Colorado’s home opener against Weber State tests rebuilt Wildcats

Colorado’s Sept. 12 home opener against Weber State is more than an early FBS visit to Folsom Field. It is a relevance check for a Wildcats program trying to climb back toward the standard it set under Jay Hill, and a chance to show whether Weber still belongs among the Big Sky’s upper tier entering 2026.

The matchup is also a first. Colorado and Weber State have never met before, and the Buffaloes will face the Wildcats in their second game of the season after opening at Georgia Tech. That alone gives the game weight for Weber State, which heads to Boulder with the kind of challenge that can either sharpen a rebuild or expose how far the program has slipped.

Under Hill from 2014 to 2022, Weber State was one of the FCS’s most consistent programs. The Wildcats made six playoff appearances in nine seasons, won four straight Big Sky titles from 2017 through 2020 and climbed as high as No. 2 in the FCS rankings, the best mark in school history. Hill became the school’s all-time winningest coach, and that era still defines the standard Weber State is chasing now.

The post-Hill stretch has been rougher. Weber State went 14-21 over the past three seasons and finished 4-8 in 2025, going 2-6 in the Big Sky. Mickey Mental was dismissed on Nov. 10, 2025 after the Wildcats started 1-6, and Brent Myers finished the season as interim head coach. Weber State did close with a lift, beating Northern Arizona 48-28 on Nov. 22 to end the year on a high note, but the bigger picture was a program still searching for traction.

The most revealing recent FBS data point came in Tucson. Arizona beat Weber State 48-3 on Sept. 6, 2025, with Noah Fifita throwing for 373 yards and five touchdowns. Weber State’s last FBS win came three years earlier, a 35-7 result at Utah State on Sept. 10, 2022, when Bronson Barron passed for 202 yards and two touchdowns. Those results frame the Boulder trip clearly: Weber State has shown it can compete with a power-conference stage only in bursts, not consistently.

That is why the hire of Eric Kjar matters. Weber State brought in the longtime Utah high school coach on Dec. 16, 2025, naming him the 13th head coach in the school’s Division I history. Kjar signed a four-year contract and arrives with deep Utah recruiting ties and a development-first background, a signal that the Wildcats are betting on regional pipeline strength as much as immediate college experience.

The 2026 schedule gives Weber State little time to settle in. The Wildcats open at Northern Colorado on Aug. 29, visit Southern Utah on Sept. 5, then head to Colorado on Sept. 12 before hosting Northwestern State a week later. If Weber State can look organized and physical in Boulder, it would do more than keep the score respectable. It would help restore credibility to a program trying to prove it is not fading from the standard it once set.