Sac State Hornets kick off season with new coach, new QB and same championship aspirations
A new coach, a new quarterback (or two), a new season and the same old expectations are in place for the Sacramento State football program.
The Hornets bound into the 2023 football season on Thursday night with a game at Nicholls State in Thibodaux, Louisiana, their first such gridiron trek to the Bayou State since 1977.
Preseason ranked No. 8 in the FCS Coaches’ Poll and rated fourth in the CBSSports.com poll, Sacramento State returns 17 starters from its historic 2022 campaign, one in which the Hornets soared to No. 2 in the FCS rankings and secured the No. 2 seed in the NCAA FCS playoffs before their 12-0 season was halted in the playoffs.
“We still have the same goals of winning, of being the best that we can be,” said Hornets first-year head coach Andy Thompson, the program’s defensive coordinator since 2019 under Troy Taylor, now the head coach at Stanford. “Nothing’s changed.”
The coaching staff remained largely intact with Bobby Fresques sliding over from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator and Kris Richardson maintaining his desired role as assistant head coach and offensive line coach.
Sacramento State has some streaks it plans to extend, including a 19-game regular-season winning streak. The Hornets have also won 19 consecutive Big Sky Conference games and seek a Big Sky championship four-peat. And the Hornets have won 14 consecutive road games against FCS teams and their last 10 overall against all opponents. The 14-gamer is the longest active streak in the FCS.
So, who starts at quarterback? It’ll either be Kaiden Bennett, the most experienced one of the four in the running in fall camp, though he has not started a single game at the position, or it could be South Dakota transfer Carson Camp. Logic suggests it’ll be a veteran, but two freshmen have impressed in camp in Carson Conklin and Joey Cook. It’s also quite possible that Bennett and Camp both see a lot of action.
The Hornets will look to throw to their All-American tight end Marshel Martin, a preseason FCS All-American. Marcus Fulcher now becomes the full-time back for the Hornets after 2022 leading rusher Cameron Skattebo transferred to Arizona State. Fulcher is a preseason All-Big Sky selection, having rushed for 464 yards and eight scores last season.
The strength of the team is again the offensive line with five players returning who have started multiple games as Hornets with a combined 77 starts. This includes three who started all 13 games a year ago. Jackson Slater was a sophomore All-American in 2022 and he is a preseason All-American this season. Troy Stiefel, Nathan Mejia, Ivan Garca and Kenndel Riley are all veterans on the line.
The defense is led by returning line starters Tyler Hardeman and Jett Stanley and preseason All-American linebacker Armon Bailey.
Nicholls State went 3-8 in 2022. The Colonels also are breaking in a new quarterback for ninth-year coach Tim Rebowe, who is 47-43 with the program and won Southland Conference championships in 2018 and 2019.
The game will air on ESPN+ and ESPN 1320 AM radio in Sacramento.
This story was originally published August 30, 2023 at 12:10 PM.