The NMU Football team closed out their season on Saturday, falling 24-21 to the Northwood Timberwolves on NMU’s Senior Day.

The game was a close one, with the winning score coming in the final minute of play when Northwood quarterback Grant Dunatchik found Gary Landless in the corner of the end zone on fourth down to give the Timberwolves the lead with 52 seconds left on the clock.  NMU was unable to drive the length of the field in the remaining time, and the final score favored Northwood by 3 points, 24-21.

“It was a tough day for the offense,” head coach Kyle Nystrom said, “but productivity-wise, I thought they scored enough points for us to win.  We just had to get off the field with a play in our favor on that fourth-and-five at the end.”

The Wildcats end their season with a record of 1-8, placing ninth in the ten-team GLIAC ahead of only the Davenport Panthers, who finished 0-9.  Davenport, incidentally, is the only team the Wildcats were able to defeat this season, winning 24-14 on Sept. 23 NMU’s
homecoming game.

“Looking at us, everybody says, ‘They don’t know how to win, they’ve got to find a way to win,’” Nystrom said.  “First of all, you’ve got to be good enough to win, before you can sit there and stress all these mental and psychological concepts.  You can’t go there with them yet.  You have to be good enough, talent-wise.  We’re playing a lot of redshirt freshmen and true freshmen, and they’re not ready yet to go against juniors and seniors and fifth-year guys.”

The Wildcats will hope to improve next season, and it’s clear that Nystrom is invested in the team’s success.

“I’ll make this football team good, or I’ll die trying.  One of the two.  I don’t know which one, but it’ll be one of the two.”