A BRIEF PREVIEW

• Following a much-needed off week, the Sacramento State football team returns to action as it travels to Northern Colorado to face the Bears on Saturday, Oct. 14, at 12 p.m. PT.
• The Hornets improved to 4-1 overall and evened their Big Sky Conference record at 1-1 with a 31-30 win over Northern Arizona on Sept. 30. Tight end Coleman Kuntz rushed for the game-winning touchdown midway through the fourth quarter and Kameron Rocha sealed the game with an interception in the end zone with 1:36 left to play.
• The Hornets remained fourth in the Stats Perform FCS media poll and moved up to fifth in the AFCA FCS coaches poll despite not playing a game last weekend.
• Hornet fans can tune in to ESPN 1320 AM to hear the radio call of Jason Ross, Steve McElroy and Danny Sullivan. Live audio streaming is also available via www.hornetsports.com and the Audacy app.
• The game will also be streamed on ESPN+. Jason Alvine will be on the play-by-play while Mick Hager will serve as the analyst.

OPPONENT PREVIEW: NORTHERN COLORADO

• Northern Colorado is also coming off a bye. The Bears are 0-5 overall and 0-2 in Big Sky games after a heart-breaking 28-21 loss to then-No. 13 Weber State. UNC held a 21-7 lead at halftime and carried that score into the fourth quarter. However, the Wildcats scored three touchdowns in the final 6:34 to win the contest. The final touchdown came on a 40-yard pick six with 1:46 remaining.
• Jacob Sirmon has quarterbacked UNC in all five games. Sirmon has thrown for 901 yards while completing 61.8 percent of his passes. He has five passing touchdowns and has been intercepted six times. Blake Haggerty is his favorite target with 26 receptions for 296 yards. All five of the passing touchdowns have come to different receivers. David Afari ranks fourth in the Big Sky, averaging 75.2 rushing yards per game.
• The Northern Colorado defense has allowed 527.0 yards and 40.0 points per game. Those numbers are skewed by a game at Washington State where the Cougars compiled 718 yards and 64 points. If you take that contest away, UNC surrenders 34.0 points and 479.3 yards per game.
• Ed Lamb is in his first season as the head coach at Northern Colorado. No stranger to the Big Sky, Lamb was the head coach at Southern Utah from 2008-15. During that time, his teams were 3-2 against the Hornets. Lamb most recently was the assistant head coach at BYU from 2016-22.

BYE, BYE, BYE

• Sacramento State has won five of its last six games immediately following a bye. The Hornets defeated Portland State, 42-34, in 2016, topped Idaho State, 41-21, in 2017, knocked off then-No. 22 Eastern Washington 48-27 in 2019, blew out Southern Utah, 41-20, in 2021 and won at UNI, 37-21, last season.
• The team's only loss during that stretch came in 2018 where the Hornets fell to Cal Poly, 41-27.
• Prior to the recent success, Sacramento State had an unbelievable 10-game losing streak coming off a bye from 2006-15. The schedule makers did no favors to the Hornets in that skid as the team faced a ranked opponent in six of those games.

IT'S GOING TO BE CLOSE

• The 31-30 close-call victory over Northern Arizona is nothing new for Sacramento State. Dating back to last season, the team has had nine of its last 12 games overall and six of its last seven Big Sky Conference games come down to the final possession.
• The Hornets have seven wins in those overall games with the only losses coming against UIW (66-63) in last season's FCS Playoffs and at Idaho (36-27) this year. The Idaho game was tied 27-27 with two seconds to play before the Vandals scored a field and recovered a fumble for a TD on the ensuing kickoff.

GETTING OUT OF THE BLOCKS

• This year's team became the ninth in school history to earn at least four wins in its first five games. All but one of those previous teams (1981) picked up a win in its sixth game of the year.
• The 1991 and 2022 teams are the only Hornet teams to open the year 5-0. The team won its firs six games in 1991 while last season's team claimed victories in its first 12 games.
• Success has run in pairs as the teams in '63 and '64, '81 and '82, '91 and '92 and now '22 and '23 each won a minimum of four of its first five games.

