It's easy to measure most of Kyle Rath's on-field production.

A quick glance at the NAU defensive end's statistics from the 2008 season give you a pretty good idea he's a good football player. The Las Vegas native had seven tackles for loss, 4 1/2 sacks and 33 total tackles to go along with four quarterback hurries and four pass breakups.

Clearly, Rath was one of the most productive players the NAU football team had two years ago.

However, when the 6-foot-5, 271-pound end went down and missed the entire '09 season with a torn ACL, the Lumberjacks missed much more than Rath's physicality on the defensive line.

They lost their leader.

Sure, Rath would have been just a junior last season, but there's not a more vocal player on the Jacks' squad than the big man from Sin City.

There's not a player on the roster who can get more out of his teammates than Rath. And, when the NAU defense gave up nearly 300 yards of offense per game last season, it's easy to say that it was because of the onslaught of injuries the team had to deal with.

The truth, however, is the Jacks didn't miss any player more last season than Rath.

"I thought (Isaac) Bond and (Brandon) Vance did a great job for us last season. Kyle brings an extra dimension to his game that's tough to duplicate," NAU coach Jerome Souers said. "Kyle plays with such great passion. He loves the game. He loves to practice. He loves to play. Everything about him is full-blown."

Rath did everything in his power last season to still be that vocal go-to guy. He was at nearly every practice, on the sideline, getting in his teammates ears whenever it was necessary.

He was as close to a player-coach as you can get at this level of football.

But, this year Rath is back where he needs to be. He's on the field and you can bet he'll reintroduce himself to the Big Sky Conference quarterbacks as many chances as he gets.

Rath has a chance to be even more dangerous this season than he was during his sophomore campaign. With NAU now running a four-man defensive line, Rath will be all over the place. He'll play his natural position of defensive end. He'll move inside at times and wreak havoc and you can bet one thing:

Wherever he his, the opposing offense will know.

In Rath, NAU has its primary leader back and it's impossible to express how important that is. The last few years have seen the Jacks end their season with big-time disappointment and Souers has admitted a big reason was lack of leadership. Especially two years ago.

This year, if things start to go awry, you can bet Rath will be the first one to speak up and don't be surprised if the rest of his teammates follow his lead.

Daniel Berk can be reached at dberk@azdailysun.com or 556-2251.