BISON FOOTBALL HITTING THE ROAD LIKE FBS PROGRAM
BY JEFF KOLPACK
The Forum FARGO
The Big Ten Conference is now L.A. to New York, and several points between. In Division I college football, the country is getting smaller.
It’s not so big in the FCS, either, when it comes to North Dakota State’s miles this season.
The Missouri Valley Football Conference schedule for the Bison this season is about as distant as it gets and if the Bison had Youngstown State in eastern Ohio on the road schedule, it would be even more. On Saturday, the Bison hit the road for Carbondale, Illinois, to play Southern Illinois.
That’s 940 miles. That’s nothing.
The season started at the University of Colorado (915 miles). Two weeks later it was off to East Tennessee State in Johnson City, Tennessee (1,245 miles), thankfully a trip that was made two weeks before Hurricane Helene ravaged that area of the country.
The conference season opened at Illinois State in Normal, Illinois (690 miles). After the SIU trip, the Bison return home to face South Dakota State only to hit the road for a first time trip to Murray State in Murray, Kentucky (1,025 miles).
The one bus trip is the final regular season game at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion (305 miles). The total of those six road games: 5,120 miles.
That’s nothing when it comes to the conference mergers in the FBS, but it would put the Bison ninth in the FBS in miles traveled this season.
Washington will be the leader at 8,312 followed by California at 8,254 and Stanford at 7,051.
NDSU’s total will rank it right behind Miami
(5,275) and right ahead of Utah (4,841). The difference this year, of course, for Washington is ditching the Pac-12 Conference for the Big Ten, where the Huskies will be flying to the likes of Rutgers (New Jersey), Iowa, Indiana and Penn State.
That’s a change of 10 time zones for those four opponents alone. Nobody knows that better than former Bison fullback Jedre Cyr, who drives the NDSU equipment truck to each away game along with either his father Brian or brother Jaeger.
“It helps that the long trips have been early in the year, not later, so you don’t have to worry about weather,” Jedre said.
The Cyrs leave after the Bison finish practice on Wednesday for the longer trips like East Tennessee State and Colorado and after practice Thursday for the shorter ones like Illinois State. It’s an
organized machine of packing, driving and unpacking.
After road games, the customized semi-trailer and green cab usually leaves not long after the team gets on the buses to the airport. The Cyrs do it on their own time and own dime with the exception of basic expenses like fuel.
“I really enjoy it because it makes me get back into it and I’m able to give back to NDSU football,” Jedre said. “I always feel more engaged in the game when I’m on the sideline.”
Adding to his enjoyment is the return to the program of head coach Tim Polasek, who was Cyr’s assistant coach when he was a Bison fullback.
“Another symbol of Bison nation and the care and support we do have,” Polasek said.
The Cyrs do the long trips while NDSU rents a
trailer for the shorter trips to North Dakota, South Dakota State or South Dakota. Jedre, who finished his Bison career in 2015, was asked how he would have felt about the 2006 season when NDSU was on the road six times in a seven-game span.
“Oh my gosh,” Cyr said with an extended laugh. “That’s a lot of traveling.”
Not only that, it was all over the country spanning more than 7,000 miles. It began at the end of September at Ball State in Muncie, Indiana, followed by a flight to Texas to play Stephen F. Austin. After two wins, including the first-ever FBS victory at Ball State, it was back east to Georgia Southern.
The Bison returned home to play Mississippi Valley State, got on the bus after that to the University of Minnesota. NDSU finished that road stretch with games at
Southern Utah and California Davis. The Bison went 5-1, with the only defeat 10-9 to the Gophers. It was Polasek’s first year as a Bison graduate assistant, fresh from the Division III world in Wisconsin. He had one sport coat, which then-head coach Craig Bohl bought for him.
“I remember being excited to be able to get on planes,” he said. “OK, this is a business trip. All those trips were fascinating for me because it was kind of my first experience of being in the South, the food and getting to know different cultural backgrounds. And those are things that I still think are exciting about road trips.”
That trip included a historic 28-24 comeback victory at Davis, perhaps a testament to the business-trip mentality Bohl instilled in his players. NDSU trailed 24-0 at
halftime, only to throw four second-half touchdowns at the Aggies while shutting them out on defense.
If any team had an excuse to fold up shop, cite being road weary from traveling so much, that would have been it. Budget-wise, when it’s all said and done, it won’t necessarily turn out to be more expensive for the Bison this season. They got a $700,000 guarantee playing at Colorado and the two non-conference road games at East Tennessee State and Towson are part of home-andhome contracts. The savings for NDSU is not paying a guarantee of its own to an opponent to come to Gate City Bank Field at the Fargodome. That tab to get teams like Maine last year or Drake and North Carolina A&T in 2022 to Fargo is usually around $200,000 to $225,000.
Scheduling during 12-game seasons like this year is built around home-and-home contracts.
