A winning streak not as mystical, but still important in title run

By Jeff Kolpack The Forum

Fargo

The streak of note in the North Dakota State football program is 39, the number of consecutive victories by the Bison that is a Division I FCS record by a longshot.

It was the third longest in Division I history behind Oklahoma (47) and Washington (40), and broke their own FCS record of 33 straight from 2012-14 leaving third place in the FCS to James Madison at 26 in 2016-17. In other words, it may be a long time before 39 in a row is broken, if ever.

The Bison, at least, are working on another streak albeit not as newsworthy and certainly not as mystical. Heading into Saturday’s game against Illinois State at Gate City Bank Field at the Fargodome, the Bison have won 37 straight games after a bye week.

NDSU did not play last weekend.

The streak consists of 20 home games, eight road games and nine FCS national title games in Frisco, Texas.

There’s a formula to what the Bison coaching staff calls “Bison week,” although it’s not something anybody will see in a coaching manual. And NDSU has not deviated from it much over the years.

“Not really, very similar,” said head coach Matt Entz. “This year may be slightly different — not with the number of practices or anything like that — but because of the timing of the actual bye week.”

Most bye weeks in the Division I era have been in late September between the non-conference games and the start of Missouri Valley Football Conference play. As it is, it’s the third-latest bye week behind 2009 (week 10) and 2010 (week nine). Moreover, it’s the first time since 2009 that the Bison have had an off week after a loss.

“I think that was a little bit of an extra motivator this last bye week,” said linebacker James Kaczor. “It seemed like there was a little more intensity and intentionality with our work and that might be a product of that last loss.”

Now in his fourth season as the head coach, Entz didn’t change the format of practice since the Oct. 15 game against South Dakota State.

“Our kids buy into the process, too,” he said. “And I think getting a little time off is beneficial for everyone not just physically but from a mental standpoint as well after you’ve gone eight weeks now.”

Perhaps the biggest threat to the 37 straight came last year when NDSU had the week off prior to the Missouri Valley opener at the University of North Dakota. The Bison offense struggled all day, eventually getting a three-yard touchdown run from quarterback Quincy Patterson with 1:13 left in the game to take a two-possession lead.

The Fighting Hawks countered with a field goal with 16 seconds remaining, but NDSU recovered the onside kick in the 16-10 final.

About five months earlier, in the spring season of 2021, NDSU edged Northern Iowa

23-20 after the open week, which actually turned into two open weeks with the University of South Dakota game canceled because of COVID-19 protocol issues.

Ideally, the Bison would probably like to start the season in July and have a bye every other week. Whatever they do in the week off during the season, things seem to get accomplished.

“Back to the basics, focus on us,” Kaczor said. “What do we have to get better at?

Watching film and seeing where we’re failing or lacking and improving in those areas.”

When the NDSU players left Gate City Bank Field at the Fargodome on the wrong side of a 23-21 loss to South Dakota State, the typical slogan applied: they had 24 hours to either celebrate a victory, or in this case, get over a loss.

In this case, however, it was about looking ahead to the week of practice with no game last Saturday. What did the Bison accomplish?

An open week is a big week for the younger NDSU players who don’t see the field on Saturdays. They end each practice with a scrimmage, a chance to show what they can do in game situations in front of the veteran players on the sideline. It often turns into a bragging rights situation between the offense and defense.

“Most of the time, they’re playing ‘scout’ all week and not even tasting a part of our offense or defense,” Kaczor said. “So it’s good to refresh their memory on our defense and our offense, get them out and it’s always competitive.”

Said quarterback Cam Miller: “For the upperclassmen it’s a great way to teach and bring these young guys along and see what kind of improvement they’ve made over the last six weeks. And I think those young guys did some really good things last week.”

The off week gave the Bison coaches two weeks to address one of the team’s weaknesses in run defense. NDSU has seen four opposing running backs run for over 100 yards in seven games. In 2021, only four times did an opposing team reach that mark.

SDSU’s Isaiah Davis had 114, Indiana State’s Justin Dinka 156 and Youngstown State’s Jaleel McLaughlin 150 in the last three games. North Carolina A&T’s Bhayshul Tuten had 127 in the second game of the season.

The Bison head into the Illinois State game 62nd in rushing defense in the 123-team FCS, giving up 157.0 yards per game. Kaczor said the defense worked on tackling every day.

“Making it our priority … if you’re permitting it, you’re promoting it,” Entz said. “We continue to keep practicing as hard as we can, continue to emphasize fundamentals and techniques, continue to emulate situational tackling as best we can and that’s exactly what we did.”

That included a tackling drill that encompassed the entire team. NDSU routinely has offensive players playing special teams, especially on the kickoff and punt coverage teams.

“It’s just the level of preparation that we have week in and week out,” said linebacker

Cole Wisniewski.

“We got back to the fundamentals and that’s what the game comes down to so when we have time that we don’t have to completely dedicate to one team we can focus on ourselves and focus on the fundamentals.”

Readers can reach Forum reporter Jeff Kolpack at jkolpack@ forumcomm.com. Twitter@ KolpackInForum