Weber State football is back in Cedar City, and the Beehive Bowl is finally back with it. The Wildcats and Southern Utah will meet for the first time in five years, and the game still counts in the nonconference ledger even though Southern Utah has returned to the Big Sky.
That makes the matchup one of three traveling trophy rivalry games on Weber State's schedule this season, and it comes after both teams already opened the year. Weber State is 1-0 after a 30-29 road win at Northern Colorado, while Southern Utah is 0-1 after a 28-21 loss to then-No. 2 Montana.
The location has become part of the story. Five of the last six meetings between the schools have been played in Cedar City, so this is familiar ground for a rivalry that has spent more time there than almost anywhere else. The six-game nonconference series originally lined up by the schools started this season, and late changes to the FCS and Big Sky schedule formats kept the 2026 game from becoming a league game.
Weber State's opener showed enough offense to escape with a one-point win. The Wildcats totaled 370 yards, averaged 6.5 yards per play and gave up 29 points on 485 yards. They are minus-one in turnover margin after one game, with Devin Brown throwing a first-half interception and the defense failing to produce a takeaway. Weber State also committed only two penalties for 10 yards.
Southern Utah's first game looked different on the scoreboard, but not always on the stat sheet. Will Burns completed 24 of 34 passes for 251 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, and he added 119 yards on 15 carries. The Thunderbirds scored 21 points on 510 yards of offense and averaged 6.1 yards per play, yet still came away with a loss after Montana finished with 28 points on 338 yards. Southern Utah had a plus-one turnover margin, gave away one turnover and gained two, but also committed nine penalties for 94 yards.
That imbalance is the reason this game has more edge than the records suggest. Southern Utah moved the ball well enough to pressure a top-ranked opponent, but it could not cash in enough of those possessions. Weber State arrives with the cleaner result, but not the cleaner performance, and the matchup in Cedar City will show which start was more real. Jeff Sagarin's ratings put Weber State at No. 168 in Division I and Southern Utah at No. 136, with the formula favoring Southern Utah by seven points when home-field advantage is included.
There is also a deeper local thread running through both rosters. Weber State has 13 Northern Utahns on the team, including Spencer Ferguson of Davis High, Robert Young of Roy High, Zach Smith of Northridge and Ian Elmore, who came from Layton and Weber. Southern Utah has its own Northern Utah link through Joshua Acord of Northridge High, David Spjut of Davis High, Jackson Stevens, who started his high school career at Davis, and Wyatt Humphrey of Syracuse High. Burns will be the one most people watch, though, because he was the player who made Southern Utah's opener feel competitive even in defeat.
The next step is simple: the Beehive Bowl in Cedar City will decide whether Weber State's opening escape or Southern Utah's yardage-heavy loss means more. If the Wildcats can duplicate the result and the Thunderbirds can turn production into points, the series will have its first real marker in five years, with the same city once again setting the tone.
