Nine months from his hire, Eric Kjar finally leads his team onto the gridiron for a game as Weber State opens the 2026 season Friday in a road matchup against Northern Colorado.

The Wildcats have 80 new players and a coaching staff almost entirely new, hoping to put behind them the struggles of recent seasons and push WSU back into a positive trajectory in the program’s 65th season of football as a four-year school.

For the first time, Northern Colorado is playing a night game. New lights at Nottingham Field, and new black uniform tops, have the Bears excited to play ball.

RARE FCS OPENER

It’s not often that Weber State opens a season against an FCS opponent. Season openers have almost always been home games against Division II or NAIA teams, or road games against FBS opponents.

Excluding the Spring 2021 season in which WSU played only conference games, this is WSU’s first season opener since 2013 playing an FCS opponent (Stephen F. Austin). Going on the road against an FCS team to open the season? That’s been since 2001 when the Wildcats opened against Southern Utah.

This is also the first time in 30 years that Weber has opened the season with a Big Sky opponent. This offseason, FCS leaders voted to permanently expand the regular season to 12 games, and the Big Sky voted to move to a nine-game conference slate. Since most every team had openings in what has been called Week 0, the easiest solution was to schedule that ninth conference game at the beginning.

TEAM CAPTAINS

Weber State’s team captains this season are: junior receiver Noah Kjar, and fifth-year players in quarterback Devin Brown, safety Trevian Tribble and linebacker Raimoana Tinirauarii.

Those four are half of WSU’s leadership council. Captains lead the team on the field while the council guides the program in broader aspects. (Others on the council are senior offensive linemen Jacob Edmonds and Luke Sampson, sophomore safety Teni Worthen, and sophomore linebacker David Brinton VI.)

MEET THE BEARS

Ed Lamb leads Northern Colorado in his fourth season at the helm. He’s only 5-30 after taking over somewhat of a train wreck, but the Bears were a tough out last season.

Although fifth-year senior and Colorado native Keegan Patterson transferred in after starting at Indiana State last year, it’s fifth-year senior Kenny Lueth (No. 12) who has the starting QB job on NoCo’s depth chart. Lueth hasn’t played a game in nearly three years; he was in Greeley last year but did not play and also spent a year at Northern Illinois. The 6-foot-4 passer threw for 2,301 yards, 30 touchdowns and two interceptions in 2023 for American River College.

Three transfers have the starting nod at receiver in Marcus Mozer (San Diego State), Evan Morris (Northern Arizona) and Trey Olsen (Wyoming). Junior Mathias Price is back at running back after rushing for 483 yards and three touchdowns last season.

ODDS & PREDICTIONS

Jeff Sagarin ranks Weber State at No. 161 in all of Division I (FBS and FCS, 266 total teams). Northern Colorado is No. 217. Including home-field advantage, his formula favors WSU by seven points.

ESPN’s Bill Connelly ranks Weber State at No. 54 in FCS (128 teams) and Northern Colorado at No. 78. His formula predicts Weber State winning 30-26.

D Ratings predicts a Northern Colorado victory of 30-28 at 56% probability.

WEATHER

After a high of 95 degrees, the temperature in Greeley, Colorado, is set to drop to 85 degrees by the 7 p.m. kickoff, with cloudy skies and sunset at 7:37 p.m. Temperatures should sit around 76 degrees by game’s end.

TV & RADIO

The game will stream on the ESPN+ subscription service, available on the ESPN app or WatchESPN.com. Northern Colorado’s call will feature Christian Saez and Matthew Gaitor on the mic.

Weber State’s radio call, with Carl Arky and former WSU player Dave Stireman, airs in Utah on 103.1 FM and online at coast103.com.

ALL-TIME SERIES

Weber State leads the all-time series 11-2 but Northern Colorado won the last meeting in 2024, a 21-17 win in Ogden. WSU is 5-0 all-time in Greeley.