FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (November 5, 2025) – Northern Arizona football welcomes Northern Colorado to Findlay Toyota Field at the Walkup Skydome for Homecoming on Saturday at 4 p.m. MST.
Streaming live on ESPN+,
Mitch Strohman, Kevin Stephens and Connor Emery will have radio call on the Northern Arizona Healthcare NAU Lumberjack Radio Network starting with the pregame show at 3:30 p.m. MST. Tickets are available to purchase at this
link.
In addition to it being Homecoming, Saturday's game will be Military Appreciation Day. Fans are also encouraged to wear white for a White Out of the Skydome. The Lumberjacks will be wearing special throwback helmets featuring the "Leaning Louie" logo for the first time in school history.
The Lumberjacks (5-4, 2-3 Big Sky) are looking to bounce back into the win column following a 35-32 overtime loss to Idaho last week. At 5-4 through nine games, as they were last season at this point of the season, NAU faces a situation in which it may need to win out to reach the FCS Playoffs for the second consecutive season for the first time in program history. Last season, NAU won four consecutive regular season games to earn its bid to the postseason.
"A great lesson for us is to understand that we have to take care of what we have to take care of on a weekly basis," said head coach
Brian Wright. "When we don't, you put it in the hands of what needs to happen in other games. That's not a fun place to live. You want to control your own destiny. All we can do is go 1-0 for three weeks and see what happens."
On the heels of three losses in their last four games, NAU fell out of the national rankings for the first time this season. The Lumberjacks had been ranked for 12 consecutive weeks prior to this week.
To get back in the win column, NAU faces an opponent who the Lumberjacks have had historical success against. NAU leads the all-time series, 18-6, against Northern Colorado (3-6, 1-4 Big Sky). In Flagstaff, the Lumberjacks are 11-0 all-time versus the Bears. In its last four home victories over Northern Colorado, NAU is averaging 45.0 points per game.
The 'Jacks also have Homecoming success on their side having won four of their last five Homecoming games. NAU, averaging 37.8 points per game over this span, is 60-36-2 all-time on Homecoming.
"We have great character people in our organization, so we're all going to bounce back," Wright said. "We're all winners and highly competitive and we all know there is a lot of work to be done, so we better go chase that work quickly because we have another good opponent at home on Saturday. We don't have a lot of time to sulk and feel sorry for ourselves. All focus is on Northern Colorado and how we can play better."
NAU and Northern Colorado are two of the top passing offenses in the FCS. The Bears are 18th with 259.6 passing yards per game and the Lumberjacks are 22nd with 253.1.
Of course, two of the top FCS quarterbacks will engineer the two offenses.
Ty Pennington threw for 267 yards last week, pushing his season total to 2,240 yards, which ranks him sixth in the FCS. Pennington ranks 10th with 248.9 yards passing per game and 11th with 20.9 completions per game. Northern Colorado's Eric Gibson Jr. is the 14th-leading passer in the FCS with 242.5 yards per game and he is 11th in total passing yards with 2,180.
With that, both teams have a pair of standout receivers.
Kolbe Katsis stood out versus Idaho, totaling 165 all-purpose yards and scoring a pair of touchdowns. He ranks 13th nationally with 122.2 all-purpose yards per game and is top 20 in both receiving yards (697) and receiving touchdowns (6). For the Bears, Carver Cheeks is fourth nationally in receiving yards (831), fifth in receptions per game (6.44) and sixth in receiving yards per game (92.3).
Ramere Davis has recorded a sack in three consecutive games, increasing his team-leading total to 5.5 on the season, while
Quentin Moten recorded an interception for the second straight game last week and now leads the team with three interceptions.
Over the last two weeks, NAU have limited Idaho and Idaho State to a combined 7-of-23 (30.4%) on third downs. Third down defense is also something Northern Colorado excels at, ranking 18th in the country with a 33.3% conversion rate to opponents.
Northern Colorado heads to Flagstaff having lost three consecutive games, most recently at home last weekend to No. 4/4 Montana State, 55-7. The three straight losses have dropped Northern Colorado to 3-6 overall and 1-4 in conference. However, this season has been a step in the right direction for the Bears, who went a combined 1-22 over the previous two seasons. The Bears had narrow road losses to FBS foe Colorado State and ranked South Dakota in consecutive weeks earlier this season. The Bears also own a 49-33 victory over No. 13/11 Idaho.
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