While the buzz in Tempe is undeniable over the upcoming season for the Sun Devils, Northern Arizona, in their own right, is also entering the fall with palpable momentum. The Voice of the Lumberjacks, Mitch Strohman, offers his insight of NAU and what ASU can expect in its season opener.
DevilsDigest: The Lumberjacks coming off 8-5 season, first winning season in a non-COVID year since 2017, and they were ranked in the FCS coaches’ poll in the top 25 at the end of last season, and are also ranked now in that same poll in the preseason. I gotta imagine a lot of buzz right now in Flagstaff…
Mitch Strohman: “There is a huge buzz about NAU football, not just in Flagstaff, but I would argue in the whole state of Arizona. People are looking to Flagstaff, and they’re looking at what this football team has the potential to become in very short order, and they’re turning their heads and looking up toward the San Francisco Peaks.
“It’s been a great run in just one year for head coach Brian Wright. What he accomplished in his first season as head coach of this football team is something that, quite frankly, we haven’t seen in more than a generation, if not maybe a couple of generations for a first-year head coach, and there is a ton of excitement. Season tickets are nearly sold out for the entire season in the Walkup Skydome for six home games. We’re going to be on national television in a game in Flagstaff for the first time in anybody’s memory, if not ever, with a Halloween night game against the Idaho Vandals on ESPN2.
“The expectations are high, but they should be high given what this team accomplished last season.”
DevilsDigest: A big part of the hype and the success of last season was the play of quarterback Ty Pennington, who won the Big Sky Newcomer of the Year. In your opinion, what makes him such a special quarterback, and have you seen any signs in the offseason that he could actually improve over 2024?
Mitch Strohman: “He already is better, to be perfectly honest with you. He’s more comfortable in Coach Wright’s offensive scheme. He’s got a full year in that scheme as the starter, and you have to keep in mind that Ty Pennington came to Northern Arizona University as a transfer in the portal when his head coach at Pittsburgh State and Kansas, Brian Wright, came to NAU as the head coach. He’s had a few years with Wright, but last year, he was given the keys to the Cadillac, if you will, and named the starting quarterback.
“That’s just a different situation altogether. He has that full year under his belt, a year of offseason work with Brian Wright to understand the subtleties and the complexities of his offense, and he does look better. He brings to the table a command of his head coach’s offensive scheme that is just a delight to watch on the field. He’s clearly the leader in the huddle. He has the team in his leadership role in the locker room. He’s a tough young man, not afraid of contact by any means, and he’s got a great arm.
“He’s savvy inside and outside of the pocket, and that’s why he was named Big Sky Conference Newcomer of the Year, and was named preseason Big Sky Conference quarterback in a vote by the media, which is a big honor for anybody in this league.”
DevilsDigest: How would you describe the offensive scheme for the Lumberjacks?
Mitch Strohman: “Get the ball downfield as aggressively as possible, but not become predictable. It’s an aggressive offense, and Brian Wright is all about the offense. He is a former quarterback, as he played in college. He’s a guy who is all about dissecting defenses and finding their points of weakness and trying to exploit them.
“It’s an offense that’s not afraid to go jumbo and heavy and run the football with a toughness, or spread you out with five wides and force you to make coverage decisions that you may or may not be comfortable with. I think the expectation is that this offense this year will be even more polished in year two than it was in year one for Brian Wright.”
DevilsDigest: Looking at the stats from last year, it may be surprising to see an 8-win team like NAU have a middle-of-the-pack rushing offense and passing offense in the Big Sky. What was your overview of those two team facets, and can they take that next step in 2025?
Mitch Strohman: “I think a lot of what you’re referring to comes from the newness of the system last year. It was a complete rebuild, from the foundation to the shingles on the top of the roof, systematically, personnel-wise, coaching-wise, philosophy-wise…total rebuild. And there are a lot of new players. The roster last year was more than three-quarters new. This year, though, it’s different. The entire coaching staff is back from last year. That’s a statement, and people need to pay attention to that. That’s a tough thing to do in this day and age, when you have success anywhere, you have people who want to grab pieces of that success from you.
“A lot of these players, who like many of them in this day and age, have opportunities elsewhere in the transfer portal and NIL era, elected to stay in Flagstaff for another year. So that consistency from last year to I think, will be the big difference-maker from what you saw last year going into 2025.”
DevilsDigest: It’s interesting hearing you say that Brian Wright is such an offensive-minded coach because when you look at the other side of the ball, suffice to say that the defense was outstanding for the Lumberjacks: 3rd in the conference in rushing defense, and ranked the best passing defense in the Big Sky. What, in your opinion, made this group so exceptional last year?
Mitch Strohman: “Well, the secret sauce starts right at the top of the defense in defensive coordinator Adam Clark. That man can flat out coach defense, and he is a great motivator of his players. There’s trust between the players and the coaching staff on the defensive side of the football, and that trust came quickly last year. What made that so impressive to me as an observer of NAU football was to see how quickly that happened. It was evident in spring practices a year ago that the relationships between the coaches and the players were different. And it’s even more tangible a year later as you have strengthened those bonds and those relationships.
“Schematically, you can’t really put a fingerprint on it, and that’s part of what makes Adam Clark’s defense so difficult to manage on the offensive side. Because you might see three-man fronts. You could see four-man fronts. You could see five dropping back. You could see zone blitzing. It’s like you’re never quite really sure what you’re going to see on the other side of the football when Adam Clark is calling those defensive signals onto the field. It’s flexible. It bends and twists to the situation of the moment, and he’s not afraid to bring heat.”
