FLAGSTAFF and TEMPE, Ariz. — Late Thursday night, Chris Ball stood in the visitors’ locker room outside Sun Devil Stadium and waited. The fourth-year Northern Arizona coach wanted to make sure everyone could hear what he was about to say.
Quarterback R.J. Martinez, the eye-black crosses under each eye smudged from perspiration, dropped to one knee. Linebacker Heston Lameta walked closer.
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“Sometimes in life, you work your ass off and it doesn’t work out,” Ball said. “Everything that happened tonight is correctable. (Arizona State is) going to be a good football team. But we got to take ownership.”
A visiting locker room might be the most uncomfortable place in college sports. It is cramped and stale, a renovation item that never makes it off the to-do list. (Try asking donors for funds to remodel the visitors’ locker room.) It’s even worse after losses. This one was 40-3.
It was no surprise. A school like Arizona State is supposed to flex on a Football Championship Subdivision school like Northern Arizona. The Sun Devils, a mystery team with 43 newcomers, were 25.5-point favorites. To understand what it was like to prepare for such a game, The Athletic spent four days with the Lumberjacks, attending coaches’ meetings, position meetings, practices and walk-throughs. On game day, we were in the locker room and on the sideline.
Arizona State paid Northern Arizona $500,000 and picked up travel costs for the Lumberjacks’ 152-mile trip down Interstate 17. If this looks like a big school buying a win, well, it’s not far off. But teams often go off script.
FCS wins over Football Bowl Subdivision schools no longer rank on the “Do you believe in miracles?” scale. In 2008, two FCS schools beat FBS programs. Last year, 12 did, including Northern Arizona. On Sept. 18, the Lumberjacks traveled to Tucson and beat Arizona 21-19. The win was so exhausting, so overwhelming, that cornerbacks coach Jesse Thompson sat in the Arizona Stadium stands and ate his postgame meal, marveling at what the Lumberjacks had just pulled off.
Ball calls it the biggest win of his career. Bigger than when he was an assistant at Pittsburgh and the Panthers knocked off No. 2 West Virginia in 2007. Bigger than when he was an assistant at Washington State and the Cougars beat UCLA to secure a spot in the Rose Bowl in 2002.
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No one remembers that the Lumberjacks finished 5-6, but they remember what happened in Tucson. It made people notice what was going on at Northern Arizona, a school that in February opened a $47 million student-athlete performance center. A school that Ball believes is ready to contend for its first Big Sky title since it shared the championship in 2003.
In the locker room, Ball pointed to a thick log that the team had brought from Flagstaff. The log featured logos of each team on Northern Arizona’s schedule as well as the Big Sky logo. An axe rested against it. The plan is for the Lumberjacks to hack at the log every time they win, inching closer to their goals. The Arizona State pitchfork remained unblemished.
“What was our goal at the beginning of the year?” Ball said.
“Big Sky champs,” his team answered.
“Did (tonight’s loss) hurt us at all?”
“No.”
Ball issued a challenge. Everyone needs to do better. From coaches to players, from trainers to the scout team.
“That’s the only chance we have,” he said. “We lost. Does it say, ‘Big Sky champs’ on that log still? You’re damn right. And at the end of the year, we’re chomping a big chunk out of it. You got me? We got to keep working hard. And we got to change. Everyone has to look for a reason to get better.”
Four days earlier, Aaron Pflugrad sat in the quarterbacks room inside the student performance center on the Northern Arizona campus. The offensive coordinator will turn 34 in three weeks, but with his boyish looks, he still could pass for an NAU upperclassman.
Pflugrad called up red zone plays and Arizona State’s defense popped on a screen mounted to the wall.
“All right, getting down in here heavy,” Pflugrad said to his quarterbacks. “First of all, what’s the strength of their defense?”
“Front seven,” said Martinez, a sophomore.
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The Northern Arizona staff is full of Arizona State connections. Ball and offensive line coach Bob Connelly worked under Todd Graham. Tight ends coach Robin Pflugrad, Aaron’s father, worked on Bruce Snyder’s staff and was there for Arizona State’s Rose Bowl run in 1996.
