Seeking a season-ending win: NMU football finishes by hosting 5-5 Saginaw Valley
NMU football finishes by hosting 5-5 Saginaw Valley
Northern Michigan University head coach Matt Janus yells out instructions during a college football game played against Tiffin at the Superior Dome in Marquette on Sept. 5. (Photo courtesy Cara Camps)
Northern Michigan University quarterback Matt Stevens, right, keeps the ball and goes around the left end for yardage during a preseason college scrimmage held in the Superior Dome in Marquette on Aug. 15. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)
Northern Michigan University head coach Matt Janus yells out instructions during a college football game played against Tiffin at the Superior Dome in Marquette on Sept. 5. (Photo courtesy Cara Camps)
Northern Michigan University quarterback Matt Stevens, right, keeps the ball and goes around the left end for yardage during a preseason college scrimmage held in the Superior Dome in Marquette on Aug. 15. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)
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MARQUETTE -- After a rough 0-7 start to the season, the Northern Michigan University football team recently won back-to-back games to get in the win column for first-year head coach Matt Janus.
Though they were tagged with a 61-14 loss last weekend at nationally ranked Grand Valley State, the Wildcats still have a chance to equal the three-win total of last season that also started roughly before NMU won three of its final five.
Northern hosts Saginaw Valley State at 1 p.m. Saturday in the Superior Dome. The Wildcats' senior class will be honored before the start.
"This senior group has shown their love for Northern Michigan and for our football program and for the (Upper Peninsula)," Janus said in an NMU Sports Information news release previewing the game. "It's a group that has been so pivotal in building this program the way that we want to build it.
"I certainly hope down the road in two or three years that this group can look back and be really proud of being that first group and they were like the 'guinea pigs' under Coach Janus and helped us as a program to build piece by piece and block by block, and that they will be really proud in a couple years of what they've accomplished here and the program we've been able to build."
The game will be available to watch online at FloCollege or heard on radio station WUPT 100.3 The Point. Fans can also follow @NMU_Football on Instagram and X for updates leading up to and during the game, or visit the Wildcats athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and look under the football schedule for links to ticket information, live video, live audio, live statistics and a preview.
Last year's team seemed to ride the back of then-redshirt freshman running back Noah Dobert, who accumulated nearly 900 yards in just their three victories, including a near-all-time NCAA Division II record 406 yards in the season finale vs. Wayne State.
They haven't had to count on him quite as much this season, even though he's the conference's No. 2 rusher with a nifty 1,197 yards, an average of just shy of 120 yards per game.
In fact, if he were to equal last year's 406-yard game in this year's finale, he would finish only about 50 yards behind his total of last year, an NMU-record 1,656 yards.
That would be pretty hard to count on as maybe a once-in-a-lifetime or even once-in-the-history-of-the-program type of game.
The Cardinals are nothing like winless Wayne State was last year in that season-ending game. SVSU is 5-5 overall and 3-3 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, one game ahead of Northern and tied for fourth place.
Saginaw Valley has lost to the three teams ahead of it, Ferris State, Davenport and Michigan Tech, but downed Grand Valley and the other teams behind it in the league.
But the Wildcats are more than a one-trick pony on offense with the emergence of freshman quarterback Matt Stevens.
He's been the starting QB since coming on to complete 2 of 3 passes for 33 yards in fourth-quarter duty vs. Davenport on Oct. 10.
In what is basically four full games, he's rolled up 1,101 yards by completing 82 of 117 passes (70%) with no interceptions and six touchdowns, compiling a passer rating of 168.88.
Last week's loss at GVSU was his only sub-250-yard game since taking over the main QB duties, as he only had 85 yards on 8-of-18 passing against a top Lakers defense.
That was despite he and Dobert leading NMU on a scoring drive to take a quick 7-0 lead before the Lakers countered with 47 straight points through the third quarter.
Dobert took back major offensive duties on this day, with 168 yards rushing and even threw the Wildcats' fourth-quarter TD pass of three yards to Lachlin Acker.
Northern was not only outgained by nearly 300 yards, 522-243, but committed the game's only turnovers, losing the ball three times among six total fumbles.
Looking at GLIAC team statistics at gliac.org, SVSU is close to the middle of the pack in yardage gained, 385.8 yards per game, and yardage allowed, 395.7 per contest.
Northern ranks seventh among eight league teams in yardage gained, 344.1 per game, while allowing the sixth most, 418.2.
A lot more passing takes place in Cardinals' games, however. SVSU has more than twice as many yards through the air, 2,629, than on the ground, 1,229, while NMU is quite close in those categories, gaining 1,848 passing and 1,593 rushing.
Even on defensive yards allowed, SVSU allows 2,434 yards passing and 1,523 rushing. NMU is also close between those two on defense, 2,135 passing and 2,047 rushing.
In their history, the Cardinals lead the all-time series, 27-18, with SVSU winning the last nine as Northern's most recent win was 36-34 in the Superior Dome in 2015.
They first played each other in 1975, a 20-15 NMU win at Memorial Field in Marquette, and played sporadically until making it an annual encounter -- except for the COVID pandemic year of 2020 -- starting in 1982.
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.