2018 College Football Team Previews: Northern Colorado Bears
Northern Colorado Bears
Location: Greeley, CO
Coach: Earnest Collins, Jr. (24-53 overall) 8th Season
Stadium: Nottingham Field (Capacity: 8,533)
CSJ Projections:
10th: Big Sky
4th: Colorado
66th: FCS
194th: Division I
2017 In A Sentence: The Bears finished with just a 3-7 record overall and just 2-6 in BSC play–playing only 10 games as its scheduled 11th game was canceled at Florida due to a hurricane.
Biggest Shoes to Fill: S Stpne Kane was a team captain for UNC in 2017 and he led by example on the field. Kane ended the season with a team-leading 91 tackles, including 38 solo tackles. Patrolling the backfield the senior safety recorded a pair of interceptions and broke up five passes.
Key Player: Senior WR Alex Wesley was one of the most complete receivers in the Big Sky Conference. Wesley led Northern Colorado with 1,010 yards and six touchdowns on 55 receptions a year ago. He became just the ninth player in program history to record a 1,000 yards receiving season. Wesley looks to join elite company in Vincent Jackson as only the second player in program history with two 1,000 yards seasons.
Fearless Prediction: The Bears have stepped up in the scheduling department with all three non-conference games against FCS competition. All three are to start the season before finishing with all Big Sky play. UNC has shown it can compete in the bottom part of the league. To improve, the Bears need to start winning some against the higher half of the league.
Originally from LaMoure, North Dakota, Kent is a 1996 graduate of North Dakota State University. His prior writing experience is over 15 years having previously worked with D2football.com, I-AA.org, and College Sporting News before coming to College Sports Journal in 2016. His main focus is college football is the Missouri Valley Football Conference within the Division I FCS. And in 2017, he began also to look at the FBS Group of Five conferences of the American Athletic, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, and Sun Belt.
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