Football Prepares For Final Game of 2009 Season

NORTHERN COLORADO GAME NOTES | MONTANA GAME NOTES | BIG SKY WEEKLY NOTES

Honored - Again
Senior quarterback Bryan Waggener was named the Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Week. He completed 35-of-58 passes for a season-best 325 yards and rushed for 53 yards and two touchdowns in the Bears' 38-35 loss to Sacramento State. Waggener rallied the Bears' from a 31-point halftime deficit as he engineered five second-half scoring drives that were all at least 73 yards and took less than three minutes. Last week he was named the National Football Foundation Colorado Chapter Player of the Week after leading the Bears to a 21-17 victory over South Dakota. Waggener threw for 281 yards and two touchdowns, completing 21-of-32 passes. He also gained 14 yards rushing, threw no interceptions and was not sacked.

Made To Be Broken
Two records went by the wayside and another was tied in the Bears' 38-35 loss to Sacramento State on Saturday. The team tied the school single game record with 19 passing first downs, hitting that tally for the third time (1977 vs Northern Michigan, 1983 vs North Dakota). The 36 pass completions and 60 pass attempts also break the old record of 32 completions from Central Oklahoma in 1978 and North Dakota State in 1987 and the 59 attempts from North Dakota in 1983.

Eight Is Great
Both seniors Bryan Waggener and Alex Thompson added their names to the single-game record books in eighth place. Waggener tallied 378 yards of total offense, tying for the eight most, while Thompson tied for the eighth most receptions in a single game with 11.

Cracking The Books
Junior offensive lineman Tim McGraw and junior safety Mike Van Portfliet were both named to the ESPN The Magazine District 7 All-Academic Teams, announced the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). McGraw was named to the First Team and will be forwarded to the All-American ballot. He has a 4.00 grade point average in business management. Van Portfliet was a Second Team selection with a 3.63 GPA in sport & exercise science.

Continuing The Climb
Senior quarterback Bryan Waggener leaped another spot in the career records in both passing yards and total offense. In passing yards, he now has 4,756 to rank sixth, moving past Jon Boyer (2000-01) and his 4,531 yards. In total offense Waggener now has 4,997 yards, passing Mark Sedinger (1985-88) with 4,893 yards.

Now Appearing
Both senior receiver Alex Thompson and junior linebacker John Eddy etched their names in the record books with their performances on Saturday. Thompson has now caught 102 passes in his career with the Bears, ranking him eighth on the school's career charts while Eddy added another sack to his career total for 15.5 to rank 10th.

Finishing Strong
The Bears motto this season has been to finish strong, which is evident in fourth quarter scoring as NC has 67 points compared to just 50 for the opposition.

Finding The EndZone
After scoring just 40 points in the first four games of the year (10.0/game), the Bears have scored at least 20 in six of the last seven (25.1/game), scoring a season-best 35 points on Saturday against Sacramento State.

So Hard To Say Good-bye
Saturday marks the last game of 17 student-athletes careers at Northern Colorado as the 2009 season comes to a close at Montana. Due to injuries, only 13 of those 17 players are available against Montana.

Two-Fer
For the first time since Sept. 25, 2004, Northern Colorado had two players with 100 or more receiving yards in the same game. Senior Alex Thompson caught 11 passes for 110 yards, while freshman Chris Morris had seven grabs for a career-best 102 yards. The last time two players had more than 100 came at Montana when Vincent Jackson had 227 reception yards and Jamar Farbes added 110.

Speaking of...
Former Northern Colorado standout Vincent Jackson led the San Diego Chargers to a last-second win over defending Super Bowl Champions New York on Sunday in NFL action. Jackson caught an 18-yard touchdown reception from Philip Rivers with 21 ticks on the clock for the 21-20 victory. In the game, Jackson had five receptions for 58 yards and two touchdowns. For the year he has 42 receptions for 722 yards and seven TDs in eight games with San Diego.

Scouting Montana
The Grizzlies took over the top spot in the Coaches Poll becoming the third team this year to be ranked number one. Montana is 9-0 overall and 6-0 in Big Sky play and can clinch the league's automatic post-season berth with a win on Saturday. The Griz lead the league in scoring offense, scoring defense, total offense, rushing offense, punt returns, interceptions, third down conversions and redzone offense. Individually, Chase Reynolds leads in rushing, averaging 105 yards per game and is tied for scoring with 84 points. Jabin Sambrano averages a league-best 25.8 yards per kickoff return.

November 14
NC is 5-3 all-time in games played on Nov. 14. The Bears have won five of their last six games on this date and are 3-0 on the road. The last game happened at North Dakota in 1998, a 14-9 victory.

Schools From Montana
Northern Colorado is 13-23-1 all-time against teams hailing from the state of Montana (1-8 Montana, 10-15-1 Montana State, 2-0 Montana State-Billings)

A Win Would...

• give the Bears four wins on the season.
• be the second Big Sky Conference win of the year.
• be the second victory against Montana and the first since 1976.
• be the first win over a ranked team this season.

Moving On Up
Senior wide receiver Alex Thompson caught 11 more passes on Saturday, bringing his 2009 total to 64. That jumps him from 10th to seventh on the school's single-season chart. He is also just 117 yards shy of appearing on the top 10 list for receiving yards as he currently has 790 yards for the year.

