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NAU has one ofthe best units inthe country I 2

SATURDAY, OCT. 16

AT NORTHERN ARIZONA

GAMEDAY

FULL PAPER

INSIDE

INSIDE

YANKS AGAIN?

LCS opens in Texas IPAGE B1

DOMEWARD

BOUNDThe ChroniclesWill Holden handicaps

todays matchup

GOOD TIMES

One more victory

and the Bobcats haveninth winning seasonin a row I 2

NO. 9 MONTANA STATE AT NORTHERN ARIZONA, WALKUP SKYDOME 4:05 P.M

RINTED ON RECYCLED P ER

SELECT, EXECUTE, REPEATSimplicity, options key to MSUs high-powered offense

By WILL

C. HOLDENChronicle Sports Writer

Othe football field, life ap-

ears simpler for DenariusMcGhee.

Part of it has to do with hisersonality. The other part

has a lot to do with Montana State of

fensive coordinator Brian Wright.ose 16 players who have caught

passes from McGhee this season havehelped, too.

No other quarterback in theountry has as many players around

him that have been as productive.Not even Bethune-Cookmans MattJohnson, who quarterbacks the only

ffense in the nation that is gainingmore yards and scoring more pointsthan Montana State.

Just how effective has the Bobcatsffense been? They average more than

500 yards per game and put up 44.5points per contest. If both hold up,they would stand as school records.

It appears to be the sign olot of elements coming together.

But how much of his supportingasts success is due to McGhee? Andow much of McGhees success is due

to Wright, the guy who draws up theplays?

Handoffto RB Davis

B R E A K D O W N O F M S U O F F E N S E

Optionto Palmer

ScrambleQB McGhee

F NOT

DEEto Akpla

THROWSHORto Begger

TH OWIN ERM DIA E

to Gilbert

F NOT

More FFENSE I 5

oll outQB McGhee


2/6

The Bobcats have come a longway. How far? Just go back 10years.

Montana State lost all 11games in 2000, but here theCats are, closing in on theirninth consecutive winningseason.

One more win does the trick.You have to go back nearly

50 years to find another suchstreak.

Even with that winless season,MSU won 59 games in the firstdecade of the 2000s, one of theprograms best. Only the 1970sproduced more: 63.

Recalling the 2000 season isntmeant to dredge up bad memo-ries, but to magnify how well therecent past has gone.

The Bobcats are ranked inthe top 10 and have one of themost electrifying offenses in thecountry. Their 44.5 points pergame is second nationally, andeven without the blowout over

Fort Lewis in the opener, theCats are still putting up nearly42 a game.

Those are impressive num-bers. Even for the Big Sky, which

has always been known as anoffensive conference.

And the attendance num-bers have increased as well.To see how much, just use thePortland State games from 10years ago and last Saturday asexamples.

In 2000, just 4,500 showedup at Bobcat Stadium to see thehome team drop a heartbreakerto PSU, 31-24, on a touchdownwith 17 seconds to go. It was thefourth time that miserable sea-son that the Cats led or trailedat halftime only to well, youknow.

A week ago, more than 15,000saw MSU top PSU by 13 points.

And with a planned expansionexpected to be ready by next fall,

attendance figures could creeptoward 20 grand.

Yes, these are good times.So lets hand out some game

balls.Mike Kramer deserves credit

for taking that 2000 team andturning it into a conferencechampion in just two seasons.The program has been amongthe best in the Big Sky eversince.

Same goes for Rob Ash. Toinherit an unfamiliar team justtwo months before the 2007season well after spring drills and keep the winning ways

going was beyond what mostpeople expected.

By WILL C. HOLDENChronicle Sports Writer

This isnt 2009s MichaelHerrick. But then again, thisisnt 2009s Northern Arizonadefense, either.

While the Lumberjacks Wal-ter Payton candidate at quarter-back has taken a step back thisseason, thanks largely to a lackof offensive depth and health is-sues, the defense has stepped up,thanks largely to increased depthbecause of a lack of health issues.

