FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (April 8, 2021) – Working through yet another break in the 2021 spring season, the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks (1-2) will wrap up their road schedule by defending the Grand Canyon Trophy on Saturday in Cedar City, Utah.
Set for a 6 p.m. kickoff in Utah, 5 p.m. locally in Flagstaff, the game will be streamed on Pluto TV Channel 1055 as well as on the Lumberjack Radio Network with the pregame show will begin at 4 p.m. in Arizona.
It'll be the second meeting with the Southern Utah Thunderbirds (1-4) this season, and third in their past six games dating back to the 2019 season. When the two kickoff, it'll mark the first time since 1936 that NAU faced a team twice in one season. The Lumberjacks beat Arizona State 19-0 at home and 13-6 on the road when the two were members of the Border Conference.
However, facing one opponent twice in a season isn't completely out of the ordinary for NAU head coach
Chris Ball. During his time as the defensive coordinator at Memphis, Ball and the Tigers faced UCF in both the regular season and in the AAC Championship Game.
"It's actually pretty good because you can go back and watch the first game to see the things they exposed you on and the things that you did well," Ball said. "Then take the things they've been doing since you played them last and throw that into the mix. It's actually not quite as hard as preparing for them if you are playing them once."
NAU's last-second victory over Southern Utah in the season opener at the Walkup Skydome seemed to set up a trend for the Thunderbirds this season. The following week, Southern Utah lost 26-24 as Idaho State's Kevin Ryan connected on a 30-yard field goal with just five seconds left on the clock.
After beating Cal Poly 34-24 in San Luis Obispo, Calif. on March 13, Southern Utah returned from a bye week and fell 33-32 at the Idaho Vandals. After taking a 32-27 lead with 2:16 left in the game, the Thunderbirds watched the Vandals move 82 yards down the field in 15 plays and scored a 7-yard touchdown catch by Cutrell Haywood from Nikhil Nayar with just seven seconds left.
Adding in last week's 19-16 loss to No. 2 Weber State, Southern Utah has lost its four games this season by a combined seven points.
"I think we are a better football team than when we played them the first time, but they are good," Ball said. "They are a really good football team, don't let their record fool you."
In the first meeting with the Lumberjacks, the Thunderbirds put together five drives of at least four minutes including a pair that went 8:01. Southern Utah finished the game 8-of-16 on third down and 3-of-5 on fourth down, helping the visitors eat up 40:03 of clock on offense.
"We have got to do a better job of getting off the field on third down," Ball said. "We didn't do a very good job of it the first time we played. We had a lot of young guys that played and the games that we have played since then have given us a lot of experience."
While the Lumberjacks struggled to end drives on downs against the Thunderbirds, they have been able to force turnovers this season. Though just one of their seven came against Southern Utah,
Kamdan Hightower took his interception of Justin Miller back for a touchdown.
In their two games against Eastern Washington and Weber State, NAU forced a combined six turnovers and sits at plus-4 this season. Meanwhile, Southern Utah has forced just one turnover in its five contests to rank in a tie for 89th among the 93 FCS teams to have played this year.
After rushing for just 42 yards against the Thunderbirds, the Lumberjacks ground game steadily picked up in the following weeks. Hitting 128 against Eastern Washington, NAU produced its best rushing game of the season in Ogden against Weber State with 238 yards. Nearly 60 percent of the yards came from freshman
Draycen Hall, who broke off a 49-yard touchdown run and finished with 136 yards on the ground.
While the rematch will finish NAU's three-game road schedule, the Lumberjacks are scheduled to close out the 2021 spring season the following week in Flagstaff against the Idaho Vandals.
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