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CEDAR CITY — Southern Utah's coaches and players are cautiously optimistic heading into the 2011 season, their final campaign in the Great West Conference before next year's jump to the Big Sky. There are a handful of reasons for that optimism:
1: The Thunderbirds return 16 starters, including nine on offense and six on the defensive side of the ball as well as their placekicker, from the 2010 squad that claimed the school's first GWC championship.
2: They have nine returning players who earned first-team all-GWC honors last year, including three who were first-team selections by both the coaches and the media. They're also an intelligent bunch, as eight were named academic all-GWC, including five starters and three who were primary reserves at their positions in 2010.
3: They have two pre-season all-Americans: returning all-conference selections Brad Sorensen, a junior quarterback, and Tyler Osborne, a senior defensive end.
4: The coaching staff returns intact. Over the last four seasons the team has lost just one full-time coach, so there has been great stability as the team has continued to improve.
5: The Thunderbirds head into the season ranked among the nation's top-25 FCS squads by several publications, including 16th by The Sporting News.
The only things that might temper the team's enthusiasm about the upcoming season are a schedule which includes just four home games, as well as the task of replacing the players lost to graduation — something every school goes through every year.
As far as the schedule goes, while Lamb would undoubtedly rather have at least one additional home game, he likes it. Today's opener is at South Dakota State — a rising power from the Missouri Valley Conference — and he says the team will have a challenge from Day 1.
"I like the way the schedule lines up," Lamb notes. "It's a good challenge for our guys. The first game is on the road against an established program with a strong winning tradition in a major (FCS) conference, so right from game one I think we have a microcosm of our season.
Lamb also notes this is the first time the squad has had the pressure of dealing with being ranked heading into the season. "We'll find out early in the season if we can live up to the hype," he said.
After inheriting a team that went 0-11 in 2007, the new staff's challenge was getting the players to believe they could compete. Last year's team proved to itself that it could play with anyone it played, suffering just one lopsided loss all year. Now, Lamb points out, the challenge is to avoid overconfidence.
"I don't know if our team's aware of it yet, but our coaching staff is very aware, and we're going to be preaching the message hard, that gone are the days where we have to convince our players that we can compete with anybody," he said. "Now the challenge for us is to teach our players that any team on our schedule can beat us."
2011 T-birds schedule
Sept. 3: at S. Dakota St., 5 p.m.
Sept. 10: vs. Sac. St., 1 p.m.
Sept. 17: vs. Tex.-S. Antonio, 6 p.m.*
Sept. 24: at UNLV, 7 p.m.
Oct. 1: vs. North Dakota, 1 p.m.
Oct. 8: at South Dakota, 3 p.m.
Oct. 15: at Cal Poly, 7 p.m.
Oct. 22: at Weber State, 4 p.m.
Oct. 29: vs. UC Davis, 1 p.m.
Nov. 12: at N. Iowa, 5 p.m.
Nov. 19: at N. Arizona, 3 p.m.
*Homecoming