Bison Game Day November 12 2022

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T E A M S C H E D U L E S

THE GREATEST TEAM TO NOT PLAY

By Jeff Kolpack The Forum Fargo

The last trip to Carbondale, Ill., started with a 39-game winning streak on the line, an FCS record that was challenging the overall Division I mark of 47 in a row by the University of Oklahoma. It ended with a team that played like it had lost 39 straight.

Southern Illinois blew out the Bison 38-14 in a jaw-dropping day at Saluki Stadium. That came during the pandemic-delayed 2020 season, of course, which was played in the spring of 2021. The season that was postponed may put NDSU in the following FCS category: The Greatest Team to Not Play.

Granted, the Bison played once in the fall against Central Arkansas. But what if that team had an 11-game regular season plus a presumed run through the FCS playoffs?

“I don’t think anyone would have gotten close,” said Jeff Culhane, NDSU’s play-by-play radio voice in 2020.

Start with quarterback Trey Lance and left tackle Dillon Radunz. Wide receiver Christian Watson would have been a junior. Right tackle Cordell Volson would have been a senior and offensive lineman Cody Mauch a junior.

“I mean, can you imagine, a Trey Lanceled offense?” Culhane said. “He was already the best player in the FCS as a redshirt freshman and it wasn’t even close. A Trey Lance-led offense with all of those weapons, skill players and the offensive line they had. It wouldn’t have mattered.”

Culhane believes that team had set the table to being “the greatest football team in NDSU history” in the Division I era. The comparable would have been 2013, 2018 and 2019 undefeated teams.

Lance was coming off a record-setting 2019 season that was one of the best individual efforts in FCS history.

It was all for the taking the following year after winning the Walter Payton Award that goes to the best offensive player in the FCS.

Then COVID-19 became a thing.

Carlton Lance, Trey’s father, remembers talking to his son in the early days of fall camp in 2020 before anything was postponed or canceled.

“I said, ‘How are things going?’” Carlton said this week. “He said, oh, dad, it’s really slowed down. It’s night and day. And I thought, oh my god, we already came off a great season, I was excited to see what he could do.”

First, the Oregon game was canceled. Then the FCS moved to the spring. For parents Carlton and Angie Lance, also canceled was most likely the last chance to watch their son play college football.

“Absolutely, Angie and I feel like we got cheated out of that,” Carlton said. “But we’ve moved on to different things.”

Trey moved on to become the third overall player taken in the 2021 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers. Watson went in the second round and Volson the fourth round in the 2022

Draft. Mauch is expected to be a high pick next spring.

From left to right, the offensive line in 2020 would have been Radunz, Nash Jensen, Karson Schoening, Zach Kubas and Volson. Mauch likely would have been the sixth wheel in the line.

“That probably would have been the best North Dakota State football team to ever step on the field in my opinion,” Jensen said. “If we would have been able to put that team on the field just to see what we could have been, it would have been fun.

I’m kind of thinking what memories could have been made that year.”

Cornerback Josh Hayes was slated to return. Running back Adam Cofield would probably have stayed instead of transferring to Western Kentucky. Linebacker Jabril Cox had another year at NDSU, but the popular notion is he would have transferred to LSU anyway. Of the current Bison players, fullback Hunter Luepke was coming into his own as a sophomore in 2020. The tight ends would have been Noah Gindorff and Josh Babicz.

Babicz is on the Green Bay Packers practice squad and Gindorff is a pro prospect, assuming he overcomes a second surgery to his ankle that has him sidelined for the year. Hayes is a starting safety at Kansas State. Cofield was a pro prospect and Luepke is a highly regarded potential NFL Draft selection with some regarding him as the best available fullback.

And don’t discount veterans like linebacker Aaron Mercadel and defensive tackle Matt Biegler, who were going to play in the fall of 2020 but opted out when it

was postponed. Culhane remembers talking to Radunz not long after the Bison beat James Madison in the 2019 title game and Radunz was already looking ahead to playing the University of Oregon in 2020 and the matchup with defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux.

“He had already turned the page in getting prepared to play Thibodeaux, No. 5 for Oregon,” Culhane said.

