When Weber State football hammered Northern Iowa in the second half on the way to a 34-17 win, the words were the same.

When the Wildcats were shut out by Montana State in a 40-0 drubbing, needed a miracle to beat winless Northern Colorado and got it, and were handled at home by Northern Arizona, the words were the same.

When WSU’s true freshman quarterback fumbled away two promising drives in a 17-16 home loss to UC Davis, the words were the same.

It’s about us.

Words said as if a mantra — “a word or sound repeated to aid concentration,” the Oxford dictionary says.

First-year head coach Mickey Mental has repeated that phrase — it’s about us — more times than could be counted, even when losses mounted and, to some, those words began to sound shrill.

But when WSU beat up Idaho State and upset No. 4 Idaho in consecutive weeks, the words … well, they were still the same.

“Yeah, to beat a team like this is a big breakthrough, but it always goes back to us,” Mental said after the biggest victory in his short tenure. “How we prepare, how we focus on our program and (eliminate) the chaos outside our program, the noise outside of our program, and just focus on getting better each and every day.

“Our guys are doing a really good job of that since the bye week of just settling in and focusing on their one-eleventh, excelling at their job at the highest standard they can.”

With a chance to end the season on a three-game win streak and claim the program’s ninth straight winning campaign, it seems the mantra held true, even for the times some said it sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

“When I first took the job, it’s always about a process and sometimes the process isn’t as smooth as we’d like,” Mental said. “Everybody’s still on board, and credit those 11 seniors for really keeping this thing together, and my coaching staff who I lean heavily on, to keep this thing where it needs to be. Because this is a great program here and we want to continue that at the highest standard possible.”

Part of finding the winning track has been finally playing to Mental’s other mantra: complementary football.

The offense stopped turning the ball over. In the last four games, WSU has lost one fumble and Richie Muñoz has thrown one interception.

Meanwhile, in the last two games, Weber State’s defense has forced five turnovers (one interception, four recovered fumbles), plus it’s scored one touchdown and one safety. And on special teams, the punt-return game either had one team rifling punts into the stands (Idaho State) or tallied a 71-yard Haze Hadley return to help win the game (Idaho).

And it’s easy to focus on the young QB: in four starts, Muñoz is 69 of 120 (57.5%) for 725 yards (181 per game), five touchdowns and one interception. In the six games prior, WSU’s passing offense averaged only 112 yards per game on 52.6% completion with two touchdowns to seven interceptions.

That’s helped open up the run game, too, even without speedster Damon Bankston. In WSU’s first six games, it averaged 134.5 rushing yards per contest. In Muñoz’s four starts, that number is 149.

So for now, as pointed as the growing pains were with a first-year head coach and the second-youngest depth chart in all of FCS, it appears the mantras are working.

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