Northern Michigan University’s Brady Hanson intercepts a pass by Wayne State’s Dakota Kupp in the second quarter of their game played Oct. 5 at the Superior Dome in Marquette. (Photo courtesy Daryl T. Jarvinen)

MARQUETTE — It hasn’t been an easy autumn for the Northern Michigan University football team.

After winning their season opener, the Wildcats have lost six games in a row, including their 10th straight to rival Michigan Tech. NMU has also battled numerous injuries during this stretch, and is struggling offensively.

The Wildcats managed only 17 points two weeks ago against Grand Valley State and are averaging just 262 yards per game.

Things aren’t ideal quite yet with the recovery from injuries, but Northern head coach Kyle Nystrom said Tuesday that he likes how the team looked over the course of its bye week.

“So over the weekend, I got one guy that’s ill and another guy with a mild staph infection,” he said. “For having a recovery period on the weekend, I’m down two….

“It never works out the way you plan it. Everybody’s got a plan until they get hit in the mouth, so we’re trying to get them back. We’ll be fine. So the players we have healthy, they’ve got their legs underneath them and they like practicing. We’ve had energetic and good, spirited practices.”

The Wildcats may be in good spirits, but their opponent Saturday may not be. Northern faces a team that is having a more difficult year than they are in Northwood.

The Timberwolves are winless at 0-8, including 0-5 in the GLIAC. They’re also dead last in the conference in passing yards per game and could very easily have gotten two wins. However, Northwood blew a double-digit lead against Ashland and lost to Hillsdale in overtime.

The T’wolves may be struggling, but they’ll still pose a problem for the Wildcats, thanks to their option offense. While most teams run the spread and are more pass-heavy, Northwood relies on the rushing attack and NMU is eighth in the GLIAC out of nine teams in stopping the run.

“We have a lot to prepare for,” Nystrom said. “Northwood is going through a tough season, too. Their quarterback (Joe Garbarino) has been around a long time. He’s their starter, but it looks like he’s got some shoulder issues. So he’s in and out of the games and replaced by a young man from Elgin, (Illinois, Nate Gomez), who’s in there at quarterback.

“So they’re different every game, but there’s a few things that stay constant. They’ve got a lot of unbalanced sets, what we call ‘zombies’ and we call ‘teds.’ A lot of bunch formations, which we call ‘dice’ and ‘trips open rack.’ Motioning people around to create space in their running game.

“So they’re different every game, so you prepare for everything that you get and you’ll have to adjust on the fly during the game. They’ve got a lot of scheme, a ton of scheme stuff and they’re fighting for success as are we….

“Some things that we can see they want to do and they’re sound stuff. You’ve just got to figure out what’s going to show up next. So here we go.”

When asked if he learned anything from watching the tape from Northwood’s most recent game against Wayne State (a 31-10 loss), Nystrom said it’s basically a bunch of new formations.

“They’ll run the quarterback,” he said. “They’ll run the dive, they’ll run the pitch when they have to….

“A lot of formations to get adjusted, too. A lot of change-of-strength motions and things like that.

“Schematically, their defense is very similar to ours. It’s really out of the 4-2-5 family and we’re a little bit different here and there in some minor aspects. But they’ll know what hurts their defense and I’m sure they’ll put it together to attack us.”

Northern will try to defend those attacks at 1 p.m. in Midland.

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