College Football Kicks Off Tonight – Meet the University of Northern Colorado Bears

Every sports lovers dream finally comes true tonight after almost 7 months of waiting, real football returns tonight. Sure there has been preseason NFL games that no one cares about (like the Broncos tonight), but starting tonight there are games that count. One of those games happens to feature a hometown team. The University of Northern Colorado Bears travel to Salt Lake City to take on the Utah Utes. Come inside to meet this years UNC team.

We all know that the football program has never been, and most likely will never be what it was in the late 90's when Joe Glenn was coach, and the Bears won back-to-back NCAA Division II National Championships, but you have to remember the Bears now are a Division I school and competition is tougher. So far the Bears have not shown they are ready for the tougher teams, but it takes time to build a team. UNC will immediately be tested this year with their toughest game of the year by far to kick off the season against perennial football powerhouse Utah on the road.

• The last time Northern Colorado faced a team currently in the Pac-12 was 1941 against Arizona State.

• Senior return specialist Dominic Gunn already holds the school single season and career kickoff return yardage records. He needs just 101 punt return yards to tie current wide receivers coach Keith Grable (1996-99) for sixth on that career chart.

• Junior linebacker Clarence Bumpas ended the 2011 season ranked fourth in the nation with 13.2 tackles per game in the FCS. He is on the 2012 Buck Buchanan Award Watch List and has been named to several Preseason All-America Teams.

• The season opener marks just the third-ever game the Bears have played on a Thursday. In both 2005 (at Western Illinois, L, 28-23) and 2006 (at Weber State, L 26-21), Northern Colorado competed on Thursday.

• The Northern Colorado roster has 13 states and one Canadian province represented (Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawai'i, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Quebec, Canada).

• Northern Colorado has three alumni on the 2012 coaching staff (Head Coach Earnest Collins Jr., Offensive Coordinator Jon Boyer and Wide Receivers Coach Keith Grable).

• A season ago, junior quarterback Seth Lobato threw for 2,448 yards, which was the seventh-best total in school history. It is also the highest total by a sophomore in Northern Colorado history.

• The Bears return eight starters on offense, plus a starter from the 2010 season, five defensive starters and one specialist from last year's team.