Kolpack: Bison QB Miller takes advantage of the dudeless UNI – InForum

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The University of Northern Iowa has probably been told it can’t mess with the kind of power that North Dakota State can throw at an opponent these days. The Bison had U.S. Olympic shot putter and Bison alumnus Payton Otterdahl flip the pregame coin toss.

Otterdahl lost the toss in a rare defeat on home soil. UNI pushed the game to the second half and the Bison would get the ball first on offense. Well, not quite.

At first, TK Marshall appeared to hesitate after catching the opening kickoff a few yards short of his own end zone. As he was in full gear and on his way up, the official yellow flag flew in an area that is almost always an illegal block.

Marshall continued to push, eventually finding space down the left sideline and scoring a 100-yard kickoff return. Still, the reaction from fans at Gate City Bank Field with the flag on the turf was somewhat muted.

Marshall felt it too.

“I didn’t see the flag, but I kind of felt it,” he said. “The atmosphere was like ahhhh… there has to be a flag somewhere, right?”

Even the Bison players went the other direction. After a brief discussion, the officials picked up the flag and the touchdown was signaled. That pretty much summed up Northern Iowa’s season and this game, which ended with a 42-19 Bison victory in front of 14,528 fans who could have left the building with the same thoughts: Except for a few spurts in the third quarter, what the hell happened? to a UNI program digging a 35-3 hole?

The only pressure Bison quarterback Cam Miller put on him when passing might have been the fear of waiting so long to select his best open receiver. It didn’t matter if the Panthers were just attacking their down linemen or throwing a blitz package at the Bison blockers; There were no cracks in this wall.

David Samson/The Forum

He didn’t have all day, he had all night, and he could have stayed in the bag until Sunday morning. UNI came into the game with five quarterback sacks all season and the Bison offensive line showed that was no fluke.

“I think this is probably the best protection we’ve had in the last four or five years,” Miller said. “I could have sat there for five to 10 seconds and made a throw. That makes my job a lot easier, the guys were open and we made plays.”

They made plays like Bryce Lance’s spectacular 14-yard touchdown reception while dancing with the out-of-bounds line. Or Lance’s 42-yard catch over the middle, where he shielded a defender and prevented the ball from being thrown away.

Miller completed 17 of 20 passes for 216 yards and two touchdowns. Once again he spread the wealth around, with seven different receivers having a reception in the first half alone. It ended with the Bison leading 28-3, with the only drive that didn’t result in a touchdown coming after a UNI punt a few plays before the end of the half.

At 2-6, the Panthers looked defeated and exhausted. At least there’s the transfer portal in the offseason to try and find some defensive linemen along the lines of the Panthers of old, who have had a few guys over the years.

“It just felt like his feet were never hurt,” NDSU head coach Tim Polasek said. “I don’t know if they moved him from his spot and I don’t know if he was touched outside of the quarterback draw. Just really good.”

David Samson/The Forum

In doing so, Miller and teammate Marty Brown bolstered their case for multiple postseason awards – Miller for the Walter Payton Award, which goes to the FCS’s best offensive player, and Brown for the Jerry Rice Award, which goes to the best rookie.

Miller broke the school record of consecutive passes without an interception and now has 311 consecutive passes. Trey Lance held the mark of 307, which he achieved most of 2019, a year in which he won the Payton and the Rice.

“That’s a credit to a lot of people,” said Polasek. “This is thanks to many coaches and many people. I mean, that’s a big deal, leaving out Trey Lance.”

Brown had 80 of his 124 yards in the first half and will most likely continue to maintain his status as the leading rusher among all rookies in Division I FBS or FCS.

NDSU improved to 9-1 overall and 6-0 in the Missouri Valley Football Conference as they face a much-needed week of rest. It all started with a fast start from the opening whistle, a first quarter that saw Polasek harass his team all week.

It started at the beginning.

“The offensive line is difficult here,” he said. “Wherever value is placed on it, it is never good enough. You can always pick these guys apart, but this protection really seemed to hit the spot.”

Jeff would like to dispel the idea that he was there when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, but he is now in his third decade of reporting for Forum Communications. The son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, Jeff has worked at the Jamestown Sun, the 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 to August.