Okay, so the season is over. The Cats were able to match the magic and success of the 2017 season in 2018. Another playoff victory and regrettably, another loss in the quarters. Regardless, for a program with a dearth of success throughout its history, losing in the quarters is pretty awesome.
THE GOOD:
As of right now, the best thing about this season is that Coach Jay Hill is still a Wildcat and will be prowling the sidelines at Stewart Stadium in 2019. Utah State's hiring of Gary Anderson, for his second tenure leading the Aggies, put to rest rumors that Jay would be leaving for the pastures of Logan. Personally, I think USU AD Hartwell wanted Hill, but was "forced" to hire Anderson after deep pocketed boosters got involved. That is what happens when you have CVE subsidizing your athletic programs. Nonetheless I'm happy for Coach Anderson, our Aggie brethren, and most importantly for Wildcat Football. :mrgreen: Love Coach Hill!!
Next, offensively the Cats return a lot of starters and lettermen. Weber only losses Iosua Opeta on the OL (HUGE LOSS), but due to the injuries we have far more depth and experience and everyone will be back. Also, Faauma (JC transfer who was injured early on) supposedly will have both of his years. At one point he was penciled in by HERO Sports as the Big Sky Newcomer of the Year. He should move right into Opeta's place next Fall and if he can't well, the Cats will have both Downs and Stilson back. But, it is good to have the OL back and experienced. The Cats lose May, Denby, and Garrett. However, as the season progressed it became evident that our young receiving corp had turned the corner and were improving. The Cats do have Shaheed, Cooley, Jackson, Allen, and Ames back and I'm sure a couple other guys will show they belong on the field during the off season. May and Garrett are both big losses, but both missed a lot of games this past season and their backups proved themselves very well. Josh Davis ended up earning Freshman of the Year honors and broke the freshman rushing record and Moss showed his moxy on the field playing the FB position. One area of serious concern for the offense is the TE position, but I'm sure that is going to be a major area of emphasis for the coaching staff this off season. Another major gain for the Cats will be to get Kevin Smith back at a 100%. I'm glad that the coaches had him red shirt this past season. It will pay dividends having these options. Finally, Constantine is only a soph just over a year removed from having major knee surgery. I estimate the kid was about 75% healthy this season. His leg definitely affected his mobility and passing. With another year of recuperating he should become more dangerous next year. I'm guessing two, maybe three, of the QBs on the roster now won't be back next year (of course Ricedorff since he is a senior).
Our OL coach, QB coach, TE coach and RB coach, as of right now, have not been poached (three of the four could care less about money. Two of them are earning the NFL pension and that is great $$$).
Defensively...well, we get two of the best DE's in FCS back and that position is deep. Also, three DT's who played a lot are back. The Cats get a starting LB back, and in my opinion one of the best young corners in FCS. We are deep at Safety and had a lot of guys play that position this past season giving some of our younger guys great experience.
Special Teams -- Weber really doesn't lose anyone and probably will be better in 2019 than they were in 2018.
RMs -- a huge group of missionaries will be joining the team after this season and at the start of next summer.
THE BAD:
Defensively the Cats take a huge hit. Losing most of the starting secondary (corners Jordan and Parker Preator, Keilan Benjamin, safety Jawain Harrison and key reserve Jeremy Maxwell), two of the best FCS LBs in Landon Stice and LeGrand Toia and finally big man Felipe Sitake. Those are some serious losses for our Wildcat Defense and a great deal of our defensive firepower.
There are some defensive coaches, and our special team coordinator who could be poached by bigger programs.
THE INTERESTING:
OC -- There are a lot of comments abounding about Schramm (I've had some myself). This is his first year back after a 2 year hiatus. His offense was without TE depth and was assigned with having to break in a new QB after the graduation of Stefan Cantwell (imagine if he would have been the QB this year). Like it or not, Schramm isn't going anywhere and will be leading the offense again next year. A positive is that after a year, he knows exactly what his guys can do, who he needs to recruit, and what will improve the offense. He knows the coaches better and understand the defenses in FCS more thoroughly (Maine proved that FCS defenses can be damn good). My biggest issue with Schramm is that his play calling was very vanilla and at times counter productive (calling the Wildcat two times in a row after a big catch?, no screens, counters, rub routes, trick plays, was boring and made our offense predictable.). But, like exercising, it takes twice as long to rebuild muscle after taking time off. Another year and I feel the offense will only improve. I do miss the pistol that we saw under Fesi and the change of speeds, but even with Fesi play calling could be interesting.
DC -- Will Jay continue to be the DC or will he turn it over to another coach on his staff, or hire someone else? He is a magician and while the DC/HC Weber State's Defense has been scary good.
2019 schedule...is a 12 game schedule with 6 home games for the first time since 2008. Will our home attendance average be over 10K? That should be a goal for athletics. To shoot for a 10K+ home attendance average and to grow the student section to over 1K. Home games against Cal Poly, Northern Iowa (this is awesome), SUU, NAU, UND, and ISU. These are great teams to visit Ogden and should only help get fans out. Road games at UC Davis and Montana should be interesting; especially a late season tilt in Missoula. Also, the first time the Cats visit Moscow in 25 years (?) to play Idaho and a week after going to Davis playing in Sac. Plus the Cats will face two FCS schools for the first time in almost a decade. Weber opens the season against San Diego State and two weeks later play another MW; the University of Nevada-Reno.
