×

More tough opposition: Northern Michigan University Wildcats football team hosts 2nd straight top-10 foe in Ferris State

Northern Michigan University sophomore wide receiver Dallas Dixon, left, runs his route against Grand Valley State’s Kale Stealy during their game at the Superior Dome in Marquette on Saturday. (Journal photo by Trinity Carey)

“I tell (our) players that men do the things they have to do, boys do the things that they want to do.” — Kyle Nystrom, NMU head football coach, on preparing for No. 6 Ferris State

——————-

MARQUETTE — After picking up its first win of the season two weeks ago, the Northern Michigan University football team is going through probably its toughest stretch of the season.

The Wildcats got declawed by No. 5 Grand Valley State 47-14 on Saturday and remain at home to face a potentially more difficult opponent this week in No. 6 Ferris State.

The high-octane Bulldogs (3-0), who made it to the NCAA Division II quarterfinals last year, have blown out all three of their opponents and have the No. 1 offense in the country with the help of quarterback Jayru Campbell and wideouts Malik Taylor and former NMU player Keyondre Craig.

NMU head coach Kyle Nystrom knows exactly what to expect from Ferris as he used to be one of its defensive coordinators before he arrived in Marquette. He said the Bulldogs’ offensive talent is hard to plan against due to its versatility.

“(The Bulldogs are) very hard to deal with schematically because they have a bunch of wideouts out there, but their game is geared toward the run game,” Nystrom said. “Just because there’s a bunch of wideouts out there doesn’t mean they’re upping and chucking.

“What they do is spread you out of the box because if you don’t, then they are going to throw on you. They get you in weak points and they take advantage of you.

“Nobody runs the power read better than they do. They’re excellent at it. They’ll do it with a lead blocker sometimes and they’ll do it without a lead blocker, so you don’t know which way you’re going to get it.

“Last year, we had a ton of support problems on the perimeter and they got us. So we’ll have to be better.”

Their skill players may get the attention, but Nystrom also said that one of the main reasons Ferris is so successful is its talented offensive line.

“They’re probably better on offense than I’ve seen them since I was there, simply because their offensive line is excellent,” he said. “They’ve been playing there for awhile and even the new guys right now, we recruited two of those guys as freshmen when I was there when they were defensive lineman and now they’re on the offensive line.

“So whenever you parlay that into a position switch and they’re really good defensive linemen, they’re always even better offensive linemen. They’ve got more athletic movement and skill set to change direction and reach and cut off and get to the second level and match up. They’re really good up front.”

Looking back on last week, Northern struggled on both sides of the ball against Grand Valley. Offensively, the Wildcats’ potent running game was held to just 114 yards as they also only threw for 103 yards.

For NMU to be successful against the powerful Bulldogs or even for the rest of the season, Nystrom said his squad needs to have a balanced offensive attack.

“That’s not enough for us to win games,” he said. “We’ve got to be more of a balanced team.

“It can’t be like when I was at Ferris when we were playing Northern and it was all offense. They’d score a bunch of points and just throw the ball all over the place and then the defense would get stuck out there and give up a bunch of points. That’s not a healthy football program.

“It’s got to be balanced just like anything you do in life. The more balanced, the better. I don’t care if you’re talking about your personal life, your work life or football, it all carries over.

“(The Lakers are) top-notch…. They’ve always been excellent on offense and they’ve been very good on defense. Right now, they’re excellent on defense.

“With their team speed, they had our quarterback (Latrell Giles) running for cover and they had him shook up, so he had no poise left in the pocket. They affected our quarterback and we couldn’t run against them, not consistently. We were on our heels the whole game.

“If you’re going to play good on offense, you can’t let that happen to you. That’s where you try to find the ability to season yourself and get some experience under fire. That’s where we were on offense.”

Things weren’t any better for Northern on defense as GVSU racked up 546 total yards and quarterback Bart Williams and running back Chawntez Moss put up some big numbers.

“They ran the ball very well and at times, we played it very well, and at (other) times, we missed tackles,” Nystrom said. “They knocked us down and got around us. We arm-tackled at times, but they’d get around us. It’s not from a lack of toughness or a lack of ability to catch the guy.

“It’s like that movie ‘Youngblood.’ Why didn’t somebody hit him? It’s hard to hit and tackle what you can’t catch sometimes. So we had a little bit of that going.

“They threw the ball on us over the top, underneath, outside, inside. They were excellent on Saturday and I give them a lot of credit. They’re really good and we’re not at that level of performance yet. It won’t get any different with Ferris coming in here because they’re just as good.”

Even though the Wildcats seemed to go in reverse last week after a solid performance against Texas-Permian Basin, Nystrom emphasized the point of staying positive and keeping faith.

“When we get into these types of situations, and it’s not only happened here, it’s been at a lot of other places, you’re going to do one of two things,” he said. “You’re going to either spill your guts and walk away and quit, or you’re going to fight through it and get better.

“I tell the players that men do the things they have to do, boys do the things that they want to do. So we’ve got to move forward and get better and produce and be a better football program.”

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper *
   

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today