UP Gazette

The Northern Michigan University football team will travel to Grand Rapids to face Davenport University in a non-conference game on Saturday, November 8, at noon.

Northern Michigan is coming off a 70-35 defeat against Ferris State, the top-ranked team in the nation. Despite the loss, NMU managed to score more points than any other opponent has against Ferris State this season. Quarterback Trevor Theuerkauf completed eight passes for 131 yards and two touchdowns. Running back Noah Dobert rushed for 117 yards during the game, surpassing 1,000 rushing yards for the season. Dobert is the first Wildcat since Jake Mayon in 2018 to achieve this milestone and currently leads the GLIAC conference in rushing yards while ranking eighth nationally.

Last week, NMU gained a total of 355 offensive yards against Ferris State. Theuerkauf recorded his best performance of the year by passing for 131 yards and rushing for another 42. He contributed four out of five of NMU’s touchdowns—two on foot and two through passes to Sebastian Boyea and Jake Heemstra. Tucker Welch scored NMU’s remaining touchdown.

Heading into their rematch with Davenport, Northern Michigan plans to rely heavily on its running game as it did earlier this season when facing Davenport. Dobert leads with an average of 5.1 yards per carry and seven touchdowns so far this year. Theuerkauf has completed 31 of his 64 pass attempts with four touchdowns and has also rushed for 242 yards.

On defense, linebackers Jax Hertel and Mitch Larkin are expected to play key roles. Hertel leads with 79 tackles and 13.5 tackles for loss; Larkin follows with 67 tackles. In the secondary, Murphy Monreal had a standout performance last week with fourteen tackles.

Davenport offers a balanced offense led by running back Cephus Harris who has accumulated 868 rushing yards and sixteen touchdowns this season—including a previous outing against NMU where he rushed for 171 yards and three scores. Wide receiver Keonta Nixon averages fifty-six receiving yards per game while quarterback D’Wan Mathis brings dual-threat capabilities despite missing some time due to injury.

Defensively, Davenport allows only twenty point four points per game—third-best in the GLIAC conference—with linebacker Latrell Scott leading at sixty-two tackles and lineman Kennedy Nelson contributing significantly to their pass rush with four sacks and ten tackles for loss.

Fans can follow updates about Saturday’s matchup through @NMU_Football and @NMU_Wildcats on X (formerly Twitter), as well as via live streaming options or statistics tracking platforms.