“We didn’t pay a guarantee this year so there’s savings there and it balances out a little bit,” said NDSU athletic director Matt Larsen. “You try to be smart in those years of a 12-game schedule.” NDSU also found savings in its charter company this year, leaving Delta Air Lines after almost 20 years in favor of Sun Country Airlines. That was around a $500,000 difference.
“That was a purely financial thing, there was a huge gap between the two,” Larsen said. “Sun Country has been awesome, we’ve had no issues.” Just like the confidence of having a former player like Jedre handle the truckloads of equipment across the country.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Jeff Kolpack at
David Samson/The Forum
North Dakota State players take in the surroundings at at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado, on Thursday, August 29, 2024.
Dom Izzo / WDAY-TV
North Dakota State players depart a Sun Country Airline charter flight this season. NDSU switched to Sun Country after years with Delta Air Lines.
DAY GUIDE
Kody Huisman • DT
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Bison Proud. Tomorrow Bound.
North Dakota State senior receiver could redshirt depending on how many games he plays this season
BY JEFF KOLPACK
The Forum
FARGO — North Dako-
ta State wide receiver
RaJa Nelson returned to the lineup last week against the University of North Dakota, but that doesn’t mean there still aren’t decisions to be made about his future.
Nelson played as a true freshman in the spring 2021 season, meaning he could still redshirt using the NCAA four-game rule. Last week was his second game after playing the season opener at the University of Colorado before being sidelined by a hernia-like ailment.
Polasek said Nelson came through the 41-17 win over the Fighting Hawks strong, but now it’s going back to managing his health on a day-today basis.
“And really be smart with it,” he said, “especially with the potential chance to redshirt. I’m not going to try and put one game ahead of the other but the schedule kind of falls to have all of your weapons in all of the big games, it could come to fruition. But we really have to see how he responds because I’d like him to stay on the gas as far as finishing his career on a high note with his brothers.” Nelson is expected to play this Saturday at Southern Illinois. If he were to redshirt, he would have just one more game among the final five against South Dakota State, Murray State, Northern Iowa, Missouri
State and South Dakota. Playoffs do not count against a player’s eligibility in terms of redshirting.
Nelson has 69 career receptions and has been used in the backfield as well as on jet sweeps as a receiver.
“He wants to be out there as much as he can,” Polasek said. “He wants to help his team.”
Tough stretch for Salukis
Southern Illinois is at the end of one of the toughest scheduling stretches in school history, with the Bison being the fifth straight ranked team SIU will have played. It started off well with a 35-28 victory over Incarnate Word (Texas). But that was followed with a 38-21 home loss to Southeast Missouri State, a 42-12 thumping at South Dakota and a 45-10 home defeat to Illinois State last week. Currently, USD is ranked fourth in the Stats Perform Top 25 media poll, Southeast Missouri 11th, Incarnate Word 15th and the Redbirds 16th.
Facing five straight ranked opponents happened twice before in school history in 1999 and 2005.
“We’re competitors, this is our job,” SIU head coach Nick Hill said following last week’s ISU game. “At some point you have to take ownership and have pride in how you do it.”
The Bison go into Carbondale ranked second in the Stats Perform poll. The streak of ranked
opponents doesn’t include a season-opening 41-13 loss at BYU, which is 5-0 and ranked 14th in the Associated Press top 25 FBS poll.
SIU fell out of the top 25 FCS poll for the first time since 2022, a streak of 19 straight weeks. The Salukis reached as high as No. 5 last season. Polasek addresses penalties
The Bison are 5-1 overall and 2-0 in the Missouri Valley Football Conference, but not everything is perfect in Polasek’s mind. The Bison are in the middle of the pack in the conference for most penalties averaging
almost 56 yards a game.
Some of those have are of the discipline type like unsportsmanlike conduct or taunting from excessive celebration.
“We have taken a deep dive into our penalties,” Polasek said. “I’m not real happy where we’re at there.”
He said he’ll take some of the blame asking his defense to play on edge.
“To be more physical and to get some of this nastiness back,” Polasek said. “I think we have to rein in the discipline aspect. But I want us to be aggressive but when you’re in that world of trying to lead the world
in physicality, there’s a fine line.”
Etc. etc. etc.
• The Bison will be staying in Cape Girardeau, Missouri on Friday night before the game. It will be about an hour bus trip on Saturday to Carbondale, which Polasek addressed to the team this week.
“This trip can be a little difficult with the hour of travel,” he said. “We have to wake up ready to win.”
SIU got off to a successful start at the gate this season when it drew 13,421 fans in the Southeast Missouri game on Sept. 21, the second-most in stadium history behind a standing-room only crowd of 15,276 that attended the grand
is
•
David Samson/The Forum
North Dakota State’s RaJa Nelson grabs a reception against Colorado’s Travis Hunter at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado, on Thursday, August 29, 2024.