A BRIEF PREVIEW

• The Sacramento State football team will return to the national spotlight on Saturday, Oct. 21, when the Hornets welcome No. 2 Montana State to Hornet Stadium. The game will kick off at 7:32 p.m. and will be aired nationally on ESPN2. This year marks the second-consecutive season that Sacramento State has had a home game on ESPN2.
• The Hornets improved to 5-1 overall and 2-1 in league play with a 21-13 win at Northern Colorado on Saturday. The victory was Sacramento State 24th in its last 25 regular season games dating back to 2021.
• The Hornets moved up to third in this week's Stats Perform FCS media poll and fourth in the AFCA FCS coaches poll. The ranking is the highest this season in both polls.
• 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 aired on ESPN2. John Schriffen will be on the play-by-play while Rocky Boiman will serve as the analyst and Dawn Davenport will be on the sideline.

OPPONENT PREVIEW: MONTANA STATE

• Montana State is an inch away from being the top-ranked team in the FCS. The Bobcats are 5-1 overall and 3-0 in league play with their only loss coming against South Dakota State where a game-winning touchdown was called on the field only to be overturned on replay to give the Jackrabbits a 20-16 win on Sept. 9. MSU has had little trouble in its five wins, outscoring the opposition by an average of 51.4-16.2.
• Montana State has rushed for at least 300 yards in five of six games this season, including the last four. The Bobcats averaged 9.8 yards per play against Cal Poly last weekend in a game which saw the return of quarterback  Tommy Mellott. The team splits time at the position with Sean Chambers and Mellott. Chambers averages 76.8 rushing yards per game and has scored 11 touchdowns. As a team, MSU has 25 rushing touchdowns this season while allowing only six.
• The Bobcat defense is led by Danny Uliulakepa who has 34 total tackles while McCade O'Reilly is close behind with 30. Eight players have at least 3.0 tackles-for-loss with Ben Seymour pacing the team with 5.0, including 3.5 for loss.
• Brent Vigen is in his third year as the head coach at Montana State where he owns a 29-6 overall record. Prior to coming to Bozeman, Mont., Vigen was the offensive coordinator at Wyoming from 2014-20.

TO BE THE BEST...

• This week's game will be just the fifth in which Sacramento State will face an FCS top 10 opponent while also ranked in the top 10. The Hornets are 2-2 in the previous games.
• Last season, Sacramento State came into the game against No. 7 Montana ranked second and recorded a 31-24 overtime win on ESPN2. Two weeks later the No. 2 Hornets won at No. 5 Weber State, 33-30.
• In 2019, No. 6 Sacramento State lost at home to No. 3 Weber State, 36-17. That game proved to be Troy Taylor's only Big Sky Conference loss in three seasons.
• Earlier this season, No. 7 Idaho scored nine points in the final two seconds to break a tie and win 36-27 over the then-No. 4 Hornets.

FINDING A WAY

• The 31-30 victory over Northern Arizona and the 21-13 win at Northern Colorado are nothing new for Sacramento State. Dating back to last season, the team has had 10 of its last 13 games overall and seven of its last eight Big Sky Conference games come down to the final possession.
• The Hornets have eight 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.

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 third in the Stats Perform media poll and fourth in the AFCA FCS Coaches poll after its win at Northern Colorado. The Hornets
• This week marks the 33rd time since the start of the 2019 season that the team has been ranked in the top 25 and the 25th consecutive game. 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.

GETTING OUT OF THE BLOCKS

• This year's team became the eighth in school history to earn at least five wins in its first six games. Only five of those eight were able to improve to a minimum of 6-1.
• The 1991 and 2022 teams are the only Hornet teams to open the year 6-0. The team won its first 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, '91 and '92 and now '22 and '23 each won a minimum of five of its first six games.
• Head coach Andy Thompson became the fastest coach in program history to win his fifth game. Troy Taylor, who proceeded Thompson and is now the head coach at Stanford, had been the fastest to five wins, needing seven games to get to the milestone.