The one thing that remainsconstant is head coach JeromeSouers chagrin that his Lum-berjacks have once again caught

Montana State in the middle ofone of the toughest stretches onthe schedule.

NAU takes on ninth-rankedMSU in Flagstaff Saturday afterlosing to 12th-ranked EasternWashington on the road lastweek. Next week its a flight toMissoula to take on 11th-rankedMontana.

The last time NAU had astretch like this was in 2008,when the Lumberjacks began theseason 6-1 only to finish withfour straight losses to the abovethree teams and Weber State.

Its been unusual, Souers

said. When you play the toppart of your schedule all in a rowlike that, there are some dangersthere.

But in 2009, NAU exactedsome revenge.

Herrick, who was a backupduring the teams abysmal finishin 2008, put himself on the mapby throwing for 388 yards inBozeman,leadingNAU toan upsetof then23rd-rankedMSU.

But Her-rick wasntable to putthe stampon his teams 2009 season theway he would have wanted. De-spite his numbers he finishedthe season with 3,356 yardspassing with 22 touchdowns toeight interceptions the Lum-

berjacks once again lost four in arow to end the season.

We didnt feel like our recordindicated how good of team we

were, Her-rick said.

EnterNorthernArizona,

version2010. Once

again, ithasnt beeneverythingHerrick

hoped for. Through five games,hes already thrown almost asmany interceptions (seven) as hedid all of last season and NAU is3-2 overall, with a 1-1 record inthe conference.

After Herrick threw threepicks in the first half and injuredhis non-throwing elbow againstEWU last week, Souers insertedbackup Chasen Stangel, a juniorwho hadnt played a game sincehigh school, to shake things up.

Not being able to go backout there in the second half toredeem myself was tough, Her-rick said. I did the best I could

do to help from the sideline. Wejust came up a little short.Stangel finished 9 of 19 for

90 yards and the Lumberjackslost 21-14. Hardly a smashingsuccess.

One big reason for the signalcallers blues has been the receiv-ers that Herrick and Stangelhave been targeting.

Last year, Daiveun Curry-Chapman and Austin Shankswere fourth and fifth receivingoptions. With the graduation ofthe teams three leading receiv-ers, theyve become first andsecond options.

While both Curry-Chapmanand Shanks have caught morepasses than they have in all of2009, their 9.9 yards a receptionand one combined touchdownarent exactly measuring up tothe 13 yards a catch and onetouchdown a game averageNAUs top two receivers put uplast season.

We knew going into it therewas going to be a learning curvetrying to establish some experi-

ence and replace the productiv-ity we had, Souers said. Eachweek weve been focusing onimproving fundamentally.

Thankfully for Herrick andthe NAU offense, its defense isflourishing. After finishing inthe middle of the conference aseason, the Lumberjacks cur-rently own the 11th-ranked unitin the nation.

A big reason is their depth.All-conference performers CodyDowd and Kyle Rath, both ofwhom missed all of 2009 withinjuries, have returned to joinfive other NAU defenders who

were named to the all-confer-ence team a season ago.Souers, whose defenses have

held MSU to less than 15 pointsin two of the last three seasons,said this group ranks up thereamong the best hes coached in13 seasons at NAU.

Armed with that bunch andsurprising true freshman run-ning back Zach Bauman, whohas rushed for 478 yards and aleague-high seven touchdownsthis season, Herrick thinks NAUcould be primed to break up itstraditional second-half swoonthis season.

Right now, though, after fiveweeks away from the friendlyconfines of Flagstaff, it just feelsgood to be home.

Hopefully weve gotten thetough part of our schedule out ofthe way, Herrick said.

Will Holden can be reached [email protected] and582-2690.

