After a long offseason of rehabbing and trying to wash away thoughts of last season's four-game losing streak, the Lumberjacks are ready to unleash some of their pent-up angst that followed their disappointing 5-6 season.

They've spent the past several months trying to make sure the late-season collapses won't be repeated and will be looking forward to facing someone other than their teammates.

"We're running around looking to hit another color," linebacker Reid Worthington said. "We've been going against our offense for 30 practices now and I'm ready to hit somebody else."

With tonight's 7 p.m. home game against Division II Western New Mexico, there aren't many better teams for NAU to make a statement against in a season opener.

The teams last met in 2007 and NAU walked away with a 47-0 victory. In 1996, the Jacks set the Walkup Skydome scoring record with a 75-0 rout.

That doesn't mean the Jacks are taking the Mustangs lightly, though. There's plenty of reasons why the Jacks should be giving full effort, despite facing Arizona State next Saturday.

"That team will come in with a lot of pride. There's a lot of Arizona kids on the team and they have a new coaching staff and new attitude," NAU coach Jerome Souers said. "They are going to fly around and give us the same approach we are going to do to Arizona State a week later. They will have nothing to lose and I am sure they will throw everything at us to try to create some production.

"It will be on us to play at our level."

Souers said the Mustangs have the tactical advantage because, with an entirely new staff under first-year head coach Adam Clark, there's no game film to prepare with. Instead, the Jacks have to rely on history.

"I hear they run a little spread, a little option, they do a lot of things our offense does so we're ready for them," Worthington said.

Clark was the Mustangs' defensive coordinator last season and named quarterback Chris Voller as his starter. The junior started 10 games as a redshirt freshman in 2008 while averaging 206.9 passing yards per game but was reduced to a backup role last season.

"He has a lot of game experience and a good amount of success in his career," Clark said in a release. "He is going to need to take that next step to being a consistent player who can lead our team by making great decisions and not turning the ball over."

Western New Mexico is coming off consecutive 2-8 seasons and is part of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.

Souers didn't know how playing time among the Jacks would be spread out. Most of it depends on how the game goes, he said, but he expects most of his players to see action tonight.

"It is the type of game early in the year when you want to play as many guys as you can," Souers said.

NAU preseason All-American quarterback Michael Herrick figures to play the game like he does any other.

"We should go out and treat them like anybody else," Herrick said. "I'm going to go in thinking I'm going to play the whole game and will do the best I can."

Although NAU returns plenty of veteran talent, Souers is eager to watch game film and figure out potential holes the team has. As good as the Jacks have been in practice, it's never as telling of a team as a live game.

"We are getting to the point where we need to play the game to figure out the weaknesses that we have," Souers said. "We are working on our technique and assignments and spending a lot of time to get those as finessed as we possibly can and rely on our athletic ability Thursday to get things right."

The Jacks also announced their team captains earlier this week. Worthington, Herrick, safety Matt Estrada, linebacker Cody Dowd and center Jeff Hines were voted as the leaders by their teammates.

Usually, there's only a group of four captains but there was a tie on the defensive side and Souers wasn't about to act as a tiebreaker, if that's how his players voted.

"There was a pretty significant distance between them and the next grouping," Souers said.

Jacob May can be reached at jmay@azdailysun.com or 556-2257.

TV, Radio Information

Digital cable channel 146-Flagstaff

The game can be heard on 105.1 FM in Flagstaff, Sedona and Prescott.