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New era begins tonight: Janus leads Wildcat football team looking for first winning season since ’09

Janus leads Wildcat football team looking for first winning season since ’09

By Steve Brownlee 8 min read

MARQUETTE -- The Northern Michigan University football team begins a new era tonight in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

NMU opens the season under new head coach Matt Janus by playing at Minnesota State-Moorhead at 7 p.m. EDT.

The Wildcats had one of their closest games last year in the midst of a 28-game losing streak when they opened the season with a 44-37 setback to the Dragons at the Superior Dome. That's the only time these teams have ever met.

Northern ended its 2 1/2 season-long losing streak near last season's midpoint, winning three of its final five games to finish at 3-8.

Moorhead is likely retooling despite an 8-3 season a year ago, since it lost several top receivers and star quarterback Jack Strand to graduation as the latter signed as an undrafted free agent with the NFL's Atlanta Falcons.

Tonight's game will be broadcast on NMU's home on the radio, WUPT 100.3 FM The Point, and fans can also follow @NMU_Football on Instagram and X for updates leading up to and during today's game.

"We are ready to play a football game and to the point where we are fine-tuning and ready to travel with the team," Janus said in an NMU Sports Information news release previewing the game. "We are focused on us playing situational football … playing fast and executing our technique."

Janus was hired in January as the Wildcats haven't had a winning season since 2009, a year that was the third of five seasons under upcoming NMU Sports Hall of Fame inductee Bernie Anderson.

Janus, the 24th head coach in well over a century of Northern football, brings a new outlook to the Wildcats after having fantastic success heading up the NCAA Division III program at Wisconsin-La Crosse, where in six years he led the Eagles to a 45-14 record and playoff appearances in the each of the past five seasons.

His teams won Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles in 2023 and 2024, making the national quarterfinals in '23 when the team went undefeated in the regular season.

Northern was chosen to finish sixth in the eight-team Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in the coaches' preseason poll, exactly where the Wildcats finished a year ago with a 2-5 league mark.

Ferris was a unanimous pick to win the league again as the Bulldogs go for three straight national championships, which would also make five in six seasons. Upper Peninsula rival Michigan Tech was tabbed for third.

Leading Northern returnees include last year's pair of GLIAC First Team honorees, sophomore running back Noah Dobert and senior linebacker Jax Hertel, both of whom were recently named to the D2Football.com Elite 100 Watch List across all of Division II this preseason.

In particular, Dobert rewrote the Wildcats record book in the rushing department, capped off by a near-all-time Division II record 406-yard performance in the Superior Dome against Wayne State to end last season on Nov. 15.

The oft-mentioned numbers still seem mind-boggling -- the 5-foot-11, 197-pound back as a redshirt freshman missed the D-II all-time rushing mark for a single game by just 19 yards in the 45-11 victory over Wayne State, which came after he carried for 243 yards in each of NMU's previous wins, 42-21 at Roosevelt on Oct. 18 and 47-45 in four overtimes at Davenport on Nov. 8.

In the process, the Dearborn native -- that's the same hometown as NMU alumnus Robert Saleh who is currently head coach of the NFL's Tennessee Titans -- set two Northern season rushing marks with 1,656 yards and 15 touchdowns, the yardage record something he smashed by more than 150 yards.

In the three victories, this Division 2 Conference Commissioners Association Second Team All-American averaged nearly 300 yards on the ground, totaling 892 yards in them.

A year earlier as a true freshman, he had a quite inauspicious 12 yards on three carries.

Hertel, of Walworth, Wisconsin, returns after leading the Wildcats a year ago with 101 tackles, which also ranked No. 3 in the GLIAC.

He helped shore up a defense that had given up 50 or more points in a game at least three times each of the previous two seasons. Last year, the Wildcats gave up that kind of number just once, in a 70-35 loss at eventual national champion Ferris.

Hertel also led the conference with 14 1/2 tackles for loss, adding in six pass breakups, three quarterback hits, a forced fumble and an interception returned for a touchdown, in today's parlance a "pick-six."

The 6-2, 215-pound Hertel started all 11 games and earned D2CCA All-Super Region 3 First Team honors, too.