SidelineBriefingRecordsMontana State 5-1, 3-0 Big Sky

Northern Arizona 3-2, 1-1

Series45th meeting, NAU leads 23-21

Weather forecastAir conditioning (dome)

CrowdAbout 7,000 expected

TVABC 28(Chris Byers, Mike

Callaghan, AJ Donatoni)

RadioKXLB-FM (100.7), JeLasky,

Dan Davies, Tyler Wiltgen

Coaches

SchedulesNorthern Arizona

48 W. New Mexico 0

20 @ Arizona St. 41

7 @ Idaho St. 32

26 @ Souther n Utah 23

14 @ Eastern Washington 21

Today Montana St. 4:05 p.m.

10/23 @ Montana 1:05 p.m.

10/30 Sacramento St. 4:05 p.m.

11/6 @ Northern Colorado 12:35 p.m.

11/13 Weber St. 3:05 p.m.

11/20 Portland St. 3:05 p.m.

Montana State59 Fort Lewis 10

2 @ Wash. St. 23

8 Drake 21

0 Eastern Washington 7

4 @ Sacramento St. 61

4 Portland St. 31

oday @ Northern Arizona 4:05 p.m.

0/23 Northern Colo. 1:05 p.m.

0/30 @ Idaho St. 1:35 p.m.

1/6 Weber St. 12:05 p.m.

1/20 @ Montana 12:05 p.m.

Players to watch

NO. ARIZONA: QB Michael Herrickhas struggled this season, but could

rebound in his teams rst home

ame in over a month.

MONTANA STATE: RBs Orenzo

Davis and C.J. Palmer go up against

ne of the toughest run defenses in

he nation.

Injury reportMONTANA STATE

OUT: DE Brad Smith (shoulder),Ben Tauanuu (leg), LB Dustin

OConnell (collar bone).

QUESTIONABLE:LB Clay Bignell

(ankle), S Jordan Craney (ankle), OG

Conrad Burbank (knee).

NO. ARIZONA

QUESTIONABLE:QB Michael

Herrick (elbow). C JeHines.

Herrick struggles while defense thrives

Good times, big crowds in Bobcat Country

MoreDUMAS I5

COURTESY OF NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY

NAU defensive end Isaac Bond has five tackles for loss this season.

TIM

DUMAS

ChronicleSports Editor

ROBASHMSU, 4th year

31st year overall5-15 at MSU01-114-5 overall

JEROMESOUERSNAU, 13th year

13th year overall69-72 at NAU69-72 overall

S , O , 2 |

Its been unusual. Whenyou play the top part ofyour schedule all in a row,there are some dangers.

Jerome Souers, NAU coach


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#15 // kicker

Jason Cunningham

2010 MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY

Photo Nick Wolcott


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Kicking & punting: Thanks in partto his dome, sweet Walkup Skydome,Northern Arizonas Matt Myers has beenone of the most consistent kickers in theBig Sky Conference over the past two years.Head coach Jerome Souers has condenceto trot Myers out there on eld goals as longas 55 yards. Jason Cunningham has been

equally consistent, if not more. The Bobcatsget the edge in the punting category. Thequestion is, will Rory Perez hits the Skydome ceil-ing with one of his massive hang-time punts?

Returns & coverage: This was a big keylast year as both MSU and NAU muedkicks in the 23-10 loss for the home teamin Bozeman. Shanks, who had the North-

ern Arizona fumble, doesnt return punts any-more. Estrada handles those duties for NAUnow and hes returned one for a score thisseason. DeSean Thomas, who had Montana

