The Southern Utah University football team will take a giant step toward finding out whether or not the preseason hype surrounding the T-Birds is justified when it opens the 1992 season on the road tonight against Northern Arizona.
SUU, coming off a 7-3-1 season that left it just short of a NCAA Division II playoff berth, appears solid defensively, but there is a question about the SUU offense going into the game.Redshirt freshman Rick Robins will get the starting call at quarterback after senior Bret Barben went down with a knee injury in a scrimmage two weeks ago.
Robins should be able to take comfort in knowing that senior tailback Zed Robinson, the leading rusher in all of college football a year ago (1,828 yards) is poised to pick up where he left off in 1991.
The Lumberjacks return 17 starters, including quarterback John Bond (2,669 passing yards in 1991) and leading rusher Gerald Robinson from last season's 3-8 squad.
The T-Birds enter the game ranked as high as 14th in the Division II preseason polls.