Well, we’re here. Saturday’s game at Northern Arizona is the Montana Grizzlies’ last before they host Montana State on Nov. 20. To maintain the hype that’s crescendoing around what’s billed as one of the biggest Brawls of the Wild in decades, the Griz will first have to take care of business in Flagstaff.
The Lumberjacks have been probably the most average team in the Big Sky this year, which sounds like damning with faint praise and mostly is, but also represents a real achievement in this year of stratification in the conference.
In Chris Ball’s third season, NAU has mostly beaten bad teams (with the exception of a 17-10 overtime loss to Northern Colorado) and lost to good ones (with the exception of a potentially program-defining 21-19 win over Arizona, which, even with the Wildcats’ abysmal struggles this year, we’re counting as a good team).
The Lumberjacks have two talented freshmen on offense and an experienced defense. The Grizzlies are getting healthier and looked much less janky on offense last week with Cam Humphrey back at quarterback.
Northern Arizona also has plenty of connections to Montana. Former Griz head coach Robin Pflugrad is the tight ends coach at NAU. His son Aaron is the offensive coordinator. Head coaches Bobby Hauck and Chris Ball know each other dating back to Hauck’s time as a graduate assistant at Washington and Ball’s time as a GA at Washington in the last 1980s. Longtime Lumberjacks head coach Jerome Souers (1998-2018) was the defensive coordinator at Montana for over a decade. Montana safety Robby Hauck played at NAU before transferring to the Griz.
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QUICK HITS
Location: Flagstaff, Arizona
Nickname: Lumberjacks
Founded: 1899. NAU was the final public university founded in the Arizona Territory before it became a state.
Enrollment: 28,718.
Stadium: The Walkup Skydome seats 11,230. Built in 1977, it’s the highest stadium in the FCS at 6,880 feet of elevation.
Famous alumni: Lopez Lomong, distance runner; George Grantham, baseball player; Diana Gabaldon, author.
THE COACH
Chris Ball (third season at Northern Arizona, 7-10)
Ball has been a longtime defensive assistant coach, starting at his alma mater, Missouri Western State, in 1986 and winding through Division II, the FBS and the Power 5 since then. That included one year as the defensive coordinator at Idaho State in 1999. Four years later, he was at Alabama as part of a four-year stint as the defensive backs coach for the Crimson Tide from 2003 to 2006.
He had stops at Pitt, Washington State and Arizona State after that before taking his first solo FBS defensive coordinator job at Memphis from 2016 to 2018. That got him hired as the head coach at Northern Arizona.
Ironically, Northern Arizona’s offense was the Lumberjacks’ calling card in 2019, finishing third in the country in yardage in Case Cookus’ senior season. They were 3-2 in the 2021 spring season and still have a chance for another winning season in the fall, at 4-5 heading into their final two games.
THE OFFENSE – PLAYERS TO WATCH
QB R.J. Martinez, 6-0, 185, Fr.
NAU turned to Martinez after Jeff Widener and Oklahoma State transfer Keondre Wudtee struggled in the spring and early into the fall. The true freshman from Austin, Texas, led the Lumberjacks to their historic win over Arizona and, after an overtime loss to Northern Colorado, helped them put up 48 points against Idaho State and 59 against Southern Utah in back-to-back weeks.
The NAU offense has come back to earth a little since then, getting shut out against Sacramento State, but Martinez has avoided many of the pitfalls of a freshman quarterback.
He’s completed 63% of his passes and has avoided turnovers, with 13 touchdowns against two interceptions in 198 attempts. To compare, Widener’s thrown five picks for the Lumberjacks in just 80 attempts this season.
Martinez is also second on the team with 215 yards rushing on 50 carries, and leads the team with five rushing touchdowns.
All in all, it’s been an extremely promising freshman season for NAU’s young quarterback.
RB Kevin Daniels, 6-2, 225, Fr.
Daniels had 11 carries for 24 yards in the spring season. He almost exactly matched that unencouraging stat line with 11 carries for 23 yards against Sam Houston State in the fall opener.
Since then, the freshman from Glendale has been one of the best running backs in the Big Sky Conference.
He had 27 carries for 127 yards in NAU’s upset of Arizona, following up two weeks later with 229 against Southern Utah and two weeks after that with 177 against Idaho.
Altogether, he has 824 yards on 141 carries. Montana fans may not have heard of him, but together with Martinez he’s been part of the best freshman duo in the Big Sky.
THE DEFENSE – PLAYERS TO WATCH
S Morgan Vest, 6-1, 205, Jr.
Vest was a unanimous all-Big Sky pick in the spring season with 53 tackles in five games. That was his first action for the Lumberjacks as he missed the 2019 season with an injury after transferring from Kilgore College, where he ended up after initially walking on at South Carolina.
In the fall season, he has 82 tackles and four interceptions in nine games, both team-highs. He’s also broken up four other passes and recovered a fumble.
LB Harrison Beemiller, 6-0, 210, Gr.
In contrast to the freshmen driving Northern Arizona’s offense, the stalwarts on the Lumberjacks’ defense have plenty of experience. That includes Vest and Beemiller, who’s in his third season at NAU after two years at South Dakota School of Mines.
The linebacker from Chandler, Arizona, has started every game since he got to Flagstaff, finishing second on the team in tackles in both 2019 and the 2021 spring season.
He’s third this season but is second on the team in tackles for loss (6.5) with a pass breakup and a forced fumble.
DL Carson Taylor, 6-4, 251, Gr.
Aside from Vest with his four interceptions, nobody’s been as big a gamechanger for NAU’s defense than Taylor, who leads the team in tackles for loss (8) and sacks (6). Both marks are in the top 10 in the conference.
He’s also broken up three passes and forced two fumbles.
The graduate student from Glendale, Arizona, has been at NAU since 2016, playing in every game since the start of the 2017 season.
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