States fumble, has punt returned sparinglythis year. His primary replacement, Akpla,

hasnt been exceedingly special.Edge: Even

DEPTHCHARTS

Montana StateOffenseLEFT TACKLE

72 Mike Person 6-5/295 Sr

70 Killian Fitzpatrick 6-8/270 Fr

LEFT GUARD

57 Casey Dennehy 6-1/270 So

68 Conrad Burbank 6-4/280 Jr

CENTER

56 Shaun Sampson 6-0/249 So

61 Alex Terrien 6-4/285 Jr

RIGHT GUARD

61 Alex Terrien 6-4/285 Jr

71 Jesse Hoffmann 6-4/286 Sr

RIGHT TACKLE

50 Leo Davis 6-4/271 Jr

70 Killian Fitzpatrick 6-8/270 Fr

QUARTERBACK

9 Denarius McGhee 6-0/197 Fr

12 Cody Kempt 6-2/211 Sr

RUNNING BACK

8 Orenzo Davis 5-9/185 Jr

20 C.J. Palmer 6-0/210 Jr

W RECEIVER

14 Everett Gilbert 5-9/180 So

27 DeSean Thomas 6-1/180 Jr

X RECEIVER

1 Elvis Akpla 6-1/187 Jr

86 Tanner Bleskin 6-3/210 FrZ RECEIVER

82 Julius Lloyd 6-0/184 Sr

10 Kruiz Siewing 5-11/182 So

TIGHT END

81 Kyle Begger 6-2/245 Jr

88 Shane Robison 6-5/250 Jr

KICKER

15 Jason Cunningham 6-1/162 Jr

DefenseBANDIT

90 Dan Ogden 6-0/270 Sr

34 Preston Gale 6-2/239 Fr

TACKLE96 Zach Minter 6-2/277 So

63 Zach Logan 6-3/295 Fr

NOSE TACKLE

45 Jason DAlba 6-2/277 Sr

98 Christian Kelii 6-0/282 So

END

11 John Laidet 6-5/250 Jr

49 Caleb Schreibeis 6-3/245 So

SAM LINEBACKER

44 Aleksei Grosulak 5-10/250 Fr

9 Roger Trammell 6-1/230 Jr

MIKE LINEBACKER

42 Clay Bignell 6-2/236 Jr

44 Aleksei Grosulak 5-10/250 Fr

WILL LINEBACKER

23 Jody Owens 6-1/214 So

59 Tanner Ripley 6-1/214 Sr

BOUNDARY CORNER

26 Arnold Briggs 5-10/185 Sr

17 Sean Gords 5-10/185 Fr

FREE SAFETY

22 Michael Rider 5-11/196 Sr

32 A. Cosme-Peko 5-11/209 Sr

ROVER

7 Jordan Craney 6-1/205 Sr

5 Joel Fuller 6-0/200 So

FIELD CORNER

13 Darius Jones 5-10 /16 7 So

24 James Andrews 6-1/ 187 Jr

PUNTER

18 Rory Perez 6-2/180 Fr

Northern ArizonaDefense

LEFT END

96 Isaac Bond 6-4/260 Jr

99 Brandon Vance 6-2/236 Sr

LEFT TACKLE

98 Dan Pela 6-3/275 Jr

75 Dwight Boyd 6-5/325 Jr

NOSE TACKLE

93 Kainoa Pea 6-0/250 Sr

95 Blayne Anderson 6-4/240 Jr

RIGHT END

89 Kyle Rath 6-5/271 Sr

49 Michael Battisti 6-3/240 Sr

SAM LINEBACKER

34 Reid Worthington 6-0/225 Sr

33 Anthony Llanos 6-3/251 Sr

MIKE LINEBACKER

44 Cody Dowd 6-3/250 Sr

56 Brandon Phillips 5-10/215 So

JACK LINEBACKER

46 Scott McKeever 6-1/220 Jr

28 Phil Pollock 6-1/105 Fr

CORNERBACK

20 Taelor Worrell 5-10/185 Sr

27 Darren Watson 6-1/190 Sr

STRONG SAFETY

3 Taylor Julio 6-0/185 So

25 Kasseem Osheroff 5-11/205 JrFREE SAFETY

5 Matt Estrada 5-10/185 Sr

38 Taylor Malenfa nt 6-1/190 So

CORNERBACK

31 Brian Hunter 6-0/185 Sr

37 Darren Watson 6-1/190 Sr

PUNTER

42 Drew Zamora 6-1/187 Jr

OffenseLEFT TACKLE

57 Anthony Williams 6-5/290 Sr

55 Stuart Tawney 6-5/245 Fr

LEFT GUARD

78 Alex Mott 6-5/290 Jr

64 Adrian Garcia 6-1/305 Sr

CENTER

68 Jeff Hines 6-0/312 Sr

61 Kris Poindexter 6-2/295 Sr

RIGHT GUARD

64 Adrian Garcia 6-1/305 Sr

