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Utah Tech Football Media Central
Lance Anderson Coaches Show: TRAILBLAZER SPORTSVISION
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FOR STARTERS 
• Utah Tech opens its 2025 six-game road slate with a scenic bus ride to Flagstaff for a Saturday afternoon match-up at Big Sky Conference opponent No. 19/19 Northern Arizona.
• Utah Tech is 1-2 all-time vs. NAU, which includes a 50-36 road victory the last time the Trailblazers ventured down to Flagstaff two seasons ago (9/16/23).
• However the Lumberjacks exacted a little bit of revenge last year with a 45-17 road win at Greater Zion Stadium (9/14/24).
• The two sides met for the first time during Utah Tech's inaugural NCAA Division II season in 2006. That season, then-Dixie State opened that campaign with four-straight road games, with the NAU match-up serving as the final game of that stretch. The end result was a 66-14 Lumberjack win at the Walkup Skydome (9/16/06). 
• Saturday's Utah Tech/NAU football game will be the last non-conference tilt between the two programs. Next season, Utah Tech is set to join the Big Sky Conference.  
• Utah Tech fell to 5-34 (4-33 overall vs. AFCA) all-time record vs. ranked opponents (FCS and D-II) after a dropping a hard-fought 31-24 decision to current No. 5/8 UC Davis last Saturday night inside Greater Zion Stadium. 
• The Trailblazers' record vs. ranked opponents includes a 1-4 record last season, and a 3-19 mark in its brief FCS era.
• The Trailblazers' last victory over a ranked team came last season at home against then-No. 9/11 Central Arkansas (34-21; 11/2/24).  
• Heading into this Saturday's road opener, six of Utah Tech's 12 2025 opponents are ranked in either the AFCA and Stats Perform top-25 preseason polls, while five other opponents are listed as receiving votes in both polls.
• Utah Tech's 2025 schedule is currently ranked No. 36 (out of 129 FCS teams) in the latest WarrenNolan.com ELO strength of schedule ratings.
 
UTAH TECH ON THE AIR: All Utah Tech games this season are broadcast live on The Fan Sports Network (99.5/95.3 FM in St. George; 93.1 FM/1400 AM in Cedar City; www.thefansportsnetwork.com), while all home games will be streamed live online on ESPN+.
        The "Voice of the Trailblazers" Rod Zundel is in his fourth season calling the play-by-play action, and will be on the call this Saturday from Flagstaff on The Fan Sports Network.  
        As part of this season's game day broadcast coverage, Utah Tech airs a 60-minute comprehensive pregame show, and 30-minute post-game show, both of which air live on The Fan Sports Network and streamed live on YouTube on Trailblazer SportsVision (youtube.com/TrailblazerAthletics).
        Along with complete Game Day coverage, Zundel hosts "The Lance Anderson Coaches Show" every Tuesday night on The Fan Sports Network and streamed on Trailblazer SportsVision at 6 p.m. (MT).
 
A TRAILBLAZER WIN ON SATURDAY WOULD...: Stop Utah Tech's current three-game losing skid, which dates back to the final two games of the 2024 season. A Trailblazer victory would also be Head Coach Lance Anderson's first road victory as Utah Tech mentor, and it would be Utah Tech's second triumph against the Big Sky Conference. 
 
"UNITED" FOR ONE MORE SEASON: The 2025 campaign will mark an end of an (brief) era as Utah Tech will compete as a member of the United Athletic Conference for the third, and final, season. The Trailblazers were one of the original charter members of the UAC, which was established in 2023, after they competed in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) in football in 2022.
 
GOING "BIG" IN 2026: This past June 25, Utah Tech announced that it had accepted an invitation to join the Big Sky Conference beginning on July 1, 2026. 
            Starting in the 2026-27 season, 13 of the Trailblazers' 16 sports, including football, will compete in the premiere FCS conference in Division I.
 
LOOKING TO CLOSE THE GAP: Utah Tech enters Saturday's game at NAU looking for its second-ever win against a Big Sky Conference opponent.
            The Trailblazers have faced eight current football playing members of the Big Sky and are a combined 1-18 lifetime against the league, 0-6 as a D-II and 1-12 in their short time as a D-I FCS program. Utah Tech's lone win against the Big Sky came during the 2023 season, a 50-36 road triumph at NAU (9/16/23). 
            Utah Tech opened the 2024 season by playing three of its first four games against Big Sky opponents, including FCS national runner-up Montana State. In fact, the Trailblazers have faced at least two Big Sky opponents in each of the last four seasons overall.
            This season will be no different Utah Tech square off against three Big Sky members to begin the campaign, including another road contest at No. 11/10 Idaho (Sept. 13). 
 
