By nearly any measure, Northern Arizona's 2017 pass defense ended up as one of the best in the school's recent history.
With its four core members of the secondary combining to start 47 of 48 possible games, Northern Arizona finished atop the Big Sky with 174.3 passing yards allowed, the best number in the conference since 2014 and the best result for a Lumberjacks team since at least 2000.
It took Northern Arizona's coaching staff three recruiting classes to find the pieces needed in the secondary, with strong safety
Wes Sutton arriving from Chandler High School in 2014, free safety Kam'rom Johnson and cornerback
Maurice Davison joining the Lumberjacks in 2015 from Saguaro High School and California's Servite High School respectively and cornerback
Khalil Dorsey rounding out the group in 2016 Colony High School in California.
"We knew this was going to happen, me and Kam used to talk before we even got up here. We said we were going to be the best secondary in the nation one year," Davison said. "Everything just happened to gel together at this time. We are happy to be No. 1 in the conference and we are hoping to do that again this year."
The Lumberjacks finished 19th in passing yards allowed and 21st in team passing efficiency defense among the 123-team FCS. The efficiency number ended up as the best total since 2013 while the Lumberjacks' 16 interceptions topped every year since picking off 17 passes in 2007.
It took time for the group to come together, with injuries, uneven performances and a position change needed to find the correct lineup.
Sutton originally played cornerback through the first two years of his career, with the Lumberjacks finishing first in the conference in passing defense for the third straight season in 2014 before falling to the bottom in 2015.
Davison played nine games in the 2015 season, starting five at corner as did Sutton. Johnson played in 11 games as a true freshman as well, but wouldn't end up as a starter until his junior season. When Dorsey joined the Lumberjacks in 2016, starting seven games and earning All-Big Sky Honorable Mention, both Sutton and Davison missed significant time with injuries and combined for just nine games played
"It definitely took time. We enjoyed it, there's a lot of knowledge we had to learn as far as the defense," Johnson said. "Now we are three years, four years into the system and we are kind of less focused on schematic things and more focused on technique. Just perfecting our own craft to be the best players we can be individually."
PUSHING EACH OTHER
Sutton ended up as an All-Big Sky Conference first teamer in 2017 while both Dorsey and Johnson earned second-team honors.
While Northern Arizona has often landed two players from its secondary on the all-conference teams, including back-to back-years for Anders Battle and Lucky Dozier in 2012 and 2013, it had never before had three of its players earning recognition.
Adding in Davison's all-conference honorable mention, Northern Arizona ended up as the only school with four defensive backs honored, with Weber State and Southern Utah each finishing the season with three honorees.
While the high level of play is recognized outside the team, Johnson said the group itself to a specific standard that helped lead to this level of success.
"Inside of our meeting room where us four are all together, the standards we hold each other to are way higher than anybody could hold us to," the senior safety said. "Wes pushes me every day, I push myself every day. When you see one doing great, you just want to line up next and be just as great, you don't want to let the standard fall at all."
Johnson added the four critique one another's play and take it to heart, just as they do from their coaching staff. Playing against one of the best passing offenses daily in practice, with All-Americans
Case Cookus,
Emmanuel Butler and formerly
Elijah Marks, also leads to an entertaining back-and-forth among the group.
"There's definitely friendly competition every day, we make jokes about it all the time," Dorsey said. "About who is better and stuff, but we never get down on ourselves or each other."
FINDING A CONSISTENT VOICE
While the quartet now has two years in the defensive backs room together, they have had a rotating cast of coaches at their positions.
When Sutton first arrived in 2014, T.J. Rushing entered his first season as the cornerbacks coach while David Reeves was in his sixth season as the team's safeties coach. While Reeves remained in 2015, Cha'pelle Brown took over for Rushing as the cornerbacks coach as Davison and Johnson joined the roster.
Brown's title expanded to defensive secondary coach in 2016 as Reeves' tenure with the program ended and
Cody VonAppen took over as the team's safeties coach. Brown left too after just two years with Vernon Smith Jr. taking over as the defensive secondary coach in 2017 and VonAppen returning to lead the safeties.
For the sixth straight year, Northern Arizona had a change to the secondaries coaches with Smith Jr. departing and
Jalil Brown, a former teammate of Cha'pelle Brown at Colorado, the team's cornerbacks coach for 2018.
"We have had a lot of good DB coaches here, they just kind of haven't fit what we wanted," Sutton said. "This is probably my fourth one since I have been here, which is a lot, but being able to take from each one is what helped us get to where we are today. We took little pieces of from each and everyone of them and put them into our game."
Sutton is not alone in finding a positive in the constant turnover in coaches, as Davison too felt he had been able to find value in the multiple different voices.
"In all honesty, having all those different positions coaches was a blessing for all of us," Davison said. "We got to see different sides of how they coached and their different teaching methods. If anything, it brought us closer as a unit."
With the most consistent pieces of the group themselves, combining for 12 years in the program between the four of them, Johnson said adapting to new faces on the coaching staff has been easier.
"We just built habits within that group... and now the habits are cemented in," the senior said. "New coaches that come in, they kind of adjust to the habits we already had. That way it's not a full complete 360 for the group due to a new coach."
FOLLOWING UP
After finishing 13th and ninth in the Big Sky's passing defense rankings in 2015 and 2016, the groups ascent to the top of the conference in 2017 included a little help they won't receive as much of in 2018.
With games against Arizona, Cal Poly and Montana State, who all averaged under 200 passing yards per game, on the schedule last year, Northern Arizona faced a few programs known for their running games as opposed to their passing attack.
While Cal Poly remains, Northern Arizona will face four of last year's top five Big Sky passing offenses beside itself in 2018.
"We kind of have a target on our back, which is what we like as DBs. We like action and we want guys to throw the ball at us," Sutton said. "If anything, it is what we wanted and what we worked for, so we have got to embrace it. It is what we wanted and what we have all been working for."
When teams did throw, the four all played their part in forcing turnovers as they combined for 12 of the team's 16 interceptions and returned three for touchdowns. With turnovers notoriously inconsistent year-to-year, with the four defensive backs combining for just three interceptions prior to last season, Sutton said the belief is they will come.
"The interceptions come and go. Us being in our spot and being on guys, the interceptions will come," Sutton said. "PBUs are great, but being in the right spot all the time, you will be able to get a pick. We are not really trying to replicate that number, but if we stick to the standard and do what we are supposed to do, we will be able to get there."
Dorsey said the group is well aware programs such as Eastern Washington and UC Davis will look to attack the group with quarterbacks Gage Gubrud and Jake Maier who were both named on the Walter Payton Award Watch List along with Cookus. Idaho State's Tanner Gueller also averaged 250 yards per game through the air last season and returns this season for the Bengals.
Eight Big Sky teams finished in the FCS' top 23 passing offenses in 2017 and six finished inside the nation's top 20 in points scored. While offensive results lead to success within the Big Sky, a defense like Weber State's last year that ranked eighth nationally in takeaways and 16th in points allowed led the Wildcats to an FCS quarterfinals appearance and a No. 5 ranking from both the final Coaches and STATS FCS Polls.
"We want to chase being the greatest, that's always everybody's goal. You don't play the sport to be mediocre, average or be the guy remembered for second place," Johnson said. "We definitely want to chase being No. 1, we are not there yet and we have work to do."