FILLING IN NICELY

• With starting running back Marcus Fulcher sidelined for a second straight game, Sacramento State turned to a trio of backs to take the carries against Northern Colorado in Ezra Moleni, Zeke Burnett and Elijah-Tau Tolliver. The trio helped the Hornets to 151 rushing yards on 41 carries.
• Moleni did most of the damage, rushing for a Sacramento State carer high 93 yards and 16 totes. The junior's total was the most by a Sacramento State running back this season, surpassing Fulcher's mark of 79 yards against Texas A&M-Commerce. Quarterback Kaiden Bennett has the highest two totals with 101 yards against Commerce and 100 at Stanford.
• Moleni also caught two passes at UNC, including an 8-yard TD reception at the end of the first quarter. The score was his first in his time at Sacramento State.
• The Midvale, Utah native came to the Hornets from College of San Mateo where he was a first team JC All-American last season. With CSM he rushed for a school record 1,400 yards and scored 18 touchdowns last season to help the team win the state title.

READY FOR TAKEOFF

• All-American tight end Marshel Martin IV appeared to be back to his regular form against Northern Colorado as he led the team with seven receptions for 52 yards. The team also featured Martin in the backfield on a few occasion as he rushed for twice for 14 yards.
• The All-American appeared on every preseason list heading into 2024 but was injured on the team's opening drive of the season at Nicholls. Martin remained in the lineup but did not have his usual breakaway speed, limiting him to just eight grabs for 39 through the first five games.
• The senior has at least one reception in 41 of 42 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 (170), receiving yards (2,166) 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    594
4.    Morris Norrise (2010-13)    2,650    484
5.    Marshel Martin (2019-pres.)    2,166    ---

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    37
4.    Pierre Williams (2018-22)    182    12
5.    Marshel Martin (2019-pres.)    170    ---

A DIFFERENT LOOK

• Quarterback Kaiden Bennett had been explosive as a passer and runner through the first five games of the year but took a more subdued approach at UNC which proved to be successful. Bennett completed 25-of-31 passes for a 183 yards without an interception. He had touchdown passes of 15, 8 and 20 yards and did not have a completion longer than 24 yards in the game. Bennett was also held to just 15 rushing yards against the Bears with a long of 10 yards.
• His 198 yards of total offense at Northern Colorado was well below his season average of 298.2 which ranked eighth in the FCS entering the week. Bennett is now averaging 281.5 yards of total offense per game which places him 15th in the FCS and second in the Big Sky Conference.
• The drop in total production did not affect Bennett's ability to get the ball into the end zone. His three touchdown passes were a career best and the most by a Hornet quarterback since Jake Dunniway tosses three at Eastern Washington last season. Bennett has now thrown 10 touchdown passes this season while also rushing for four.
• 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 six 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 in the top three in the Big Sky in  several categories. He leads the Big Sky and is 12th nationally with a pass efficiency of 154.7, is second in the league at 12.98 yards per completion and third with 10 passing touchdowns.
• He is third in the Big Sky and eighth nationally among quarterbacks with 56.5 rushing yards per game.
• If Bennett remains on his current pace, he would rank fifth 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.

MORE NEW NAMES TO THE LIST

• The touchdowns by Devin Gandy and Ezra Moleni were their first of the season and now gives Sacramento State 12 players who have scored at least one touchdown this season.
• 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. Over the last 10 seasons, the most offensive players to score a touchdown in a season was 14 which came in 2021 and 2019.
• Seven of the 12 players who have scored touchdowns this year had never scored for Sacramento State prior to this season. That list includes wide receiver Carlos Hill who has now scored touchdowns in the last two games after not having one in his first 17 games as a Hornet. Hill's touchdown as time expired in the third quarter at UNC made him the first wide receiver with multiple touchdowns for the team this year.
• Sacramento State has rushed for 11 touchdowns with Kaiden Bennett and Fulcher each scoring four, Elijah Tau-Tolliver adding two and Burnett. Saturday's game at Northern Colorado marked the first time that the Hornets did not rush for at least one touchdown since the FCS Playoff game against South Dakota State on Dec. 4, 2021.

