BISON GAME DAY
NORTH DAKOTA STATE SATURDAY, NOV. 23, 2024
► When: 1 p.m., at the DakotaDome, Vermillion, S.D. ► TV: WDAY ► Radio: 1660-AM, 107.9 FM
WELCOME BACK TO POSTER STATUS, BISON RUNNING BACKS
With new head coach, NDSU has shied away from QBs carrying the ball
BY JEFF KOLPACK
The Forum FARGO
It’s as if the position groups within the North Dakota State football program have taken turns being the rockstars, with NFL draft picks littered throughout the team in the Division I era. Even a punter was interviewed by ESPN after a 2015 FCS quarterfinal win against Northern Iowa at the Fargodome.
That was Ben LeCompte, who ironically will be on the other side Saturday when the Bison travel to the University of South Dakota for a Missouri Valley Football Conference showdown. LeCompte is a senior associate athletic director for the Coyotes. Offensive line. Defensive line. Linebackers. Defensive backs. Quarterbacks. Special teams. Receivers. All have had their share of All-Americans and NFL prospects. But when Tim Polasek took over as the NDSU head coach this season, one of his goals was to restore running back to icon status.
The 59-21 win over Missouri State last Saturday was a celebration of that hope, with Barika Kpeenu and Marty Brown both going over 100 yards, the first time NDSU had two running backs eclipse 100 since TK Marshall and TaMerik Williams did it in 2022 against Western Illinois.
The NDSU football coaches TV show with Polasek on Sunday night was littered with highlights of Kpeenu and Brown running free in the Bears’ secondary.
“You guys know that I want to get back to where tailbacks are special in this program,” he said after the game. “I want our tailbacks on
the posters for camp; on posters for the schedule. We’ve had outstanding quarterbacks but I’d like to have some guys who have production like that.”
Mission accomplished, and then some. For the first time in several years, the running backs have been the primary ballcarriers with Brown and Kpeenu combining for 265 attempts. Quarterback Cam Miller is third with 77.
“Having quarterbacks who can run is important,” said Bison left tackle Grey Zabel, “but the less QB-run that you can have in a game plan, the better it is just to protect that quarterback and keep him healthy. Just the explosiveness they’ve shown this season is pretty incredible.”
Brown needs 89 yards to become the first running back to reach 1,000 for the season since Bruce Anderson in 2017.
Former standout Bison running back DJ McNorton is well aware of the difference. A high school teacher and assistant football coach at Channelview High School in suburban Houston, he rarely misses an NDSU game.
“Every week I’m locked in,” said McNorton, who played at NDSU from 2008-11. This season, he’s seeing Kpeenu, Brown and Marshall locked into three of the first words he heard on his first recruiting trip to Fargo.
“We run power,” said McNorton, echoing what Bison coaches preached to him. “They emphasized that a good three to four times. For me it was a good introduction to the mentality of what they do and a good introduction of the mentality they wanted me to have.”
McNorton’s running backs coach at NDSU was Polasek when he
was a Bison assistant for 10 years. When Polasek returned to Fargo, he returned the running back to the days of McNorton et al.
“He was able to help me find myself,” McNorton said.
The position has been the staple of the Bison offense since Darrell Mudra in the mid-1960s turned the tables on decades of losing in Bison football. Paul Hatchett was the backfield jewel of the 1960s. The 1970s produced a steady stream of backs but the aura returned with vigor in the early 1980s when Don Morton recruited James Molstre from Dickinson and Chad Stark from Brookings, S.D. Doug Lloyd and Tony Satter from Fargo South took it from there. Jake Morris in the ‘90s was a 1,000-yard rusher before head coach Bob Babich enticed a skinny Lamar
Gordon to come to NDSU from Milwaukee.
Gordon put on about 35 pounds of muscle and turned into an NFL running back before his career was done in 2001.
Craig Bohl had other ideas about allowing the back not to be the premier position in the offense when he was named head coach in 2003. That was the staple of his West Coast offense. And the run of running backs seemed almost endless starting with Kyle Steffes. Tyler Roehl set the single-game rushing record of 263 yards against the University of Minnesota in 2007. The roll call never stopped: Pat Paschall, DJ McNorton, Sam Ojuri, John Crockett, King Frazier, Lance Dunn, Anderson, Ty Brooks, Hunter Luepke among others.
“It just keeps going,” McNorton said. “It’s been fun to watch those
guys from the outside in. And seeing those young guys grab the torch and do their thing for a while and then pass that torch on when they’re done, too. Very fun to see.” The evolution of the leading rusher being a running back started to change, ironically, with one of the greatest seasons in FCS history with quarterback Trey Lance in 2019. The redshirt freshman led the team in rushing, did not throw an interception against 28 touchdown passes and won both the Walter Payton Award that goes to the best offensive player and the Jerry Rice Award that goes to the best freshman.
Lance had 1,100 yards on the ground that year. NDSU’s leading rusher in the national title team of 2021 was Williams with 772 yards. Running back Kobe Johnson came close to 1,000 in 2022 in a year when the quarterbacks became just as busy in the ground game as the backs.
Johnson had 129 attempts; Cam Miller 122. Last year, Miller and backup quarterback Cole Payton led the team in rushing for most of the season. Combined they had 219 rushing attempts to Williams’ 124. Enter Polasek.
When Bohl and Polasek were at Wyoming, Bohl said he didn’t want his star quarterback, Josh Allen, to run 15 times until he had to.
Also, the Bison QB run changed when Payton hurt his shoulder a month ago and is done for the season. Miller battled through a midseason ankle sprain.
“There’s a special place in my heart for all the tailbacks that I’ve coached here,” Polasek said. “We won a lot of games and that’s led to a lot of strong feelings toward tailback run.”
