The Washington State Cougars will play in front of their home crowd for the first time when they take on the Southern Utah Thunderbirds Saturday afternoon in Martin Stadium. 

After beating the USC Trojans last week, the Cougars sit at first place in the Pac-12 Conference because those two teams are the only conference opponents to have played thus far. 

Meanwhile, the Thunderbirds enter the game undefeated; however, the two games they have played tell two different tales. Southern Utah escaped with a 22-21 road victory over South Alabama in the season opener, only to blow out Fort Lewis at home 49-0 in the following week. 

Regardless of which offense the Cougars see on Saturday, the team is looking forward to playing at home. 

“We’re very excited,” running back Marcus Mason said. “We’ve been on the road for two weeks playing some tough teams and now we get to come home and play a really good team and show our home fans what we’re really about.”

Head Coach Mike Leach also expressed the importance of home games for him and the players. 

“It’s always better to play at home, always better to play in front of your fans, no question because it’s more of a thrilling experience that way,” Leach said. “But honestly, the bigger thing is that it shortens your day up and shortens your travel up. Everything is quicker and more efficient, and there’s less distractions.”

The Cougars might need all the help they can get from the home atmosphere. In the Thunderbirds’ game against Fort Lewis, they forced seven turnovers, including five fumbles. 

WSU quarterback Connor Halliday has had his fair share of trouble taking care of the ball this season. The redshirt junior already has five interceptions compared to only one touchdown through two games. Halliday threw 13 interceptions in nine games last season. 

Meanwhile, the Thunderbirds will attack the Cougar defense, which held USC to less than 200 yards of total offense, with Southern Utah junior quarterback Aaron Cantu and a deep collection of running backs. The team has used three different tailbacks in both their games this season. Cantu has been accurate so far as well, completing 70 percent of his passes. He also has five touchdowns to zero interceptions. 

Senior safety Deone Bucannon is one Cougar who will look to intercept Cantu’s first pass of the year. Bucannon has nine career interceptions and only needs two to crack the top 10 list in Cougar history. 

On paper, the Cougars look to have the advantage against Southern Utah, which belongs to the Big Sky Conference. WSU has a 43-2 record against Big Sky schools and is 28-0 at home against current Big Sky teams. However, that is just a statistic. 

“All these schools prepare and they all have really good players,” Mason said. “It’s just about who plays better on each day and if you don’t come prepared to play or you don’t play your best, you can lose to anyone.”

The game kicks off at 3:30 p.m. and for those who can’t make it to Martin Stadium, the game will air on the Pac-12 Networks and the IMG College Sports Network.