But what will, for now, be a simple entry in Weber State’s “The last time…” section of the weekly game notes took a lot more detail and vision to accomplish for the pair of lifelong running backs whose path to that feat was far from guaranteed.

Ferguson is a 2021 graduate of Davis High School. His senior season was the 2020 football campaign in which few across the country knew if, when or how they’d stage games still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But, as Utah was the first state in the country to put the pads on and hit the gridiron, Davis ended up playing 12 games, going 8-4 with two playoff wins. Ferguson rushed for a head-turning 140.6 yards per game. But college interest was almost nothing, and he left to Michigan to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Upon his return, he spent a spring camp walking on at Utah Tech, but that didn’t stick.

BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

“It just wasn’t the right time in my life for that, so I quit in spring ball and I was going to be done playing,” Ferguson said. “I was going to walk away from it, but as I sat with that decision, I was like, ‘I love football. I want to give it one more chance.'”

Closer to home, he got a meeting with Mickey Mental and was given the shot to walk on at Weber State in 2025. After a practice, Mental once, unsolicited, spoke about how his walk-on Ferguson was showing toughness and effort his whole team could learn from.

Ferguson bided his time behind a slew of experienced and scholarship backs, and rushed for 88 yards on a bruising 22 carries in a blowout loss at eventual national champion Montana State. In the season finale, though, he turned 11 carries into 102 yards to beat ranked Northern Arizona.

Ferguson says he loves how playing running back lets him do a little bit of everything.

“There’s no better feeling than seeing the line block something up real nice and you know all you have to do is hit it with speed,” the junior said. “From a young age, I found an ability to have those instincts and the athleticism to move in the holes I need to.”

ISAAC FISHER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

Seeing the line block up a run scheme means something different for Ferguson. He has a condition called keratoconus, where the corneas in his eyes deteriorate and become misshapen. He’s had surgery to stop it from advancing further, and — like basketball superstar Steph Curry — wears specialized, thick contacts that require extra hydration in order to see clearly.

So between being underrecruited, nearly giving up on the sport, and an eye condition, his 410 yards and six touchdowns over five games this season were far from an inevitability.

“I’m grateful for the perspective I have on it, because it’s not been guaranteed for me. There was definitely a time where I was like, ‘this is over,'” Ferguson said. “So every day, I try to remind myself of those times where I thought it was over, times I thought nobody wants me. It just makes me grateful to be here.”

Rigtrup, a sophomore, has a similar story. A 2022 graduate of Springville, he had some talks with Southern Utah and Air Force about football, but not much was sure as he left on a mission to Mexico. Upon his return, he ultimately walked on at Snow College, where he worked out for part of a season and played in another, posting himself as Snow’s leading rusher in 2025.

He said coaching changes meant Weber State was “late” to recruiting him from Snow, but he knew running backs coach Tana Vea already and his return, along with Eric Kjar’s hire, made it feel like WSU was the place he should be.

His 129 yards to beat Idaho represented his second 100-yard rushing game this season.

“It’s been a long process, walking on at a JUCO. It’s rough doing it that way. You’ve got to believe in yourself, put in the hard work,” Rigtrup said. “It makes you feel thankful for the people who believed in you along the way — family, friends, thanks to God. Just thankful for the opportunities, happy to be here helping the team any way I can.”

Vea wishes he had better foresight and had offered Ferguson a scholarship the first time he was on WSU’s staff. But overall, Ferguson and Rigtrup represent two parts of a vision he and Kjar are trying to create at Weber State.

First, the two Utahns represent a clear effort in recruiting.

“When I was here with Jay Hill, he talked about winning with in-state kids. We brought that back, and even maybe in a stronger sense with Coach Kjar. He says it every day, we want Utah kids,” Vea said. “The way these kids are brought up — some of these kids work jobs, even though they’re football players. Seth from Springville, it’s a stereotype, but he embodies that Springville blue-collar, bring the hard hat every single day.

“We want those guys who are tough, humble guys who just want to work and don’t care about the accolades; they just want to win.”

That’s the second part of the vision: splitting time, filling a role, helping the team win.

While Weber State has faced several teams (Southern Utah, Cal Poly) who feed the rock to one running back upwards of 30 times in a game, the Wildcats don’t do that. Ferguson and Rigtrup each had 14 carries against Idaho; Ferguson totaled 153 yards, Rigtrup 129.

Ferguson said as a competitor, he’d be lying if he said he wouldn’t accept the challenge of 30 carries in a game. But he knows the advantages of splitting time and letting other talented players — running backs, receivers or otherwise — have the ball is better for the team’s health and production.

Vea says duo they replaced on “the last time…” section of having two 100-yard rushers in one game helps illustrate the point. In a 2022 playoff game against North Dakota, Josh Davis ran for 130 yards and Damon Bankston had 122 yards.

Davis, a smaller back and the former national freshman of the year all the way back in 2018, had struggled to stay on the field. But there he was, healthy in a playoff game in his final season.

“Just trying to get him through the year, having him at the end of the year is the best, that’s when you need him. So you can’t just ride him the entire season,” Vea said. “But we had Damon Bankston, and seeing defenses not being able to adjust to his speed when he came in for Josh — so I learned a lot from how Coach (Robert) Conley utilized multiple backs and saw all those advantages.

“They all got through healthy at the end, the linebackers can’t pace the running backs the same way, and you’re just able to utilize the strengths from all your guys.”

Willingness from Ferguson and Rigtrup at the top of the pecking order to still fill a role, he says, permeates throughout his whole group. Vea says freshman Semisi Kinikini might be his smartest running back; he helps younger players learn the playbook and coaches up Ferguson and Rigtrup on the sideline with what he’s seeing.

“He’s an integral part of our room. … Without him, we probably don’t win some of these games. He knows that’s valuable and that his time will come,” Vea said.

Omar Shah, too, is someone Vea really wants to get on the field.

“That guy is so physical; we need to find a way to use him,” Vea said. “That’s my job is to try to utilize the strength of all our guys and have them all healthy.”