NAU, fighting for playoffs, faces No. 7 UC Davis
The Northern Arizona Lumberjacks enter the final stretch of the regular season fighting for a Big Sky Conference playoff spot with two of the last three games at home.
One of those is Saturday in Flagstaff against the UC Davis Aggies (7-1, 4-1 Big Sky), which is coming off a bye week. UC Davis is ranked No. 7 in the FCS Coaches Poll. The Lumberjacks (4-4, 3-2), are coming off a 38-31 road win over Idaho last week.
Kickoff is 1 p.m. at Walkup Skydome. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ and Hulu.
The teams last met in 2018, a 42-20 UC Davis win. The Aggies were ranked No. 6 at the time.
The Aggies have the 30th-ranked offense in the FCS at 421 yards per game. Its rushing attack, led by Ulonzo Gilliam Jr., with 91.9 yards per game, averages 195.2 yards per game, 21st in FCS. Its pass attack averages 225.8 yards per game to rank 45th in the FCS.
NAU running back Kevin Daniels needs 255 yards to become the Lumberjacks first 1,000-yard rusher since Casey Jahn in 2015. Daniels is 13th nationally in FCS with 745 total yards and is ninth averaging 106.4 yards per game.
NAU safety Morgan Vest had two interceptions against Idaho, earning him Big Sky Defensive Player of the Week. Coach Chris Ball said NAU’s secondary has had to deal with the injury bug but should be in better shape this week.
“It’s been a little bit different. We got Devontae Ingram back which was big, Morgan has been consistent. I thought Trejan Apodaca played really well on Saturday,” said Ball, in an NAU news release. He added the team has rotated at the other corner position opposite Ingram and may add a little more depth back to the position this weekend.