Gameday Notebook: Bison emphasize breaking tackles – InForum

FARGO — Tim Polasek’s first college football season press conference as North Dakota State’s head coach was about 17 minutes old when the former college football quarterback sounded like he wanted to play running back. Just like now.

He was asked about the rotation of running backs, particularly Barika Kpeenu, during Saturday’s home opener against Tennessee State at Gate City Bank Field in the Fargodome. The junior returned from an injury that bothered him for much of August.

“I hope he goes out there this week and competes to become a guy that wears it 25 times,” Polasek said. “Him, Marty, TK, the game can begin.”

These three backs – Kpeenu, Marty Brown and TK Marshall – are the top three on the list. It looks like whoever makes progress in breaking tackles could have an advantage in the non-conference season ahead.

“I can tell you that the yards after contact are valued very highly,” Polasek said, “because I don’t really care about the yards that the O-line blocks. It really depends on what the playmakers do when someone touches them. It’s the yards after contact that we value. And that’s what’s recorded.”

Brown had nine carries for 33 yards in the season-opening 31-26 loss at Colorado, averaging 3.7 yards per attempt. Kpeenu had 32 yards on nine carries and Marshall had five yards on just three attempts. As a team, NDSU averaged 3.7 yards per carry against a defense that was prone to big plays, at least last season.

When Polasek began analyzing the CU game, he wanted to know how many plays of at least 20 yards the Bison had. The answer: five.

“Just kicking up after a tackle,” he said. “I think Marty was close. His first play of the game. He seemed to find yards where there were no yards and ran hard.”

Tennessee State head coach Eddie George is concerned about Bison quarterback Cam Miller’s ability to overwhelm both opponents after his strong performance in the season opener against Colorado.

The 6-foot-1, 215-pound senior completed 18 of 22 passes for 277 yards and a touchdown in a 31-26 road loss to the Buffaloes. He also ran for 81 yards and two touchdowns on 16 attempts.

“That’s going to be a big burden on our defense,” George said. “He’s going to put pressure on us to be really disciplined, as far as our eye discipline, our eyes doing our job. … If we get a chance to bring him down, we’ve got to bring him down. That’s going to be basic football.”

Tigers quarterback Draylen Ellis also played well in Week 1, completing 21 of 33 passes for 356 yards and three touchdowns in a 41-21 home win over Mississippi Valley State. Ellis transferred to Tennessee State from Austin Peay in 2022 after being named the Ohio Valley Conference’s co-Freshman of the Year. He has played in 21 games with the Tigers over the past two seasons, but has only started six times.

“Draylen has played a lot of football and been through a lot, a lot of adversity,” George said. “I think he’s going to have a really great year for us.”

Colorado head coach Deion Sanders praised the Bisons’ defense in a social media post shared by Christian Dudzik, NDSU’s director of creative content. The 45-second clip on X (formerly known as Twitter) shows Sanders talking about the Bisons’ defense and getting all 11 players to the ball.

“It’s a wonderful thing, that’s why this school has won so many damn championships,” Sanders said as his players gathered in a team room and watched the film. “It’s hereditary. They pass it on.”

Sanders then asked his players to pass something on to other players.

“That’s being passed,” he said, pointing to the screen. “That’s the standard. That’s incredible, 11 guys on two different plays. I could list a lot more, but I wanted to show you these two different plays. Everyone on the team gets to the ball.”

• NDSU has a 19-0 record following regular-season losses since 2010 and hasn’t lost consecutive regular-season games since midway through the 2009 season, a year in which the Bison finished 3-8. Adding in last year’s FCS semifinal loss at the University of Montana, it’s the first time the Bison have lost two games in a row since the 2009 season.
• The Bison have won 25 consecutive home openers since a 23-21 loss to Emporia State in 1998, then in Division II.
• NDSU senior kicker Griffin Crosa needs two field goals to tie Cam Pedersen (44 from 2019-23) for third place on the school’s career field goal list. Adam Keller leads with 56 from 2011-14.
• Bison quarterback Cam Miller will make his 40th consecutive career start, a streak that began midway through the 2021 season when he replaced Quincy Patterson. Miller is on the watch list for the Walter Payton Award, which goes to the FCS’s best offensive player.
• For the record, the Bison have an overall record of 189-29 at the Fargodome and have won 82 of their last 84 home games against non-conference opponents.

Jeff would like to dispel the notion that he was around when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, but he has been a reporter for Forum Communications for three decades. The son of a reporter and an English teacher, and brother of a reporter, Jeff has worked for the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and, since 1990, The Forum, where he has covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995.
Jeff has covered all nine of NDSU’s Division I FCS national football titles and has written three books: “Horns Up,” “North Dakota Tough” and “Covid Kids.” He is the radio host of “The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack” from April through August.