Sacramento State's introduction to the level has gone the opposite way. Jackson Sharman, a junior transfer making his first career starts, threw four touchdowns in a 52-0 win over Mississippi Valley State two weeks ago, but the follow-up was a 49-3 collapse at Fresno State where the secondary allowed touchdown passes of 18 and 73 yards inside a 32-point second quarter. Sharman finished that game 15-of-31 for 150 yards with no touchdowns and an interception, and coach Alonzo Carter called the breakdown "uncharacteristic" for his defense.
That leaves a program still sorting out what it actually is a week after its worst outing of the young season, hosting a team that has looked the part of an FBS newcomer nobody wants on the schedule. Hornet Stadium projects calm and dry for kickoff, so nothing about the setting figures to bail out a defense that just got carved up through the air.
The shutout of Mississippi Valley State showed Sacramento State's offense can hum when the underlying talent gap tilts its way; the Fresno State game showed what happens when it doesn't. Onterrio Smith Jr. led the receivers with 66 yards on four catches in that loss, and the run game managed 112 yards as a group, numbers that suggest a offense capable of moving the ball in stretches even on a bad night. Whether that's enough against a Bison defense that just held serve in a Mountain West shootout is the real question here.
North Dakota State didn't back into its start, either. Polasek's team beat a Mountain West opponent on the road in a track meet, which says something about a defense that can bend without breaking and an offense with answers when the game turns into possessions rather than a rout. For a program synonymous with FCS dominance for over a decade, the early returns say the jump up hasn't slowed much of anything down.