NAU football faces No. 1 Montana State in ESPN national game
· Yahoo Sports
Northern Arizona will face a major test this week in a Big Sky Conference showdown coming off a win at Utah Tech on Sept. 19.
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The Lumberjacks (No. 17 AFCA FCS Coaches poll, No. 18 Stats Perform FCS Poll) will face their biggest test of the season as they travel to Bozeman, Montana, to face the No. 1 ranked Montana State Bobcats (both polls) on Saturday, Sept. 26. The Bobcats are the defending FCS champion.
The matchup, which features two of the Big Sky conference's best teams, will be aired nationally on ESPN 2 at 7:30 p.m. MST.
NAU is 3-1 overall in 2026 and 1-0 in conference. Montana St. is 4-0 overall and 1-0 in the Big Sky, and survived a tough game against Central Connecticut State last week, 35-30.
NAU offense breaks out
The Lumberjacks offense produced its best performance of the season against Utah Tech, after scoring 35 points and amassing 495 yards last Saturday.
Senior quarterback Ty Pennington threw for 311 yards, two touchdowns and an interception while completing 18 of 27 passing attempts.
The Lumberjacks also gained 184 yards on the ground, good for 5.9 yards a carry, led by redshirt sophomore Kenveon Stone. He ran for 90 yards on 11 carries and scored two touchdowns, while averaging 8.2 yards a carry.
The Bobcats feature a stout defense, ranking 18th overall in total defense in the FCS.
NAU head coach Brian Wright ackowledged the challenge ahead.
"We're going to have to play our best football game for sure," Wright said, according to an NAU press release. "We've yet to put that all together."
Wright also pointed out that the Lumberjacks will have to clean up some of the mistakes they made against this team last year.
"We pointed out how a couple of the big plays Montana State had affected us mentally," Wright said. "We had a history lesson on being resilient like how our team has been all year long."
Bobcats winning streak
Montana State enters Saturday's game with an 18-game winning streak, the longest in Division I NCAA football, dating back to last season. The Bobcats last loss was to South Dakota State on Sept. 6, 2025. The streak includes 11 straight wins at Bobcat Stadium.
Montana State's offense is averaging 422 yards and 40 points a game this season. Fifth-year senior quarterback Justin Lamson is completing 74.5%, of his passes in 2026, making him third among FCS quarterbacks in completion percentage. He's also thrown for 923 yards, 7 touchdowns and only one interception.
NAU enters Saturday's game with the most takeaways in the FCS with 12.
Redshirt junior safety has secured an interception in the last two games for the Lumberjacks and was named Big Sky Co-Defensive player of the week following last week's win against Utah Tech.
Recent history
The Lumberjacks have dropped four straight games against the Bobcats, dating back to 2017, including a 34-10 loss to the Bobcats in Flagstaff last season.
NAU will also be playing a No. 1 ranked team for the first time since 2021, when they faced Sam Houston State, which now is in FBS Conference USA.
The Lumberjacks are 1-3 all-time against top ranked opponents, the last time they beat the No. 1 team in FCS was in 2003, when they beat McNeese State in the FCS playoffs.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: NAU football faces No. 1 Montana State in ESPN national game