2019 NCAA Division I College Football Team Previews: Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks
Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks
Location: Nacogdoches, TX
Coach: Colby Carthel (0-0), 1st season at SFA (58-18 Overall)
Stadium: Homer Bryce Stadium (Capacity: 14,575)
CSJ Projections:
10th: Southland
18th: Texas
106th: FCS
236th: Division I
2018 In A Sentence: After Coach Clint Conque resigned amid a university-policy investigation, Jeff Byrd was named the interim head coach to lead the Lumberjacks to just a 2-8 (2-7 SLC) mark. He was not retained, and the school hired 2017 D-II national title winning Coach Colby Carthel away from Texas A&M-Commerce.
Biggest Shoes to Fill: LS Chris Wilkerson played in the 94th East-West Shrine Game® back in January and was rated as one of the top five long snappers heading into the 2019 NFL Draft. He signed with the San Franciso 49ers following the draft and has a very good chance to make the squad.
Key Player: S Alize Ward enters his senior season after being selected two consecutive All-Southland Second Teams. He ranked among the conference’s top 20 tacklers in 2018. His 7.2 tackles per game in Southland play ranked 17th in the 11-team league as Ward completed the season as the Lumberjacks’ second-leading tackler with 58 total tackles and a team-best 36 solo stops.
Fearless Prediction: Getting Coach Carthel in Nacogdoches should be a big help to lead SFA back to respectability. He and his staff signed a whopping 10 three-star recruits SFA’s 2019 class and returns 19 starters from last year. Look for the Lumberjacks to improve a little in the win column but it might take one more rough season before this team turns it around completely.
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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