OUAZ Football Game 1 Notes
• OUAZ will begin the second season of football on Thursday when the Spirit travel to Crete, Neb., to face Doane College on the opening night of the new NAIA football season.

• The game will kickoff at 7 p.m. (Central) / 5 p.m. (Arizona) from Al Papik Field on the Doane College campus. It is the first of four games in the central time zone for the Spirit this season.

• Thursday will mark the first-ever meeting between the two programs. Doane will become the 11th different opponent OUAZ will have faced in the program's history.

• The game is also the first against a team from the Great Plains Athletic Conference for OUAZ. The GPAC will become the third NAIA conference the Spirit have faced a team from in the two seasons of the program.

How to Follow
• Thursday's game will be broadcast live by News Channel Nebraska Southeast and be available on their website or through the News Channel Nebraska OTT app for Amazon Fire, AppleTV, and Roku devices. The direct link will be available at OUAZSpirit.com/watch on game day.

• James Poovey and Vince D' Aliesio will have the OUAZ audio broadcast available at OUAZSpirit.com/listen. This audio only online broadcast will be delivered on the OUAZ Game Central portal.

• Live stats will also be available during the game at OUAZSpirit.com/stats.

Season Openers
• OUAZ enters Thursday's game looking to win its season opener for the second straight season.

• Last season, the Spirit defeated Cetys Universidad, 51-19, at Spirit Field to begin the team's inaugural season.

• Thursday will mark the first time OUAZ will begin a season on the road.

Opening on a Thursday
• The season opener will mark the first-ever game the Spirit have played on a Thursday. OUAZ played all regular season games on a Saturday last season before hosting the NCCAA Victory Bowl on a Friday night.

• The game is one of eight games across the NAIA on the season's official opening night and the only involving a team from the SAC. 

• The NAIA season opened with one game on Saturday when No. 10 Reinhardt defeated Webber International 16-6.

Preseason Hype
• At the SAC Media Day in July, OUAZ was picked to finish second in the nine-team conference this season.

• The Spirit received 56 points in the poll and were picked to win the conference on three of the coaches ballots.

• OUAZ also received nine points in the AFCA-NAIA Preseason Top-25 Poll that was released on August 5.

• That had the Spirit among the Others Receiving Votes section in a tie for 30th overall. This was the first poll OUAZ was eligible to be ranked in.

Production Returning
• Entering year number two of competition, OUAZ brings back 48 letterwinners from the inaugural season. That groups accounts for large portion of statistical production from 2018.
 

CATEGORY	2018 TOTAL	RETURNING	PERCENT
Points	508	356	70.1%
Touchdowns	69	44	63.8%
Pass Yards	3,670	3,670	100%
Rush Yards	1,660	1,642	98.9%
Rec Yards	3,670	2,019	55.0%
Tot Offense	5,330	5,312	99.7%
Tackles	880	630	71.6%
Sacks	35	15	42.9%
Interceptions	7	6	85.7%

Experienced Starters
• While the 2019 team brings back 48 letterwinners from the inaugural season, that group is bolstered by 18 starters that features nine on offense and nine on defense.

• The Spirit also bring back AFCA-NAIA All-American punter, Austin Bohn, and Second Team All-SAC kicker, John Williams.

Swapping Numbers
• A handful of key players are switching jersey numbers this year. Below is a list of number switches among lettermen.
 

PLAYER	NEW #	OLD #
Alema Collins	1	95
Jeremiah Greylock	2	8
Marcelous Chester-Riley	5	25
Kristopher Ewens	7	21
Maurri DeBerry	8	12
Marcus Farria	23	70
Maverick Bradford	29	94
Garrett Dickens	67	77
Kavon Gardner	81	89

High Flying Offense
• The OUAZ offense was a juggernaut in 2018 as the Spirit finished third in the NAIA by gaining 533.0 yards per game. 

• They were second in the country by throwing for 367.0 yards per game and fifth with a 175.7 passing efficiency.

• In scoring 50.8 points per game, OUAZ ended 2018 as the third-highest scoring team in the NAIA.

Yards in Chunks
• Much of that total yardage came via chunk plays (plays of 20-plus yards). OUAZ had 110 plays – or returns – of 20-plus yards last season with 42 of those playing ending in a touchdown.

