After picking up its first win of the season, a Big Sky victory, Weber State football now temporarily enters membership into the Southland Conference with three straight games against opponents from the faraway league.

The first is Saturday against Lamar — a road trip to sweltering Beaumont, Texas, for a matchup against a program with a long but rocky history.

The Cardinals first played football as Lamar College in 1932, was a junior college program until 1950, became an NAIA program from 1951-1962, and joined the NCAA in 1963.

From 1973-81, Lamar competed in Division I before moving to what is now the FCS (I-AA) in 1982. Then state regents voted to dissolve the football program, which was no more after the 1989 season.

In 2010, Lamar relaunched football and has been in the Southland Conference, except for a one-year stint in the WAC (2021), and has made the FCS playoffs once, in 2018. The program’s last conference championship was in 1971.

Lamar was 6-5 last season and went 5-2 in the Southland, but saw its playoff hopes dashed with a 37-24 road loss at Nicholls in the penultimate week.

Weber State now tries to roll momentum into the continuation of the Big Sky season with its games against Lamar, Northwestern State and McNeese, after running away from Portland State.

“It’s still early, young guys are starting to figure out their routines, their process,” WSU head coach Mickey Mental said. “It was a good start, 1-0 in the Big Sky is good. At the end of the day, like I always say, it’s about us. It’s an ongoing process, it’s not results driven … are we doing the little things throughout the week that put us in a position to win?”

MEET THE CARDINALS

Lamar is an interesting 1-1 so far this season. The Cardinals lost 34-27 at FBS Texas State. Struggling to run the ball and outgained by 200 yards, Lamar cut the score to 21-17 early in the fourth, gave up two touchdowns, then answered with a TD with 4:11 left that made it 34-24.

Texas State has since gone on to molly wop UTSA 49-10, with the Roadrunners entering the season as one of the favorites to make the College Football Playoff. On Thursday, Texas State lost to Arizona State 31-28 when the Sun Devils kicked a field goal with 6:29 left.

Lamar, meanwhile, picked up its first win with a 28-14 defeat of Mississippi Valley State last week. The Cardinals rushed for 222 yards and outgained the Delta Devils by 150 yards, but committed a whopping 18 penalties for 157 yards.

“They fly around defensively, and offensively they try to establish the run,” Mental said. “They played Texas State really tough, so they’re a good team.”

Senior Robert Coleman (No. 5) leads Lamar at quarterback. He’s thrown 28 of 64 (43.8%) for 453 yards (226.5 per game), with four touchdowns and one interception. He’s completed passes of 39 yards or longer to four different receivers, with tight end JaCorey Hyder (No. 89, five catches, 120 yards) and receiver Kyndon Fuselier (No. 8, seven catches, 116 yards) as the top targets so far.

With a huge game against MVSU, senior running back Khalan Griffin (N0. 6) is at 134 yards per game and 6.9 yards per carry (setting up a battle of the backs with WSU’s Damon Bankston — 119 yards per game, 7.7 per carry). Griffin ran 23 times for 197 yards and two touchdowns last week.

Defensive back Krisitian Pugh (No. 1) leads Lamar in tackles (15) and tackles for loss (two); senior defensive lineman Caleb Williams (No. 99) also has two tackles for loss. Junior linebacker Brayden Faulkner (No. 17) and senior backer Ken Savanah (No. 15) each have 14 tackles.

TEAM VS. TEAM METRICS

Through two games (opponents: one Power-4 FBS, one FCS), Weber State has scored 23 points per game, averaging 394 yards on 5.5 yards per play. Defensively, WSU has allowed an average of 25.5 points on 361 yards per game, with an average of 5.3 per play.

The Wildcats have two defensive takeaways (one fumble, one interception) and zero turnovers on offense for a plus-two margin.

In two games for Lamar (one FBS, one FCS), the Cardinals have averaged 27.5 points per game on 363 yards per game and 5.6 yards per play. Defensively, LU has allowed 24 points on 383 yards per game, with an average of 5.0 yards per play.

The Cardinals have a plus-three turnover margin, having turned it over once (an interception) while forcing four turnovers (three interceptions, one fumble).

ODDS & PREDICTIONS

Jeff Sagarin ranks Weber State at No. 129 in all of Division I (FBS and FCS, 263 total teams). Lamar is No. 188. Accounting for home-field advantage, his formula favors Weber State by nine points.

ESPN’s Bill Connelly ranks Weber State at No. 18 in FCS and Lamar at No. 64. His formula predicts a Weber State win 31-18.

D Ratings predicts a Weber State victory of 31-23 at 76% probability.

WEATHER

Hot and humid.

Beaumont is 85 miles east of Houston and 30 miles west of the Louisiana border. Having come through the outskirts of Hurricane Francine earlier this week, Beaumont has a forecasted high of 95 degrees at 67% humidity on Saturday.

At the local 6 p.m. kickoff (5 p.m. MDT), the temperature will be down to 91 degrees at 59% humidity. The sun will set at 7:21 p.m. By game’s end, it will be 83 degrees and 81% humidity.

“Add a little moisture to the air, it’s not the biggest deal, in my personal opinion. The biggest thing is the ball will be slick with the sweat but, other than that, I don’t see it being a huge factor,” Mental said. “We started hydration goals in fall camp, a big emphasis on hydrating, eating … to make sure our guys are at a high level.”

TV & RADIO

The game’s video broadcast will appear on the ESPN+ subscription service, available on the ESPN app or at WatchESPN.com. Carl Arky and Jerry Graybeal have the WSU radio call on 103.1 FM over the air in Utah and online at www.1031thewave.com.

ALL-TIME SERIES

This is the first meeting between the two schools. The game is at Provost Umphrey Stadium, capacity 16,000. Lamar is slated to return the trip to Ogden in 2028.

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