TAKING ON ALL COMERS: Since transitioning to NCAA Division I FCS status, Utah Tech has faced 22 top-25 teams (3-19) and 17 total FCS playoff teams.   
        In fact, Utah Tech's 2021 fall schedule was rated as the second-toughest schedule in the entire country and featured seven ranked teams and seven 2021 FCS Fall playoff teams, including the 2021 spring national champion (Sam Houston) and runner-up (South Dakota State).
            Utah Tech has also squared off against four FBS programs over that span - New Mexico State (2021 spring in El Paso, Texas), BYU (2022), Colorado State (2023) and UNLV (2024).
 
ABOUT THE NORTHERN ARIZONA "LUMBERJACKS": No. 19 Northern Arizona enters its 2025 home opener this weekend looking to bounce back from a 38-19 road loss at FBS member and defending Big 12 champion No. 11 Arizona State last Saturday night in Tempe.
            Junior quarterback Ty Pennington (6-2, 200) threw for 204 yards on 22-for-35 passing and one touchdown at ASU. Pennington's two go-to targets at ASU were redshirt senior receiver Kolbe Katsis (6-1, 185), who hauled in a team-high six balls for 76 yards, while graduate wideout Jayson Raines (6-4, 215) caught five passes for 71 yards.  
            Meanwhile the Lumberjacks were held to 89 total yards rushing on 29 carries. Redshirt freshman RB Kenveon Stone (6-2, 220) led NAU with 35 yards on three carries and one touchdown. 
            Defensively, redshirt freshman linebacker Ramere Davis (6-1, 205) led NAU with nine total tackles (6 solo) at Arizona State and accounted for one of the 'Jacks two sacks on the night. 
 
GRAFF EXTENDS TD STREAK: Redshirt junior quarterback Reggie Graff extended his streak of multiple touchdown passes to four-straight games after he threw for two scores in the UC Davis loss last Saturday night. 
            Graff connected with RS-junior TE Eric Olsen for a 1-yard TD just before the halftime gun, then after an Aggie turnover in the first minute of the second half, he found RS-junior WR Tru Tanner over the middle for a 45-yard score.
            Graff, who went 4-for-5 for 50 yards vs. UCD, became in the 14th different quarterback in Utah Tech's NCAA era to throw at least one touchdown pass in four-straight games, and is the fourth signal caller to throw for multiple touchdowns in at least four-straight games. 
            Former Trailblazer QB Griff Robles recorded at least one TD pass in a school record 18-straight games spread over two seasons with five-straight, multi-TD games in 2012-13, while Kobe Tracy was the first FCS-era signal caller to achieve the feat, doing so in nine-straight games in 2021-22, and had a six-game streak in 2023 with four-straight multi-TD games. 
            Graff joins Tracy, and current Tarleton State QB Victor Gabalis (at Utah Tech in 2022 - five-straight games with four multi-TD outings), as the only three quarterbacks in the program's FCS era to post streaks of at least four games with at least one TD pass. 
 
SACK GEORGE CITY: Utah Tech's defense racked up 6.0 sacks and 8.0 total tackles for loss in last Saturday's loss to UC Davis. The six sacks were the third-highest team total in the FCS in Week #1, the most in a season-opening game in the Trailblazers' NCAA era, and tied for the fifth-most in a single game in the program's four-year history.
            Redshirt freshman OLB Dallin Havea accounted for two of those six sacks of Aggie QB Caden Pinnick, while true freshman ILB Daylen Love recorded his first collegiate sack and tallied a team-high 10 total tackles overall in his Utah Tech debut.
            RS-senior safety Justin Houston got the sack party started with a first quarter strip sack turnover, which led to a Blazer field goal to open the scoring. 
 
STAYING UPRIGHT: While the Blazer defense was doing its thing, the Utah Tech offensive line DID NOT surrender a sack to the UC Davis defense on Saturday night.
            Saturday night's performance by the o-line marked the eighth time in Utah Tech's NCAA era that the Trailblazers did not allow a defensive sack. It was also the first instance since last season's season opener vs. Montana State (8/31/24) that a Trailblazer opponent did not record a quarterback sack. 
 
THIRD DOWN SUCCESS: Utah Tech went 7-for-16 on third down vs. UC Davis last Saturday night, including a perfect 6-for-6 with four yards or fewer to go. 
            The Trailblazers also went 4-for-4 on third down on their 13-play, 47-yard touchdown drive late in the first half. Meanwhile, the Utah Tech defense limited UC Davis to just 6-of-15 on third down, and 0-for-2 on fourth down. 
 