But no one is more connected to the Sun Devils than the younger Pflugrad. Not only did he grow up around the program’s top players, he became a fan favorite himself.
As an 8-year-old Pflugrad attended Arizona State practices with his father, the highlight of his week, catching passes from former star quarterback Jake Plummer. After starting his own college career at Oregon, Pflugrad transferred to Arizona State and played for Dennis Erickson. In 2010, he caught 29 passes for 329 yards. In 2011, he caught 44 for 465.
Pflugrad admits he has spent half his life at Arizona State; it will always be special for him.
After his college days, Pflugrad briefly pursued pro football, getting a tryout with the Philadelphia Eagles, but his professional path was clear. Robin Pflugrad never tried to talk his son out of coaching but he still explained the profession’s low points. Are you sure you want to get into this?
“I bet I asked him 21 times,” Robin said.
Pflugrad worked as a graduate assistant under Graham and then joined former Northern Arizona coach Jerome Souers’ staff as receivers coach. In 2018, Souers promoted Pflugrad to offensive coordinator. Then the head coach lost his job. Ball took over in 2019 and told Pflugrad he wanted to keep him — to coach receivers.
Pflugrad asked to interview for the coordinator position. He also wanted to coach quarterbacks. Ball agreed, mostly as a courtesy. He already had a couple of coordinator candidates in mind. Once he sat down with Pflugrad, however, that changed.
“He blew it out of the water,” Ball said of the interview, repeating himself for extra emphasis. “Blew it out of the water. He gave me no choice.”
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Pflugrad’s challenge against Arizona State was simple: find a way to move the ball against an athletic defense. The Sun Devils’ front was disruptive. In an offensive line meeting, Connelly pointed to defensive tackles Omarr Norman-Lott and B.J. Green II. “They are their best pass rushers by far,” Connelly said. “Very, very twitchy.”
Pflugrad was prepared. Over the offseason, he had studied film of Drew Brees. At 6 feet tall, the former New Orleans Saints quarterback was similar in size to Martinez. Pflugrad watched how quickly Brees got the ball out of his hand and set up guidelines.
On a 3-step drop, Martinez needed to get rid of the ball in under 1.5 seconds. On a full-field progression, scanning left to right or right to left, the quarterback needed to be under 2.5. On a true play-action, the ball needed to be gone in 3.5.
In the quarterbacks room, Pflugrad ran Southern Utah plays from a game last season against Arizona State. Of Arizona State’s recent opponents, Southern Utah was most like the Lumberjacks. Pflugrad called out the quarterback’s release times.
“2.44 — Not bad.”
“1.97 — Good protection by the left guard? Terrible. Does it matter? No. The ball’s out.”
“2.31 — We’re too late.”
“2.56 — (Norman-Lott) is wreaking some havoc in here.”
On Tuesday, position coach Rudy Griffin walked into the defensive line room holding a case of bottled water. With the Lumberjacks scheduled to play in the Arizona desert (temperature at kickoff was expected to be 100), dehydration had been a theme. Ball mentioned it after every practice along with his support staff.
Nutrition graduate assistant Joey Gatewood told the Lumberjacks that studies had shown that an athlete will run 1 mph slower if he’s not fully hydrated. The message was slow to get across.
“Drink,” Griffin said, handing out bottled water to each player. “Hydrate. I know how it is. ‘Coach, I’m drinking water.’ You ain’t drinking enough. Overdo it. Overdo the drinking.”
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“Chug it?” a player asked.
“They did the hydration test,” Griffin said. “And guys, there were only like eight hydrated guys on the team.* That’s dumb, dawg. That means you’re not taking care of your business.”
(*Asked later about the low number of hydrated players, Griffin smiled. “I may have exaggerated,” he said.)
Aside from the heat, Arizona State presented another challenge. The Sun Devils had gone through so much turnover the last six months, no one was sure what to expect from them. Even the spring game wasn’t much use because key players who had participated had left the program.
“It’s funny because you watched it and all the guys are talking about how close they are — and then the guys they’re interviewing are gone,” one coach said.