RANKINGS REHASH

• For just the third time in school history, Sacramento State began the season ranked among the top 25 in the FCS preseason polls. The only other times the Hornets started the season in the top 25 came in 2011 when the team was 24th in the Stats poll and last season where the team debuted at seventh.
• Sacramento State improved to fourth in the Stats Perform media poll and sixth in the AFCA FCS Coaches poll after its win over NAU. The Hornets remained fourth in the media poll and moved up to fifth in the coaches poll.
• This week marks the 32nd time since the start of the 2019 season that the team has been ranked in the top 25. Prior to that season, the team only played seven games as a ranked squad between 1993-2018.
• The Hornets were picked third by the Big Sky head coaches in the preseason poll and fourth by the media. Montana State was selected to finish first in both the coaches and media polls.
• Preseason polls have not been an accurate prediction of how the team will finish. In 2019, Sacramento State was unranked until the seventh week of the season and ended up cresting at No. 3 in both the coaches and media poll. That same year, the team was selected to finish  11th in the Big Sky Coaches poll and 12th by the media.
• In 2021, the Hornets were picked fifth by both the coaches and the media. That year the team went undefeated to win the league title and entered the playoffs as the No. 4 national seed.
• Last season, Sacramento State was picked second by the coaches and third by the media before finishing the year undefeated in Big Sky play.

TOTAL PACKAGE

• Quarterback Kaiden Bennett has shown the ability to hurt defenses with both his arms and legs this season. Bennett leads the Big Sky and ranks eighth in the FCS with 298.2 yards of total offense per game. Bennett has thrown seven touchdowns and rushed for four which places him 21st in the FCS with 66 points responsible for.
• Against NAU, Bennett completed 18-of-27 passes for 257 yards and a score and also led the team with 76 rushing yards despite being sacked a season-high four times.
• At Idaho, Bennett threw for 236 yards but was held to minus-3 rushing yards after being sacked twice for the first time this season.
• Bennett set his career best with 279 passing yards and rushed for 100 at Stanford to finish the game with 379 yards of total offense.
• He had 101 rushing yards — aided by a 40-yard TD run — against Texas A&M-Commerce and followed with 100 at Stanford. That combo made him on the second QB in school history to rush for 100 yards or more in consecutive games as Kevin Thomson had 149 against Southern Utah and 121 at Eastern Washington in 2017.
• The Reno, Nev., native has taken advantage of the big play, completing 16 passes of 25 yards or longer through the first five games. That total includes six passes of at least 40 yards. Last season, Sacramento State had nine pass plays of 40+ yards and 31 of 25+ yards in 13 games.
• Those big plays have Bennett ranked either first or second in the Big Sky in four other categories this season. He is first in the league and seventh in the FCS in passing yards per attempt (9.19 yards); first in the Big Sky and 10th in the FCS in passing yards per completion (14.77 yards); first in the Big Sky and 20th in the FCS in passing efficiency (152.9) and second in the Big Sky and 26th in the FCS in passing yards per game (233.4).
• He is second in the Big Sky and sixth nationally among quarterbacks with 62.4 rushing yards per game.
• If Bennett remains on his current pace, he would rank fourth in school history in total offense per game. Garrett Safron averaged 353.4 yards per game in 2014 and 315.1 in 2013. Kevin Thomson is the only other player to eclipses 300 yards of total offense per game at 319.6 in 2019.
• Bennett's path to Sacramento State was a winding one. After playing at Folsom High School where he threw for 8,500 yards and rushed for over 2,000, he graduated midyear and enrolled at Boise State. Bennett then moved to Nevada in the fall of 2020 before transferring to Sacramento State.
• He appeared in five games for the Hornets in 2021 and six in 2022 all in a limited roll. Bennett did not throw or rush for a touchdown in either season.

