1996 Northern Arizona Lumberjacks football team

Running back Archie Amerson won the Walter Payton Award as the most outstanding offensive player in NCAA Division I-AA football.

During the regular season, the team lost only two games, one against Division I-A New Mexico (33–49) and the other to No.

In the program's first ever Division I-AA playoff game, they lost to Furman by a 42–31 score before a crowd of 8,700 at the Walkup Skydome.

[4] His seven rushing touchdowns against Weber State established a Division I-AA record.

[3] Ricky Pearsall also set a Division I-AA record with 216 punt return yards against Western New Mexico.