Opponent Preview: Northern Arizona
9/4/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Stephen F. Austin opens up the 2015 football season this Saturday, hosting Northern Arizona of the Big Sky Conference at Homer Bryce Stadium. The Battle of the Lumberjacks kicks at 6 p.m.
Saturday begins the second season for head coach Clint Conque, who garnered Southland Conference Coach of the Year honors after leading SFA to an 8-5 record in 2014, a five-win improvement from the year before, and SFA's first postseason appearance since the 2010 season. SFA also returns quarterback Zach Conque, the SLC's Newcomer of the Year, and offensive lineman Byron Williams, a first team All-SLC selection and a preseason STATS FCS All-American.
Northern Arizona is coming off a 7-5 season in 2014 and went 5-3 in the Big Sky, tying for fifth overall, ncluding a 28-27 win over Eastern Washington. The Arizona Lumberjacks, located in Flagstaff, Arizona, are coached by Jerome Souers, who begins his 17th season at NAU with a 100-93 overall record, and has a pair of preseason All-Americans in cornerback Marcus Alford and tight end R.J. Rickert.
Game Storylines
• SFA and NAU meet for the third time Saturday as the two teams have split the previous two meetings. Northern Arizona earned a 10-3 victory in Flagstaff in 2001 with SFA returning the favor, defeating NAU 24-17 in overtime in 2004 in Nacogdoches.
• Stephen F. Austin and Northern Arizona are the only two teams in Division I football that boast "Lumberjacks" as their mascot as NAU is located in the mountains of Arizona with Flagstaff's elevation just shy of 7,000 feet.
• Saturday's game marks the fourth-straight season SFA will face a Big Sky opponent, facing Weber State (W, 35-20) in 2014, Montana State (W, 52-38) and Weber State (L, 50-40) in 2013 and Montana State (L, 43-35) in 2012. SFA has posted a 6-4 record in its last 10 games against current Big Sky opponents and is 13-15 all-time against the conference.
• The Battle of Lumberjacks marks an historic night at SFA as it is the first ESPN3 broadcast produced by the athletic department. Announced last fall, SFA and ESPN entered into an agreement for all home SFA football, volleyball, soccer and men's and women's basketball games to be broadcast on the national outlet.
Head Coach Clint Conque's Press Conference Transcript (Northern Arizona)
On how SFA looks coming out of fall camp:
"I think we are a little longer at certain positions. I really like the length at receiver. We’ve improved our team speed with this signing class and the players have worked really, really hard in the development aspect of our program. It’s obviously a process and I think we took the opportunity at this camp to reinforce the culture of how we want to practice, which we began 18 months ago. We want to go about our preparation, our business on and off the field, and of course along with that, setting some expectations of how we want to play. I thought we had a good camp. The offensive line really responded. At times in the spring we were a little disjointed with class schedules and injuries. I thought the defensive line really elevated their play, and I thought it was a little more even this camp, so its was good to see that those five guys took it upon themselves to raise their game to another level. We still have some questions that need to be answered, but you don’t get the answers to those questions till you go out and play a game.
On the players' anxiety to finally play a game:
"We came back and practiced Sunday night after giving them off pretty much Saturday. Monday they had their traditional off day with the first day of classes, which we have to be one of the last schools in the country to start classes. I thought our sense of urgency and our energy was really good Sunday night on both sides of the football. The older guys understand. I can hear a little more leadership going on, trying to get the newcomers and young guys to lock step with the upper classman. It's no secret that its our go time now, and part of it is polishing the plan. These next few days are critical as far as our kicking game, we need to make sure we’re sharp there as well. We’ll find out a lot about our football team as the week goes on and certainly we’ll get a snapshot of who we are and where we need to grow after Saturday night."
On what to expect against Northern Arizona:
"First of all, they are a Big Sky opponent, and I’ve got tremendous respect for the Big Sky Conference. This is a team that went 7-5 last year, they beat Eastern Washington, who was a top-five team at the time, I believe. They are chasing a few unknowns. They promoted a position coach to coordinator, added a couple of new assistant coaches to the staff, they are changing to an up-tempo offense, so we're not sure formationally or schematically a lot of things they are doing. They get back two or three players on the offensive side of the football that were starters going into last season that got hurt and their tight end is a preseason All-American. They'll be breaking in a new freshman quarterback, so we don’t know a whole lot about him either. We do have a great deal of respect for their passing game and they have two very talented running backs and return four of their offensive linemen from a team that averaged about 33 points a game last year. It is going to be an enormous challenge for our defense. Defensively they present some issues too. We’ve been working against quite a bit of man coverage, a lot of blitz schemes, movements as they are a big strong, physical, typical Big Sky football team. They led their league in scoring defense last year and their coordinator is back, so I’m sure they’ve added some wrinkles. Specials teams, they are really dynamic. The same young man does the kicking and punting and he averaged nearly 50 yards a punt and has a 50-plus range on field goals. If we get opportunities in the return game, we need to take advantage of those. They are a well-coached football team. Their head coach has been there for 17 years so their culture is in place. They know what they want to get accomplished and they’ve got a pretty good football team coming in here."
On opening up the season at home:
"We feel good about opening up at home here in East Texas. I know it’s Labor Day weekend but I want to encourage our students to stay and our fans to come out and support this team. This is a big football game, not just because it’s the first one but you’ve got a game between two pretty good leagues. We only play 11 games this year so every game is critically important when you start adding them up at the end of the year. It’s always good to play at home. My first game here we were going to a Big 12 opponent. We were flying, and with all the logistics of traveling you kinda lose a day of preparation. To be able to sleep in our own beds and prepare the way we have prepared last season, particularly with some young or new players that we’re counting on, it’s always a benefit."
On how the Southland stacks up against the Big Sky:
"The old idea was the that here in the south we had the speed and in the north and west they had the size. But what you're starting to see is more skill set players out on the west coast and people recruiting California a lot more. They’ve got quite a few California-based kids on their roster. We feel like we do have some speed here in the south and we’re always trying to match that size and physicality component that teams in the north and west always bring, particularly in the post season. Last year we played Weber State out of the Big Sky and we've had quite a few teams from that conference sprinkle our roster in the last few years. Northern Arizona is going to be a big, physical football team. They have size and the right amount of athleticism to be competitive not only in this game but in their conference as well.
-SFA-
