After football practice earlier this week, Sacramento State coach Jody Sears looked his team in the eyes and his message was blunt: “Mediocrity is not OK.”

With a 2-3 overall record and a 1-1 standing in the Big Sky Conference, the Hornets are staring mediocrity in the eyes. However, the Idaho State Bengals (3-3, 1-2 Big Sky) — which hope to spoil Sac State’s homecoming game Saturday at Hornet Stadium — are in the same boat.

“Being average is not acceptable, and when you’re trying to (win a Big Sky Championship), you’ve got to raise the expectations, and you’ve got to demand it,” Sears said after practice. “You’ve gotta love ‘em up the same as well, but you’ve gotta push them.”

Sac State and Idaho State were both selected to finish at the bottom of the Big Sky by the media and coaches’ preseason poll at the start of the season on July 18. Three months later, both teams are in the middle of the conference standings, and the Bengals are the only Big Sky team to defeat (30-28 over Nevada on Sept. 16) a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent.

“You can’t sleep on anybody in this conference,” said Immanuel Anderson, the Hornets junior safety. “Everybody in this conference is top notch, so we’ve got to treat them like a big opponent, definitely. Especially because it’s homecoming too, so we’ve really got to put on a show and make sure we come out with a W.”

The keys to a victory are simply running the ball effectively and creating turnovers, Sears said.

Sac State — which ranks fifth in the Big Sky in rushing offense with 196 yards per game — enters its homecoming game after posting 307 total rushing yards in a 52-31 loss at Eastern Washington on Sept. 30. Junior quarterback Kevin Thomson, who finished with three rushing touchdowns against Eastern Washington, was responsible for 121 of those yards on the ground.

“Execute the plays the way coaches set them up for the different looks we have,” Thomson said, referring to how to go about attacking the Idaho State defense. “One play, they could run four or five different types of defenses for it. We’ve got to execute based on the look we get, (so) focus on that one play and making the right reads, right checks to that specific defense every single play.”

The Hornets’ defense, which leads the Big Sky in interceptions, will also need to force turnovers after failing to grab an interception and being minus one in turnover margin for the first time all season against Eastern Washington. To do so, the Hornets will have to figure out how to stop junior quarterback Tanner Gueller who is coming off a 359-yard passing performance to go along with three touchdowns and zero interceptions in a 39-31 loss against Montana.

“(Gueller is) a really good quarterback,” Sears said. “He’s big, he’s strong, he’s very accurate, he’s got a couple of weapons: Michael Dean and his brother (Mitch Gueller). They’ve got some guys, and they’ve got a big running back in James Madison who has put up some pretty big numbers, and they’re very balanced.”

Madison’s big 200 pound, 5-foot-11 frame is matched by his play as he carries with him the second-place spot in the Big Sky with an average of 102 rushing yards per game and a fifth-place conference ranking with 119.6 all-purpose yards per game.

“(Madison), from what we’ve heard, is pretty good,” Anderson said. “He breaks tackles, so when we come for him, we really gotta wrap our arms around him, keep our feet going and really bring him down because arm tackles from watching film are not going to bring him down.”

After 13 days of rest during the bye week, Sac State will get this opportunity as it hosts Idaho State in its homecoming game Saturday at 6 p.m. at Hornet Stadium.