• Northwestern hits the road for the second-straight week to battle NCAA Football Championship Series (FCS) foe Drake in Des Moines at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday.
• Drake marks the first NCAA opponent for the Red Raiders since the 1997 season when the Raiders beat Buena Vista and lost to Drake that season.
• Konner McQuillan was tabbed the GPAC Offensive Player of the Week for his stand out performance at Concordia last week.
• He notched a career-high 252 yards and a long of 67 yards (for a TD) in the win.
• The Raiders scored seven touchdowns in their first game of the 2023 season; running wild with 387 yards on the ground and four total rushing scores.
• The 2023 NAIA Preseason Coaches' Poll ranked Northwestern No. 1, the first No. 1 ranking in program history dating back to 1999 (the official NAIA records).
• Northwestern is now 41-23-1 (.631) in season openers, and 5-3 under Matt McCarty.
• NWC holds a record of 23-6 in the month of September under McCarty.
• McCarty closes in on 75 career wins, entering 2023 with 68 wins to his name heading to Des Moines.
• Since 2020 when the deep playoff runs began for Northwestern, NWC is one of eight NAIA programs to make the NAIA Football Championship Series (FCS) (see p. 5 of notes for full list of teams).

McQuillan's Rushing Performance Lands Him @GPACSports Offensive Player of the Week Accolades.

📰: https://t.co/4f3DcuZJPA#RaidersStandOut | @nwc_fb pic.twitter.com/OOzXrQNt4T

— NWC Red Raiders (@nwcraiders) September 4, 2023

• Senior running back Konner McQuillan was named the first Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Offensive Player of the Week for this career outing last week.
• He ran for a whopping 252 yards on 19 carries with a long of 67 yards – both setting new career highs.
• He ran for two scores and averaged 13.3 yards per carry.
• In the performance, he became the 10^th Red Raider in program history to hit the 2,500-yard career rushing mark.

• Junior quarterback Jalyn Gramstad picked up right where he left off in North Carolina last season.
• He was responsible for 318 of the teams 614 yards of offense against Concordia, combining for five of the Red Raider touchdowns.
• He threw for 227 yards through the air (20-for-25) with extreme accuracy, tossing three touchdowns – all to Michael Storey.
• He added 91 net yards on the ground with two rushing scores, averaging 6.1 yards per carry.

• Three GPAC teams are ranked in the top-25 to begin the season: Northwestern (No. 1), Morningside (No. 4), and Dordt (No. 25).
• The preseason poll marks the 25^th-straight week NWC has been ranked inside the top-5, dating back to May 17, 2021.
• It's now 65-straight week the Red Raiders have been ranked inside the top-25.

• Saturday's forecast in Des Moines calls for mostly sunny skies with a high of 84 degrees.
• The temperature around kickoff will be in the 70s, with a low for the evening leveling out at 60 degrees.

• Drake leads the all-time series 2-1 with the last meeting coming in 1997.
• Drake is 2-0 with games played in Des Moines.
• It marks the first time head coach Matt McCarty will battle the Bulldogs of Drake.