Weber State football: ‘Next man up’ becomes norm for successful Wildcats
Success for Weber State football isn’t a given, nor is it — historically — frequent or sustained.
So early in the process of Jay Hill taking WSU from a competitive team to a contending winner to an elite program, it wasn’t out of the question to pose questions about departing key players.
How will the Wildcats replace Cam Livingston, Josh Burton and Tre’Von Johnson? Taron Johnson, Drew Batchelor and Cardon Malan? Andrew Vollert and McKay Murphy? Landon Stice, the Preator brothers, Jawian Harrison and Keilan Benjamin? Iosua Opeta and LeGrand Toia?
But as the build reached through 2018 and into 2019, and now, into the spring of 2021, the question really isn’t “how?” anymore, but simply, “who?”
Through recruiting and coaching, the common football phrase “next man up” is not cliche at Weber State but the modus operandi of a program that inches up national polls to new bests — this week, that’s No. 2 — and pushes further into the playoffs than ever before.
Conner Mortensen is one of those players. The senior linebacker joined Noah Vaea last season and helped answer the “who?” in 2019 for the departing Stice and Toia.
Mortensen led WSU in tackles to open the season last week at Idaho State, totaling seven while also securing an interception. Around him, he got to see more guys step up into roles left by graduated seniors or injured players.
One was Sherwin Lavaka, a senior who joined the team in 2019 on a transfer from Snow College. Lavaka led the team with two sacks. George Tarlas, who turned in a prolific 2019 backing up two All-American defensive ends in Adam Rodriguez and Jonah Williams, sacked ISU quarterback Tyler Vander Waal on the Bengals’ first pass play of the game and finished with five tackles.
Freshman lineman Logan Lutui recorded four tackles and an interception. Sophomore linebacker Winston Reid recorded four tackles. Junior defensive end Raoul Johnson recorded a sack.
“It was really cool to see,” Mortensen said. “We know so many of us can play, and we can win with so many of our guys. We see them ball out in practice all the time so to see them take the field and actually make that happen in a game like Sherwin, two sacks and a hurry … I thought it was awesome to see them step up and become those guys that we’ve always known they can be.”
Marque Collins, Eddie Heckard, Maxwell Anderson, Ja’Kobe Harris and Kamden Garrett helped replace the deep, talented defensive secondary from 2018 going into 2019.
Last week, Anderson and Harris were not available, and usual starting safety Preston Smith did not play. But there was Desmond Williams, taken out by injury in 2019, starting at safety to record three tackles and a fumble recovery. Naseme Colvin, who moved from backer to safety, logged major reps in a defensive effort that kept ISU to seven points with starters in.
Offensively, experienced running backs Kevin Smith Jr. and Kris Jackson were not available. Redshirt freshman Dontae McMillan, whose work in the weight room is impossible to miss, backed up Josh Davis to the tune of 51 yards on nine carries, including two touchdowns.
While Ty MacPherson, Rashid Shaheed and David Ames held down big roles in the receiving game, Jon Christensen (three catches, 46 yards) and John Abercrombie (two sweep carries for seven yards) helped plug the role left by Devon Cooley, who was not available Saturday.
Mortensen said it’s a product of individual work, which is instilled throughout the program as the only ethic.
“As long as you’re practicing hard, you’ll rise to the occasion whenever the time comes and you’ll surprise yourself with how you develop when you’re watching the guys ahead of you and doing things right in practice,” Mortensen said. “But they’ve pretty much just been taking care of their own business and being disciplined.”
And, of course, there’s freshman quarterback Bronson Barron. The new signal-caller started the game throwing 6 of 13 in the first quarter. After that, he was 11 of 14, hit several deep-ball runners in stride and commanded the game in the second and third quarters.
The recruiting philosophy comes into play. Hill acknowledged the art of adding winning players to the pipeline includes not just recruiting stats or stars, but looking for characteristics and attitudes that translate to hard work.
“Being able to identify the guys that have yet to reach their potential but love the game such that they’re going to work their guts out to become better,” Hill said. “And then you’re taking guys who maybe are 20 pounds light and some of the bigger schools are passing on them but they’ve got good frames and they’re going to work to get to the level that you want them to be.”
That recruiting effort includes conversations with coaches, teachers, counselors, people in the community.
“Will they compete? Are they a team guy or are they a me guy? We try like crazy to do our homework so we don’t miss on the recruits,” Hill said. “There’s a lot of big-time players out there who aren’t very good because they don’t work hard, they don’t run to the football, you can tell they don’t strain.
“If you get an opportunity to see them play another sport like basketball or even in baseball, you can see if a guy will get in the batter’s box and really compete. That’s what we’re looking for. We’re looking for guys who will fight and claw and dig, because those guys usually get way better.”