Sac State is 4-1 in its last 5 games. How the Hornets run game and ‘D’ stepped up
This is what Brennan Marion and the 71 players the Sacramento State coach brought aboard the Hornets express signed up for. Big game, big plays, big stops and big wins in the Big Sky Conference.
An 0-2 start to the season suddenly has a 4-1 feel to it after Marion and company celebrated a wild 40-35 victory over upstart Northern Colorado on Saturday night in front of a frenzied crowd of 20,022 at Hornet Stadium.
The inspired effort pushed Sac State to 4-3 overall 3-1 in the Big Sky, which is as prolific and unpredictable of a conference as there is in the land of the FCS. And momentum is needed heading into next week as the Hornets prepare for the gold standard of the Big Sky with 19-time conference champion Montana coming to town for a Friday night special on ESPN. The Grizzlies are FCS-ranked No. 4 and are 7-0.
The Hornets crowd was the largest for a homecoming game in the 71-year history of the program, and Marion is urging even more to squeeze into the joint to greet Montana, which has an FCS-record 28 playoff seasons.
“Any time you have a special season, you have to have moments like this,” said Marion, the spirited and energized first-year coach Hornets coach. “I really love our process and who we are every day.”
Marion added, “Someone asked me this week, ‘What’s your best impression of Homecoming?’ I said, ‘Well, at Howard University, you have 300,000 people at homecoming. It’s going to be hard to top that, but here tonight, it really felt like we had a real crowd. The atmosphere was amazing.”
Rodney Hammond Jr. rushed for 134 yards on 21 carries, including a 46-yard touchdown burst, and freshman JaQuail Smith had 103 yards on 17 carries to give the Hornets back-to-back games with at least two 100-yard rushers. That’s the first time the program has achieved that feat since 1985.
In beating Weber State in Utah last week, Sac State had three 100-yard rushers, a first for the program. Against Northern Colorado, Cardell Williams passed for 90 yards and had a 25-yard touchdown strike to Bear Tenney a week after rushing for 139 yards.
And then there was the Hornets defense, a stretch but don’t buckle unit.
Off to its best start in years after some dreadfully lean seasons, Northern Colorado moved the ball to the tune of 484 yards, but the Hornets made stops when they had to. This included a 34-yard interception return to the end zone by defensive back Ricky Lee III to put Sac State ahead 34-28 early in the fourth quarter.
The biggest stop of the season came in the final seconds when the Hornets stopped the Bears on downs inside the 2, setting off a sideline celebration.
Marion called Hammond and Lee “straight dawgs,” and he said so in the kindest of compliments. The coach means that those leaders get after it in practice and in games.
“These guys were two of the first guys that I called when I got the job here, when they were in the transfer portal,” Marion said. “Things didn’t work out the way they wanted at their last schools, but these guys are real football players, and they really love the game, and I knew that they would come here and set the culture. I’m excited that they’re on our team.”
The Hornets rushed 57 times for 323 yards in establishing a punishing ground game with a speed element. Marion raved about the offensive line, and he credited line coach Kris Richardson, a holdover from the Hornets staff that directed the program to Big Sky championships in 2019, 2021 and 2022 under head coach Troy Taylor and an FCS playoff berth in 2023 under head coach Andy Thompson.
Marion earlier this season challenged the Hornets to be a smash-mouth group in the trenches, and the “Hammerheads” embraced that just as much as Richardson. The 4-1 showing in the last month is proof.
“(Richardson) drastically changed them and our O-line has been the best in the country since,” Marion said.
A University of Pittsburg transfer, Hammond now has three consecutive 100-yard games, and he thanked his big pals up front.
“Got to give all the credit to the line,” he said. “They make it easy for me.”
As for any ribbing that his head coach gives him for being an old plodder back, Hammond laughed it off. The Hornets for all of their intense in-game play are often a jovial lot.
“We just call him Uncle Rod”, Marion said.
Lee , a transfer from the University of Alabama-Birmingham, said his pick-6 was an effort to make a play after giving up some plays against Northern Colorado quarterback Eric Gibson, who passed for 321 yards and three touchdowns. Gibson was also intercepted four times, three in the second half.
“I was, like, ‘Shoot! I’ve got to make a play,’” Lee said.