TRAILBLAZER QUICK HITS
• Utah Tech split quarterback duties between Graff and RS-freshman Bronson Barben on Saturday night vs. UC Davis.
• Barben received the starting nod and the bulk of the playing time ... Barben threw for 222 yards 24-of-39 passing, and rushed for a team-high 28 yards on nine carries.
• Utah Tech finished with 81 yards on the ground on 30 attempts, with seven different Trailblazers recording at least one carry.
• RS-freshman RB Asa Chatman led all non-QBs in the rushing department with 21 yards on seven carries, while redshirt senior Chris Street ran four times for seven yards, including a 1-yard touchdown scamper with eight minutes remaining in the third quarter. 
• Olsen was targeted a team-high 11 times and caught six of those passes for 46 yards, including his 1-yard TD catch, and a 31-yard reception on Utah Tech's last possession late in the fourth quarter. 
• True freshman Dominic Oliver enjoyed a solid collegiate debut last Saturday night, during which he hauled in five passes for 50 yards. 
• Tanner wound up catching three passes for 57 yards, 45 of which came on that touchdown strike from Graff just 54 seconds into the second half.
• Sophomore Kaden Eggett also shined in his Trailblazer debut on Saturday night ... Eggett tallied a team-high 58 yards on three receptions, highlighted by a 27-yarder from Barben in the first quarter. 
• In all, nine different Trailblazer receivers were targeted last Saturday vs. UCD, eight of whom caught at least one pass.  
• Havea racked up eight total tackles (5 solo) vs. UCD and a team-high 2.5 TFLs to go with his two sacks.
• Fifth year DB Devyn Perkins enjoyed his return to Trailblazer Nation as he recorded seven total tackles in his first start of the year ... Perkins, who played four games at Southern Utah last year after spending his first four collegiate seasons at Utah Tech, extended his personal streak of recording at least one tackle to 27-straight games overall. 
• Redshirt junior DL Fasitootai Sagapolu made his long-awaited return to action last Saturday night and wound up tying a career high with five tackles, along with his second-career sack, and a pass break-up ... "Marley" missed the entire 2024 season due to injury, this after he recorded 30 total tackles and 2.0 TFLs in 2023.
• Sophomore linebackers Will Alovao and Jace Sweeten each recorded six tackles and a half-sack last Saturday night ... Alovao finished with 1.5 TFLs overall.
• RS-senior DL Cody Carlson posted his third-career fumble recovery as a Trailblazer and tallied five tackles last Saturday vs. UC Davis ... Carlson came up with the loose ball following the Houston strip sack, which set up Utah Tech's first points of the night. 
• In fact, Utah Tech scored 10 points on two Aggie turnovers on the night ... junior safety Brevin Czosnyka, who transferred from NAU, picked off a Pinnick pass at the UCD 45-yard line, which set up the Graff-to-Tanner TD one play later. 
• Junior punter Ryan Marks averaged a whopping 46.8 yards per punt on his five kicks last Saturday night, including a 56-yard boot on his first attempt in the first quarter.
• RS-junior PK Ilya Uvaydov converted on all three of his PAT attempts vs. UC Davis and drilled a 33-yard first quarter field goal ... Uvaydov is now 30-for-31 in PAT tries as he begins his second season as Utah Tech's primary place kicker.
• Utah Tech played a relatively clean game on the penalty front as the Trailblazers were flagged only three times for 30 yards. 
 
#AB3FOREVER: Redshirt senior running back Chris Street has once again been awarded the No. 3 jersey for the 2025 season. The senior is the fourth Trailblazer player to wear the coveted number since the 2021 spring season. 
            The awarding of the No. 3 jersey has become an annual tradition honoring the memory of former Trailblazer football player Abraham Reinhardt, who passed away unexpectedly on March 22, 2019.
            Head coach Lance Anderson noted last season that he took some time to get familiar with the story of Reinhardt, both as a student-athlete and as a young man. He quickly realized the importance and the impact this tradition has on the Trailblazer football program, a tradition he is very eager to continue.
        "Once I heard the story about Abe Reinhardt, the kind of person he was, the kind of football player he was, and his tragic passing, I was very touched and felt like this is something we need to continue," said Coach Anderson. "I felt it was very important that our team understands who he was and what this jersey truly represents."

NEXT UP FOR THE TRAILBLAZERS: Utah Tech wraps up its three-game set against Big Sky foes next Saturday afternoon, Sept. 13, when the Trailblazers travel north to tangle with nationally-ranked Idaho. Kickoff inside the P1FCU Kibbie Dome in Moscow is set for 2 p.m. (MT).