• Of those 110 chunk plays, 26 went for 50-plus yards with 15 of those being at least 70 yards. For the year, OUAZ scored 10 touchdowns on plays of 70-plus yards.

Slow Starts
• The 2018 Spirit had a hard time generating offense on their first possessions out of the locker room. 

• In 10 opening possessions last season, OUAZ scored a touchdown four times, but only once in the season's final six games. They went three-and-out three times and had one turnover.

• On their first possession of the second half, OUAZ scored just two times with four punts and two turnovers.

In the Zone
• OUAZ was effective at coming away with points once they reached the red zone last season. In 38 trips inside the opponents 20-yardline, the Spirit scored 31 times (82 percent).

• They were able to punch it in for a touchdown on 24 of those opportunities. That is a TD on 63 percent of red zone trips.

Racking Up Miles
• This season the Spirit will rack up the miles while traveling to their five road games. The trips will see the team play games in Nebraska, Texas, Oklahoma, and Arizona.

• The five road trips will account for 8,696 round trip driving miles from Spirit Field, and that includes a 24-mile round trip to Cactus High School to face ACU.

Building a Program
• With the Spirit opening their second season of competition on Thursday, it is actually the third year of the program. To build a new program, OUAZ has brought players in from all across the country.

• The opening week roster includes players that list 16 different states and American Somoa as their hometown.

• While 34 student-athletes are from Arizona, the team also features 28 from California. There are four players from Louisiana and three from Michigan, Texas, Utah, and Washington.

Preseason Honor
• OUAZ junior quarterback Austin McCullough was honored by the SAC coaches as the league's Preseason Offensive Player of the Year.

• McCullough threw for 3,054 yards and 35 touchdowns while piloting OUAZ to a league-best 50.8 points a game in 2018. He produced a 57.5 completion percentage and a SAC-high 172.6 passing efficiency while limiting himself to 10 interceptions. 

• McCullough was given the award after being named honorable-mention all-conference and receiving one SAC offensive player of the week nod last year.

What Moreland Can He Do
• Shamar Moreland returns in 2019 after being named the SAC Special Teams Player of the Year in 2018. What is lost in that award is that Moreland led the Spirit with 695 rushing yards and 10 rushing touchdowns last season.

• Moreland was the NAIA leader in averaging 214.4 all-purpose yards per game last season and his 2,144 total was third-most in the country.

• He also led the nation with 493 punt return yards and 788 kick return yards. His average of 20.5 yards per punt return was second nationally and he was fifth at 27.2 yards per kick return.

Every Down Back
• Marcelous Chester-Riley was second on the Spirit and 10th in the SAC with 498 rushing yards last season.

• Riley also had 27 receptions for 409 yards to average 15.1 yards per catch. 

• He scored 10 total touchdowns and was 48th in the NAIA by scoring 6.0 points per game.

Put It On Greylock
• Jeremiah Greylock looks to become the No. 1 receiving threat for the Spirit in 2019. He tied for the team lead with 34 catches last season.

• Greylock totaled 538 receiving yards in 2018 and he scored six receiving touchdowns.

Starts Up Front
• The OUAZ offensive line was a key part to the success of the team in 2018. The Spirit welcome back seven players that took snaps in a game last season, including four starters.

• The group of returns played a combined 2,704 snaps last season with accounts for 76.0 percent of the total snaps played.

• The returning linemen with experience surrendered 10 sacks and allowed a sack in every 30.7 dropbacks.

Anchoring the Line
• Tristan Shehorn anchors the offensive line from his center position. The senior was named First Team All-SAC and NCCAA Second Team All-American last season.

• Shehorn led the Spirit with 646 snaps played in 2018. That was 90.7 percent of all snaps taken by the team.

• He allowed five sacks during the season, or a sack for every 75.0 dropbacks he played.

Lloyd Also All-Conference
• Austin Lloyd capped his freshman season by being named Second Team All-SAC after playing both tackle positions throughout the year.

• Lloyd played 563 total snaps in seven starts and didn't allow a sack in 314 dropbacks.

After the Quarterback
• Alema Collins is back after being named NCCAA First Team All-American last season when he accounted for 49 tackles from his defensive line position.

