Weber State football zeroes in on offensive coordinator, new season opener for 2022
With the 2022 signing class complete, Weber State football still has a few things to take care of, things that are atypical as February items of business.
Those items: hire an offensive coordinator and find a new season-opening game for the 2022 season.
After three seasons back coaching at Weber State, and two as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, Matt Hammer stepped down from the team and coaching two weeks ago.
“I’m hoping to be able to make an announcement next week sometime,” WSU head coach Jay Hill said of hiring a new offensive coordinator. “There’s a lot of steps to get through. There are a couple guys who are very qualified. We will hire a very good one, I’ve just got to get through the last steps with them. I’m hoping by next week, they’re in the chair.”
Entering his ninth season at the helm, Hill will be hiring his fifth offensive coordinator as each of his previous four lasted two seasons. Steve Clark and Fesi Sitake each left for jobs at BYU, and Dave Schramm took a post at Utah State, before Hammer’s tenure.
Hill said he first wants a coordinator who knows how to win and keep an offense performing consistently well.
“It’s more who I think will come in and do the best job, and fit what we’re looking for. We want to be explosive, we want to be awesome on offense. What we can’t do is put our team in a bunch of bad situations where you look great one game and then screw it up the next,” Hill said. “Our offensive coordinator’s got to understand what it takes to win, first and foremost. And then, we look at styles, scheme, playcalling, experience, the ability to recruit.”
Weber State is also looking for an opponent to open the 2022 season on Sept. 3 after James Madison backed out of the game the two sides had scheduled.
James Madison had already accepted an invitation to join the Sun Belt and move up to FBS, and was going to be ineligible for the 2022 FCS playoffs as it began the transition period. Tuesday, it became known JMU would jump to the FBS side a year earlier than anticipated, and needed to add FBS games to make that possible.
So, the Dukes scheduled a home game against Middle Tennessee on Sept. 3, displacing Weber State’s planned return trip on that day after the two teams played in Ogden in 2021.
“We’ve probably known for about two weeks that there was a chance,” Hill said, “and it really became a reality about a week ago that we pretty much knew that game was going to be done.”
The original contract between the schools says if a team defaults on a game, it owes the other school $400,000. Hill said he didn’t know how the schools’ athletic directors would resolve that aspect of the canceled game. A records request sent to WSU on Tuesday morning regarding amended contract documents between the schools remained pending as of Wednesday night.
So moving forward, Weber State seems to escape opening the 2022 season with two road FBS games (Sept. 10 is a trip to Utah State) and has 10 of 11 games scheduled — five at home, five on the road.
“We’ll get the next-best opponent and hopefully it’s one that fits perfectly into what we’re trying to get done, and go win, whoever it is,” Hill said.
Hill said he’d prefer to add a home game in the open slot but the No. 1 priority is to schedule a game that counts toward playoff qualification — not a non-Division I opponent, if possible.
“At this late stage in the game, sometimes you just have to have an opponent set so you have it ready to go,” he said.