THE GOOD:
As of right now, the best thing about this season is that Coach Jay Hill is still a Wildcat and will be prowling the sidelines at Stewart Stadium in 2019. Utah State's hiring of Gary Anderson, for his second tenure leading the Aggies, put to rest rumors that Jay would be leaving for the pastures of Logan. Personally, I think USU AD Hartwell wanted Hill, but was "forced" to hire Anderson after deep pocketed boosters got involved. That is what happens when you have CVE subsidizing your athletic programs. Nonetheless I'm happy for Coach Anderson, our Aggie brethren, and most importantly for Wildcat Football. :mrgreen: Love Coach Hill!!
Next, offensively the Cats return a lot of starters and lettermen. Weber only losses Iosua Opeta on the OL (HUGE LOSS), but due to the injuries we have far more depth and experience and everyone will be back. Also, Faauma (JC transfer who was injured early on) supposedly will have both of his years. At one point he was penciled in by HERO Sports as the Big Sky Newcomer of the Year. He should move right into Opeta's place next Fall and if he can't well, the Cats will have both Downs and Stilson back. But, it is good to have the OL back and experienced. The Cats lose May, Denby, and Garrett. However, as the season progressed it became evident that our young receiving corp had turned the corner and were improving. The Cats do have Shaheed, Cooley, Jackson, Allen, and Ames back and I'm sure a couple other guys will show they belong on the field during the off season. May and Garrett are both big losses, but both missed a lot of games this past season and their backups proved themselves very well. Josh Davis ended up earning Freshman of the Year honors and broke the freshman rushing record and Moss showed his moxy on the field playing the FB position. One area of serious concern for the offense is the TE position, but I'm sure that is going to be a major area of emphasis for the coaching staff this off season. Another major gain for the Cats will be to get Kevin Smith back at a 100%. I'm glad that the coaches had him red shirt this past season. It will pay dividends having these options. Finally, Constantine is only a soph just over a year removed from having major knee surgery. I estimate the kid was about 75% healthy this season. His leg definitely affected his mobility and passing. With another year of recuperating he should become more dangerous next year. I'm guessing two, maybe three, of the QBs on the roster now won't be back next year (of course Ricedorff since he is a senior).
Our OL coach, QB coach, TE coach and RB coach, as of right now, have not been poached (three of the four could care less about money. Two of them are earning the NFL pension and that is great $$$).
Defensively...well, we get two of the best DE's in FCS back and that position is deep. Also, three DT's who played a lot are back. The Cats get a starting LB back, and in my opinion one of the best young corners in FCS. We are deep at Safety and had a lot of guys play that position this past season giving some of our younger guys great experience.
Special Teams -- Weber really doesn't lose anyone and probably will be better in 2019 than they were in 2018.
RMs -- a huge group of missionaries will be joining the team after this season and at the start of next summer.
THE BAD:
Defensively the Cats take a huge hit. Losing most of the starting secondary (corners Jordan and Parker Preator, Keilan Benjamin, safety Jawain Harrison and key reserve Jeremy Maxwell), two of the best FCS LBs in Landon Stice and LeGrand Toia and finally big man Felipe Sitake. Those are some serious losses for our Wildcat Defense and a great deal of our defensive firepower.
There are some defensive coaches, and our special team coordinator who could be poached by bigger programs.
THE INTERESTING:
OC -- There are a lot of comments abounding about Schramm (I've had some myself). This is his first year back after a 2 year hiatus. His offense was without TE depth and was assigned with having to break in a new QB after the graduation of Stefan Cantwell (imagine if he would have been the QB this year). Like it or not, Schramm isn't going anywhere and will be leading the offense again next year. A positive is that after a year, he knows exactly what his guys can do, who he needs to recruit, and what will improve the offense. He knows the coaches better and understand the defenses in FCS more thoroughly (Maine proved that FCS defenses can be damn good). My biggest issue with Schramm is that his play calling was very vanilla and at times counter productive (calling the Wildcat two times in a row after a big catch?, no screens, counters, rub routes, trick plays, was boring and made our offense predictable.). But, like exercising, it takes twice as long to rebuild muscle after taking time off. Another year and I feel the offense will only improve. I do miss the pistol that we saw under Fesi and the change of speeds, but even with Fesi play calling could be interesting.
DC -- Will Jay continue to be the DC or will he turn it over to another coach on his staff, or hire someone else? He is a magician and while the DC/HC Weber State's Defense has been scary good.
2019 schedule...is a 12 game schedule with 6 home games for the first time since 2008. Will our home attendance average be over 10K? That should be a goal for athletics. To shoot for a 10K+ home attendance average and to grow the student section to over 1K. Home games against Cal Poly, Northern Iowa (this is awesome), SUU, NAU, UND, and ISU. These are great teams to visit Ogden and should only help get fans out. Road games at UC Davis and Montana should be interesting; especially a late season tilt in Missoula. Also, the first time the Cats visit Moscow in 25 years (?) to play Idaho and a week after going to Davis playing in Sac. Plus the Cats will face two FCS schools for the first time in almost a decade. Weber opens the season against San Diego State and two weeks later play another MW; the University of Nevada-Reno.