Tag Archives | football

Sac State Morning Wake-Up Call: Weber State GameDay Edition.

How about a heavy breakfast this morning? With lots of links and items about Sac State’s game with Weber State and the Big Sky Conference.

Let’s start the morning with a video you may have missed that talks about the upgrades at Weber State’s Stewart Stadium that will debut today.

As for the game, here’s what they are writing:

* The Ogden Standard-Examiner wrote about the new attitude that came delivered with the new home turf, which the Wildcats debut today.

* John Parker of SacStateSports focused on the running game and the load that Bryan Hilliard may have to carry today.

* The Elk Grove Citizen gave props to Hilliard for his role in Sac State’s resurgence.

*The Sacramento Bee wrote about the Hornets’ offensive balance, or lack thereof.

* The Deseret News asked which Weber State team will show up. Sound familiar, Hornets fans?

* The Salt Lake Tribune took a similar angle in its game preview.

Elsewhere in the Big Sky:

* Popular Montana football blog GrizVox is picking the Grizzlies by 14 against Eastern Washington.

* The Spokane Spokesman-Review wrote this is a must-win game for Eastern Washington.

* No matter it lost key players, wrote The Billings Gazette, this is still a tough Eastern Washington team.

* The Missoulian beat writers made their weekly Big Sky Conference predictions.

* The Billings Gazette also had its weekly Big Sky picks.

* SacStateSports had our picks late yesterday afternoon.

In other sports:

* Here’s a report from Utah Valley, which the Hornets volleyball team plays this evening.

* The Hornets dropped a four-setter to St. Mary’s on Friday night.

* Speaking of women’s volleyball, UC Davis is still on a roll after beating the Hornets on Thursday night.

* The men’s soccer team also played St. Mary’s and tied 1-1.

* The women’s soccer team won its third consecutive game, beating San Jose State 1-0.

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Long Hours, Late Nights Don’t Deter Coaching Ingrams At Sac State, Granite Bay

Aaron Ingram

By John Parker, SacStateSports.com

This time of year is hectic around the Ingram household.

As the Hornets prepare for their third straight road game this Saturday at 5:05 p.m. at Weber State, Sac State running backs coach Aaron and his wife, Granite Bay High girls volleyball coach Jamie, are both in the midst of seasons that bring with them great expectations.

Both of their teams happen to be ranked simultaneously – Aaron’s Hornets No. 20 in the country, Jamie’s Grizzlies No. 2 in Greater Sacramento – for the first time, but they’ll tell you nothing has changed. The bar is always high.

“In our house there are always high standards,” Aaron Ingram said.

Jamie is in her third year as the varsity head coach at Granite Bay, while Aaron is in his fifth year at Sac State. Though both spent significant portions of their adolescence and early adulthood in the East Bay Area the two did not begin dating until 2007, when both were well into their coaching careers. Continue Reading →

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QB Club notes: Coaches Show to Debut Sept. 22

Coming off of Saturday’s 35-14 loss at Southern Utah the Hornets’ Quarterback Club luncheon on Monday was not quite the festive atmosphere of the previous Monday when a record crowd of 75 packed El Patron.

Following a brief synopsis of the loss, coach Marshall Sperbeck steered his comments to a Weber State team the Hornets have never beaten in Ogden, Utah, the site of this Saturday’s 5:05 p.m. Big Sky opener.

“They have a good offensive line with four returning starters and their quarterback likes to run,” Sperbeck said. “They’re a solid football team.”

The lone bit of news to come out of the luncheon was the announcement that Sperbeck’s televised coaches show will debut next Thursday (Sept. 22) evening on Comcast California. A time slot is still being determined by the network but is expected to be announced later this week.

Quick-hitters:

* When asked by SacStateSports.com if he had ever gone for it on fourth down as much in any game of his coaching career (as he did three times in one quarter at Southern Utah), Sperbeck smiled wide and replied, “Probably … I mean, they give you four for a reason.”

* Sperbeck recalled the story of a summer 3-on-3 players vs. coaches basketball game a couple of years ago in which he realized defensive end Reese Heaslet (a junior from Casa Grande High in Petaluma) would make a nice tight end. “He was hanging off the rim and I probably only got about an inch off the ground,” Sperbeck quipped.

Countered Heaslet, “Maybe playing the coaches had something to do with me looking even better than I was,” which was met with thunderous laughter and applause.