Paper Or Plastic?
Junior linebacker John Eddy now has 5.5 sacks on the season after tallying one on Saturday, bringing his career total to 15.5 which moves him into 10th on the career list. He has now had one sack in each of the last three games. His total of 5.5 would rank fourth in the Big Sky, however he has not played the amount of games necessary to appear in the statistics.

Among The Best
The Bears have several individuals ranked among the top five in the Big Sky Conference statistics.

• Bryan Waggener ranks fifth in total offense averaging 228.1 yards per game and fifth in passing yards per game at 221.0.
• Dylan Orms leads the league in passing efficiency at 206.6.
• Alex Thompson is tied for third with 6.4 receptions a game.
• Ryan Lutz averages 7.3 yards per punt return to rank fourth.
• Michael York is tied for fourth in both PAT kicking (95.2%) and 1.11 field goals per game.
• Korey Askew is third with 1.10 passes defended a contest.
• Martin Awachie and Askew are tied for third with two fumble recoveries.

Driving Distance
The drives of the last 13 of the last 14 touchdowns for Northern Colorado have all been at least 73 yards. The Bears had five touchdown drives in the second half against Sacramento State and all took under three minutes. The winning touchdown against South Dakota ended an 89-yard drive, while the Bears also scored after a drive of 78. In the three previous games, the team had touchdown drives of 75, 80, 82, 99 an 88-yard interception return and 74 yards.

Notes From SAC Game

• Junior Matt McDonnell caught his first career pass in the first half, gaining 15 yards. He became the 14th different player to catch a pass this season for the Bears.
• Freshman John Burnley has had at least one kick return in seven games this season and he has had at least one 20 or more yard return in each of the seven.
• Junior cornerback Korey Askew had his third interception of the season and the fifth of his career in the third quarter.
• Senior quarterback Bryan Waggener has five rushing touchdowns in his career at Northern Colorado and four have come against Sacramento State.
• Senior wide receiver Alex Thompson caught 11 passes for 110 yards, marking the fourth time this season he has had 100 or more yards in a game.
• Freshman wide receiver Chris Morris tallied a career-best 102 receiving yards in the game.
• Sophomore punter Cameron Kaman tallied his best punt of the season at 66 yards.
• Martin Awachie (7), John Eddy (15) and Nick Hernon (7) all tallied career-highs in tackles.

He's Very Active
Senior quarterback Bryan Waggener currently ranks on the NCAA FCS active career leaders list in passing attempts per game (6th, 35.1/gm), passing yards per game (8th, 226.5), passing completions per game (6th, 20.4) and total offense (13th, 238.0). Junior linebacker John Eddy also ranks 11th in sacks per game (0.6), while sophomore punter Cameron Kaman ranks ninth in punts per game (5.6).

Career Milestones

• Freshman John Burnley surpassed 500 all-purpose yards on the year and now has 537, which is fourth on the team.
• Sophomore quarterback Dylan Orms now has 209 rushing yards in his career, bumping past the 200 yard mark.
• Senior Alex Thompson passed 1,300 career reception yards and 1,500 all-purpose yards and now has 1,301 and 1,575, respectively.
• Senior quarterback Bryan Waggener topped 4,500 passing yards and now has 4,756.

What To Look For

• Junior cornerback Korey Askew is three tackles shy of 100 for his career.
• Senior linebacker Logan Zabel needs five tackles to reach 100.
• Senior quarterback Bryan Waggener is three yards shy of 5,000 total offensive yards and will become one of just five players in school history to surpass the 5,000 yard total. 

Bears Story Lines

• Redshirt freshman Darin McDonald joins the team after a short stint at Wyoming. Prior to that, he spent three seasons in the Philadelphia Phillies minor league system.
• The Bears return all eight on the depth chart among defensive linemen from a year ago.
• Three players, safety Ryan Lutz, defensive back C.J. Stemo and kicker Michael York have all received their bachelor's degrees and have begun work on their masters.
• Northern Colorado athletics ranks first in the Big Sky Conference in graduation success rate, with last year's rate at 93%.
• Two upperclassmen on the team, junior kicker Zak Bigelow and junior offensive lineman Tim McGraw both have perfect 4.00 grade point averages and are in the Monfort College of Business.
• A total of 13 student-athletes were named to the Monfort College of Business Dean's Citation List and five were from football. Junior Zak Bigelow, junior Matt McDonnell, junior Tim McGraw, sophomore Chuks Nweke and senior Michael York were all honored.
• Junior Andre Harris was named the Big Sky player of the week after rushing for 152 yards in the Bears' 31-12 victory over San Diego. Harris averaged 7.6 yards per carry, scoring twice. Harris also caught four passes for 37 yards, giving him 189 all-purpose yards. His 152 rushing yards is the most at NC since Andre Wilson rushed for 158 against Western Illinois on Sept. 23, 2006.

Champions Council
This season, head coach Scott Downing decided to have a council of players to take more of a leadership role instead of the more traditional 2-3 captains. Those players, elected by their teammates are: Zak Bigelow, John Burnley, Cameron Friend, Chris Jones, Ryan Kemp, Ryan Lutz, Tim McGraw, Chuks Nweke, Dylan Orms, Colby Riggins, James Schrenk, C.J. Stemo, Thomas Stuemky, Curtis Truett and Michael Van Portfliet.