CARROLLTON, Ga. - Week five of the college football season is upon us and it sends the No. 18/20 UWG football team nearly 2,000 miles away for a United Athletic Conference showdown with the Southern Utah Thunderbirds.
West Georgia (4-0, 1-0 UAC) looks to win its sixth straight game overall and third consecutive road game, and more importantly stay perfect in UAC play while Southern Utah (1-3, 0-0 UAC) opens league play by hosting UWG on their Homecoming.
GAME INFORMATION
#18 West Georgia (4-0, 1-0 UAC) at Southern Utah (1-3, 0-0 UAC)
Saturday, September 27
Kickoff: 8:30 p.m. EST
Location: Cedar City, UT // Eccles Coliseum
TV: ESPN+
Radio: KISS 102.7
It'll be a tough test for the Wolves, who will load up on Friday morning and travel by way of charter jet across the country. Head coach Joel Taylor, however, is excited about the challenge ahead of his resilient team.
"I tell our team all the time, 'what a blessing to get up and go have a challenge on Saturday,'" said Taylor on his weekly coaches show filmed each Tuesday at Jefferson's in Carrollton. "If you're facing an inferior team, it's not a challenge, you don't get up for that, but this is a really good football team, and even though they're struggling on defense, they can score a bunch of points."
Scoring points has not been a problem for Saturday's opposition as Southern Utah ranks 13th in the country in scoring offense, putting up 39.0 per game while ranking sixth in total offense at nearly 500 yards of offense per contest.
The Thunderbirds' offense starts with solid quarterback play as Bronson Barron throws for nearly 300 per game. The fifth-year senior has thrown for 1,153 yards with nine touchdowns and just one interception through four games.
"At the end of the day, we have to take care of what we can take care of. It doesn't matter how good an offense is, if we take care of what we're supposed to, we can handle it," Taylor added. We've got to do a good job of stopping the run, because they'll want to run the football."
Joshua Dye leads SUU's rushing attack at 134.5 yards per game all while finding the endzone seven times this season.
Coupled with UWG's rushing attack, Saturday's game should feature plenty of fireworks on the ground as UWG enters the game as one of three FCS programs to have three separate players record a 100-yard game on the ground this season.
It's primarily been Latrelle Murrell leading the Wolves' rushing attack, as he enters the game averaging over 100 yards per game as well. For the season, the Douglasville native has 422 yards and averages 6.4 yards per carry. Murrell ranks 16th in the country in yards per rush while SUU's Dye is 14th in FCS football in that category.
Freshman TJ Lester and quarterback Davin Wydner also have recorded 100 yard games this season, with Lester's coming last week in the win over EKU.
Defensively, UWG has the tools to slow down the SUU offense, with the Wolves rushing defense ranking 10th in the country, and the Wolves boast a top-15 defense in terms of scoring defense as well, allowing on average 14 points per contest.
Up front, UWG's defensive line has been solid in the pass rush, with the Wolves entering week five ranked fifth in the country averaging 3.25 sacks per game.
"I think DeLane Fitzgerald is one of the best coaches in our league and I think he does a phenomenal job with what he has," said Taylor. "His kids play extremely hard. Extremely hard on offense, defense, and special teams. So, they're going to play their butts off. They're 1-3 and they don't want to go 1-4, and it's their homecoming so it's going to be a big game for them and a tough one for us."
Kickoff between the Wolves and Thunderbirds is slated for 8:30 p.m. EST from Eccles Coliseum in Cedar City, Utah. It is just the second all-time meeting between West Georgia and Southern Utah.
The game is being broadcast on ESPN+ and UWG fans can also listen live to the radio broadcast on KISS 102.7 or the Gradick Communications Listening Portal.