61 Kris Poindexter 6-2/295 Sr

RIGHT TACKLE

72 Trey Gilleo 6-6/280 So

69 Matt Wilson 6-6/300 So

QUARTERBACK

7 Michael Herrick 6-1/205 Sr

8 Chasen Stangel 6-1/190 Jr

RUNNING BACK

35 Zach Bauman 5-10/200 Fr

22 Giovannie Dixon 5-10/175 So

TIGHT END

85 Nick Larson 6-8/250 Sr

88 Drew Emanuel 6-4/225 Fr

RECEIVER

4 D. Curry-Chapman 6-2/205 Sr

81 Jeremy Dang 6-3/215 Fr

RECEIVER

2 Austin Shanks 5-8/175 Jr

82 Daniel Adler 5-9/180 Jr

RECEIVER

11 Mike Czyz 5-10/180 Jr

18 Khalil Paden 6-1/165 Jr

KICKER

29 Matt Myers 6-0/200 Jr

THE EDGEPORTLAND STATEATMONTANA STATE

Passing: Make no mistake, Northernrizonas defense will be the best Montanatate has faced this season. The Lumberjackswarm on the defensive side of the ball withaves of experience. But the unit isnt withouteaknesses. The most glaring is at corner.espite having a solid secondary with all-onference safeties Matt Estrada and Taylor Julio,he Lumberjacks are as weak at corner as theyveeen in a long time.Senior Daivon Dumas, expected to be the teams

hutdown guy, was lost for the year in the seasonpener. Taelor Worrell has done an admirable job

eplacing Dumas, but hes far from a sure thing. Andpposite Worrell its been a struggle. The current

otation NAU seems to be favoring includes Brianunter, an Arizona State transfer who the teamas tried to convert to corner from safety, and true

reshman Randy Hale, who has been victimized byeveral teams.MSU QB Denarius McGhee is coming ohis worstame as a Bobcat. But even in his 15-for-27, 206-yard,-touchdown, no-interception performance in MSUs4-31 win over Portland State, he had a stretch wheree was 9 of 13 for 120 yards and three touchdowns.orget the foot injury he suered against PSU.

McGhee will play this weekend and likely show no ill

ects. With their quarterback in tow, it looks like theobcats have the talent to gash a lesser Lumberjackecondary. Look for outside receivers like Julius Lloydnd Elvis Akpla to have big days.

Rushing: Dont, on the other hand,expect big games from Orenzo Davis andC.J. Palmer. Both Bobcat running backs

have feasted on opposing rush defenses thelast two weeks and both are starting to showthe signs of it as they spent time nursingailments this week in practice. Thats not goodnews for the Bobcats this week in particular, asthey prepare to face the nations fourth-rated

rushing defense.MSU has faced good front sevens the past few

weeks against Sacramento State and EWU, but theLumberjacks blow them all out of the water. Theyhave six all-conference-caliber players in their startingfront seven and thats just the starters. Led byguys like Alec Hutton and Alex Llanos, NAU has vedefensive linemen and two linebackers who come othe bench to make consistent and key contributions.Defensive coordinators around the country wouldsell their kidneys for that kind of depth.

