GREELEY — Northern Colorado’s football team believes it has size and depth on its defensive line this season, and that could be the key to improving a run defense that finished seventh in the Big Sky Conference in yards allowed per game (108.2) last year.
The Bears certainly got bigger with Wyoming transfer Marcus Felker (6-feet-1, 370 pounds), who is expected to plug up the middle at defensive tackle. Still, depth may be the bigger key to stopping the run this season.
The Bears enter the season with 16 defensive linemen, by far the most UNC has had up front in coach Scott Downing’s tenure.
“That is kind of the way everywhere I’ve been where we’ve been successful, we play a lot of defensive linemen,” Downing said. “When I was at the University of Nebraska, we played five defensive tackles and four defensive ends every game. When I was at Purdue, same thing. It’s a war inside. Those are big bodies running into big bodies.”
That’s why Downing would rather have linemen go 25 to 35 plays a game instead of 65 to be fresher late in games and hopefully stay free of injuries.
It should especially help guys like Felker, who because of his size will take a lot of pounding as teams try to double-team him. Still, it is something Felker expects.
“It has been like that forever,” Felker said. “Back in high school, I was in a three-entry man front, so I got those double and triple teams. I like it. I pride myself on being able to take that, and I pride myself on being able to free up somebody else because if they double team me, they can’t double team somebody else.”
That is what defensive end Nick Hernon is hoping will happen. Hernon, a honorable mention all-Big Sky selection last year with five sacks, believes he can reach double digits in sacks this season with big bodies like Felker taking up blockers in the middle.
“It makes it so the quarterback can’t step into his throws,” Hernon said. “He can’t always step up, so when the ends are coming off the edge, it opens a lot of things up when you’ve got size in the middle.”
Senior Ethan Davis, a projected starter at defensive tackle after moving from defensive end last season, has missed all of fall camp with back problems. Redshirt freshman defensive tackle Pasi Fahina (6-0, 270) has stepped in to fill the void.
“The good thing about the D-line is we’re kind of stacked,” Fahina said. “We have a lot of people that can play behind other people, and they can do the job as well.”
Footnote.
The Bears will conclude fall camp with an 8 a.m. practice today at the Butler-Hancock practice fields. The Bears will begin their regular practice schedule starting with Monday’s closed practice. Open practices usually run from 3:45-6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday.
