The 2023 Northwestern Red Raiders football team is 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 Northwestern College of

Orange City, Iowa Orange City is a city in, and the county seat of, Sioux County, Iowa, United States. Its population was 6,267 in the 2020 census, an increase from 5,582 in 2000. Named after William of Orange, the community maintains its Dutch settler tradition ...

, as a member of the

Great Plains Athletic Conference The Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) is a List of college athletic conferences in the United States, college athletic conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Member institutions are located ...

(GPAC) during the

2023 NAIA football season 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...

. In their eighth year under head coach Matt McCarty, the Red Raiders compiled a 14–1 record (10–0 against conference opponents), won the GPAC championship, and were ranked No. 1 among all NAIA programs at the end of the regular season. The Red Raiders advanced to the NAIA football playoffs where they received a bye in the first round and defeated (7-0) in the second round, the (34-17) in the quarterfinals, and the in the semifinals. Northwestern lost to Keiser in the NAIA Championship Game on December 18 by a score of 31 to 21. The 2022 team won the NAIA championship, and the Red Raiders compiled a 28-game winning streak dating back to the second game of the 2022 season. Key players on the 2023 team include junior quarterback and co-captain Jalyn Gramstad, senior running back and co-captain Konner McQuillan, and senior wide receiver Michael Storey. Gramstad was named 2023 GPAC Offensive Player of the Year, and Matt McCarty was named GPAC Coach of the Year. A total of nine Northwestern players received first-team honors on the All-GPAC team, including Gramstad, McQuillen, and Storey, as well as offensive linemen Jawan Grant and Patrick Gottburg, long snapper Ty Shafer, defensive lineman Jacob Dragstra, linebacker Ben Egli, and defensive back Cody Moser.

Schedule

References

{{Northwestern Red Raiders football navbox Northwestern (IA) Northwestern Red Raiders football seasons Northwestern Red Raiders football