Yes, MSU is the 12th-rated rushing oense in thecountry and has put up an average of 233.3 yardsrushing per game despite having limited depth on theoensive line. MSU gets some of that back this week asstarting left guard Conrad Burbank returned to practiceand starting center Alex Terrien is looking healthier. ButNAU has held MSU below 70 yards rushing in two of the

last three years, and this NAU defense is better againstthe run than any of the three preceding models. This willbe a tough battle for the Bobcats to win. Edge: Even

WHEN MONTANA STATE HAS THE BALL

EDGE

Passing: Montana State could nothave caught NAU QB Michael Herrickat a better time. The Walter Paytoncandidate has not been the same playerthat he was a season ago when he washealthy, so dont expect him to set theSkydome ablaze today as he tries toget over a left elbow injury suered lastweek against EWU. Dont think an injuryto a non-throwing arm will aect a quarterback?Take a look at Tony Pike last year at Cincinnati.Playing with an injury to his non-throwing wrist,Pike completed less than 60 percent of his passesand threw as many interceptions in his nal twogames as he had in the rst six combined.

To make matters worse for Herrick, hes still yettond a go-to receiver this season. Austin Shanksand Daiveun Curry-Chapman have both caughtmore than 27 passes, but both are averagingunder 10 yards a catch and they have a combinedone touchdown catch between them. San JoseState transfer Khalil Paden hasnt panned out andtight end Nick Larson, a converted power forwardfrom the Lumberjack basketball team, is still learn-ing the position.

This will likely aord MSU a chance to lick its

wounds when it comes to pass defense, havinggiven up 348 pass yards to Sacramento State andseveral big plays to the PSU passing game in thepast two weeks after starting the season very well.Regardless of whether or not safety Jordan Craney

is healthy, the MSU pass defense has farfewer questions than the NAU passingoense this week.

Rushing: Slowing the rushing attackhas been the key to slowing the NAUoense this year. Last week EWU held truefreshman running back Zach Bauman andArizona transfer Giovannie Dixon to 74yards on 28 carries and NAU struggled to

get anything going on oense. Bauman and Dixonprovide a nice mix of power and speed, but the bot-tom line is that they can be stopped. The speed guy,Dixon, is averaging a pedestrian 3.5 yards a carry thisyear and the big guy seems to need more than 20touches a game to get his yards.

NAU will also likely be playing without startingcenter and team captain JeHines, who was ruleddoubtful for this week. That will be music to DanOgdens ears, as the MSU senior moves back to de-fensive tackle this week with Zach Minter movingout to defensive end. In the short term, that lookslike a better t for both players.

With Clay Bignell possible for the weekend as heimproves from an ankle injury that has kept himout most of the past two weeks and Aleksei Grosu-lak playing better each week at middle linebacker

in Bignells stead, the Bobcats, who held a run-based PSU oense scoreless for the better part ofthree quarters last Saturday, look like they have thepersonnel to slow the NAU running game.

Edge: Montana State

WHEN NORTHERN ARIZONA HAS THE BALL

24

OVERALL The Lumberjacks desperately need this win and willbe playing in front of a home crowd for the rst timein ve weeks. They have the defense that can give thatwin to them, too. But just how worn out is this teamfrom four weeks on the road, which culminated in abeat-down at EWU that was worse than the nal scoreindicated? Can the nations 11th-ranked defense (NAU)slow the nations second ranked oense (MSU)? Whowill win the battle of two statistically mediocre units the NAU oense and the MSU defense? With that manyquestions, this one will be a squeaker. And MSU hasbeen performing well in those lately.

There is plenty of motivation forboth teams in this game. MSU is seekingrevenge for the loss in Bozeman lastyear that greatly hurt its postseasonchances. If the Lumberjacks lose anotherconference game, they can probably kissthe postseason goodbye this year. Thekey for both teams will be containing theiremotions, and that might come out in the

penalty battle. Averaging a respectablylow 4.8 penalties a game going into lastweek, the Bobcats sky-rocketed to No.1 on the conferences most-penalized

list after committing 11 against PSU. Theteam they passed? The Lumberjacks, whohave had six or more penalties in all but onegame this season.

Edge: Even

INTANGIBLES

27

Analysis by WILL C. HOLDEN of the Chronicle

SPECIAL TEAMS

EDGE

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