Weber State head coach Jay Hill has done an impressive job this season with his program after a great start to the year. The five game winning streak the Wildcats had finally came to an end against North Dakota however and now prepare to host NAU with their FCS playoff hopes still in a good spot. The Lumberjacks are starting to scratch their way back into the race as well, so both teams will definitely be looking to leave it all out on the field after a tough 60 minute match.
Calling Up The Wildcats’ Number
Jay Hill has not had a great time trying to figure out the NAU Lumberjacks since he took up the job in Ogden. Going into his third year with the program he has yet to coach the team to a win against Northern Arizona and the previous two games have been eyebrow raising. The first matchup that Jay Hill had against NAU had his squad jump out to a 22 – 0 lead but the Wildcats allowed 29 unanswered points after that and gave up the victory. The next season saw NAU take the big lead early on as the Lumberjacks got out to a 42 – 9 lead only to see Weber State score four touchdowns and bring it closer to a game. At the end however it proved to be too much of a hill to climb as NAU won the game in Flagstaff with the final score of 52 – 36. While these games have shown moments that Weber State could best NAU, Hill hasn’t been able to coach his team to be dominate in all four quarters of the game. He’ll have to bring the best out of his team for the entirety of it or risk NAU coming out and creating too big of a challenge for his team to best.
Bringing the Sack To The Jacks
The Lumberjacks have found their defensive identity. They are a team that excels at putting pressure on the quarterback. As of right now they lead the Big Sky with 23 sacks and over 170 yards lost with those QB hits. The main provider of that pressure has been Siupeli Anau with his 6.5 sacks this season along with two other players who have reached the 3 sack bench mark at this point in the season. As a whole the defense has 56 tackles for a loss and have done great getting behind the offensive line of their opponents to disrupt plays before they can really start. Weber State hasn’t been terrible guarding the quarterback as they only have 17 sacks given up this season. Last week however was their worst performance of the year guarding Jadrian Clark as he took six sacks in an abysmal game by the offensive line. If NAU can find the right matchups and moves to use against Weber State, they could pad their sack total well in this upcoming game.
Taking Advantage of Mistakes
This season has not been kind to the Wildcats when it comes to turnovers. So far they have lost four fumbles on the year with a total of 11 interceptions to go along with that. Clark has been the main focus of those turnovers with his one fumble and all the picks this season have been thrown from his hand. Thus far he only has one game where he hasn’t thrown an interception and that was against Montana State three weeks ago. He is averaging just over 1 interception per game and last week against North Dakota he threw his season high in picks with 3 just in that contest along. Clark tends to try and fit the ball in spots that he shouldn’t try to and that kind of gunslinging has caused quite a bit of trouble for the Wildcats. If NAU can limit his number big play target in Andrew Vollert, who has 37 catches already this season, they could force Clark to try and spread the ball around. The only other receiver that has been consistent this year for Weber State has been Cam Livingston so he may get a lot of those check throws if Clark’s first read isn’t available. When that happens, look out for the jump because an NAU corner might just take it to the house if they can get the gameplan to work.
The game will be played in Ogden, UT. Kickoff will start at 11:00 AM on November 5th.