Speedy Bussey is the perfect changeup to physical Bison backfield

By Eric Peterson and Jeff Kolpack The Forum

Fargo

North Dakota State has its home run hitter and he’s 5-foot-5 and 161 pounds. Jalen Bussey packs a punch — as a running back for the Bison football team.

The sophomore has turned into a scoring machine with six touchdowns in just 59 career carries. That’s an outof-this-world ratio heading into Saturday’s first road test at Towson University (Md.).

“It’s not common that most people have the success that I’ve had,” Bussey said. “It’s definitely a blessing. I can’t take it for granted.”

It was a sign of things to come when his first two carries as a true freshman at the end of 2019 went for touchdowns. Last week, he went 72 yards for a TD, hiding behind the bigger offensive linemen for a bit before finding a hole.

Part of it is the formula in how NDSU and offensive coordinator Tyler Roehl employ Bussey. The Bison wait for the right time, usually in the second half.

“Coach Roehl knows what he’s doing,” Bussey said. “It’s just trusting the process and knowing that he knows what’s best for us.”

The formula starts with starting running back Dominic Gonnella and primary backups Kobe Johnson and TaMerik Williams. Gonnella and Williams are both more than 200 pounds and Johnson is a hard-running back at 188 pounds.

Then there’s fullback Hunter Luepke, who at 236 pounds has been used at tailback. Quarterback Quincy Patterson goes 6-3, 246.

“They take a lot of carries and bruise defenses and tire them out,” Bussey said. “I’ll come in and hit a big one real quick.”

Towson plays

2 QBs in loss

Towson played two quarterbacks in last weekend’s 26-14 road loss at New Hampshire. Senior quarterback Chris Ferguson started and completed 6 of 16 passes for 51 yards with two interceptions.

Junior Jeff Miller also played and completed 12 of 27 passes for 147 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. The 6-foot6, 235-pound Miller, who entered the game late in the first half, threw his lone TD pass in the fourth quarter to cut the New Hampshire lead to 20-14 with 12 minutes, 21 seconds remaining.

“At the time, Chris wasn’t seeing it. It was good to take a different perspective, get him on the sidelines, talk about it with him,” Towson head coach Rob Ambrose said of changing quarterbacks. “Show him what we were doing, what we weren’t doing. I thought we had a chance to grow, but I thought Jeff did a great job of stepping in and leading. That bodes well for the future.”

The 6-foot-3, 230-pound Ferguson, a Liberty transfer who also played at Maine, is listed as the starter against NDSU.

“I think we will be prepared for if we do see two (quarterbacks),” Bison head coach Matt Entz said.

“From watching the game earlier, I didn’t see a lot of difference in the skill set.

... From my understanding, it was more of a change because of performance, not because of a lack of skill set. That always creates a unique situation when you have two quarterbacks playing, but I think we’ll do a good job of coming up with a game plan.”

Ambrose raves about Rutkowski

Towson wide receiver

Ryan Rutkowski was the Tigers top target against New Hampshire. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound senior had four receptions for 74 yards, including a long catch of 31 yards.

“Ryan is the most intelligent, polished guy we got as a wideout,” Ambrose said. “He can play every single position. I feel like he’s been in college for like 13 years. He’s the ‘Van Wilder’ of wideouts. He’s a great guy. He’s one of those dudes who after he’s done playing, I’m going to say the virus of coaching will have him something. Just because he knows football that well. It loves him and he loves it.” Etc., etc., etc.

► Bison senior linebacker James Kaczor didn’t play against Valparaiso due to injury. “I think if it were a situation where we had to have him, I think he could have played in situational football, but I’m trying to buy him some time where we can get him healthy where he can be truly and impact,” said Bison head coach Matt Entz. “He is one of our best 11 players on defense.” Kaczor is listed as the starter against Towson.

► NDSU is 9-1 all-time against teams from the Colonial Athletic Association, with the only loss the 2016 defeat to James Madison in the 2016 FCS semifinals. Ironically, it’s only the second game for Towson against a Missouri Valley Football Conference team, with both against NDSU including the 2013 title-game loss in Frisco, Texas.

► The Missouri Valley is 10-1 against FCS teams with the only defeat Montana’s 42-7 win over Western Illinois in Missoula, Mont. The CAA is next at 11-2 against the rest of the FCS. The Big Sky Conference is 7-4, the Southern Conference 6-4 and the Southwestern Athletic Conference 4-3.