BURNSVILLE, Minn. - The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) released the 2021 NSIC Football Preseason Poll, with Concordia-St. Paul slated third in the NSIC North Division and seventh overall in the 14 team league, as selected by league head coaches.

LEAGUE LANDSCAPE
The 2021 season marks the first for Concordia in the NSIC North Division in the new 14 team format following the University of Minnesota Crookston and St. Cloud State University's decisions to eliminate their football programs following the 2019 season. The new 14 team format will divide the league into a pair of seven team divisions (North/South) with each team playing an 11 game conference schedule that will count towards the NSIC Overall Championship as well as six divisional games that will count towards the NSIC North/South Division Championships. In all, three league champions will be awarded. Ties will not be broken for overall or division champions. The first four weeks will be cross divisional contests, with the final cross divisional contest taking place randomly during the remainder of the season.

Minnesota State University, Mankato was selected by league coaches as the overall and south division preseason favorite, receiving 12 first place votes (coaches cannot vote for their own team) and amassed 168 points, 24 points ahead of Minnesota Duluth (144), which was the unanimous choice in the north division. Augustana was third overall with 140 points and one first place vote while Sioux Falls was fourth at 135. Winona State was picked fifth overall with 126 points and the final overall first place vote.

Concordia's 26 points in the north division came in just five behind Bemidji State (31), who received the other first place vote in the north and finished five points behind UMD (36). CSP had a sizable lead over fourth place MSU Moorhead (16) as the final four teams were separated by just six total points.

In the overall poll, Concordia (96) had the same margin, 21 points, behind sixth place Bemidji State (117) and ahead of eight place Northern State (75) as the Wolves edged MSU Moorhead (74) by a point in the overall poll despite finishing a point behind the Dragons in the divisional poll. The order was also flipped for the league's two North Dakota programs, as Minot State (38) was 10 points ahead of UMary (28) in the overall poll, but three points behind UMary (13) in the north division.

The Golden Bears' seventh place overall projection in the NSIC preseason poll is the highest since the 2011 season's sixth place preseason pick after coming off of the program's third Mineral Water Bowl appearance and a fourth place finish in 2010.

Concordia's season opens on the road in 2021 on Thursday, September 2 at Winona State with a 7 p.m. kickoff. The home opener is set for Saturday, September 11 at Sea Foam Stadium against Upper Iowa with a noon kickoff against the Peacocks. CSP will play five home games in 2021, with individual game and season ticket sales now available online.

CONCORDIA OUTLOOK
While the Golden Bears enter the 2021 season faced with the task of replacing most of the starting offensive and defensive lines along with a number of skill position players, the program had already planned for those vacancies before the 2020 season was canceled due to COVID-19. In the winter of the 2019-20 academic year, Concordia brought in 12 players from the St. Cloud State football program and another from Minnesota Crookston including a pair of defensive linemen, five offensive linemen, three wide receivers, a tight end and a linebacker. The program has also added a handful of Division I transfers to bolster the lineup, with a high percentage of the transfers spending last season acclimating to campus life and the football program to boost continuity entering this fall.

And while the program will undoubtedly miss the production from the high volume of experienced players who turned the program from a 1-win squad the year before head coach Shannon Currier rejoined the University into a winning team at 6-5 in 2019, there are still a number of key contributors back to lead the way in 2021 including all three starting linebackers: Academic All-American Dalton Smerchek, All-NSIC honorable mention pick Jake Portz and Gabe Nkumu along with nearly the entire starting secondary led by standout cornerback Preston Piltoff. Up front, Academic All-American Shawn Aarhus has logged considerable playing time opposite NFL Draft pick Chris Garrett while Richard Ficociello is on the verge of a breakout campaign.

Offensively, sophomore guard Matthew Montgomery and All-NSIC North Second Team transfer Robert Kraklow lead the deepest offensive line unit the program has had in Currier's tenure, junior running back Lajuan Preston returns his 5.9 career average per carry in a backfield that includes Purdue transfer Brian Lankford-Johnson and Northern Iowa transfer Jaylin Richardson. While the quarterback will be a competition between a number of returners along with freshman Conner Cordts, the eventual signal-caller will have an array of targets including SCSU transfers Nathan Gimza, Nick Webley and Mason Van Zeeland, a host of returners led by junior Jake Shepley and a tight end group led by returning senior Kevin Ventura-Cortes and SCSU junior transfer Luke Shepherd.
 

---

CSP PLAYERS TO WATCH IN THE NSIC

#13 Nathan Gimza (WR, 6-2, 185, So., Chicago Ridge, Ill. / Richards HS / St. Cloud State)