Sacramento State football looks beefed up after a quiet spring: ‘It’s a meat market!’
In football, there is what’s called the “look test” — a quick scan of the blockers, tacklers, runners and receivers. The lean, the fit, the muscled and more.
I stopped by Sacramento State’s football practice recently and did a double-take. The guys in green look good. No flab, no slow pokes. I half expected some of the guys to peel off shirts to show off abs and bristling biceps. Sac State has all sorts of options in who can lead the team off the bus, or onto the field to look the part as a season of promise looms.
“Our look test is phenomenal,” Hornets running back Elijah Dotson said with a laugh. “I mean, it’s football. You want to look good. It’s a meat market. We’ve been in the weight room for more than a year. It shows.”
Sac State went without a fall 2020 season because of the pandemic, and it was one of 32 FCS programs across the country that did not participate in a spring season. But the weight room was open.
There, Hornets strength and conditioning coach Ryan Deatrick put players through a series of drills with an emphasis on taking care of a body that will take care of you.
Sac State won a share of the Big Sky Conference championship in 2019 and returns a wealth of talent on offense for another run, and the Hornets vow to make enough stops on defense in a league big on scoring. It’s one thing to look ready and it is an entirely different thing to be ready, to execute.
“We are bigger, stronger, faster, more physical, but we still have to make plays,” Hornets coach Troy Taylor said. “A lot of credit to Coach Deatrick. No one has had a bigger impact on the program in the last year than he has.”
Taylor added, “We’re not about making guys tough with certain drills. We’re about making them better football players, and we teach and educate them about strength and conditioning and diet, to be healthy, more explosive, to protect from injuries, and they buy into it.”
Not only do the bodies as a whole look formidable, but check out the facial hair. Linemen sport beards, including Hornets tackle Kooper Richardson, who would win any mullet/beard competition. Jake Dunniway may have this competition already in hand, the quarterback showcasing his hearty thatch of chin growth and locks like a man who hasn’t come across a razor or a barber in a good long while.
“We’re definitely stronger in the beard department,” Taylor said, grinning. “Jake’s got that in a runaway.”
Dunniway aims to become the Hornets starter with hair spilling out of his chin strap and helmet. He is one of three Sac State players in the running to land the starting role to replace 2019 Big Sky Conference Player of the Year Kevin Thomson.
Dunniway may be the program’s best passer. He is the only guy back who started in 2019, none more spectacular than his 384-yard, four touchdown effort to stun Northern Arizona on the road. Dunniway tossed two touchdowns in the final two minutes to pull it out. Also in the Hornets’ QB mix is Asher O’Hara, a transfer from Middle Tennessee and an All-Conference USA pick in 2020. He is Sac State’s best run-pass threat, rushing for a team-best 1,058 yards in 2019.
And there’s Kaiden Bennett, the one-time Folsom High School star under current Hornets assistant head coach Kris Richardson, Taylor’s right-hand man on the staff. Bennett is the most explosive and quick quarterback on the roster. He had previous stops at Boise State and Nevada, though he did not play for either program.
Entering Saturday’s opener at Dixie State in Utah, Taylor had not named a starter.
“It’s a great problem to have,” Taylor said of the position battle. “It’s not that no one has emerged. We’ve got three guys playing really well, and they’ve all got to be ready, be engaged. You’ve got to be ready. The first quarterback can go down pretty quick in a game.”
Said Dunniway, the Stockton product, “I love the competition. I’m blessed to be surrounded by a great group of guys and coaches. My mindset is to work and get better every day, and we make each other better, and it makes it fun. Guys are having fun. It’s a good feeling to have a spot and a role.”
He added, “All the guys are antsy. We’re all itching to get out there. I feel like we’re really fresh mentally and physically with the time off. We’re ready.”
At 6-foot-1 and 198 pounds, Dunniway looks ready. He is some 30 pounds lighter than his earlier Sac State stint, before strength coach Deatrick got a hold of him.
“I was rocking the big Ben Roethlisberger (of the Pittsburgh Steelers) big-bodied look, but Coach Deatrick whipped me into shape. I feel great, best shape of my life.”
Sac State figures to be prolific with three returning offensive linemen in Thomas Parker, Troy Stiefel and Brandon Weldon, and Kooper Richardson was a two-year starter at UC Davis before his transfer to play for his position-coach father, Kris.
Dotson leads the rushing attack and is also a superb receiver to stretch the field with receivers Pierre Williams and Parker Clayton and All-American tight end Marshel Martin. Doston is a two-time All-Big Sky Conference selection and is a preseason FCS All-American. He rushed for 742 yards and caught 70 passes for 702 more in 2019. The senior is also a vocal leader now, having grown into the role.
“”I’m a totally different guy than when I first got here,” said Dotson, a local product from Antelope High School. “I understood that our team needed some guidance from players, too, and I felt like I needed to step into that role, and that holds me accountable, too.”
The Hornets defense will be led by lineman Josiah Erickson and linebackers Marcus Hawkins, who had a team-high 81 tackles in 2019, and Jeremy Harris, who had 64 stops that season.
Taylor, the third-year coach, said teams succeed if they love each other, love their sport. He sees that in this group.
“If you’re going to be good at anything, you’ve got to want to do it,” he said. “You can’t become a great player unless you really love football and each other. You’ve got to live and breathe it. We are here.”