The first full weekend of the college football season is a bit early to be talking about must-win games, right?

Maybe not in the case of California University of Pennsylvania.

The Vulcans entertain talented Bloomsburg at 7 p.m. today at Adamson Stadium in a contest that will be televised by FSN Pittsburgh.

Both are highly touted Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference teams. Bloomsburg is favored to win the PSAC East Division, California the PSAC West.

But the Vulcans stubbed their toe in the season opener last weekend, losing, 23-17, to Saginaw Valley. Bloomsburg opened with a 10-7 win against Ashland.

Bloomsburg comes in ranked No. 6 in the D2Football.com poll, while California fell to No. 18. California coach John Luckhardt does not want to start the season 0-2.

"Our next two games, we play against two of the top teams in the east," Luckhardt said, also referring to the contest next Saturday at West Chester, which is No. 17 in the D2Football.com poll.

"So, this one could have a significant impact on postseason play for one of us. It's just the start of the season, and you hate to already be talking about the postseason, but that's the way it is.

"We're going to be a good football team; I just can't tell you when."

He would like for that to happen tonight, but California goes in without junior running back Windell Brown, who was injured last week after gaining 20 yards on seven carries.

Quarterback Josh Portis, who came to the Vulcans from Maryland, was the team's leading rusher in his debut against Saginaw Valley.

He gained 82 yards on 12 carries and passed for another 145. But Luckhardt does not want his quarterback to have more yards than his tailback.

"We're still a tailback-oriented team and we need for the backs to start running the ball," Luckhardt said. "Josh has the capabilities of extending plays by moving around, and running is part of his game. But you don't want him to be the leading rusher."

With that in mind, backs Freddie Bacco and Dane Conwell likely will have their numbers called early and often against the Huskies. Bacco gained 42 yards on seven carries last week.

Bloomsburg has a talented, dual-threat quarterback in Dan Latorre, who threw for 158 yards and scored a touchdown against Ashland.

Running back Stefan Adams, who gained 104 yards on 15 attempts against Ashland, complements Latorre.

The Huskies have 45 lettermen and 12 starters back from an 11-2 team that advanced to the third round of the NCAA Division II playoffs last season.

Luckhardt knew his Vulcans were going to have a tough opener against Saginaw Valley State, one of the top teams in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

"We've got the same problem Frank [Cignetti] had at IUP his last couple years there. You have a tough time finding teams that will play you in an opener. Nobody but the tough teams will do it," he said.

"We knew Saginaw Valley was good and we made some mistakes.

"We're 0-1 and we have two tough games coming up ... but nobody's going to feel sorry for us."

• Robert Morris at Virginia Military Institute, 1:30 p.m.-- The Colonials closed out last season by winning four of their final six games. Coach Joe Walton enters his 16th season at Robert Morris and has decided to go with senior Desmond Brentley, a Perry Traditional Academy graduate, as the starting quarterback. Brentley has played on the junior varsity team the past two seasons. VMI played at Robert Morris in 2007, winning, 40-13.

• Bucknell at Duquesne, 6 p.m. -- Bucknell leads the overall series, 9-3. The Dukes will be without All-NEC tight end Sean Bunevich, who is out for the season with a knee injury. Senior Kevin Rombach likely will start at quarterback for the Dukes as junior Connor Dixon continues to recover from offseason shoulder surgery. Rombach has completed 61.2 percent of his career passes (241 of 394).

• Ohio Wesleyan at Carnegie Mellon, 1 p.m.-- Carnegie Mellon has won its past 10 season openers. This one will be a battle of veteran coaches: CMU's Rich Lackner has a 161-69-2 record in 23 years at the school, while Mike Hollway is 130-89-1 in 23 seasons at Ohio Wesleyan.