2016 Arizona Christian Firestorm football team
The 2016 Arizona Christian Firestorm football team represented Arizona Christian University in the 2016 NAIA football season. The Firestorm, led by first-year head coach Jeff Bowen, are members of the Central States Football League. Bowen took over the team in April 2016, when former head coach Donnie Yantis took a job with Arizona State. The 2015 team was coming off its first season in the conference, and repeated as champions during the 2016 campaign.
The departure of Donnie Yantis started an overhaul of the ACU coaching staff that off-season. Former NJCAA National Championship Coach Joe Kersting was hired to become the co-defensive coordinator along with Grant O'Brien, who had been on the staff as an assistant the previous season. Changes to the offensive staff included the promotion of Dan Friedman to Co-Offensive Coordinator along with Quarterbacks Coach, Steff Kruck. The team also hired Joe Parker as Run Game Coordinator/ Offensive Line Coach and Kyle Jacobo as Running Backs Coach. Also, Aaron Bentley joined the staff as Defensive Line Coach and Special Teams Coordinator. The team named Andrew Ludwig as Developmental Team Head Coach and Matt Silver and Farasi Norman as assistant coaches.
Schedule
The 2016 schedule consisted of 5 home and 5 away games in the regular season. The Firestorm hosted CSFL foes Langston Lions, Texas College, Wayland Baptist Pioneers, and Bacone College Warriors, and traveled to SAGU Lions and Lyon College Scots.
The team's four non–conference games were against UTPB Falcons from the Lone Star Conference, Sul Ross Lobos from the American Southwest Conference, Davenport Panthers from the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference and Warner Royals from the Mid-South Conference.
For the first time in school history ACU was ranked in the pre-season NAIA Football Coaches’ Top 25 Poll, at no. 20. The Firestorm had bye weeks for the first two weeks of NAIA play for the 2016 season. After another slow start in non-conference play to start the season (1-2) and dropping out of the Top 25, the team won their next four CSFL games to raise their record to 5-2. The team reclaimed their pre-season position at no. 20 in the NAIA Football polls, making them eligible for the playoffs had the season ended that day. In week 10, the Warner Royals came to Phoenix to play in a non-conference game. The team lost 28-38 and dropped out of the top 25 rankings. The next week ACU hosted Wayland Baptist, who was undefeated in conference, for homecoming. The game essentially became the CSFL Conference Championship game, with the Firestorm pulling through 45-35 in their only home night game of the season. The team rounded out the year by defeating Bacone College at home. For the second straight year, and only the Firestorm's second year in the conference, the team was undefeated in CSFL play. The Firestorm ended the season at no. 22 in the NAIA polls for the second straight year, missing out on the playoffs again.