A backup freshman quarterback leading a fourth-quarter TD drive and a freshman linebacker blocking an extra-point kick with 3 seconds left were key in the Wildcats leaving Greeley with a 30-29 victory Friday night, giving head coach Eric Kjar a win in his college coaching debut and Big Sky opener.

“All wins are beautiful,” said Carl Arky, radio voice of the Wildcats, on the postgame show.

“Always,” Kjar agreed. “I’ll take any of ’em. I don’t care how they are, we’ll take ’em any way we can get ’em.”

Spirits were high for that man and his players, who help comprise the program that’s trying to catch a wind out of the doldrums of WSU’s past two seasons.

But Kjar’s a ball coach, so the win didn’t make him forget the things he and his team need to do next.

First, the WSU offense left big plays on the field in the first half, with fifth-year quarterback Devin Brown still feeling out timing with his offense.

That was apparent on the first play of the game. Receiver Tate Kjar left his defender in the dust on a first-down pass but had to stop and wait for Brown’s careful throw at midfield; it went for 26 yards but a better throw would’ve gone for the full 76 available.

Perhaps affected by that, Brown overthrew a couple more balls over the defense that would’ve gone for 30, 40, 50 or more yards if completed.

“We had some big opportunities, and we hit on some and were just a little off on a couple. We’ll get better at those as we go and this group gets used to playing with each other,” Eric Kjar said. “They’re all just so new, and I think there’s a lot of unknown. The more they get settled in, and kind of chill out and get to play together, that connection will be smooth.

“And Devin, he’s played some football at a high level but it’s been a little bit where he’s gone the distance in a game. Even tonight, he ended up not going (the distance),” he continued. “But to get the volume of plays he got tonight, he really hasn’t done that in quite a while. So him being able to get that and just being able to find a groove as he progresses offensively with our group will be really good for us.”

Still, Brown was 9 of 18 for 175 yards in the first half before departing the game with a dislocated right pinky finger.

One huge bright spot was junior receiver Noah Kjar returning from an ACL injury that ended his season after three games last year and catching six balls for 114 yards and two touchdowns. With brother Tate going out early, that was crucial.

But it stood out when lefty Nate Dahle connected twice with fifth-year receiver Marvin Session on that key fourth-quarter TD drive, and when Brown tossed a good ball to Robert Young that drew a pass interference in the end zone and set up a TD throw on the next play.

The coach knows there are more playmakers out there.

“That’s one thing we usually strive for — when we talk balance offensively, (that’s) more distribution from a receiver standpoint,” Eric Kjar said. “We’re going to throw it a decent amount and we want to balance that out a little bit better than what we were today. Get Marv involved, more Mason York, get Rob Young involved more and just find our groove better that way. We’ll get there.”

Offensive line was a concern for coaches since spring camp got rolling, but they were a bright spot for most of the game. Luke Sampson, Brody Cutrer, Jacob Edmonds, Leon Crutcher, Jay Wade and anyone else who filled in kept the QBs clean for nearly the entire game, and got the run game moving in the second half.

The one big mistake ended up being costly. Leading 17-13, Weber State’s defense forced a Northern Colorado punt just across midfield to open the second half. The Wildcats pushed the ball the other way inside the NoCo 30, but Brown took pressure on a third-and-7 from the 25 and had to throw the ball away.

That was the play when Brown hurt his hand. The head coach says it was a communcation problem, not a skill issue.

“Devin ends up getting hurt on one of the ones we tried to throw a screen. We had bad communication; we ended up not executing the screen up front and he ends up getting hit on the hand,” Eric Kjar said. “But I thought they played awesome. … They played hard, which is what I challenged them with, and I know coach (Isaac) Asiata has challenged them on that, too. He does a really good job preparing those guys.”

Some of the improvements Kjar wants were introspective.

“(Brown) handled some things really well with what we did. I probably just need to trust him just a little bit more and continue to be aggressive offensively,” he said.

Northern Colorado rushed for 259 yards, for example. There’s good and bad there, since the Bears ran 22 more plays than WSU. But 259 is too many for a team that wants to win consistently.

“We’ve got to tackle better, though, for sure, and I’m sure coach (Gavin) Fowler is going to be big on that. I don’t think we did a tremendous job on tackling in space,” Eric Kjar said. “Some of that is, it’s early, and you see a little bit of that with your teams early.

“You try to balance it enough as you do your fall camp to prep them, and do enough live tackling to hopefully get them ready but nothing’s going to simulate it like a game. So that part was more rusty than we would like on our end.”

Whether it was QBs getting back into a game, or getting a taste of the college experience, running backs finding a groove, or defenders pushing through fatigue to make enough plays, Kjar was positive overall about what his team put on the field. That includes junior kicker David Dellenbach booming through three field goals to keep the scoreboard ticking. But:

“We’d like to finish those drives and make this game a little bit bigger distance for us. We had some chances. I probably tried to check a couple things on my end, twice, that I kind of wish I had back and wouldn’t have done,” Eric Kjar said. “But we’re going to continue to get better at those types of things, trust each other more and kind of know what we’re about.”