FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (September 16, 2025) – Coming off a thrilling Grand Canyon Trophy rivalry victory, No. 17/19 Northern Arizona hosts No. 19/14 UIW at Findlay Toyota Field at the Walkup Skydome on Saturday. NAU's annual Family Weekend game between the two nationally-ranked teams is set for 2 p.m. MST.
Fans can catch the game live on ESPN+ and on the Northern Arizona Healthcare NAU Lumberjack Radio Network with
Mitch Strohman, Kevin Stephens and Connor Emery on the call starting with the pregame show at 1 p.m. MST.
Limited tickets remain for Saturday's Family Weekend game. If an NAU student wishes to sit with their family, tickets must be purchased to sit outside of the designated student section. Parents and families are not permitted to sit in the student section. To purchase tickets, please click this
link.
NAU (2-1) enters the week on an eight-game winning streak in the Walkup Skydome, which matches the program's longest streak since the Dome opened in 1977. The 'Jacks won eight consecutive home games between the 1978-79 seasons.
This Saturday's game marks the first game between two nationally-ranked FCS teams in the Walkup Skydome since No. 18/20 NAU hosted No. 6/5 Eastern Washington on Sept. 8, 2018. In fact, dating back to 2013, there have only been four games in the Skydome when both NAU and its opponent were nationally-ranked.
The game is the second of a four-game home-and-home series between NAU and UIW. UIW claimed last season's first-ever matchup between the two programs, 38-14, in San Antonio. The Cardinals return to Flagstaff next season with NAU going back to San Antonio in 2027.
"It was maybe the roughest game we had (last year) and they had a really good football team and I give them a lot of credit because they outplayed, outcoached and outexecuted us," said head coach Brian Wright. "We learned a lot last year and carried that through the rest of the season a year ago, but that was then. We're headed in a good direction, but we have to make a lot of improvement to play them this Saturday."
For the second consecutive week, NAU moved up a spot to No. 17 in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 and remained steady at No. 19 in the AFCA FCS Coaches Poll. Led by the Big Sky Offensive Player of the Week Ty Pennington, the Lumberjacks prevailed in a 52-49 shootout last week at Southern Utah. Behind a 28-point third quarter, NAU led 42-28 going into the fourth before Southern Utah scored three unanswered touchdowns.
Seth Cromwell's second touchdown of the game, coupled with Pennington's two-point conversion to Jayson Raines, put NAU back on top, 50-49, with 29 seconds remaining. NAU added a safety to provide the final margin and retain the Grand Canyon Trophy for the fourth consecutive meeting.
"Great teams find a way to win, even when the ball doesn't bounce your way or you find yourself second-and-22 at the end (of Saturday's game)," Wright said. "Championship caliber teams find a way to win in gritty moments like that. That builds confidence and I'm happy with that. On the flip side of that, we know we have to put ourselves in better positions. Play better, finish better in order to have success throughout the remainder of this schedule."
NAU brings the Big Sky's highest scoring offense, and eighth-best nationally, at 36.3 points per game into Saturday's matchup. The Lumberjacks rank ninth in the FCS with 14 touchdowns scored.
Pennington is a big reason for the Lumberjacks' early success on offense as his 799 passing yards and five passing touchdowns rank eighth and 16th respectively in the FCS. His career-best performance of 366 passing yards and three passing touchdowns last week, in addition to a rushing touchdown, earned him his second career Big Sky Offensive Player of the Week award.
Meanwhile, Cromwell is the first Lumberjack to record consecutive games with multiple rushing touchdowns since Joe Logan in 2019. Cromwell ranks 11th in the FCS and first in the Big Sky with four rushing touchdowns this season.
Kolbe Katsis continues to lead the receivers following a career-high 135 yards last week. Katsis ranks ninth in the FCS with 293 receiving yards on the year.
Travis Arena spearheads the Lumberjacks' defense with consecutive double-digit tackle efforts. Last week at Southern Utah, he notched 3.0 sacks and his 4.0 sacks on the season is tied for fourth nationally.
Like last week, NAU will be tested by one of the best passing offenses in the country in UIW. UIW ranks 10th in the FCS in passing offense at 281.3 yards per game. However, in the run game, the Cardinals are 114th out of 118 FCS teams with only 60.0 yards per game on the ground.
The Cardinals carry a 1-2 record into this weekend's game following a 48-20 loss to UTSA last week. Since 2021, UIW has compiled a 43-12 overall record and 25-4 mark in Southland Conference play and has won three of the last four Southland titles.
Richard Torres has started all three games at quarterback for the Cardinals, and is currently averaging 206.0 passing yards per game and completing passes at a 68.8% clip. Both marks rank him in the top 30 in the country. EJ Colson, a UCF transfer, came in relief in last week's game against UTSA and completed 17-of-24 passes for 213 yards and three touchdowns.
Regardless of the quarterback, Chedon James is one of the FCS' top receivers ranking ninth with 21 receptions and 19th with 249 receiving yards. James posted eight receptions, 134 receiving yards and three touchdowns against UTSA last week.
NAU has won seven of its last eight games during Family Weekend dating back to 2017. The lone loss in this span was a 45-21 loss to Portland State in 2023.
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