“The first thing I think of offensively is that group would have been unbelievable to watch.” Instead, the pandemic postponed the 2020 season to the spring despite NDSU’s insistence of playing a fall FCS schedule. Not many other teams in its subdivision were on board. The schedule didn’t help the Bison either, opening the season on a Sunday against Youngstown State followed by flying to Carbondale on Friday for the Saturday game.

The Bison originally were not slated to play SIU in 2020 because of the 10-team rotating Valley schedule. But the schedule was re-tooled for the spring season after Indiana State opted out and the Salukis were added to NDSU’s league games.

“Everything in the spring, you take not only with a grain of salt but a shaker of salt that season,” Culhane said. “Everything was so different. It wasn’t normal. Sports are so much about routine and normalcy. You ask any player or coach and especially in college football it is so detail-oriented from a scheduling standpoint. It’s almost robotic and that was thrown out the window.”

The trip was problematic from the start, with the NDSU coaching staff more

concerned about rooming assignments than anything else. Head coach Matt Entz had a chart of players separated into three groups: Those who had a positive test in 90 days or less, those who had a positive test from 90-150 days and a list of players who had neither. The idea was to room one player from each chart together, so as to try and prevent three negative players from getting the virus at one time. Moreover, it was NDSU’s first trip of the spring and just getting

away from Fargo and campus was a big deal, much less playing a football game.

NDSU played like it wasn’t ready, getting its only scores on a “Hail Mary” to end the first half and another touchdown late in the fourth quarter. By the fourth quarter, the dreams of catching Oklahoma’s win streak were gone.

“They just came out with an intensity we couldn’t match,” Jensen said. “It really caught us off guard and we couldn’t bounce back

from it. At some point in the second half, it was like, wow, this really just happened. I didn’t expect it and it was just a big moment of disbelief for all of us.”

It’s debatable if that would have happened anyway considering the Bison had Oregon on the schedule. At least one Division I assistant at an FBS school thought NDSU would have had a good shot.

“That’s the milliondollar question,” Entz said this week, with his team preparing for a return trip to SIU.

“I’m extremely biased, I think that team would have been really good, just the makeup of it and the leadership that was there. Coming off the 2019 season, I think there were people who were still hungry. But could’ve, would’ve, should’ve.”

As it was, it was The Greatest Team to Not Play.

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

David Samson / The Forum

North Dakota State quarterback Trey Lance breaks away from Central Arkansas’ Jalen Bedell on a big gain on Oct. 3, 2020, in a nearlyempty Gate City Bank Field at the Fargodome.

Michael Vosburg / The Forum

North Dakota State wide receiver Christian Watson carries the ball against North Dakota during their football game March 20, 2021, in the Fargodome.

David Samson / The Forum NDSU offensive tackle Dillon Radunz readies for contact against Northern Iowa at the Fargodome.

Bison, Eubanks face challenge against high-powered Southern Illinois passing game

By Jeff Kolpack and Eric Peterson

The Forum Fargo

North Dakota State cornerback Courtney Eubanks nabbed his first career college interception last weekend against Western Illinois, a milestone that brought a smile to his face.

“It just felt great. I can’t explain the feeling,” said Eubanks, from St. Petersburg, Fla. “That’s probably the most exciting play I’ve had all year.”

The 5-foot-10, 187-pound Eubanks has been a fixture at cornerback the past two seasons, starting all 15 games last season and all nine this fall. The Bison next play at 1 p.m. Saturday at Southern Illinois in Missouri Valley Football Conference play.

Eubanks and the Bison secondary are likely to play a key role against the Salukis with quarterback Nic Baker and receivers Avante Cox and D’Ante’ Cox leading an offense that is scoring 30.2 points per game. SIU is passing for 270 yards per contest.

“You’re going to have to be really good in the back end,” said Bison head coach Matt Entz. “We can’t give up explosives against Southern Illinois.”

Entz said Eubanks has expanded his game in recent weeks.

“In the last month or so, his physicality has continued to increase,” Entz said. “His willingness to be a physical tackler, to go contest throws, to reroute … and really get physical with receivers is good. It tells me he is playing with a lot of

confidence right now.”

Eubanks said his confidence has grown as he’s become one of the more veteran players on defense.