YOU GET FOUR FOR A REASON

• Sacramento State and Northern Arizona threw caution to the wind as the teams combined to go 8-for-9 on fourth down attempts.
• The Hornets were successful on their first three fourth down tries, including two on the eventual game-winning drive in the fourth quarter. During that series, Sacramento State converted a 4th-and-6 and a 4th-and-4 to keep the chains moving. The team's lone failure on fourth down came on the intentional safety with two seconds remaining.
• NAU was 5-of-5 during the game, including 3-of-3 on its final drive. The Lumberjacks had much more manageable situations with a 4th-and-2, 4th-and-6 and a 4th-and-1.
• This season, Sacramento State is 8-of-11 on fourth down on offense which ranks 16th in the FCS in conversion rate. The team's eight conversions are tied for eighth in the FCS while the 11 attempts rank are tied for 20th.
• Dating back to 2019, Sacramento State is 48-for-79 on fourth down conversions (60.8%).  Those numbers rank the Hornets tied for 19th in conversions made, tied for 42nd in attempts and eighth in percentage during that span.

RUNNING OUT OF OPTIONS

• Three of the four touchdowns recorded by Sacramento State against Northern Arizona where the first touchdown of that player's career. That trio gives the Hornets 10 players who have scored TDs this season through the first five games.
• Last season, 12 Hornets scored at least one touchdown. Quarterback Asher O'Hara, who rushed for 20 TD, Marshel Martin IV (13), Cameron Skattebo (11) and Fulcher (10) all cracked double digits in touchdowns.
• Carlos Hill started the action with a 16-yard reception in the first quarter. Hill leads the Hornets with 17 receptions this season and ranks third on the team with 218 yards. His score needed official review before confirming he toe-tapped along the right sideline.
• Redshirt freshman Zeke Burnett tied the game in the second quarter with a 7-yard rush around the left end. Burnett had yet to have a carry in his Sacramento State career until that game where he finished with six attempts for 40 yards.
• The final touchdown came from Coleman Kuntz in an unexpected way. The tight end who has 19 career receptions, lined up in the backfield and received the hand off for a 2-yard rush up the middle to put the Hornets on top, 31-28.
• The week prior, tight end Austin Jarrard turned his first reception at Sacramento State into a 5-yard touchdown at Idaho. That score also came on Jarrard's birthday.
• The team's seven passing touchdowns this season have gone to six different players as running back Marcus Fulcher is the only player with multiple receiving scores. The other touchdown receptions have come from Jared Gipson and Anderson Grover at Nicholls, Christian Miller against Texas A&M-Commerce, Jarrard at Idaho and Hill against NAU.
• Sacramento State has rushed for 11 touchdowns with Kaiden Bennett and Fulcher each scoring four, Elijah Tau-Tolliver adding two and Burnett.

CAREER DAY FOR GIPSON

• On the same day that he eclipsed 1,000 career receiving yards, Jared Gipson set his career best in receiving yards and tied his career high in receptions. Gipson finished the game with five catches for 108 yards. He also set his career high with a 44-yard reception and finished the game averaging 21.6 yards per catch.
• Gipson leads Sacramento State with 283 receiving yards this season and is fourth on the team with 13 receptions. His lone TD of the year came in the season opener at Nicholls State.
• The Stockton, Calif., native needs just 102 more yards to eclipse his total from last year. He is also 235 yards shy of moving into 20th place in Sacramento State career history in receiving yards.
• Gipson has used explosive plays during the year as he leads the Hornets with five receptions of at least 25 yards. His average of 21.77 yards per reception in the best in the Big Sky and ranks 14th in the FCS this season.

TRIPLE DOUBLE DIGITS

• Linebacker Armon Bailey was credited with 10 tackles against Northern Arizona to give him his third straight game with double digit stops. Prior to the streak, Bailey had never had a game with 10-plus tackles during his collegiate career.
• Against the Lumberjacks, Bailey had four solo tackles, including a TFL. That performance followed 11 tackles at Stanford and at Idaho. He became the first Hornet since Austin Clark in 2017 to have double digit tackles in three consecutive games. The last Hornet to perform the feat in four straight games was Immanuel Anderson in 2016.
• Bailey leads the team with 43 total tackles — eight more than the next closest player. His 2.5 tackles-for-loss are tied for third on the team.
• Bailey tallied a team-leading 88 tackles last season. He had at least four tackles in all 13 games and had five or more in 10 games. That stretch included three consecutive games with nine tackles.
• The Vallejo, Calif., native was named first team all-Big Sky in 2022 and was a preseason all-conference choice prior to this year.
• Along with Bailey, the current Hornet rosters boasts four other players who have had games with at least 10 tackles in their career comprised of: Jeremy Harris (2), Cameron Broussard (2), Jett Stanley and Brock Mather.

