By Ray Hamill — College of the Redwoods head coach Jason White will be hoping to see an improved performance from his offense on Saturday, as college football returns to the North Coast for the first time in 1,029 days.

The Corsairs, who dropped their season opener 27-19 at Merced a week ago, will host San Jose City College at the Redwood Bowl at 1 p.m.

And while White expects a tough challenge from the Jaguars, he is more concerned about how his players respond to a disappointing season opener on offense.

“Straight up, what we need to do better is execution,” he said. “There was a lack of that in every aspect on offense (at Merced).”

The Corsairs’ passing attack was particularly disappointing and they managed just one touchdown on five trips to the red zone while struggling to make the big plays.

“We spent a big chunk of time working on our red zone offense this week,” the coach said, adding that they will simply things this week.

On the other hand, the defense got the new season off to an impressive start and White will be hoping to build on that this weekend.

Several players stood out, including linebacker Tanner Forkner, defensive tackle Julian Garcia, defensive end Jayden Sandusky and linebacker Maximus Tapulaaia, who had a pick-six.

But it was the strength in depth that impressed the coach the most.

“Our whole defense was really good, and we’re going to get better and better,” he said.

As for the Jaguars, White admits he doesn’t know a whole lot about what to expect from a team that will be playing its season opener.

“It’s kind of funky because they haven’t played yet so I don’t know a lot about them,” he said. “They’re usually kind of athletic and they get after it on defense. And they usually have an athletic quarterback. So they’ll present a challenge.”

Whether the fact the Jaguars will be playing their season opener helps the Corsairs or not remains to be seen, but White and his players are just happy to be playing their home opener and focusing on what they can do to get better.

“We’re exited to be at home and not having to travel and not playing in 105 degrees, and playing at the Redwood Bowl is always good,” he said.

“We’re just trying to execute better. We’re really just concerned about ourselves right now and taking care of what we can take care of.”

The Jaguars were 3-7 last season.