• Collins added 11.0 tackles-for-loss that went for 37 yards of loss and he had 2.0 sacks for 10 yards lost.

• He also had three pass breakups and one forced fumble.

Tackling Machine
• Safety Da'Shawn Holcombe was the team's leading tackler last season with 79 total tackles and 44 solo tackles.

• He finished third in the SAC by making 7.9 tackles per game to earn honorable mention all-conference honors.

• Holcombe also was third in the conference with three interceptions and he added seven pass breakups and one blocked kick.

Mainstay at Linebacker
• Marcos Garcia started every game at linebacker last season and finished with 51 total tackles.

• He added 5.5 tackles-for-loss (21 yards) and one sack, two breakups, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery.

Flipping the Field
• Austin Bohn was named AFCA-NAIA All-American last season after leading the NAIA by averaging 44.2 yards per punt.

• He had 10 punts of 50-plus yards and 11 that ended inside the opponents 20-yardline. Bohn had a long punt of 78 yards.

• Bohn had 20 of his 34 punts returned by the opposition with two fair catches. He averaged 37.8 net yards per punt for the season.

Scoring Monster
• John Williams finished the season second on the team with 88 points to lead all kickers in the SAC and rank eighth among kickers in the NAIA while his 8.8 kicking points per game was tops in the country.

• Williams converted 64 of 69 PAT attempts to finish 44th in the NAIA at 92.8 percent. During once stretch, he made 34 consecutive PAT kicks.

• He was 8 of 10 on field goal chances to rank eighth in the NAIA at 80 percent. Williams converted his final eight field goal kicks of the season with a long of 41 yards.

About Doane
• Doane will begin its 2019 season after completing a 6-4 campaign last season. They finished tied for fourth in the GPAC with a 5-4 mark in league games.

• Chris Bessler starts his second season leading the Tigers after spending 11 seasons as the program's defensive coordinator.

• Anthony Malone returns at defensive line this season after being named Second Team All-GPAC in 2018. He finished last season with 39 tackles, nine tackles-for-loss ans two sacks.

• The Tigers also return Second Team All-GPAC kicker Bryce Cooney. Last season, Cooney led the team with 64 points and was eighth in the NAIA with 12 made field goals.

• Doane was picked to finish sixth in the 10-team GPAC this season by both the coaches and the media. 

Postseason Eligible
• OUAZ will be eligible for the NAIA Football Championship Series in 2019 after not being eligible last season. The Football Series is the 16-team single elimination playoffs held by the NAIA to determine its national champion.

• Played on the campus site of the higher seeded team through the semifinals, the 64th NAIA Football National Championship Game will be played on December 21, 2019 at Eddie G. Robinson Stadium on the Grambling State University campus  Ruston, Louisiana.

• Morningside (Iowa) won the 2018 title by defeating Benedictine (Kan.), 35-28. They made the title game by defeating two-time defending champion St. Francis (Ind.) in overtime of the semifinals.

NCCAA Member
• OUAZ will again hold a dual affiliation with the NCCAA in 2019 after the Spirit were the hosts of the 2018 NCCAA Victory Bowl.

• That affiliation will give the Spirit a chance to again play in the Victory Bowl should the team not qualify for the NAIA Football Championship Series and be selected to the game of the NCCAA.

College Football 150
• College football will celebrate its 150th season in 2019. The first game was played between Rutgers and Princeton on November 6, 1869.

• CFB150.org states that 897 colleges and universities across the country will field a football in 2019 at all levels (FBS, FCS, Division II and III, NAIA, NJCAA, CCCAA).

OUAZ Season Tickets
• Season tickets for all five OUAZ home games are available now and they start at just $48 dollars per seat.

• With most games expected to reach standing room only, the best way to guarantee your seat is by purchasing season tickets.

• Find complete season ticket information by visiting OUAZSpirit.com/tickets.

Looking Ahead
• OUAZ opens a three-game homestand on September 7 when they welcome Western New Mexico to Spirit Field. The first of five home games this season will kickoff at 7 p.m. 

• Western New Mexico is a NCAA Division II team that plays in the Lone Star Conference. They will be the first Division II opponent the Spirit have played.