2012 Big Sky Conference Countdown: Sacramento State

The 2012 countdown continues with the Sacramento State Hornets.  Last year they finished the 2011 season with a 4-7 record, but two of their four wins were upsets.  They opened the season beating an FBS school, Oregon State, in an overtime thriller.  But their biggest win of 2011 came at home against eventual FCS semifinalist Montana, which was also their first-ever win against a Grizzlies program they had never beaten before, but had come close on four separate occasions.  The most notable occasion was the infamous "PAM Game" in Missoula in 2002, where four Hornet defensive linemen sprayed PAM cooking spray on their jerseys in an attempt to make it tough for Grizzly offensive linemen to block them.
Head coach Marshall Sperbeck is back for his sixth season in charge of the Hornets football program, and has a career record of 24-32 (.429).  His best season came in 2010, where his team went 6-5.

The offense of the Hornets will be young at the skill positions.  Leading receiver Morris Norrise is back for his junior season (38 catches for 471 yards), but the team's leading passer (Jeff Fleming) and leading rusher from 2011 (Bryan Hilliard) graduated in the offseason.  The top returning quarterback is sophomore Garrett Safron and top returning running back is Sam McCowan.

Defensively, the Hornets return their three leading tacklers from 2011.  Junior linebacker Todd Davis, senior defensive back Ryan McMahon, and senior linebacker Jeff Badger (pictured above) are all back, and combined for 267 total tackles last season.

MY THOUGHTS: The Hornets have never won the conference championship in football, and if they can't win most of the close games this season, they may not even get a sniff of the top spot in the conference.

Image credit: hornetsports.com

UP NEXT: Portland State