Southern Utah 2012 football preview.

The Thunderbirds will play their first season as a member of the Big Sky Conference in 2012.  Life gets a little bit harder as a result.  Last season, four of the five members of the Great West Conference were evenly matched, providing both highs and lows for Southern Utah fans all season.

The best game of the season for SUU in 2011 was taking the bus ride to Las Vegas and putting the big 41-16 surprise on UNLV.  But there were close loses to South Dakota State, North Dakota, South Dakota, Cal Poly and Northern Iowa.  Any 2 of those loses in the win column and SUU is in their first FCS post-season.

SUU returns quarterback Brad Sorensen to the lineup.  The BYU transfer was the Great West Offensive player of the year in 2011.  Now he goes on to the Big Sky Conference where he is sure to be one of the better quarterbacks in that league.  But there were some key loses for SUU on both sides of the ball.  Star running back Austin Minifee, tight end Abbel Aiono, center Gavin Farr and guard Zach Brackus have all graduated.  But Sorensen still have all-conference receiver Brady Measom to throw to.  On defense, Tyler Osborne and Cody Larson have fished, but linebacker Chad Hansen returns.

Not only does the conference schedule get harder for SUU in 2012, but the non-conference schedule gets more difficult as well.  SUU will begin the season by taking trips to Logan, Utah to take on Utah State and to Berkeley, California to take on Cal.  The Big Sky schedule features games at Montana, Portland State and North Dakota.  Montana State, Sacramento State and Eastern Washington make the trip to Cedar City.  SUU hosts in-state rival Weber State and will travel to Flagstaff to take on Color Country rival Northern Arizona.  Nearby Division II school, New Mexico Highlands makes the trip to Cedar City as well.

The key for Southern Utah will be how well key players are replaced on offense.  If everything is put on the broad shoulders of Brad Sorensen, the Thunderbirds will struggle.  But if there is a good running game, plenty of time for Sorensen to find receivers and a short field because of good special teams play and a strong defense, like last year, the T-Birds will surprise the Big Sky Conference in 2012.

Schedule:

August 30...@ Utah State
September 8...@ California
September 15...New Mexico Highlands
September 22...@ Portland State
September 29...Montana State (Homecoming)
October 6...Sacramento State
October 13...@ Montana
October 20...Weber State
October 27...Eastern Washington
November 3...@ North Dakota
November 10...@ Northern Arizona

# Wins....Outlook
0-2..........Unlikely
3-4..........Pessimistic
5-7..........Realistic
8-9..........Optimistic
10-11......Unrealistic

Likely Conference Finish...Tied for 3rd place.

Post season outlook: SUU will have to reach 7 wins in order to reach the post season, but that that rate, they could get one of the first round play-in games...perhaps at home.