QUARTERBACK U’S: OVERLOOKED QBS FOUND A HOME AT NDSU AND SDSU
BY JEFF KOLPACK
The Forum FARGO
The path to quarterback excellency in NCAA Division I FCS football is not necessarily a straight sidewalk from high school to college.
And it’s certainly not predictable in the world of college recruiting, where every FCS school, every year, is hoping they find a diamond in the rough.
At North Dakota State and South Dakota State, however, the mining has been fruitful. In the two decades since both schools transitioned to Division I, they’ve struck gold at the most important position on the field.
They’ve done it in Fargo and Brookings, South Dakota.
“We’re a little off the beaten path here in the Dakotas,” said former SDSU head coach John Stiegelmeier.
The beaten path comes to a crossroads on Saturday night when the Jackrabbits play NDSU at Gate City Bank Field at the Fargodome, a nationally televised game on ESPN2 that will feature two starting quarterbacks with national title rings.
SDSU brings Mark Gronowski and back-toback titles to the table. The Bison counter with senior Cam Miller, who quarterbacked the 2021 title team. In NDSU’s nine national championships, only Easton Stick was considered a highly regarded recruit plucked from the FBS.
In Gronowski’s case, he had talks with mostly FBS Group of Five schools, but nothing deemed serious. He had a few walk-on offers from Big Ten Conference programs.
“They all just said I was kind of their second
or third guy,” Gronowski said of the recruiting pecking order. “My dad said just go where you’re loved. They miss out on a lot of guys.”
SDSU was his only Division I offer. Brock Jensen was a Division II recruit at Minnesota Duluth before the Bison called late. Carson Wentz had one FBS offer, Central Michigan, but generally wasn’t highly touted out of Bismarck Century, with an injury deterring his recruiting profile. Stiegelmeier was one of the first to contact Wentz since his dad, Doug Wentz, played for him at Northern State (S.D.). But Carson’s brother, Zach, was playing baseball at NDSU and for SDSU “that was a hard sell,” Stigelmeier said.
NDSU had to sweat out the Stick verbal commitment amidst a coaching change with Craig Bohl leaving for Wyoming and Chris Klieman taking his place. Stick committed when Bohl was the Bison head coach.
“The biggest thing with Easton is he didn’t know what to expect with the coaching change,” said Bison quarterbacks coach Randy Hedberg, who was part of that rerecruiting of Stick.
FBS teams including the University of Minnesota wanted Trey Lance as a defensive back.
“He was very physical when he played defense,” Hedberg said. “I think what got him attracted to us is we pursued him as a quarterback, but I’m not certain what everybody else was. I liked him as an athlete and he threw the ball well and he’s gotten better as he’s progressed through.”
Miller was more of a baseball prospect as a pitcher with a 0.60 earned run average before football won out. He was also from a small town, Solon, Iowa, that carried a population of about 2,000.
At SDSU, same story on turning overlooked or lightly recruited players into top-level FCS quarterbacks. First order of
business under Stiegelmeier: Find out if they can mentally handle the job.
“We really tried to figure out if football was easy for them,” he said.
“There’s a lot of learning in football and there’s a lot of learning in the classroom in school and some subjects are easier than others. Football is hard for some and easy for some so we want a guy who, obviously, is a great leader and football was easier for them.”
They found that in Gronowski, who SDSU first saw at a quarterback camp in Chicago. Former SDSU offensive coordinator Zach Lujan, now at Northwestern, was the assistant who made the call.
“When we got to know him better, we went all-in on him,” Stiegelmeier said.
So were the SDSU players, with some of them going to Stiegelmeier after the fall of 2020 captain’s practices during the pandemic saying they wanted the true
freshman Gronowski to be the starter in the spring season despite J’Bore Gibbs being the returning starter.
Not every quarterback was plucked out of high school. The Jacks found heavily traveled, lightly regarded Chris Oladokun in the transfer portal prior to the 2021 season.
Oladokun started his career in 2016 at South Florida, where he played in six games in three years finishing with an 0-3 record as a starter. The school released him from his scholarship. Looking to play more, Oladokun transferred to FCS Samford in 2019 and played in 18 games, including the pandemicdelayed 2021 spring season.
He played in just one game, a loss, but was 37 of 56 in that game. Told he wasn’t going to be the Samford starter, he entered the transfer portal and was on his way to a Division II school when Lujan called.
“Chris’ response was, is that the team that I just watched in the spring championship game?” Stiegelmeier said.
Gronowski tore his ACL in the 2021 spring FCS title game against Sam Houston and Gibbs also had knee issues. By June, Oladokun was on the SDSU campus. He led SDSU to the FCS semifinals before the Jacks lost at Montana State, which three weeks later were beaten in the title game by Miller and the Bison. Gronowski returned in 2022 and led the Jackrabbits to back-to-back FCS championships. He and Miller will be back at it again Saturday.
Taryn Christion still holds most of the SDSU season and career throwing records and had some looks at pro football. Oladokun was drafted in
the seventh round by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2022 and signed by the Kansas City Chiefs later that season.
Oladokun also spent last year with the Chiefs making him a two-time Super Bowl champion. He was replaced numerically on the roster this year by Wentz, who signed as a free agent in the offseason.
Wentz sat three years including a redshirt year at NDSU. Both Jensen and Stick were limited in their passing games early in their careers before flourishing.
“Patience is the biggest thing,” Hedberg said. “As long as you can give a quarterback enough time to develop, they’re going to play eventually if you’ve done a good job evaluating their high school skills.”