RETURN OF SACK STATE

• After posting nine sacks in a two-game stretch at Stanford and Idaho, Sacramento State was limited to just one QB takedown against NAU. That sack by Jett Stanley, extends the team's streak of having at least one sack to seven games dating back to last season.
• The Hornets now have 14 sacks as a team this season, including six in the win at Stanford. The team's average of 2.80 sacks per game ranks second in the Big Sky and 18th in the FCS.
• DeShawn Lynch and Jett Stanley are tied for the team lead with four sacks each. The pair are tied for the Big Sky lead along with Montana State's Brody Grebe with 0.80 sacks per game.
• Stanley entered the season with one career sack but tallied three sacks at Stanford to earn Big Sky Defensive Player of the Week. The team's six sacks against the Cardinal were the most for the team since tallying six at Cal Poly in 2019.
• Jeremy Harris (1.5), Armon Bailey (1.0), Brandon Knott (1.0), Mason Brosseau, Brock Mather (0.5), Leke Fashola (0.5) and Ben Ahio (0.5) account for the other sacks this year.
• Over the last 10 years, Sacramento State has had varied results in terms of sacks. The low came in 2018 where the team had only 13 sacks. The highs were in 2019 (44) and 2017 (43). Those two totals rank second and third in school single season history. The team has averaged 24.7 sacks per year in that span.

WHAT A WEAPON

• Sacramento State featured arguably the top kicker in the FCS in Kyle Sentkowski over the last two season. Sentkowski made 38 field goals during that span, including a school record 21 in 2021. His 229 career points rank fifth in program history.
• With Sentkowski's graduation, the job to fill his role was wide open throughout fall camp before Zach Schreiner earned the honor. The transfer from American River JC made a 23-yarder at Nicholls State on his first attempt before missing a 45-yard attempt against the Colonels.
• Since that game, Schreiner made eight consecutive field goals until his 41-yard attempt against NAU sailed wide right by a matter of inches. He was 3-of-3 at Stanford to earn Big Sky Special Teams Player of the Week. That performance also led to head coach Andy Thompson announcing at the end of a practice that Schreiner would be placed on scholarship.
• The Rocklin, Calif., native made 44-yard field goals at Stanford and Idaho. His nine field goals this season already have him just three shy of cracking the school single-season top 10.
• Schreiner is the team's leading scorer having tallied 46 points. He is 9-of-11 on field goal attempts and is a perfect 19-of-19 on PATs this year.

MOVING TO THE TOP

• Punter Cal McGough hasn't been needed a lot this season but when called upon, he has answered. McGough punted twice against NAU, landing his first at the 19-yard line and his second at the 2-yard line.
• The Geelong, Australia native is averaging 45.4 yards per punt with a long of 56. His average would rank him sixth in the FCS but he is far short of the required average of 2.6 punts per game to be eligible.
• The team's net punting average of 45.62 yards per attempt leads the FCS. Stanford is the only team to attempt a return but that effort finished with zero yards.
• McGough has landed nine of his 12 punts this season inside the opponent 20-yard line. Including last season, he has 22 punts end inside the 20 and has just one touchback in 41 attempts.
• Connor Stutz had one punt for the Hornets at Nicholls and boomed a 48-yard effort which was the longest for the team. His punt was fair caught at the Nicholls 14-yard line.

