8 things to know about UND's Potato Bowl opponent Northern Arizona

Sep. 6—GRAND FORKS — UND hosts Big Sky Conference member Northern Arizona on Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Alerus Center in the annual Potato Bowl.

Here's a quick look at what you need to know about the Lumberjacks.

UND's come-from-behind 27-24 win over Northern Arizona last season featured some of the craziest highlights of the entire year.

Bo Belquist scored on an 8-yard touchdown pass in which he rolled over a defender near the end zone to score.

C.J. Siegel returned an interception for a touchdown in which he spun away from a tackler on the sideline around the 10 before scoring.

Tommy Schuster, Nick Kupfer and Isaiah Smith executed a hook-and-lateral for 22 yards in the final moments before Schuster hit Jack Wright on a flea-flicker for the game-winning touchdown.

Wright scored with 53 seconds left. NAU marched to midfield in an attempt to answer but Siegel brought down the Lumberjacks wide receiver in the open field short of the line to gain on fourth down.

NAU returns its top six reception leaders from last season.

The top returner is Coleman Owen, who was a second team all-Big Sky Conference pick last year. Owen, who had more than 100 yards receiving against UND in Flagstaff, finished the year with 690 yards on 62 catches with four touchdowns.

Hendrix Johnson is also established. He entered the season in sight of the school record for career catches. He entered his senior year with 2,281 career receiving yards.

Jamal Glaspie (435 yards, 37 catches) and Elijah Taylor (198 yards, 20 catches) also return.

The 2022 starting quarterback for Northern Arizona is no longer in Flagstaff.

R.J. Martinez, the 2021 Big Sky Freshman of the Year, entered the transfer portal after the season and left for Baylor. In Baylor's season-opening loss to Texas State, Martinez didn't play.

Martinez transferred away from NAU after compiling 4,590 yards and 30 touchdowns in two seasons.

Martinez had an ability to extend plays with athleticism, which caused the Fighting Hawks fits last season, especially on third downs.

In turning the page from Martinez, NAU is looking to sophomore quarterback Kai Millner, who started against Arizona in Week 1.

Millner, who's 6-foot-2, was 14-for-22 for 166 yards. He was sacked once and had no turnovers.

As a freshman at Cal, Millner saw playing time in mop-up duty. He was 9-for-15 for 120 yards and two touchdowns in three games.

Millner wasn't a rushing threat against Arizona. The Jacks did bring in Angel Flores at quarterback during the Arizona game as a bit of a running threat. Flores had five carries for 11 yards.

NAU sophomore quarterback Kai Millner, a Cal transfer, finished his high school career at Higley in Gilbert, Ariz., the same high school as Jacks wide receiver Coleman Owen.

At Higley, Millner threw for 4,564 passing yards and 46 touchdowns. He also rushed for 829 yards and 13 touchdowns on 178 carries.

Millner had one play in high school that went viral. In his final high school game, late in a blowout win, Millner took a 2-point conversion snap in the shotgun.

After making two fake handoffs, Millner keeps his back turned from the end zone and lobs over his head a successful catch in the end zone on the no-look completion.

Northern Arizona ran the ball 41 times against Arizona, despite trailing heavily and only finishing with 78 yards rushing.

The Jacks only ran the ball more than 40 times in a game once all of last season (43 against Northern Colorado).

Most of the ground success for NAU against Arizona came from T.J. McDaniel, a 6-foot, 200-pound physical back who transferred this offseason from SMU.

McDaniel had 14 carries for 56 yards against the Wildcats.

McDaniel was productive at SMU. Back in 2019, he had three rushing touchdowns against Texas State making him the first person with 150-plus rushing yards and three-plus rushing touchdowns in his SMU debut.

The Lumberjacks didn't announce a new defensive coordinator until almost August after the summer departure of previous coordinator Jerry Partridge, who is now at UT-Martin.

NAU hired Kevin Clune as new defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. The veteran comes from BYU but has been defensive coordinator at Oregon State, Utah State, Hawaii, Weber State and Southern Utah. He has been a part of five conference championships and coached in 10 bowl games.

Clune has a new-look defense with the graduation of the team's top tackler. Against Arizona, true freshman Alex McLaughlin was the top NAU defender, racking up 10 total tackles and a 12-yard sack. He also had an interception.

McLaughlin is a 6-foot-2 in-state rookie safety.

Northern Arizona has dropped 13-straight games to ranked opponents.

The Jacks' last victory over a ranked opponent was Nov. 17, 2018, against No. 25 UND in a 31-16 Fighting Hawks loss.

The end of the 2018 season was a nightmare for UND, which lost three-of-four to end the season.

In the loss at NAU, UND quarterback Nate Ketteringham was sacked six times and threw two interceptions.

It was the end of an era for UND in the Bubba Schweigert tenure. Three days after the loss at NAU, Schweigert let go offensive coordinator Paul Rudolph and offensive line coach Luke Knauf.