Sacramento State is struggling to improve upon its 2-9 finish in last year’s campaign midway through the football season.
Sac State (1-5, 1-2 Big Sky) began this season with the program’s worst start in over a decade after going 0-4. During this four-game stretch, the Hornets — which have a roster made up of 8 seniors, 18 juniors and 66 underclassmen — were outscored 125-74 and failed to establish consistency.
“We can’t let the circumstances dictate how we go about our daily business,” Sac State head coach Jody Sears said. “We didn’t do a whole lot different preparation-wise (and) there’s some inconsistency there that we’ve got to get shored up. You can say that we had a bunch of freshmen and a bunch of sophomores out there, but that’s just an excuse. We’ve got to get those kids ready to play, period.”
The Hornets broke the winless streak after sophomores Nate Ketteringham and Jaelin Ratliff connected for back-to-back touchdowns to help erase a 17-point deficit in the fourth quarter — defeating Montana State 41-38 on Oct. 1.
“We’re resilient, so we bounce back,” Ketteringham said after reflecting on the first victory of the season. “We looked at 0-4 and we’re kind of like, ‘We can’t keep doing this, we gotta push through it.’ I feel like that was our turning point.”
However, the adversity continued as Sac State suffered a lopsided 40-7 loss to North Dakota in front of nearly 10,000 fans at the Hornets’ homecoming game on Oct. 8
Sac State’s defense allowed North Dakota to rush for 422 yards and five touchdowns on 53 total carries. The defense — which has given up an average of 249.5 rushing yards and 33.8 points per game — had one bright spot in junior linebacker Tyler Meteer, who led both teams with 15 total tackles.
“The biggest thing with us is the need to be more consistent,” Meteer told The Sacramento Bee. “One play we’ll be great, then the next play someone doesn’t do their job, and it’s going to hurt. We’ve got the big things down; now it’s just about doing the little things right.”
With five games remaining on the schedule, Sac State still has an opportunity to finish the season with a positive win-loss record, but must first travel on Saturday to play Montana, a team that is 18-1 against the Hornets dating back to 1993.
Montana, which averages 322.8 passing yards and 131.4 rushing yards a game, is fresh off a 67-7 win over Mississippi Valley State, where senior quarterback Brady Gustafson completed 21 of 26 passes for 251 yards, four touchdowns and zero interceptions.
“You don’t worry about the record, you don’t worry about who’s on the schedule — you worry about your own home, you worry about making corrections and getting (it) right,” Sears said. “You can’t worry about the uncontrollables, you control your fundamentals and you control gap integrity, pass pro, catching the ball, trusting your training and get better. That’s it.”
