- Southern Utah heads into a Big Sky Conference transition with a quarterback room that Thunderbirds coaches called one of their biggest 2025 strengths, and transfer Will Burns gives the Thunderbirds a dual-threat arrival story.
- Will Burns, Southern Utah Football connect back to Southern Utah University and the wider football picture.
- The story is backed by 7 sources and a visible last-verified date.
March 30, 2026
October 6, 2026
4 min / 921 words
7 official links
SUU Football spent 2025 closing out a final United Athletic Conference season and preparing for a full move to the Big Sky in 2026-27. The Thunderbirds' August preview framed the quarterback room as one of the team's biggest strengths, and Will Burns — a 6-foot-2, 215-pound redshirt junior from Mission Viejo, California — arrived as the transfer the program signed to make the room work.
Head coach DeLane Fitzgerald used unusually direct language in the same release. The group, he said, had "experience, leadership, and some really exciting young talent." That is the kind of preseason quote that signals a coaching staff confident in its position group ahead of a year that includes a conference transition announcement.
Mission Viejo to Texas Tech to Costa Mesa to Cedar City
Burns' college route is one of the longer arcs in the Thunderbirds' 2025 roster. He grew up in Mission Viejo, California, played his prep football at Trabuco Hills High School, and signed initially with Texas Tech — but as a baseball player on the program's roster. Texas Tech's combined football-and-baseball pathway is one of the country's smaller cross-sport development tracks, and Burns spent two baseball seasons in Lubbock before refocusing on football.
The transfer to Golden West College in Costa Mesa, California, opened the football chapter. Golden West plays in the Southern California Football Association, one of the country's most-competitive community-college football conferences. The SCFA's All-Conference roster regularly produces FBS and FCS signings each cycle, and Burns' time at Golden West placed him inside that recruiting environment.
The 2024 season at Golden West produced the breakthrough. Burns was named the SCFA Offensive Player of the Year after throwing for 1,857 yards with 22 touchdowns and adding 650 rushing yards with seven more rushing scores. The dual-threat production opened the FCS recruiting window, and Southern Utah's coaching staff signed him for the 2025 season.
The 2025 SUU season
Burns appeared in 11 games in 2025 as a dual-threat option. At Tarleton State on Oct. 4, he ran for 101 yards, including a 67-yard touchdown, and completed 12 of 17 passes for 121 yards and another score, a touchdown each way.
The Big Sky transition
SUU announced its Big Sky football membership move in the same year as Utah Tech's announcement. Both Utah programs leave their current conference and enter the Big Sky for the 2026-27 season.
The Big Sky's conference structure means annual games against Weber State, Idaho State, Montana, and Montana State, plus travel to Northern Arizona and Idaho. Cedar City has to arrive at the Big Sky's full schedule with a quarterback depth chart that can hold up to that kind of calendar.
The Big Sky's western footprint is also significant. The conference's identity has been built around the Montana and Idaho programs, with the Eastern Washington dynasty driving much of the league's quarterback-school reputation. SUU and Utah Tech enter as the two programs adding Utah-state representation, which gives Burns' quarterback room a chance to anchor the program's first Big Sky weekend on the road.
Cedar City and Eccles Coliseum
SUU plays its football at Eccles Coliseum on the Cedar City campus, the southwestern Utah city that sits within driving range of St. George, Las Vegas, and the southern Mountain West region. The program's home schedule typically draws crowds from Iron County, the surrounding Cedar City community, and the regional schools that compete in southern Utah's prep football network.
Burns' profile gives the program a quarterback for the marketing window into the Big Sky transition.
The 2025 result and the Big Sky stakes
That room delivered a winning season. Southern Utah opened 2025 with a 46-24 home win over Idaho State and finished 6-5 overall (4-2 in conference), closing with a 38-36 overtime win at North Alabama — a winning year that still missed the FCS playoff field. That is the bar the program carries into its conference change: good enough to win at the FCS level, not yet good enough for January football.
The Big Sky raises that bar. SUU and Utah Tech enter a league whose identity was built on the Montana, Idaho, and Eastern Washington quarterback factories, and the Thunderbirds' transition pitch leans on the room Fitzgerald praised in August. Whether it holds up against Weber State, Montana State, and the rest of the western Big Sky is the first real test of the move.
Key facts: SUU football's Big Sky move
- Program: Southern Utah Thunderbirds, Cedar City (Eccles Coliseum)
- Move: Rejoined the Big Sky Conference on July 1, 2026 (alongside newcomer Utah Tech)
- 2025 result: 6-5 (4-2), opened 46-24 over Idaho State, missed the FCS playoffs
- Quarterback room: Will Burns — SCFA Offensive Player of the Year at Golden West (1,857 passing yards, 22 TD; 650 rushing yards, 7 TD in 2024), listed in the SUU quarterback room per the program's "Quarterback Clash" release
- Head coach: DeLane Fitzgerald
What's next
Southern Utah plays at Utah Tech in the Battle for the Ax at Greater Zion Stadium on October 3 at 6 p.m. MT, according to its schedule.
*Update, Sept. 26, 2026: Southern Utah rejoined the Big Sky on July 1, 2026. Its 2026 roster lists Burns as a redshirt junior quarterback, and Southern Utah's recaps credit him with a touchdown run in the 47-42 Beehive Bowl win over Weber State on September 5, a non-conference game, and a late touchdown pass at St. Thomas on September 19. The Thunderbirds were 1-4 and 0-2 in the Big Sky after a 28-24 home loss to Idaho State on September 26.*
