The Lumberjack football team is ready to prove all the previous inconsistent seasons are a thing of the past.

NAU is loaded with veteran talent throughout the roster and wants to put last year's late-season collapse out of sight and out of mind.

After going 5-2 to begin the 2009 schedule, NAU dropped its final four games -- one loss came against Ole Miss, a Bowl Championship Series team -- after a rash of injuries plagued the defense that saw several of its starters go down for the season.

"Last year was a strange year for us," coach Jerome Souers said. "That lack of depth really affected us and our quality of play reflected that."

Now, with everyone recovered and only one BCS team on the docket, the Jacks are hoping they can get back into the playoffs for the first time since 2003, when they shared the Big Sky Conference championship with the Montana schools.

On both sides of the ball, NAU believes it has the talent and confidence to bring in its third Big Sky Championship banner.

"We've demonstrated a great working attitude," Souers said. "We developed the mindset of improving every day. The great teams establish that early in the year."

The quest begins at 7 p.m. Thursday against Western New Mexico at the Walkup Skydome.

OFFENSE

Aside from the defense returning so many starters, the main reason for the Jacks' lofty expectations resides on the shoulders of senior quarterback Michael Herrick.

The Valencia, Calif., native was named to several first-team, preseason All-Amercian lists after completing 66 percent of his passes for 3,356 yards with 22 touchdowns against eight interceptions in 2009.

He was also the top vote-receiving junior for the Walter Payton Award, which is handed to the top FCS athlete.

Not that any of that matters to him.

"What I did last year doesn't mean anything now," Herrick said. "It's a new year, a new start and hopefully I can help my team the best that I can."

Herrick will be familiar with the guys protecting him as left tackle Anthony Williams, center Jeff Hines and guard Kris Poindexter are returning starters, but the skill players remain largely unproven.

At running back, sophomore Giovannie Dixon and three freshmen take over for Alex Henderson, who finished his career as NAU's second all-time leading rusher.

Dixon served as Henderson's backup and collected 252 yards on 39 carries but remains untested as the Jacks' main ballcarrier. Even if Dixon proves himself as a capable workhorse, the freshmen are expected to receive a share of the carries throughout the season.

Daiveun Curry-Chapman is the lone senior among the wide receivers but this will be his first year he's expected to be a go-to target. He's the leading returning receiver but he and a group of mostly juniors will have to fill the void of 177 catches for 2,446 yards and 15 touchdowns left by Ed Berry, Conrad Meadows and Curt Sweeney.

"It's a lot to live up to," Curry-Chapman said. "But we have some guys that have been in the system for a while. It's not like they're true freshmen. Guys will step in and we'll keep it rolling."

The group has looked sharp in practice after spending the summer working with Herrick.

"We're very fortunate to catch passes from the best, in my eyes, quarterback in the country and definitely the best quarterback in the Big Sky," Curry-Chapman said. "I can't even explain to you, you see the ball and it's always pretty the way it spirals."

DEFENSE

Souers isn't going to hide it, the Jacks' defense is going to be going full-throttle for most of the season.

That is, if everyone stays healthy this year.

Linebackers Cody Dowd and Anthony Llanos, and defensive linemen Kyle Rath, Kainoa Pe'a and Michael Battisti all went down with season-long injuries and used redshirts or received medical hardships to bolster the defense's depth for their senior seasons this year.

Lineman Isaac Bond, Dwight Boyd, Blayne Anderson and Brandon Vance, who all started in place of their injured teammates, are back as well and Souers plans on taking advantage of that depth to play his guys hard on every series.

"At almost every spot on defense, we have depth and experience, which is something, since I've been here, we've never had," Bond said. "Because of that depth, the competition (for playing time) is there and makes everyone on the defensive line play better because we know that guy behind us can take our starting spot.

"The defense is going to be unreal with all the guys back."

If the Jacks are able to get more pressure on offense this season, it's going to make the secondary's job a lot easier.

The group is led by first-team, All-Big Sky free safety Matt Estrada, who's looking forward to focusing more on pass coverage rather than providing constant run support. The unit also returns last year's starting strong safety Taylor Julio and senior cornerbacks Taelor Worrell and Daivon Dumas, though senior Darren Watson, who redshirted last year, has taken Worrell's first-team reps in practice the past two weeks.

Junior strong safety Kaseem Osheroff, who started in the 2008 season, also returns after sitting out last year for academic reasons.

The unit's depth is expected to bolster their performance as well.

"It's hard playing all the snaps here at elevation," Estrada said. "You need guys that can roll in and out."