Burnsville, Minn. – The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference released this morning the 2019 NSIC Preseason Football Coaches Poll, with Northern State picked tenth overall in the league and fifth in the North Division. The Wolves garnered 90 points in the overall poll, and 24 points in the division.
 
NSU will open the 2019 season at home versus Bemidji State on September 5 after going 4-7 overall and 3-4 in the NSIC North a season ago. The Wolves return 14 starters from 2018, while welcoming one of the largest freshman classes in the Dosch-era (46).
 
Four all-conference honorees from last season will return to the gridiron on offense including quarterback Hunter Trautman, offensive lineman Drew Fahrman, and wide receivers Jacob Streit and Dakota Larson. The tag team of Streit and Larson made an instant impact for the Wolves in their first season suiting up with Larson earned NSIC North Newcomer of the Year honors, and Streit being named to the Don Hansen All-America team. In addition to the new Wolves in uniform, Northern State welcomes coordinators Austin Flyger and Quinn Schafer in their first seasons, as well as offensive line coach Jon Roy.
 
Drew Fahrman and Zach Mohs were named the NSU players to watch heading into the 2019 season, as the anchor both the offensive and defensive lines for the Wolves heading into their senior campaigns. Fahrman is a 3-year starter for the Wolves on the offensive line, being named to the NSIC All-Conference Honorable Mention team a season ago. Mohs started all 11 games on defense and is one of the top returning lineman for the Wolves. He tallied 39 tackles and 8.0 tackles for a loss in 2018 and anchored the Wolves defense that sat top-10 in opponent third and fourth down conversion percentage.
 
Football in the NSIC
The NSIC football schedule will be broken into two divisions (north/south). Each team will play 11 conference games that will count towards the NSIC Overall Championship as well as seven divisional games that will count towards the NSIC North/South Division Championships. In all, three league champions will be awarded (Overall Champion, North Division Champion, South Division Champion). Ties will not be broken for overall or division champions. Same as in the 2018 season, the four non-division games will be moved to weeks five to seven and divisional games will be weeks one to four and nine to 11.

MidcoSN will continue its partnership in 2019 as the "NSIC Thursday Night Game of the Week", will air live the first four weeks of the season from September 5 through September 26. The live football broadcast schedule will also include four Saturday games during the season. The Wolves will face off against Minnesota State over Gypsy Days in the MidcoSN Game of the Week.
 
NSIC Preseason Poll

	Overall				North Division
1	Minnesota State (14)	224		1	Minnesota Duluth (7)	49
2	Minnesota Duluth (2)	208		2	Bemidji State (1)	42
3	Sioux Falls	187		3	MSU Moorhead	35
4	Winona State	182		4	St. Cloud State	34
5	Bemidji State	169		5	Northern State	24
6	Augustana	158		6	University of Mary	17
7	MSU Moorhead	138		7	Minot State	16
8	St. Cloud State	134		8	Minnesota Crookston	7
9	Concordia-St. Paul	109			South Division
10	Northern State	90		1	Minnesota State (7)	49
11	Southwest Minnesota State	79		2	Winona State	39
	Upper Iowa	79		3	Sioux Falls	37
13	Wayne State	73		4	Augustana (1)	34
14	University of Mary	39		5	Concordia-St. Paul	25
15	Minot State	36		6	Wayne State	16
16	Minnesota Crookston	15		7	Southwest Minnesota State	12
	first place votes in ()				Upper Iowa	12