Fifteen fun football facts

By HEATHER KENNEDY
UNCBears.com

GREELEY – Today, Wednesday, August 15, is just 15 days prior the 2012 season opener at Utah, so here for everyone's enjoyment are 15 fun fall football facts before the team embarks on a new era in the Big Sky Conference.

1. On Saturday, the Bears will scrimmage at Nottingham Field. The team will take the field at 3 pm for a short warm-up before beginning the second scrimmage of the fall camp. The scrimmage is open and free to the public.
2. The season opener at Utah on Aug. 30 is the third time the Bears have ever played on a Thursday night. In 2005, the Bears played at Western Illinois on Thursday, Sept. 8, falling 28-23. In 2006, the Bears lost 26-21 at Weber State on Sept. 28. In history, Northern Colorado has played 15 games on Friday and three on Sunday with the rest coming on Saturday.
3. August 30 is the earliest the Northern Colorado football team has ever played. The Bears also began the 2003 season on the 30^th, recording a 72-13 win over New Mexico Highlands.
4. The 2012 roster features players from 13 different states as well as one Canadian province.
5. Senior Dominic Gunn (Aurora, Colo.) needs 101 punt return yards to tie current wide receivers coach Keith Grable (1996-99) for sixth on the school's career list at 458. Gunn is also 621 yards from knotting head coach Earnest Collins Jr. (1991-94) for second on the same list at 979.
6. Gunn is not the only player chasing Grable on a career chart. Junior wide receiver Jace Davis (Lone Tree, Colo.) has 1,155 receiving yards in his career, just 811 shy of Grable's total of 1,966, which sits in sixth place.
7. Grable is not the only position coach being chased in the records books. Junior quarterback Seth Lobato (Eaton, Colo.) is also six spots behind offensive coordinator Jon Boyer on the all-time passing yards linst. Boyer (2000-01) threw for 4,531 yards for seventh in Northern Colorado history, while Lobato trails by 1,963 yards with 2,568 in his two years.
8. Lobato is the only Northern Colorado quarterback in school history to throw for over 400 yards in multiple games. Twice last season, Lobato topped the milestone, throwing for 408 at Eastern Washington (Oct. 15) and 430 against North Dakota (Oct. 29).
9. This year marks the 15^th anniversary of the school's second NCAA Division II National Championship in football. The 1997 squad went 13-2, winning all four playoff games on the road.
10. Gunn enters his senior season tied for 11^th amongst active FCS players in career kickoff return touchdowns.
11. Since joining the Big Sky Conference in 2006, the Bears have been awarded a total of 12 Players of the Week.
12. Lobato's 430 passing yards against North Dakota last year broke the Nottingham Field record for a single game. He surpassed the previous mark of 402 yards by Bryan Waggener against Texas State on Sept. 20, 2008.
13. In two years, junior Dave Eden (Westminster, Colo.) has made 10 field goals for the Bears, which is already tied for 11^th on the all-time career charts at Northern Colorado. He needs just five more to move into the top 10 (15, Mike Williams, 1972-75).
14. Six players on the Northern Colorado 2012 roster were born on foreign soil. Tareq Abulebbeh (Palestine), Marcel Gibbons (Germany), Dominic Gunn (Japan), Waylon Lolotai (American Samoa), Raymond Ndjonok-Tonye (Cameroon) and Herve Tonye-Tonye (Cameroon) were all born outside the United States.
15. With the release of the College Sports Journal Preseason All-America Team, junior linebacker Clarence Bumpas (Colorado Springs, Colo.) has now been named to four different preseason All-America teams, while four others have earned preseason awards.