The Nicholls State University football team will travel to California Saturday to take on San Diego State in the Colonels’ first game of the season.The Colonels will look to improve from last season’s 3-8 record under the guidance of new head coach Charlie Stubbs.

The Colonels get a tough test in the season-opener as Nicholls will face off against a Division I opponent, the Aztecs.

“We have every one of their games from last year, and we’ve already got our game plans in,” Stubbs said. “We’re working on executing our game plans, and we know as much as we can about them at this point. They are a very athletic team, and they’re probably the most talented team that we will play this year, so we have to bring our ‘A’ game.”

San Diego State is coming off of a 4-8 season and will look to their junior quarterback, Ryan Lindley, to lead the team to a bowl game this season.

Lindley, along with weapons like freshman running back Ronnie Hillman and senior wide receiver Vincent Brown, lead a talented offense onto the field for the Aztecs.

ESPN college football insider Todd McShay listed Brown as the fourth-best NFL prospect among non-automatic qualifier conference prospects and the Aztecs have been labeled as one of this season’s “surprise bowl teams” in ESPN’s coverage of non-automatic BCS qualifier conferences.

According to Coach Stubbs, the Colonels will need to take care of the ball in order to upset the Aztecs on Saturday.

“I always say don’t beat yourself,” Stubbs said. “We have to take care of the ball, take the ball away on defense and not have penalties. The biggest thing I want always as a coach is to never beat ourselves, so if we come off the field on the short end, I want it to be because the opponent was better not because we did things to hurt ourselves.”

The Colonels have participated in a couple of scrimmages gearing up for the eventual showdown with the Aztecs.

With the game only three days away, Coach Stubbs is excited that his team finally gets to play football.

“We’re making progress,” Stubbs said. “I really don’t know how the team will look until we play games because we work against each other, and some things we can’t go live on so it’s hard to get a true evaluation. I’m excited that we’re going to be playing soon so that I can see exactly where we are.”

Kickoff for the season opener is scheduled for 7 p.m. in San Diego, Calif.