PASSING THE TORCH

• Senior linebacker Armon Bailey saw his streak of three consecutive games with at least 10 tackles come to a close as he was credited with eight stops at Northern Colorado. However, the team was not without a player in double digits as safety Cameron Broussard tallied a career high 12 tackles.
• Bailey's streak began at Stanford where he had 11 tackles and copied that performance a week later. He had 10 tackles against Northern Arizona to become the first Hornet since Austin Clark in 2017  to have double digit tackles in three consecutive games.
• Broussard finished in double digits for the second time this season and third time in his career. The junior tied Bailey with 11 tackles at Stanford. Against UNC, Broussard had a pair of fourth-down stops, including one late in the fourth quarter which gave the ball back to the Hornets to run out the clock.
• Bailey and Broussard rank first and second on the team with 51 and 47 tackles, respectively.
• 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. He now has 183 career tackles and is just 17 shy of cracking the school top 20.
• 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 and Broussard, the current Hornet rosters boasts three other players who have had games with at least 10 tackles in their career comprised of: Jeremy Harris (2),  Jett Stanley and Brock Mather.

RETURN OF SACK STATE

• Sacramento State added three more sacks to its total at Northern Colorado, giving the team 17 on the season. Against the Bears, Mason Brosseau and Ben Ahio had solo sacks while Dillon Juniel and DeShawn Lynch shared a sack. The Hornets have now had at least one sack in eight straight games dating back to last season.
• The team's average of 2.83 sacks per game ranks second in the Big Sky and 14th in the FCS.
• DeShawn Lynch leads the team with 4.5 sacks (0.75 per game) and Jett Stanley is second with 4.0 (0.67 per game). The pair rank second and fifth in the Big Sky, respectively. Northern Arizona's Eloi Kwete leads the Big Sky with 0.93 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.
• Brosseau (2.0), Jeremy Harris (1.5), Ahio (1.5), Bailey (1.0), Brandon Knott (1.0), Brock Mather (0.5) and Leke Fashola (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.

TWO IS BETTER THAN ONE

• Sacramento State punted a season-high five times at Northern Colorado but shared the workload between Cal McGough and Connor Stutz. The pair averaged 42.8 yards per punt during the game and placed three kicks inside the opponent 20-yard line.
• McGough has been deadly this season in pinning the opponent deep in its own territory. The sophomore has landed 11 of 15 punts inside the 20 and has yet to have a touchback. In his two years with the Hornets, McGough has 24 punts inside the 20 with just one touchback in 44 attempts.
• The Geelong, Australia native is averaging 44.7 yards per punt with a long of 56. His average would rank him fifth 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 44.28 yards per attempt leads the FCS. Northern Colorado was the first team this season to record punt return with positive yardage as Blake Hagerty had a 10-yard return in the fourth quarter.
• Connor Stutz is averaging 45.7 yards per punt on three kicks. The strong-legged punter has a long of 48 this year and has been called up when the Hornets are backed up in their own half of the field.

A LIGHT DAY'S WORK

• Kicker Zach Schreiner did not attempt a field goal against Northern Colorado, marking the first time this season he has not been called upon for three points. Schreiner did make all three of his PATs against the Bears to remain a perfect 22-of-22 on extra points.
• Schreiner came to the Hornets during the spring from American River JC and had the task of replacing All-American Kyle Sentkowski who made 38 field goals and scored 229 points in the last two years.
• Schreiner 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 49 points. He is 9-of-11 on field goal attempts and is a perfect 22-of-22 on PATs this year.

FULCHER LEAVING HIS MARK

• Despite missing the last two games due to an injury, Marcus Fulcher remains second on the team in rushing (240 yards) and total offense (240) and is third in all-purpose yards (322).
• 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 19 of its last 22 opponents to under 60 percent and are 18-1 in those games.