A couple other GLIAC honorees are also back in 6-4, 295-pound fifth-year offensive lineman Daniel Babcock, who made the Second Team, and 6-3, 215-pound fifth-year defensive lineman Jake Price and 5-10, 170-pound sophomore defensive back Murphy Monreal, each earning honorable mention.

Other returnees of note include 6-2, 195-pound junior defensive back Luc Damaini, who had a career high 41 tackles last season, and 6-2, 190-pound junior wide receiver Isaac Olson, who had a career-high 121 yards receiving a year ago.

A pair of last year's quarterbacks are back looking for a chance to thrive in a more balanced offense while exhibiting their leadership -- 6-1, 200-pound sophomore Duke Shovald and 6-4, 200-pound senior Aidan Hoard.

The offensive line is also of note, considering that group was able to successfully block for Dobert and other runners despite the passing game sometimes being nonexistent.

There are a number of transfers listed as "high impact," including Mitch Verstegen, a 6-4, 300-pound offensive lineman from Indiana University; LeeJohn Majerus, a 6-3, 195-pound defensive back from Western Illinois; Jace Miller, a 6-3, 275-pound defensive lineman also from Western Illinois; Daniel Simon, a 6-5, 260-pound defensive lineman from Lindenwood; Logan McGraw, a 6-foot, 218-pound linebacker from Wayne State; Liam Oczkowski, a 6-5, 220-pound junior college quarterback; and Teflon Lee, a 6-4, 200-pound wide receiver from Northern State.

Among the U.P. natives returning on the roster are 5-11, 205-pound senior running back Nico Lukkarinen of Negaunee, who had significant and sometimes game-leading rushing totals in his first three years at NMU; 5-11, 170-pound wide receiver Trevor Theuerkauf of Menominee, who saw significant time at QB last season with injuries decimating that position; 5-9, 195-pound junior running back Tucker Welch of Marquette, who has rushed the ball in multiple games; 5-9, 170-pound sophomore wide receiver Ian Engstrom of Negaunee; 6-foot, 220-pound senior defensive lineman Eli VanBuren of Negaunee; and 5-9, 195-pound junior running back Vince Martin of Bark River-Harris.

There are a number of U.P. freshmen, too, led by a trio from Marquette Senior High School -- 6-7, 285-pound offensive lineman Pavel McCutcheon, who was named the U.P. Lineman of the Year by the U.P. Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association last season; 6-foot, 170-pound wide receiver Pierce Pittsley; and 5-11, 195-pound linebacker Bodi Bennett.

Hailing from Menominee as freshmen are 6-2 quarterback Tanner Theuerkauf, the brother of Trevor Theuerkauf, and 6-1, 192-pound wide receiver Nathan Komp.

Janus' coaching staff includes a pair of coordinators with Division I experience -- Ryan Bright on defense and Boomer Roepke on offense.

Bright coached as a defensive analyst at the University of Wisconsin and also worked with linebackers at Stanford. He was most recently at Arkansas, where he took over as interim linebackers coach midway through last season.

Roepke worked as a graduate assistant at Southern Cal, then at Iowa State as a graduate assistant working with special teams and quarterbacks.

More recently, he was head coach at Division III University of Northwestern-St. Paul, where he helped lead the program to undefeated championships in 2022 and 2024 in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference, along with two playoff appearances.

Last season, he took on a multitude of roles as not only head coach at D-II Concordia-St. Paul, but also offensive coordinator, offensive line coach and director of football operations.

Northern's other assistant coaches come from around the country, many winning conference titles or having other significant success in their previous positions. NMU SI states that Janus and the Wildcats have prioritized bringing a winning mentality to the Wildcats, no matter whether coaches were at junior college right through to Division I levels.

Looking at tonight's opponent, Moorhead was picked to only finish eighth overall this fall in the 14-team Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference after last year's eight-win season that saw the Dragons tie for second in the North Division.

Steve Laqua has been head coach since 2011, with the past three seasons seeing a pass-heavy approach, with future NFL QB Strand leading the way. He and top receivers Gage Florence and Brady Perryman are gone, though.

But they do still have including All-NSIC North First Team picks Manny Wilson on the offensive line and Adam Kallenbach as defensive back, along with a league honoree in Zach Dahl on the defensive line.

Story contents based on a Northern Michigan University Sports Information press release previewing the game. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee's email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.

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