It took 46 games, but long road worth it for Dylan Hendricks

By Jeff Kolpack The Forum

Fargo

One of the first orders of video business for the North Dakota State football team this week in preparing for its Division I FCS quarterfinal matchup on Friday with Samford University had nothing to do with the Bulldogs. It had everything to do with a quarterback sack by Bison junior defensive end Dylan Hendricks last week in the second round win over Montana.

And it really didn’t have much to do with that, either. NDSU head coach Matt Entz said he wanted to point out the reaction by Hendricks’ teammates. It was rather celebratory.

They were essentially recognizing the long road for Hendricks to even play college football. It took three years and six games. So long that Hendricks joked he might hold the team record for longest time it took to make a college debut.

“The goal that just kept driving me is I’m not giving up,” Hendricks said. “I put too much time and effort into making this work.”

From the time of Hendricks’ true freshman season in 2019 until his first game Oct. 8 against Indiana State, the Bison played 46 games. He tore his ACL in his senior year of high school in Pulaski, Wis., playing rugby. He tore the meniscus in his knee while trying to come back from that in his first year at NDSU. Then, in December of 2020, while back home during the COVID-19 pandemic, he got in a car accident and injured his neck.

“I made some really poor decisions and I paid for them,” Hendricks said. “I learned a lot. I think it taught me a lot. Definitely went through a lot going through it. I had to fight a lot just to keep my place on this team.”

Hendricks said through all of his downfalls, the Bison coaches and his teammates never lost touch. He was hoping to avoid any procedure on his neck and have it heal on its own, but eventually that plan fell through and surgery was scheduled.

“Dylan has had some moments in his career here at NDSU where he almost wasn’t a Bison,” Entz said. “He made some very poor choices. But it’s exciting to be able to see a young man be able to flip it around and have success.”

Entz said having supportive teammates was also big for Hendricks, as evidenced by the Montana film. Hendricks said two things happened after he put Griz quarterback Daniel Britt to the Fargodome turf: He immediately looked up to the stands and saw his mother and brother and then the Bison players jumping around and yelling.

“It definitely made me feel a lot better about what I’ve been working toward,”

Hendricks said. “I can do this; this is an achievable thing.”

Said Entz: “We continue to pour into him, he’s battled a lot. For him to see success and just sheer enjoyment. When he had that sack, look at everyone on the sideline and how excited they were for No. 95. It’s good to see and it’s at the right time of the year for us.”

It’s a good time of the year with the Bison battling injuries and the usual battle-tested ailments of a team that has played 12 games. Defensive end Spencer Waege didn’t finish the Montana game with a lower back injury, but will return against Samford. Tony Pierce, the other starting defensive end, missed two games recently. Defensive end Jake Kava was lost for the season back in early October. Four other D-ends are in their first or second year with redshirt freshman Kole Menz seeing his role increased.

Hendricks came to NDSU as a 225pound linebacker. He redshirted in 2019 with 2020 the natural progression of getting on the field. That didn’t happen.

But he’s grown to 6-foot-3 and 243 pounds. Learning the college game and a new position wasn’t going to be the issue, said Jerad Marsh, his coach at Pulaski High School. At Pulaski, he picked up the details of the game in an instant.

“He was one of those players that had a great feel for football,” Marsh said. “You would install something, you watch him after you talked to him about it and in an instant he was able to do whatever we asked of him and understood how that fit into the system.”

Marsh was at Gate City Bank Field at the Fargodome for the University of North Dakota game three weeks ago. He said Hendricks has introduced him to teammates, which further brought home the point why his former star player would stick around and play college ball after so many years off.

“They make it really hard not to like football or to be around football the way they kept him engaged,” Marsh said.

“The coaching staff, the support from families, the wherewithal to get through those injuries … in high school he never got injured. Never. And to get through that is a testament to how that program is run.”

Pulaski is a small village of around 3,500 residents located northwest of Green Bay. The Bison have made a living over the years with small-town Wisconsin players, including fullback Hunter Luepke from Spencer, which is half the population of Pulaski.

Like Luepke with career touchdowns, Hendricks was a record-setter in the state of Wisconsin and is currently fifth alltime in rushing yards with 6,359.

“He’s one of those guys the kids still talk about,” Marsh said.

“After three, four, five years out of school, that usually dissipates but even with our little kids, the guys who were waterboys when he was playing, that’s the guy that if you talk about Pulaski football that’s the name that comes out of their mouths.”

Defense, however, was his college calling. NDSU first recruited him as an athlete before the talk switched to linebacker.

“I just kind of fell in love with defense,” he said.

After three years, NDSU couldn’t be more thankful.

“I think everybody on this team, besides maybe a few freshmen, understands my story and the stuff I’ve been through,” Hendricks said. “I mean, all of them helped me through it. I loved that they were all so into the game and cheering for me and everything.”