* Joining Sperbeck and Heaslet was scholarly sophomore defensive end Trent Eskew, who had a monster game on Saturday with 12 tackles playing on three different spots on the defensive line. Eskew, a business major from Liberty High in Bakersfield, sported a 3.8 GPA in high school and looked into playing in the Ivy League before signing with Sac State. Quipped Sperbeck: “2.8 (GPA) guys get to play two positions, 3.8 (GPA) guys get to play three.”

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Hornets Gearing Up For Tough Test At Southern Utah

Sacramento State at Southern Utah, noon, Ch. KCRA  3.2

By John Parker, SacStateSports.com

Any notion that the post-big win revelry would linger was quickly put to bed by Hornets coach Marshall Sperbeck.

Before getting Labor Day off, the team was on the field at Hornet Stadium in the scorching heat (amplified by the black rubber pellet-fortified artificial turf) on Sunday for their weekly 45-minute workout. But while their muscles, still no doubt a bit tired from fighting with a pack of Beavers 24 hours before, were getting worked out, their ears were getting a workout as well.

Sperbeck stalked up down lines of Hornets performing calisthenics drilling home the message: This Saturday’s game means more than the last.

Sperbeck and his staff know that the Southern Utah team awaiting them this Saturday at noon will pose an even tougher test. Even though the Hornets played up against the Pac-12′s Oregon State last week, the Southern Utah squad awaiting them is not injury-addled and is not starting young, inexperienced players at skill positions. Continue Reading →

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Hornets WR Reed Developing Big-Play Reputation

By John Parker, SacStateSports.com

The look lasted just an instant, but that was all it took for the message to be delivered.

When Hornets quarterback Jeff Fleming and wide receiver Brandyn Reed locked eyes prior to the game-winning two-point conversion in last Saturday’s overtime victory at Oregon State, the message was simple: “I got you.”

After turning his head to bark out the snap count Fleming took a one-and-a-half step drop, planted and lofted the most important pass attempt in Sacramento State football’s 57-year history. Before it was even caught he knew the outcome, because he knows the receiver.

“The corner wasn’t even looking at me, it was just him vs. B-Reed,” Fleming said. “I have 100 percent faith in him to make any play – and he went and got it.”

Moments before the game-winner Reed had caught his second touchdown of the game to bring the Hornets to within one point, all but cementing his reputation as Mr. Big Play in just more than two years at Sac State entering this Saturday’s 12:05 p.m. game at Southern Utah University.

Continue Reading →

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Hornets RB Shaw Ruled Out For Saturday’s Game At Southern Utah

Curtis Shaw

Sac State senior running back Curtis Shaw has been ruled out for Saturday’s game at Southern Utah.

Shaw, a University of Washington transfer who missed most of last season with a separate knee injury, had an MRI on his left knee after he injured it during last Saturday’s game at Oregon State. Hornets head coach Marshall Sperbeck would not comment on specifics of the injury saying simply, “we’ll know more down the road.”

Sac State (1-0) travels to Cedar City, Utah, this week for a 12:05 p.m. game with defending Great West Football Conference champion Southern Utah (0-1).

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Fleming named Big Sky, National Offensive Player of the Week

Sac State senior quarterback Jeff Fleming was recognized as the Offensive Player of the Week in the conference by the Big Sky and in the nation by Football Performance Awards. Fleming completed 22 of 35 passes for 257 yards and three touchdowns in the Hornets’ 29-28 overtime win at Oregon State this past Saturday.

As the announcement was made Fleming was taking part in the first Quarterback Club luncheon — Sac State’s weekly “chalk-talk” style gathering with players and coaches — of the season. He told the estimated crowd of 75 that he learned Oregon State only watched one game of film on him from last season: the opener against Stanford when, after only having been in the program for five days, he admits he only had time to learn a fraction of the Hornet playbook.

“They gave us a lot of basic (defensive) looks,” Fleming said of the Beavers. “It worked out for us.”

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Quarterback Club luncheon notes: Biggest crowd ever greets Sperbeck, Fleming, Larche

Marshall Sperbeck’s Quarterback Club luncheons used to barely fill the modest back room at El Patron.

But with the buzz created by his football team entering the 2011 season ranked No. 24 in the nation then more than validating it with a win over Pac-12 Oregon State, the Folsom Blvd. restaurant was packed wall-to-wall on Monday.