READY FOR TAKEOFF

• All-American tight end Marshel Martin IV continues to work his way back from an injury which forced him to miss nearly all of the first two games of the year. Martin had one catch for three yards against NAU and now has eight grabs for 39 yards on the year.
• The senior has at least one reception in 40 of 41 career games in which he has appeared. His lone exception was last season's contest against Idaho where he played one snap.
• Martin landed on every preseason FCS All-America team this offseason after being named to the second team by The Associated Press, Stats Perform and the AFCA in 2022. Martin led the team with 879 receiving yards, 65 receptions and 12 receiving touchdowns.
• Martin ended the 2022 season with two dynamic performances in the FCS Playoffs. He caught 10 passes for 148 yards and two touchdowns in the victory over Richmond and then hauled in 12 catches for 144 yards and two scores and also rushed for a touchdown against UIW.
• The senior has now accumulated more receptions (165), receiving yards (2,114) and receiving touchdowns (25) than any other non-wide receiver in school history.
• Martin was named first team all-Big Sky in 2021 and was a second team All-American by the AFCA. He was recognized by HERO Sports as a Freshman All-American in 2019 and a Sophomore All-American in 2021. Martin was also a preseason all-Big Sky choice and preseason All-American heading into 2022.

Career Receiving Yards    Total    Needs
3.    DeAndre Carter (2011-14)    2,760    646
4.    Morris Norrise (2010-13)    2,650    536
5.    Marshel Martin (2019-pres.)    2,114    ---

Career Receiving Touchdowns    Total    Needs
2.     Fred Amey (2001-04)    27    2
3.     Marshel Martin (2019-pres.)    25    ---

Career Receptions    Total    Needs
3.    DeAndre Carter (2011-14)    207    42
4.    Pierre Williams (2018-22)    182    17
5.    Marshel Martin (2019-pres.)    165    ---

FULCHER LEAVING HIS MARK

• Despite missing the Northern Arizona game due to an injury, Marcus Fulcher remains second on the team in rushing (240 yards), all-purpose yards (322) and total offense (240). Fulcher is also the only player on the team with multiple receiving touchdowns this season.
• Fulcher found himself in elite company in school history as he was just the third player to score six touchdowns in the first four games of the season in the school's Div. I era (1993-pres.). All-American Charles Roberts had eight TDs in the first four games in 1998 and had six the following year. Current Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver DeAndre Carter accounted for six touchdowns in the first four games of 2013. Carter's total was aided by a school-record five TD receptions against Southern Oregon.
• Fulcher surpassed 1,000 career yards on the ground earlier this season and now has 1,099 career rushing yards. His average of  5.04 yards per carry places him just outside the top 10 in school history where Jordan Robinson ranks 10th (5.19 ypc).
• The senior has done a little of everything for Sacramento State during his career. Along with the rushing yards, he has caught 62 passes for 579 yards and six touchdowns and also has 347 total return yards for 2,025 career all-purpose yards.
• Last season, Fulcher rushed for 465 yards and ranked second on the team with eight rushing scores. He was also third on the team with 36 receptions and finished the season with 252 yards and two scores. His biggest performance came in the FCS quarterfinals where he rushed for 108 yards on just nine attempts.

Career Rushing Yards    Total    Needs
19. Ed Bueno (1988-89)    1,259    160
20. Kevin Thomson (2017-19)    1,247    148
--- Marcus Fulcher (2019-pres.)    1,099    ---

Career Rushing Touchdowns    Total    Needs
9. Kevin Thomson (2018-19)    21    6
T10. Garrett Safron (2011-14)    16    1
T10. Tyronne Gross (2002-04)    16    1
T10. Garrett White (1998-02)    16    1
--- Marcus Fulcher (2019-pres)    15    ---

QUICK HITTERS

• Sacramento State's victory at Stanford was the team's fourth over an FBS opponent since 2011. The Hornets now have wins over Oregon State (2011), Colorado (2012), Colorado State (2022) and Stanford. Only North Dakota State has more FBS victories in that span as the Bison have won five. Eastern Washington is tied with Sacramento State with four wins.
• The Hornets swept the Big Sky Players of the Week after win for the first time in school history with Kaiden Bennett (offense), Armon Bailey (defense) and Zach Schreiner (special teams) earning the  awards.
• The four sacks recorded by Northern Arizona were the most allowed by Sacramento State since 2018 (prior to Kris Richardson's arrival as o-line coach).
• Idaho and NAU became the first teams to have at least a 60 percent completion percentage in back-to-back games since the final five games of 2019. Sacramento State has held 18 of its last 21 opponents to under 60 percent and are 17-1 in those games.