“I knew I had to step my game up more,” he said.

“Being aggressive is one

thing I was missing so I brought that to my game.” Eubanks is part of a deep group of cornerbacks that includes starter Destin Talbert with Marques Sigle and Jayden Price also part of the defensive back rotation.

“With being that deep, that’s a great thing,” Eubanks said. “I just love my group.”

Eubanks said former Bison cornerback Josh Hayes — who now plays at Kansas State — is one of the players

who helped him earlier in his Bison career.

“I think Josh Hayes really helped me develop,” Eubanks said. “He helped me with my game a lot.”

NOTEBOOK: Page F5

David Samson / The Forum

North Dakota State junior cornerback Courtney Eubanks.

NOTEBOOK

From Page F4

Bison OL Mauch

credits 9-man roots

NDSI senior offensive

lineman Cody Mauch accepted an invitation to the Senior Bowl earlier this week and also gave a shoutout to North Dakota 9-man football.

Former Bison offensive lineman Cordell Volson, from Balfour, N.D., was drafted in the fourth round of the 2022 NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals. Volson played 9-man football for DrakeAnamoose.

The 6-foot-6, 303-pound Mauch also played 9-man football for Hankinson. He was a recruited as a walkon to NDSU to play tight end.

“It’s wild,” Mauch said. “It goes to show there’s some pretty good football in North Dakota, especially at the 9-man level. I get in arguments all the time with guys.”

Mauch said playing at a smaller school has its advantages.

“The thing about smalltown North Dakota, let alone the entire state, but the whole southeast corner of the state … you’ve got so much support,” Mauch said.

Bison fullback Hunter Luepke also received an invitation to the Senior Bowl, which is a college all-star game for NFL Draft prospects who have completed their college eligibility.

“It’s an awesome feeling to be able to see Cody and Hunter,” Bison running back TaMerik Williams said of the Senior Bowl accolades.

“Those are special guys. I feel like they would have the same feeling if it was to be me in that position.”

SIU suffered two home heart-breaking losses

The Bison will be running into a hot quarterback in

Baker, who set a school record for passing yards in one game with 485 against Northern Iowa — the Salukis’ last game before a bye week. UNI overcame SIU 37-36.

As Mike Reis, the veteran play-by-play radio voice for SIU in his 44th year put it, “If it’s 486, Southern wins the game.” A last-second Hail Mary pass from Baker came up one yard short. Baker’s heave to receiver Jay Jones was downed at the 1-yard line. “It’s crazy,” Baker told Reis after the game. “It was short, I wish it was a couple of yards farther. It’s just tough.”

Ironically, SIU head coach Nick Hill when he was a quarterback at Southern passed for 436 yards in a 2007 loss at Northern Iowa, which at the time set the school record. “It’s kind of like deja vu, I think I had this same headset on and you asked me that same question as a player,” Hill told Reis. “I think Nic will probably tell you the same thing, it stings, it hurts.”

It was the second tough loss at home for SIU, which at 5-4 overall needs to win its last two games to have a legitimate shot at the FCS playoffs. The Salukis had

their chances late in the game in a 34-31 loss to Southeast Missouri State in the second game of the season. “We’ve had two of them at home, pretty gut-wrenching ways to lose the game to come down to the last play like that,” Hill said. “We’ve been on the losing side both times. I’m proud of our guys’ resolve and fight. I feel like we have a good team but we find ourselves here losing two in a row. That was just a good college football game where we came up a yard short.” Etc. etc. etc.

► NDSU rushed for a

season-high 453 yards in last weekend’s road victory against Western Illinois.

► Southern Illinois ranks fourth in FCS with 3.56 sacks per game and No. 9 in rushing defense, limiting opponents to 100.1 yards per game.

► Bison safety Michael Tutsie ranks fourth at NDSU in career unassisted tackles with 157. He is three solo tackles from moving to No. 2 on the list ahead of Jabril Cox (158, 2017-2019), Robbie Grimsley (159, 2015-2018) and Joe Mays (159, 20042007). Colten Heagle (20102014) is the career leader with 191 solo tackles.

David Samson / The Forum

North Dakota State senior offensive lineman Cody Mauch.