MIDLAND, Mich. — Welcome to the great unknown.

Slippery Rock University will seek its fifth consecutive football season-opening victory Saturday when it ventures to Northwood (Mich.) for a noon kickoff Saturday at Hantz Stadium.

SRU is coming off a 6-5 campaign — its fourth straight winning season — while Northwood was 5-6 last season and is seeking its first winning record in four years.

The teams have faced each other only twice before — The Rock winning decisions of 17-7 in 1991 and 35-21 in 1992.

“There will be a feeling out period in the first quarter, I’m sure,” SRU coach George Mihalik said. “We don’t know them and they don’t know us.

“They have a red-shirt freshman quarterback (Mitch Robinson) listed as their starter and we haven’t seem him on tape at all.”

The Timberwolves are picked to finish last in the GLIAC (Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) North Division despite returning numerous skilled players. Sophomore QB Mark Morris started the team’s final four games last year, throwing for 672 yards and four touchdowns, but is listed as the backup on the depth chart.

Cameron Jackson rushed for 1,038 yards and Jordan Jonker tacked on 664 yards on the ground a year ago. They combined for 16 rushing touchdowns and both are back. Sophomore Carrington Thompson (38 catches-565 yards) heads the receiving corps.

Northwood has to replace eight starters on defense.

“That’s where our holes are,” sixth-year head coach Mike Sullivan admitted. “Slippery Rock is a physical, hard-hitting team and we have to find a way to slow them down.”

The Rock returns nine starters on both sides of the ball, along with senior punter James McCombie, who Mihalik says “could be one of the best in the nation.”

SRU features a bevy of running backs and receivers.

“They will all see action,” Mihalik said. ‘We have all kinds of different sets and packages and guys will be running on and off the field all the time.”

The Rock is 4-4 all-time against GLIAC schools.

“That’s a strong conference. All of their teams are fully funded,” Mihalik said.

The coach said he will have three quarterbacks — senior Nigel Barksdale, junior Jared Buck and redshirt freshman Zach Newsock — ready to play.

Northwood runs a “woodbone” spread offense, its version of the triple option.

“We’ve run it here for 22 years now,” Sullivan said. “It can play to our advantage because not a lot of teams have seen it.”

Sullivan has been either an assistant or head coach at Northwood for 15 years and the program has reached the NCAA Division II playoffs five times during that stretch.

“We’ve got some history here and we’d like to get back to it,” Sullivan said. He has won 21 games in five years as head coach. Mihalik is 167-103-4, entering his 26th season as SRU head coach.

The Rock will have some local flavor to its lineup. Slippery Rock High grad Tony Papley starts at nose guard while Mars graduate Austin Miele will rotate in at free safety. Butler grad Bob Vernick is SRU’s long snapper and will see action at middle linebacker.

“That kid has been very impressive in camp,” Mihalik said of Vernick. “This is the healthiest we’ve been coming out of camp in years. We’re looking forward to getting going.”