NAU looks to build off last season
Souers hopes playoff experience carries over
Northern Arizona returns 19 starters from last year's 7-5 team that made the FCS playoffs for the sixth time in program history.
The Lumberjacks open their 2018 season on Saturday, Sept. 1 at UTEP. The Miners went 0-12 last year, the only winless program in the Football Bowl Subdivision. In the offseason, they hired Dana Dimel, a former Arizona assistant (2006-08), to be their new head coach.
NAU is led by Jerome Souers, entering his 21st season in Flagstaff. Souers, with 119 victories, is the winningest coach in Big Sky Conference history.
Up-and-down in 2017
The Lumberjacks started 0-2 last season, then announced that Souers would step down at the end of the season.
The team then won six straight games, and in the midst of that streak, NAU and Souers decided that he would stay on board.
NAU then earned a spot in the postseason, and had their season end with a 41-10 loss to San Diego in the FCS playoffs.
Key players
Quarterback Case Cookus, a junior, already has 27 starts under his belt. He played four games as a true sophomore in 2016 before missing the rest of that season. Cookus has 7,703 passing yards and 72 touchdown passes. He was named to the 2017 First-Team All-Big Sky team.
Receiver Emmanuel Butler, a All-Big Sky First-Team selection in 2015 and 2016, played just two games in 2017 due to injury. Butler is No. 5 all-time in the NAU career receiving yards.
A pair of former Arizona Wildcats are seniors on this year's team: linebacker Jake Casteel and receiver Cam Denson.
There are 48 former Arizona high school football players on the 2018 roster, including former Paradise Valley quarterback Daniel Bridge-Gadd, who started his college career at Washington.
Former ASU receiver Aaron Pflugrad is the first-year offensive coordinator.
Five home games
The Lumberjacks' home opener is against Big Sky member Eastern Washington but the game will be considered a non-conference matchup, part of a twogame deal in which NAU will play at EWU in 2020.
NAU will play five home games this season, with the Big Sky opener against Southern Utah on Sept. 22.
NAU football schedule
at UTEP, El Paso.
❚ Eastern Washington, Walkup Skydome, 4 p.m., CW6.
❚ at Missouri State, Springfield, Mo.
❚ Southern Utah, Walkup Skydome, 4 p.m., CW6.
❚ at Idaho State, Pocatello, Idaho.
❚ ❚ ❚ Weber State, Walkup Skydome. Off. at Northern Colorado, Gree-
❚ ley, Colo.
❚ Cal Poly (Homecoming), Walkup Skydome, 4 p.m., CW6.
❚ at UC Davis, Davis, Calif.
❚ at Sacramento State, Sacramento, Calif., 7 p.m., CW6.
❚ North Dakota (Senior Night), Walkup Skydome, 2:30 p.m., CW6.
NAU will play three of its final five games on the road but closes out the regular season on Nov. 17 against North Dakota at the Skydome.
KASW-TV, CW-6 in the Phoenix market, will have live telecasts of all five Lumberjack home games this season.