The 1996 Northern Arizona Lumberjacks football team was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team that represented

Northern Arizona University Northern Arizona University (NAU) is a public research university based in Flagstaff, Arizona. It was founded in 1899 as the final public university established in the Arizona Territory, 13 years before Arizona was admitted as the 48th state. ...

(NAU) as a member of the

Big Sky Conference The Big Sky Conference (BSC) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I with football competing in the Football Championship Subdivision. Member institutions are located in the western United States in the eigh ...

(Big Sky) during the 1996 NCAA Division I-AA football season. The team compiled a 9–3 record and was No. 6 in the NCAA Division I-AA playoff participant rankings. Running back

Archie Amerson Archie J. Amerson (born August 24, 1974) is an American former professional Canadian football running back and slotback who played in the Canadian Football League (CFL) from 1997 to 2004, appearing in 122 regular season games for the Hamilton ...

won the

Walter Payton Award The Walter Payton Award is awarded annually to the most outstanding offensive player in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) of college football as chosen by a nationwide panel of media and college sports ...

as the most outstanding offensive player in NCAA Division I-AA football.

Season overview

In their seventh year under head coach Steve Axman, the Lumberjacks compiled a 9–3 record (6–1 against conference opponents), outscored opponents by a total of 506 to 333, and finished second out of nine teams in the Big Sky. The team played its home games at the J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome, commonly known as the

Walkup Skydome The J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome is an indoor multipurpose stadium in the southwestern United States, located on the campus of Northern Arizona University (NAU) in Flagstaff, Arizona. It is primarily used as the home of the NAU Lumberjacks foot ...

, in

Flagstaff, Arizona Flagstaff ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Coconino County, Arizona, Coconino County in northern Arizona, in the southwestern United States. In 2019, the city's estimated population was 75,038. Flagstaff's combined metropolitan area has ...

. During the regular season, the team lost only two games, one against Division I-A

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

(33–49) and the other to No. 2

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

(32–48). The Lumberjacks were invited to play in the 1996 NCAA Division I-AA playoffs. In the program's first ever Division I-AA playoff game, they lost to Furman by a 42–31 score before a crowd of 8,700 at the Walkup Skydome.

Statistical leaders and records

The team was led on offense by running back

. He rushed for 2,079 yards and 25 rushing touchdowns (both NAU records) and received the

as the most outstanding offensive player in NCAA Division I-AA football. He had six 200-yard rushing games during the 1996 season, and his single-game totals of 289 yards against Portland State and 281 yards against Weber State rank among the top 10 rushing games in NAU history.2013 Media Guide, p. 53. His seven rushing touchdowns against Weber State established a Division I-AA record.2013 Media Guide, p. 54. Quarterback Travis Brown also had a record-breaking season with 3,398 passing yards (then a school record) and also set NAU single-game records with 474 passing yards against Montana and seven passing touchdowns against Sacramento State.2013 Media Guide, pp. 31, 54-55. Ricky Pearsall also set a Division I-AA record with 216 punt return yards against Western New Mexico. The 1996 team also set the school's single-season scoring record with 63 touchdowns.2013 Media Guide, p. 61. Its 75-0 win over Western New Mexico was the largest point total and largest margin of victory in school history.

Schedule

References

{{1996 Division I-AA football playoff navbox

Northern Arizona Northern Arizona is an unofficial, colloquially-defined region of the U.S. state of Arizona. Generally consisting of Apache, Coconino, Mohave, Navajo, and Gila counties, the region is geographically dominated by the Colorado Plateau, the sout ...

Northern Arizona Lumberjacks football seasons

Northern Arizona Lumberjacks football The NAU Lumberjacks football program is the intercollegiate American football team for the Northern Arizona University located in Flagstaff, Arizona. The team competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and is a member ...