ROME, Ga. — Matt Ritter and Lorenzo Brown are new to all of this.

Neither one was even on the roster when Carroll College and the University of Sioux Falls met for the NAIA national championship in 2007. They’ve never played in “the biggest game of the season,” and they don’t know too much about the squads that came before them.

The quarterbacks have one more thing in common. Each is tasked with breaking through one of the toughest defenses in the nation.

Ritter, a true freshman with Carroll, and Brown, a junior transfer with Sioux Falls, will square off in the 2008 title game on Saturday. The game is a rematch of last season when Carroll’s Saints beat the Cougars 17-9 in Savannah, Tenn.

The 2007 NAIA player of the year, Chad Cavender, was starting for Sioux Falls then. But, it’s been a long year, and while Brown might know Cavender, he’s also worked to separate himself from the former offensive leader.

“Obviously I took a lot of questions when I got here,” said Brown, who transferred at the beginning of the season from North Iowa Area Community College. “Chad was a great player, he did a lot for this program. It was pretty tough coming in and trying to fill his shoes, but then again make my own name as being another good quarterback to come through this school.”

Brown has done just that by bringing balance to the once pocket-oriented position.

He’s averaging 158.7 yards passing per game and completing roughly 60 percent of his passes. Meanwhile, he’s picking up 50.5 yards per game on the ground.

Most of that rushing yardage has come in recent weeks.

“We’ve really tried to develop him as a passer throughout most of the season and try to save on him as a runner,” said Cougars’ head coach Kalen DeBoer. “Now that we’ve gotten into the playoffs, we’ve really tried to make defenses stop both.”

He only needed to run for 36 yards in Sioux Falls’ 50-13 win over Langston University in the quarterfinals, but picked up 83 in the 24-6 semifinal win over St. Francis.

Many of those were third-and-long conversions.

“Not only on plays designed for him to carry the football, but also being creative with his feet and getting out of a jam, knowing when to throw it and when to keep it and get a first down,” said Carroll head coach Mike Van Diest.

After watching film on Ritter, DeBoer said he considered the opposition to be a mirror image of his star quarterback.

Ritter didn’t play a lot during the regular season, but he did play well. He was able to scramble for a 12-yard touchdown late against rival Montana Tech, lifting the Saints to a 10-6 win. He also led the drives that helped Carroll beat Eastern Oregon University 28-7 in the final game of the regular season.

But it wasn’t until freshman Dane Broadhead tore a knee ligament (after original quarterback junior Gary Wagner had sustained a broken ankle), that Ritter truly began to shine.

The Butte Central product, who was recruited as a receiver at the beginning of the season, didn’t make many mistakes. He threw for 237 yards and picked up 58 more on the ground in the Saints’ first-round playoff game against Dickinson State, and then returned to throw for 127 yards on 13-of-17 passing against Lindenwood University in the semifinal two weeks ago. He didn’t throw an interception or fumble the ball in either game.

Now, he has a new test. He will be the first true freshman to lead the Saints in a national championship since Van Diest took over in 1995.

“There’s definitely some nerves going through me, but it’s just another game,” Ritter said. “It’s a big game, but the guys around me make me feel comfortable and calm me down, which is a great thing to have in a team.

“I think the main thing is we’ve got to go out and do our job and execute the best we can.”