PDF Game Notes

FLORENCE, Ala. -- After facing three nationally ranked teams to open the 2021 football season, the University of North Alabama's schedule doesn't get any easier as the Lions travel to Thibodaux, La., Saturday to face a strong Nicholls State team that was ranked 23rd nationally in the pre-season FCS poll.

Kickoff is set for 3 p.m. at Guidry Stadium.

Nicholls enters the game 0-2, but both the Colonels' losses came against FBS opponents Memphis and Louisiana on the road. The Colonels narrowly lost to Louisiana, 27-24.

"We have opened the season against three nationally ranked teams and now we're going on the road to face a good football team that is receiving votes in the poll and has had a week off to prepare for us," said UNA Head Football Coach Chris Willis.  

Willis said the Nicholls State offense will possibly be the best that the Lions will face this season.

"They put a lot of points on the board and they have a really mobile quarterback," Willis said. "Our defense will definitely be challenged this week."

UNA, 0-3 overall, battled then 11th ranked Jacksonville State down to the wire but suffered a 27-24 loss to the Gamecocks last Saturday.

"We are coming off what I feel was our best all-around game in all three phases, but the turnovers killed us," Willis said. "Our team saw what we are capable of if we can eliminate our mstakes."

With starting quarterback Jaylen Gipson sidelined last week against Jacksonville State, Blake Dever stepped up and threw for a career-high 283 yards and one touchdown and rushed for another 27 yards for 310 yards of total offense.

Dever completed 12 of his 26 pass attempts with one interception. He had two pass completions of better than 40 yards, including a career-long completion to Corson Swan for 49 yards. His previous top game was 261 yards against Kennesaw State in 2019.

Both Cortez Hall and Corson Swan had more than 100 yards receiving in the game and the UNA offense out-gained JSU 437 to 309.

Defensively, the Lions held the Gamecocks to just one offensive TD, but JSU scored on a fumble return and an interception return in the game.

In all, the Lions have allowed four scores by the opposing defense in the first three games of the season.

Nicholls is averaging 405 yards per game so far this season, with quarterback Lindsey Scott, Jr., throwing for 553 yards and four touchdowns and rushing for an additional 145 yards and one touchdown.

The Colonels are allowing 490 yards and 34 points per game, but those totals came against FBS opponents.

UNA holds a 3-1 all-time record against Nicholls State, with the four meetings taking place from 1973-76 when both were members of the Gulf South Conference in Division II.

The Lions were 1-1 in Thibodaux and 2-0 in Florence against NSU.

UNA's last game played in the state of Louisiana was on October 11, 1997 in Lafayette, when the Lions, still an NCAA Division II institution, downed Southwestern Louisiana (now Louisiana) 48-42 in four overtimes.