Weber State has been a I-AA/FCS team from this level's birth in 1978, yet Wildcats fans had never experienced anything like this year's playoff run. The program had two playoff wins before this year — one in 2008 and one in 1987. Tonight, the 'Cats were seconds away from three in one short holiday season, with a chance for more/four.
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WEBER STATE GAME: Highlights from Friday's game
GAME RECAP: James Madison advances, barely[divider]
Tonight, Weber State scared the living dickens out of the defending FCS national champions, James Madison. The FBS' East Carolina didn't do that. Fellow FCS quarterfinalist New Hampshire didn't even score a point on the Dukes, on the same field. But James Madison needed heroics to survive what the Wildcats brought from 2,000 miles away in Utah. And truly, it's a wakeup call for the entire FCS.
Here's the transcript of that very phone call:
"FCS establishment, there's a call holding on line one: Yes. Weber State can knock the spit out of you too, you know, the team from the Big Sky? They're not going to try to out-finesse you, the Wildcats are going to try to burrow right through you. Will you kindly accept the charges?"
That's exactly what Weber State did on Friday night in Harrisonburg, Va. How many Weber State players do you think had been in the Shenandoah Valley? Or Virginia? But they sure looked comfortable on Friday night. Weber State harassed JMU quarterback Bryan Schor all night long, even with Schor having arguably his biggest game of 2017. Prior to the FCS playoffs, I threw it out there that the Weber State-Western Illinois opening playoff game was a quarterfinal matchup disguised in first-round clothes. I picked WIU. I was wrong. Weber State shut down a brutally tough WIU team and then hammered in-state rival Southern Utah in a rematch of their only regular-season FCS loss — when QB Stefan Cantwell was nicked up.
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It was a purple brawl from the beginning (CREDIT: Weber State Athletics)[/credit]
This Weber State team was beating Cal-Berk of the Pac 12 by three points going into the fourth quarter in a September matchup before depth took over, as it usually does in P5-FCS games. Cantwell threw for 431 yards and rushed for 61 and a TD on a Pac 12 team. Nearly 500 yards. If that wasn't the first signal that this team could play, I don't know what is.
Then it went on to be clearly the best defensive team in the Big Sky Conference by a mile, played lights out on special teams all year, and threatened the mighty Dukes — a team that hadn't been pushed to this ledge since current Chicago Bears QB Mitch Trubisky knocked off JMU last year while still at North Carolina.
This week, I had a chance to go one-on-one with Weber State coach Jay Hill, and I wrapped that conversation thinking this: This is a man who exudes confidence, and I'm guessing that will show on Friday night. And guess what? It did. When James Madison barked, Weber State roared back at them — and they scuffled a few times. That's what good teams do. I didn't see any symptoms of fear in this one. Both teams had playmakers, both teams stuffed the other, both bounced back. And it took a (young) career-long field goal with no time remaining to settle it all.
It figures it would end this way.
Folks, on Friday night you were treated to the best game in the FCS this year. Hey, um Saturday … what do you have in store for us?
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NEXT: Least and Most Likely Quarterfinal Teams to Win the National Title