While preparing for an opener is always difficult — there’s no previous game film to study — Arizona State offered an extreme case. Coach Herm Edwards’ program had a whopping 43 newcomers. Twenty players on the first-week depth chart were not in the program last season, including quarterback Emory Jones (Florida transfer) and running back Xazavian Valladay (Wyoming). In addition, offensive coordinator Glenn Thomas and defensive coordinator Donnie Henderson were new.
The Northern Arizona staff had to dig deep. To get a feel for Thomas, defensive coordinator Jerry Partridge watched film of UNLV and Baylor, the last two stops on Thomas’ resume. To understand Jones and Valladay, he watched film of Florida and Wyoming. Putting together a game plan was like putting together a puzzle.
Questions emerged.
Would recently hired offensive analyst Brian Billick have input?
Would Arizona State call designed runs for Jones, risking injury?
Would Arizona State just try to power through them?
“You just don’t know what you’re facing, so we’re out there in practice dabbling in every little possible thing to prepare them,” Partridge said.
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Tidbits still leaked.
In the defensive line room, Griffin reviewed the previous day’s practice, praising freshman Micah Carreon for tipping a pass that was intercepted. Look at them, Griffin said, noting the sideline reaction. Everyone’s celebrating the pick but they’re ignoring the person who caused it. That’s life on the D-line.
Griffin told his group to be ready.
“Word on the street, their quarterback Emory is throwing a pick every day in practice,” Griffin said. “Especially with balls over the middle. There has not been a single day he has not thrown a pick. Ya’ll will get the opportunity. I promise you.”
Before leaving for Phoenix, Pflugrad delivered the keys for victory to the offensive staff.
1. Own the ball. He pointed out that last season, Southern Utah, a team Northern Arizona had beaten three times in two seasons, had played the Sun Devils well until it committed turnovers in the red zone.
2. Win man-to-man battles. “Obviously up front,” Pflugrad said. “To win the man-to-man matchup, you got to be able to get rid of it.”
3. Run the ball efficiently. “When it’s third-and-2 and we hand it off, we got to get 2 yards,” Pflugrad said. “When we hand it off on base downs, we got to get 4. When we get in the red zone — positive plays.”
On Thursday, nearly everything that could go wrong did. The Lumberjacks failed to establish the run, finishing with 23 yards. (Of 53 plays, their longest went for 15 yards.) They mishandled a snap on a field-goal attempt. Martinez felt pressure and threw an interception that led to an Arizona State touchdown and a 24-3 halftime deficit.
Defensive back Anthony Sweeney, the team’s emotional leader, suffered an early knee injury. Talented defensive lineman Eloi Kwete was ejected for targeting. To top it off, Northern Arizona coaches in the third quarter had to relocate from the press box to the sideline because their headsets stopped working.
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It wasn’t the Lumberjacks’ night.
Arizona State contributed.
On his way to the team bus, Partridge, the defensive coordinator, said Valladay (116 rushing yards, two touchdowns) was better than he expected. The Wyoming transfer looked fast and shifty. Partridge also said Jones was solid, both as a passer (13 of 18 for 152 yards, no interceptions) and rusher (48 yards, two touchdowns.)
“They’re a bowl team,” said Partridge, noticing an approaching dust storm.
Inside, Ball leaned against a wall outside the locker room. Not long ago, while working as defensive coordinator at Memphis, he had wondered if he would get a chance to run his own program. Northern Arizona changed everything. Ball saw the commitment. He saw the facilities. Building the culture took time but it’s there. Players hold each other accountable. (This week, defensive linemen questioned a teammate who had cut short reps in the weight room.)
Over the next few days, that’s what Ball will rely on.
“Everything’s correctable,” he said. “I love our culture. I love our kids. I think we’re talented enough. And every goal we have is still on the board.”
(Top photo of Arizona State’s Xazavian Valladay scoring on a 27-yard run ahead of Northern Arizona’s Alonzo Davis (17) and Demetrick Watts II (0): Christian Petersen / Getty Images)
