Sacramento State football will be shooting for its seventh straight home opening win on Saturday as it takes on Southern Utah at 7:05 p.m. at Hornet Stadium.

The Hornets will be looking to bounce back from a 59-7 loss in their opener at Division I-A Nevada. The last time the Hornets lost a home opener was the 1997 Causeway Classic, a 36-28 triple overtime loss to UC Davis. Sac State has defeated both Saint Mary’s and Cal Poly three times each in the last six home openers.

Saturday’s game will be the first between the Hornets and the Thunderbirds since 1995. Sac State and Southern Utah played ten consecutive seasons between 1986 and 1995 with each team winning five games.

The Hornets opened the 2003 home season with a convincing win over Saint Mary’s, 69-19. Senior running back Tyronne Gross led the way on last Sept. 6 with 134 yards rushing and 2 touchdowns.

Gross’ status for Saturday’s game is probable despite not returning for the second half of the Nevada game because of a minor injury to his hamstring. Gross finished with 46 yards on 10 carries against last Saturday against the Wolf Pack.

Gross was one of three starters who left last week’s game with an injury. Sophomore starting middle linebacker Tyson Butler left the game in the first quarter and did not return as did starting senior defensive end Traison Lewis, who left the game in the fourth quarter and also did not return.

The Hornets entered last week short of a couple starters to begin with. Junior center Dustin Nicolodi and sophomore free safety Jared Elarmo did not play at Nevada and are battling nagging injuries. Sac State head coach Steve Mooshagain expects Nicolodi to be back in a couple weeks. Without Nicolodi the Hornets have no returning starters on the offensive line from last year.

The struggles of the offensive line against Nevada are something senior quarterback Ryan Leadingham expects the team to solve by this weekend. Nevada sacked the Hornets’ quarterbacks five times.

“The O-Line struggled (against Nevada) but I thought they did a good job,” Leadingham said. “They took good care of me, it’s just their blitzing from the outside got to us. I just have to sit in the pocket longer and give my guys a chance to block. They gave me time; I just have to make plays.”

Mooshagian found some positive things of the Nevada game to build on for the second game of the season.

“I thought we played well in the first quarter and well into the second quarter until the end of the half when they got those two quick scores,” Mooshagian said. “We lost the battle for field position and had some mental errors which led to penalties and lack of execution. We need to improve on both of those aspects this upcoming week.”

Southern Utah is coming off an opening game win at Hornets’ Big Sky conference foe Weber State. The Thunderbirds won 34-31 as quarterback Casey Rehrer completed 23 of 31 passes for 266 yards and 4 touchdowns. The Hornets finished last season at Weber State with a 26-14 loss.

Southern Utah is one of six schools that joined the new Great West football conference this past spring. Joining the Thunderbirds in the Great West are two California schools in Cal Poly and UC Davis along with Northern Colorado, North Dakota State and South Dakota.