern Utah	No. 3	Eccles Coliseum Cedar City, UT (Beehive Bowl)	ELVN	W 31–18	7,415
November 17	2:30 p.m.	at Idaho State	No. 3	Holt Arena Pocatello, ID	Pluto TV 243	W 26–13	10,077
December 1	2:00 p.m.	No. 20 Southeast Missouri State*	No. 3	Stewart Stadium Ogden, UT (FCS Playoffs Second Round)	ESPN3	W 48–23	8,838
December 7	6:00 p.m.	No. 12 Maine	No. 3	Stewart Stadium Ogden, UT (FCS Playoffs Quarterfinals)	ESPN2	L 18–23	7,726
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from STATS Poll released prior to the game All times are in Mountain time

Source: Official Schedule

Despite also being a member of the Big Sky, the game against Cal Poly was considered a non-conference matchup having no effect on conference standings.

Game summaries

At Utah

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 8 Wildcats	10	0	0	0	10
Utes	7	10	14	10	41

At Cal Poly

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 10 Wildcats	7	3	7	7	24
Mustangs	0	3	7	7	17

South Dakota

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 22 Coyotes	0	3	0	7	10
No. 11 Wildcats	11	7	3	6	27

Northern Colorado

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bears	7	14	7	0	28
No. 7 Wildcats	14	7	14	10	45

At Northern Arizona

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 6 Wildcats	0	8	13	3	24
Lumberjacks	7	0	14	7	28

At Eastern Washington

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 13 Wildcats	14	0	0	0	14
No. 4 Eagles	0	3	3	0	6

Montana State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bobcats	7	10	7	0	24
No. 7 Wildcats	0	14	10	10	34

At North Dakota

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 4 Wildcats	7	14	7	7	35
No. 22 Fighting Hawks	0	20	3	7	30

Sacramento State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Hornets	0	0	7	7	14
No. 4 Wildcats	3	10	13	0	26

At Southern Utah

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 3 Wildcats	7	14	7	3	31
Thunderbirds	6	6	6	0	18

At Idaho State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 3 Wildcats	3	9	7	7	26
Bengals	0	0	13	0	13

FCS Playoffs

Southeast Missouri State–Second Round

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 20 Redhawks	7	0	7	9	23
No. 3 Wildcats	0	27	7	14	48

Maine–Quarterfinals

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 12 Black Bears	0	7	7	9	23
No. 3 Wildcats	0	3	9	6	18

Ranking movements

Ranking movements
**Legend:** ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking
	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
STATS FCS	8	10	11	7	6	6	13	7	4	4	3	3	3	6
Coaches	8	13	13	8	7	7	13	9	5	5	4	4	3	6

References

[1] "Eastern Washington Picked to Win the Big Sky".

[2] "Doss, Buss Headline Big Sky Football Preseason All-Conference Team".

[1]

[2]

v t e Weber State Wildcats football
Venues	Stewart Stadium (1966–present)
Bowls & rivalries	Bowl games Southern Utah: Beehive Bowl
Culture & lore	Waldo the Wildcat Highest scoring NCAA football game
People	Head coaches NFL draftees
Seasons	1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

v t e Big Sky Conference football champions
College Division / Division II	Idaho State (1963) Montana State (1964) Weber State & Idaho (1965) Montana State (1966) Montana State (1967) Idaho, Montana State, & Weber State (1968) Montana (1969) Montana (1970) Idaho (1971) Montana State (1972) Boise State (1973) Boise State (1974) Boise State (1975) Montana State (1976) Boise State (1977)
I-AA/FCS	Northern Arizona (1978) Montana State (1979) Boise State (1980) Idaho State (1981) Montana, Idaho, & Montana State (1982) Nevada (1983) Montana State (1984) Idaho (1985) Nevada (1986) Idaho (1987) Idaho (1988) Idaho (1989) Nevada (1990) Nevada (1991) Idaho & Eastern Washington (1992) Montana (1993) Boise State (1994) Montana (1995) Montana (1996) Eastern Washington (1997) Montana (1998) Montana (1999) Montana (2000) Montana (2001) Montana, Montana State, & Idaho State (2002) Montana State, Montana, & Northern Arizona (2003) Montana & Eastern Washington (2004) Eastern Washington, Montana State, & Montana (2005) Montana (2006) Montana (2007) Weber State & Montana (2008) Montana (2009) Montana State & Eastern Washington (2010) Montana State & Montana (2011) Eastern Washington, Montana State, & Cal Poly (2012) Eastern Washington (2013) Eastern Washington (2014) Southern Utah (2015) Eastern Washington & North Dakota (2016) Southern Utah & Weber State (2017) Eastern Washington, UC Davis, & Weber State (2018) Sacramento State & Weber State (2019) Weber State (2020) Sacramento State (2021) Montana State & Sacramento State (2022) Montana (2023)
National championships in bold

v t e 2018 NCAA Division I FCS playoff participants
Colgate Delaware Duquesne East Tennessee State Eastern Washington Elon Incarnate Word Jacksonville State James Madison Kennesaw State Lamar Maine Montana State Nicholls North Dakota State Northern Iowa San Diego South Dakota State Southeast Missouri State Stony Brook Towson UC Davis Weber State Wofford
Champion – North Dakota State