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It doesn’t change our mindset. It doesn’t matter if we’re picked first or 13th, we’re gonna go in and finish this summer strong, try to have the best fall camp we can have and then we’re gonna go play Utah on September first – SUU head football coach Demario Warren
PARK CITY — Northern Arizona University, which last won a Big Sky Conference football championship in 2003 and finished tied for fourth place in the league with three other teams last year, is the preseason favorite to capture this year's league crown.
The Lumberjacks, who went 5-3 in conference play and 7-4 overall last season, topped both preseason polls announced Tuesday at the Big Sky's annual Football Media Days event. Weber State and Southern Utah finished in the middle of the pack in both polls.
In the media poll, NAU edged the University of Montana, 287 points to 283. The Lumberjacks received eight first-place votes compared to seven for the Grizzlies. Eastern Washington was third with 269, followed by North Dakota (262) and Portland State (252).
Weber State (174 points) and defending league champion Southern Utah (162) finished sixth and seventh, respectively, in the media voting. Five different schools received two or more first-place votes.
NAU also led the way in the coaches' poll with 132 points and eight first-place votes, while Montana and Portland State shared second place with 121 points apiece. Eastern Washington was fourth with 112 and North Dakota fifth with 105.
Weber State was sixth with 83 points, and SUU and Montana State shared seventh place with 73 points each in the coaches' voting.
Northern Arizona's preseason stock soared based in part on the strong performance of quarterback Case Cookus, who was named the STATS Football Championship Subdivision Freshman of the Year in 2015 when he threw the ball for 3,117 yards and 37 touchdowns with just five interceptions.
The sophomore QB, who was named first-team All-Big Sky last season, also has his top target returning this year in junior receiver Emmanuel Butler, who caught 64 passes for 1,208 yards and 15 TDs in 2015.
But despite all that prolific offense, NAU coach Jerome Souers — the second-winningest coach in Big Sky history with 107 career victories, just four wins behind all-time leader Chris Ault of Nevada with 111 — says his team's defense will determine whether the Lumberjacks will live up to their high preseason expectations.
"I think what everybody does is they look at our quarterback and they look at those prolific numbers and they make a pick," Souers said. "But we all know defense wins championships, and that's what we've gotta have. At the end of the day, that's what will define us this year — how our defense performs.
"I think, offensively, we have a chance to be just as good as we were last year ... but our defense will ultimately define us as far as our win-loss record at the end of the year.
"I've been in the business long enough to know that preseason polls are what they are — they're preseason, they're fun, but they have no bearing on the outcome of your season," said Souers, who is 107-97 overall with 12 winning seasons in his first 18 years at NAU.
Weber State, which was picked 10th and 11th in last year's polls, surprised the so-called experts by going 5-3 in the Big Sky and 6-5 overall last season. Third-year WSU head coach Jay Hill sees this year's sixth-place poll showing as a reflection of the program's progress.
"I think that the respect has to go up based on we were much-improved last year and we have a lot of returning starters this year," Hill said. "The polls don't mean anything. Last year, the teams that finished at the top of the conference were picked to finish towards the bottom (in the preseason). So I don't put much stock into polls.
"I know one thing — we've got to continue to get better. The polls probably placed us right about where we should've been based on where we finished last season and the progression we've made.
"Coaches and media see us getting better. I'm glad that we're gaining some respect; we want that," he said. "But in the end, is that going to be the determining factor on whether we win a conference championship or not? Not at all. We've got to continue to get better, we've got to continue to win games. We need our key players to play great this year."
Southern Utah won its first Big Sky championship last season, going 7-1 in conference play and 8-4 overall after being picked just eighth in the preseason polls.
This year, with former head coach Ed Lamb leaving the SUU program for a job on new BYU coach Kalani Sitake's staff, Demario Warren takes over the reins as the Thunderbirds' head coach. Warren spent the past eight years as an assistant on the SUU staff, including the last two seasons as coordinator of a strong defensive unit that sent safety Miles Killebrew, cornerback LeShaun Sims and end James Cowser to the NFL earlier this year.
Warren wasn't going to lose any sleep over SUU's middle-of-the-pack pick despite his squad being the league's defending champion.
"It doesn't change our mindset. It doesn't matter if we're picked first or 13th, we're gonna go in and finish this summer strong, try to have the best fall camp we can have and then we're gonna go play Utah on September first," Warren said. "So polls do nothing to that plan and it doesn't bother us or motivate us one way or another.
"We've only had a couple good years in the conference. It's gonna take some time for us to earn the respect that Montana, Eastern Washington and Montana State and all those other schools have. It takes time, it takes consistent winning year in and year out. ... It's not surprising that we're picked there ... and those polls have nothing to do with the season.
"The cupboard's not empty," Warren said. "It's great to take over a team with this much talent and this much character, and we're just trying to get the maximum out of our potential. We've got a lot of guys that are hungry, that want to win, that had to come together with coach Lamb leaving in late December and not knowing who the head coach was gonna be. So this team was gonna be together no matter who the head coach was, and fortunately for us it was me and now it's a great time to reap those benefits of those guys coming closer and being united to what transpired after winning the championship."
2016 Big Sky Conference
Preseason Football Polls
School points
(1st-place votes in parentheses)
Media poll
1. Northern Arizona (8) .......... 287
2. Montana (7) ....................... 283
3. Eastern Washington (5) ...... 269
4. North Dakota (2) ................ 262
5. Portland State (3) ............... 252
6. Weber State ....................... 174
7. Southern Utah .................... 162
8. Montana State .................... 157
9. Cal Poly .............................. 153
10. Northern Colorado ............. 111
11. Idaho State ........................ 58
12. UC Davis ............................ 56
13. Sacramento State ............... 50
Coaches' poll
1. Northern Arizona (8) ............ 132
2. (tie) Montana ...................... 121
2. (tie) Portland State (2) ......... 121
4. Eastern Washington (2) ....... 112
5. North Dakota (1) ................. 105
6. Weber State ......................... 83
7. (tie) Southern Utah ............... 73
7. (tie) Montana State ............... 73
9. Cal Poly ............................... 66
10. Northern Colorado .............. 43
11. Sacramento State ............... 30
12. Idaho State ........................ 24
13. UC Davis ............................. 23
EMAIL: rhollis@desnews.com