Photos by David Samson/The Forum
North Dakota State’s Barika Kpeenu heads upfield on a 52-yard touchdown run against Missouri State at the Fargodome on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.
North Dakota State’s D.J. McNorton leaps over Sam Houston State defenders Saturday, Jan. 7, during the FCS championship game in Frisco, Texas.
Grey Zabel • LT
Jeff Kolpack The Forum Record: 9-2
Bison Proud. Tomorrow Bound.
Big battle for Bison offensive tackles vs. Coyotes
Bison pitting seniors Grey Zabel and Mason Miller against two of Valley’s best defensive ends
BY JEFF KOLPACK
The Forum
FARGO — On the whole, the matchup of significance in Division I FCS this weekend is in Vermillion, South Dakota, where No. 1 North Dakota State travels to No. 4 University of South Dakota. On the field and broken down, look for a key battle at the line of scrimmage, where two of NDSU’s best veteran offensive linemen will face two of USD’s best veteran defensive ends.
Left tackle Grey Zabel and right tackle Mason Miller vs. defensive ends Nick Gaes and Mi’Quise Grace. Power vs. explosiveness.
“That’s going to be a critical matchup for us,” said NDSU head coach Tim Polasek. Combined both USD players have 24 tackles for lost yardage and both have nearly eight quarterback sacks. The 6-foot4, 275-pound Gaes made the rare switch from a defensive tackle to the outside.
“He was unreal and now he moves outside,” Zabel said. “Just the ability to move from (tackle) to a d-end, you have to be super athletic to do that. So hats off to him and everything he’s done.
We’re going to have our
hours before kickoff because of positive COVID-19 tests.
The Bison were in a Sioux Falls hotel when they learned of the game’s fate.
“Our No. 1 goal is to be the most physical team in the country and this week we have a great opportunity to go out there and prove it.” BISON RIGHT TACKLE MASON MILLER
hands full and it’s going to be a great challenge to go up against the best.” Miller compares the strength and ability of USD’s line to that of South Dakota State. “Our No. 1 goal is to be the most physical team in the country and this week we have a great opportunity to go out there and prove it,” he said. Miller borrowed a
concept from the 1980s basketball movie when asked what it’s like to play at the DakotaDome.
“You have a little bit of ‘Hoosiers,’ ” he said. “Everybody is right on top of you. It’s going to be a heck of an atmosphere. Last year in the playoffs, we were able to travel really well, which really helped out. Hoping Bison nation shows up like they always do.”
Zabel juggled emotional week
Zabel, who besides going through Senior Week last week received an invitation to the Senior Bowl. It was released to him after practice, with offensive line coach Dan Larson doing the honors.
Zabel, who turned down FBS transfer portal options in the offseason, gave a short impromptu speech to his teammates saying goals like the Senior Bowl are possible from an FCS school.
“It was a pretty emotional week, had to juggle
some stuff,” he said. “It was good that our defense played like it did, we got off to a fast start so there wasn’t a ton of emotion out on the football field.”
Zabel is the fifth NDSU offensive lineman selected to the Senior Bowl since Billy Turner in 2014. He was followed by Joe Haeg in 2016, Dillon Radunz in 2021 and Cody Mauch last year. This year’s game is Feb. 1 in Mobile, Alabama.
“I was speaking to all the guys who are going to come after me,” Zabel said, “because anything you want to be accomplished can be accomplished from here. I truly believe the guys that came before me just kind of passed that down to me so with the type of football that we play, the development, the brand and physicality that we play with, there’s going to be opportunities for other people down the line. If you’re good enough, they’re going to find you.”
DakotaDome familiarity
The Zabel family has
played so many games at the DakotaDome that it may be difficult to count. Grey was part of three South Dakota state championship teams at T.F. Riggs High School in Pierre, with the title games being played in Vermillion. As a sophomore, he was the center and his brother, Peyton Zabel, was the Governors’ quarterback.
Bison tight end Jett Zabel, a true freshman, played on a championship team last year.
“The one thing I can always remember is the unbelievable atmosphere, just the DakotaDome feel, kind of the older feel,” Grey said. “And that AstroTurf that you can feel for three weeks after. It’s been good for us so far and hopefully it continues.” It continued last year in the FCS quarterfinals, with the Bison taking a 45-17 victory at the DakotaDome after losing during the regular season in Fargo. The Bison won 34-17 in Vermillion in 2022 with the spring season 2021 game canceled
“This is where you want to play to finish your season,” Grey said. Mo State coach lauds NDSU facilities Missouri State head coach Ryan Beard, in his weekly presser in advance of his team’s final game in Division I FCS Saturday at home against South Dakota State, made reference to NDSU’s facilities in what he would like his program to look like.
NDSU defeated the Bears 59-21 at Gate City Bank Field at the Fargodome last week. Beard said NDSU’s setup with the dome and the $54 million practice facility “looks like the Tennessee Titans.”
“I think it was good for everybody involved on the trip to see what it takes,” he said. “All you have to do is open your eyes and look around their campus.” Beard liked how NDSU still recruits mainly high school players and develops them, which includes a key nutrition component. MSU is moving to FBS, with a big goal of improving facilities.
“It takes a lot with the infrastructure you need to put around your student-athletes,” he said. “You put them in most G-5 conferences; they’re still as competitive as ever.”
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Missouri State Bears head coach Ryan Beard adjusts his head set during the first half against the Kansas Jayhawks at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.
David Samson/The Forum North Dakota State’s Grey Zabel greets youth football players from Winnipeg, Manitoba, before play against Missouri State at the Fargodome on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024.