The 2023 North Central Cardinals 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 wi ...

team that represented

North Central College North Central College is a private college in Naperville, Illinois. It is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and has nearly 70 areas of study in undergraduate majors, minors, and programs through 19 academic departments organized in thre ...

Naperville, Illinois Naperville ( ) is a city in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is in the Chicago metro area, west of the city. Naperville was founded in 1831 by Joseph Naper. The city was ...

, as a member of the

College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin The College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) is a college athletic conference which competes in the Division III level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). CCIW schools have accounted for 50 national championships i ...

(CCIW) during the

2023 NCAA Division III football season The 2023 NCAA Division III football season was the component of the 2023 college football season organized by the NCAA at the Division III level in the United States. The regular season began on September 2 and ended on November 12. This was th ...

. In their second year under head coach Brad Spencer, the Cardinals compiled a 14–1 record (9–0 against conference opponents), won the CCIW championship, and were ranked No. 1 in Division III at the end of the regular season. The team advanced to the Division III playoffs where they defeated (65–0) in the first round, Trinity (TX) (71–28) in the second round, (55–42) in the quarterfinals, and

Wartburg The Wartburg () is a castle originally built in the Middle Ages. It is situated on a precipice of to the southwest of and overlooking the town of Eisenach, in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It was the home of St. Elisabeth of Hungary, the ...

(34–27) in the semifinals. The Cardinals were then defeated by Cortland, 38–37, in the Stagg Bowl, the Division III championship game. North Central scored with 1:20 remaining against Cortland but was stopped on an attempted two-point conversion. Prior to the loss to Cortland, the Cardinals had won 29 consecutive games and appeared in four consecutive Division III championship games, winning national championships in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

and

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

. The team broke CCIW offensive records with 576 points and 5,504 total yards in nine conference games. Through all 15 games, the Cardinals scored an NCAA record 879 points, an average of 58.6 points per game. The team was led by quarterback Luke Lehnen, who won the

Gagliardi Trophy The Gagliardi Trophy was first presented in 1993 to the Outstanding Division III college football player of the year by the Jostens Company and the J-Club of Saint John's University in Minnesota. Since that time, the award has become one of the ...

as the Division III player of the year. Other key players included running back Joe Sacco, wide receiver DeAngelo Hardy, and linebacker BJ Adamchik.

Schedule

Coaching staff

* Brad Spencer, head coach * Shane Dierking, assistant head coach, defensive coordinator, linebackers coach * Eric Stuedemann, offensive coordinator, offensive line coach, recruiting coordinator * Colin Wood, special teams coordinator, cornerbacks coach * Joe Fehrle, tight end coach, strength coordinator * DJ Warkenthien, defensive line coach assistant strength coordinator * Sharmore Clarke, offensive line coach

References

{{Reflist North Central North Central Cardinals football seasons North Central Cardinals football