DevilsDigest: I know Sun Devil fans will be zeroed in on Ty Pennington Saturday night next week, but can you give me two players on offense and two players on defense that you believe those watching the game should also be on the lookout for during this contest?
Mitch Strohman: “That’s a good question, because I have several good candidates that I could identify. Let’s start with the offense. One player is No. 8, wide receiver Jayson Raines. He is a graduate transfer who comes to NAU from Stanford. He is big, strong, listed at 6’4″, about 215-220 lbs. He’s big, strong, has incredible hands, runs great routes, has the ability to go high for the football with his height, length, and his athleticism. He’s a big time wide receiver who has just had a phenomenal preseason camp.
“Another guy on the offense, is No. 34 with and this will very likely be the starting running back, Seth Cromwell. He’s a transfer from Missouri Western State, and he’s in his second season at NAU. He played Division II football in the same conference that Brian Wright coached in at Pittsburgh State. He is just a beast with the football, stands at 5’10”, and he’s around 220 lbs. He’s incredibly powerful, and has a great sense of where the hole might be opening up on the offensive line. He’s got breakaway speed when he needs to turn in the extra gear and put the afterburners on. I think He’s going to be a very big factor in the Big Sky conference in 2025.
“On the defense, I’m going to start with No. 44 Fo (Tausagafou) Ho Ching. He’s a defensive lineman transfer who came in a couple of years ago from Houston Christian. He’s a space filler and a tough as nails player on that defensive line, a leader on the defense, and he’s very versatile. Not only is he a starting defensive lineman, but he will also, and he did last year, take some snaps on the offensive side as a fullback. He had a touchdown reception last season as a fullback.
“For the other player on defense, I would probably stay on the defensive line because I think this group is a big strength of this football team this year, and go with No. 50 Micah Carreon. He’s a veteran of this team, and this game against ASU will be his 21st game as a Lumberjack. He is an incredible vocal leader on this football team, and he’s super athletic. He’s a defensive lineman, but he played safety in high schoo,l and he was his league’s defensive MVP in high school. He had one of his best games last year at the hated Arizona Wildcats with a career-high nine tackles, and his athleticism and his leadership abilities are next level.”
DevilsDigest: Brian Wright has completed only one season in Flagstaff. I gotta believe the fan base is already extremely content with him, but did his success as a first-year coach surprise you? And do you feel that, by default, the pressure that he has in year two is probably greater than you thought it would be when he got hired?
Mitch Strohman: “Good question. I was somewhat surprised at the speed of the success that Brian Wright was able to institute with this football team in 2024. But I wasn’t surprised that we had success. His track record in his resume coming to Flagstaff was just phenomenal. He’s won everywhere he has been a coach, both as an assistant coach and as a head coach. He’s coached at the big boy level and had great success in the FBS. His offensive mind is clearly genius-level because you look at the offensive numbers at the places where he was a coach, and the productivity is just off the charts everywhere.
“So, his philosophy of offense translates and carries from FBS to FCS to Division II. It didn’t surprise me that we were able to have great success in his first year, but I think it was the speed at which we had that success, again, with a total rebuild last year. And when you add a very big roster rebuild and you have to think, ‘Okay, it’s going to take a minute for things to kind of settle and for us to get our footing.’
“It was clearly evident in preseason camp a year ago now, that the way practices were being run and organized and executed was so professional and so on point. These coaches came in and just changed the entire paradigm of how NAU football operates as an organization, top to bottom, every single day. And then we go out and win those eight games, and make a playoff appearance for the first time in quite a while. We were undefeated at home in our first season under Brian Wright, and playing football that’s so fun to watch and so entertaining.
“You could see during the course of the season that instead of fan interest waning as the season goes on, as had been the case for so many years with NAU football, fan interest went up as the season progressed. We saw big crowds in the Skydome all the way to the final game of the regular season in Flagstaff, which is a rarity in this town. So, it was surprising to a certain extent, but again, given his track record and his resume coming to Flagstaff, not as surprising as some might think.”
DevilsDigest: ASU is a heavy favorite in this game, but this is easily one of the best NAU teams that they’ve played in recent memory. How do you see this matchup unfolding on Saturday night next week?
Mitch Strohman: “Well, it’s going to be a tough game I think for NAU. As you said, yeah, we’re enormous underdogs and quite frankly, we should be. We’re talking about the No. 11 team in the country in the preseason and defending Big 12 champs. I say that again: Big 12 champs. A team that qualified for the College Football Playoff that had magic just surging all over Mountain America Stadium last season. This is a program that’s clearly on a trajectory to become a national championship-caliber football team every season.
“We should be underdogs. We’re an FCS team. But this team, if you talk to Brian Wright and he will say this very openly, is that NAU is going into this game to win the game. They’re not going down there to look good, play competitively, try not to get blown off the field, or any of those types of pejoratives. No, they are coming down the mountain to Tempe with a mindset of wanting and expecting to win the football game.
“These games between FCS and FBS teams are so difficult to predict, but miracles have happened, and just a few years ago, NAU went to Tucson and defeated the former Pac-12 Arizona Wildcats in one of the biggest wins in program history. We all want everybody on both teams to come out of this football game healthy and with no major injuries and I’m looking forward to seeing this NAU football team and I’m looking forward to calling this NAU football team play ASU for the first time in a few years and see what we can do against a national championship caliber FBS football team.”