Football secretary Katy Logaburn said the crowd, estimated at 75, was the largest ever for the weekly in-season lunch which features Q&A with Sperbeck and selected players. On Monday Sperbeck recapped the weekend’s trip to Corvallis, showed clips from the game and introduced quarterback Jeff Fleming and safety Joe Larche, both of whom addressed the room filled mostly with alumni and boosters.

The lone bit of football news to come out of the afternoon was the announcement that senior running back Curtis Shaw dinged his knee in the Oregon State game and will undergo an MRI on Tuesday. His status for this Saturday’s game at Southern Utah is uncertain.

Among Monday’s highlights:

  • The announcement of a new half-hour football coaches TV show that will begin production in the coming weeks.
  • Athletic Director Terry Wanless, who made the trip to Corvallis, described the moment after Brandyn Reed won the game with a 2-point conversion catch: “The silence probably only lasted two seconds, but it felt like 20.”
  • Fleming, who spoke at length during his last Quarterback Club appearance, was a big hit once again as the easy-going SoCal-er was peppered with questions from the crowd on all subjects from his elbow (which was operated on after last season) to being able to visit his dog (who lives with his parents in Fullerton) during training camp, to his sense of direction.
  • Larche, who returned a fumble to Hornet territory late in the fourth quarter to end a Beaver scoring threat, showed that his snarling on-field persona is in stark contrast to his soft-spoken, humble demeanor off of it. At one point during the highlights when he knocked off Oregon State receiver Brandin Cooks’ helmet off, Sperbeck explained “That’s that nice, quiet young man you all just met!”
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Hornets Up to No. 12 in FCS Top 25

Predictably Sac State’s 29-28 overtime win over the Pac-12′s Oregon State has resulted in a jump in the rankings. The Hornets, who opened as the No. 24 team in the nation on Aug. 15, are now ranked 12th in the country in The Sports Network/Fathead.com FCS Top 25 with three first-place votes. The poll is voted on by media and sports information directors who deal primarily with the FCS.

The Hornets made the biggest single jump of any ranked team leap-frogging fellow Big Sky member Montana which, after opening at the 12th slot, fell to No. 15.

Check back later this afternoon for an update from coach Marshall Sperbeck’s Quarterback Club Luncheon.

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Unprecedented Win Leads to Unprecedented Workload for Hornet PR Man Berger, but He Doesn’t Mind At All

By John Parker, SacStateSports.com

Sunday is usually Brian Berger’s one day off per week. But on this particular day of rest there he was out in the sweltering heat of Hornet Stadium – on Labor Day weekend no less – coordinating interviews in his capacity as Sac State’s athletic media relations director.

“Obviously, special circumstances warrant special arrangements,” Berger said in between wrangling players and coaches for the assembled media throng following the Hornets’ stunning 29-28 win over Oregon State on Saturday. “But in this case I don’t mind it all.”

And why shouldn’t he? The last time Hornet football got this much national exposure it was because players were caught spraying PAM on each other’s jerseys during a game at Montana nearly nine years ago. Admittedly the last 24 hours have been a blur for Berger, arranging interviews for each local news outlet and SIRIUS Satellite Radio.

All in a day’s work for a guy who in his 12 years at the school has seen the good (Ricky Ray and Charles Roberts’ heroics near the turn of the century), the bad (the Steve Mooshagian era from 2003-2006) and the ugly (the PAM Scam) in his tenure. Since he became the football media pointman in 2001, he has only missed two Hornet football games.

He says his phone died somewhere en route from Reser Stadium to the airport on the Hornets’ trip home after receiving dozens of congratulatory texts and phone calls in addition to the slew of media requests – all of which he was all too happy to accommodate.

“Anytime the program is successful you have media want to come out and cover it,” he said. “It goes hand in hand.

“It has certainly picked up with (head coach) Marshall (Sperbeck) and that was a nice topper yesterday.”

KCRA 3 and News10 were on hand when the Hornets bus arrived back on campus last night, while CBS 13 and FOX 40 were on hand for Sac State’s brief workout on Sunday.

With the team getting Labor Day off, the workload will lighten for a day but with The Sports Network Football Championship Subdivsion poll due to be released early in the week, he can expect more than a few inquiries Tuesday morning.

“In this case, it’s great to stay busy,” Berger said.

Reach John Parker at johnparker2008@gmail.com

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