That would mean they also found the right system. Steve Walker came to NDSU as a Bison Division II recruit and led them through the Division I transition. The Bison knew early that they got an overlooked gem in Jensen.
Wentz was Jensen’s understudy, plus he added strength to his 6-foot-5 frame in that time span. In Stick’s first game as a starter in 2015 at Indiana State, after Wentz got injured, he was 9 of 20 passing, but ran for 124 yards and two touchdowns.
Stick developed into the all-time FCS wins leader as a quarterback.
“I do think when a guy is in a place where he fits, he reaches his godgiven ability,” Stiegelmeier said. “Put one of these guys in a different place, maybe they don’t even play because it just doesn’t feel right for them.”
Readers can reach Forum reporter Jeff Kolpack at
David Samson/The Forum
North Dakota State quarterback Cam Miller warms up before play against Southern Illinois on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, at Saluki Stadium in Carbondale, Illinois.
David Samson/The Forum
South Dakota State quarterback Mark Gronowski reacts after being named most outstanding player after the win over NDSU in the NCAA FCS title game at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023.
Toby Anene • DE
Home Turf. Home Team.
NDSU senior hasn’t been part of a win against rival SDSU since he joined the Bison
BY ERIC PETERSON
The Forum
FARGO — North Dakota State defensive end Loshiaka Roques has been in the Bison program since 2020, and he hasn’t had a chance to hoist a 75-pound rock that Saturday night will be in the Fargodome.
“I’ve never touched the Marker in my time at NDSU,” said Roques, from Maple Grove, Minnesota. “This game, it does mean a lot to me.
I’m going to do everything I can, I’m going to scratch and claw to win and I’m sure all the guys will do the same.”
South Dakota State has won the past four Dakota Marker trophy games to even the Marker games at 10-10 since the teams started to play for the traveling trophy in 2004. The longtime series started in 1903.
The No. 2-ranked Bison host No. 1-ranked SDSU at 7 p.m. Saturday at Gate City Bank Field in a Missouri Valley Football Conference game that is set to be nationally televised on ESPN2.
The 6-foot-3, 236-pound Roques could be in line to play a bigger role for the Bison defense after senior starting defensive end Dylan Hendricks injured his knee last weekend at Southern Illinois. Hendricks is potentially done for the season.
“I’ve just gotta be more of a vocal leader,” said Roques, who has started all seven games this season. “I’ve gotta keep
bringing other guys up, keep bringing young guys to keep developing and growing.”
The 6-foot-3, 249-pound Hendricks had 14 tackles, including two sacks, in seven games prior to his knee injury. Roques also has 14 tackles with two sacks.
“It’s definitely hard,” Roques said. “Honestly, that’s my brother. It definitely hurt a lot. I know he’d want us to keep moving on and keep doing better.”
Bison sophomore Toby Anene is slated to start in place of Hendricks against the Jackrabbits.
The 6-foot-4, 252-pound Anene has one sack through seven games.
“He needs to step up and he knows that,” Roques said. “He needs to have a bigger role. He’s been playing extremely well, but we need him to play that much better.”
Sophomore Kole Menz and junior Hunter Zenzen are also in the defensive end rotation. Bison head coach Tim Polasek said expects it to take a group effort to replace a veteran like Hendricks.
“We’re going to need everybody to be 1 or 2% better,” Polasek said. “There is no turning back.”
SDSU coach impressed with Miller Bison quarterback Cam Miller has completed 77% of his passes for 1,504 yards and 12 touchdowns with no interceptions heading
into the Dakota Marker game.
SDSU head coach Jimmy Rogers is impressed with the play of the Bison senior.
“Cam Miller has muchimproved in so many ways, very efficient right now,” Rogers said. Rogers said the Jackrabbits have to find ways to create pressure on Miller.
“We’ve gotta get pressure on the quarterback, we’ve got to create it off of a four-man rush and we’ve got to mix up our looks,” Rogers said. “He’s got elite processing skills.”
In his previous five
games against SDSU, on average, Miller is completing 15 of 24 passes for 204 yards with 1.6 touchdowns and 1.2 interceptions per game. Etc. etc. etc.
NDSU has a 63-47-5 mark in the all-time series heading into the 116th meeting between the teams. However, the Jackrabbits have won the previous two games in the Fargodome as part of their five-game winning streak against the Bison.
“We have a lot of players that haven’t lost to this team, but they very well could beat us if we don’t come out and play our best football,” Rogers
said. “Our team knows that, they know how good they are.” ... The Bison have previously played against the No. 1-ranked team in FCS six times. NDSU is 3-3 in those games. SDSU was ranked No. 1 last season when it earned a 33-16 victory against NDSU in Brookings. ... NDSU’s last win against the Jackrabbits was a 23-16 road victory at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium during the 2019 season. Middle linebacker Luke Weerts and kicker Griffin Crosa are the only two current Bison players who played in that game. Crosa hit a 22-yard field goal in that game and was 2-for-2 on extra points. ... SDSU enters the Dakota Marker game on a 19-game conference winning streak, which is tied with NDSU for the most consecutive wins in MVFC play. NDSU won 19 league games in a row from 2017 to 2020-2021. The Bison also had 18 conference wins in a row from 2012 to 2014. ... This marks the first Saturday night home game for the Bison since the
Alyssa Goelzer/The Forum
Tennessee State’s Tevin Carter is tackled by North Dakota State’s Loshiaka Roques, Keenan Wilson and Dylan Hendricks on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, at the Fargodome.