No. 18 Bison Host No. 20/21 South Dakota on Sept. 25
9/20/2010 8:31:00 PM | Football
No. 18-ranked North Dakota State (2-1, 0-1 Valley Football) is scheduled to host No. 20/21-ranked South Dakota (2-1, 0-0 Great West) at 6:07 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 25, in the Fargodome (18,700) ... Saturday's contest will be the 1,000th game in NDSU football history ... The Bison are 606-359-34 since 1894 ... NDSU didn't play football during the war years of 1918, 1943 and 1944 ... Saturday's game also features a pair of former North Central Conference rivals ... The Bison defeated Morgan State 35-9 before 17,340 in the Fargodome on Sept. 18 ... NDSU recorded its 12th straight win in a home opener dating back to 1999 ... The Bison snapped a four-game losing streak at the Fargodome ... South Dakota defeated Northwestern Oklahoma State 48-14 in its home opener on Sept. 18.
TICKETS: Tickets for North Dakota State home football games are available in advance at the Bison Sports Arena ticket office, online at GoBison.com/tickets, or toll free at (888)
231-NDSU.
AT HOME: North Dakota State has compiled a 225-34-3 record at home since 1964 ... The Bison are 80-20-0 in the Fargodome since moving from Dacotah Field in 1993 ... NDSU is 1-0 this season at home and are 31-9 since head coach Craig Bohl took over in 2003.
SERIES RECORD: This is the 77th meeting between North Dakota State and South Dakota in a series that dates back to 1900 ... NDSU leads the all-time series 48-25-3 ... The Bison won the last meeting, 35-3, during the 2003 season at the Fargodome (recap on page 4) ... NDSU leads the series in Fargo 27-9-1 ... The last USD win in the series came in 2002, 40-37 in four overtimes, at the DakotaDome in Vermillion ... The last USD win, 17-14, in Fargo came during the 1978 season ... NDSU and USD met in the 1986 NCAA Division II national championship game with the Bison winning 27-7 in Florence, Ala.
TELEVISION: The game will be televised on the North Dakota NBC TV Network ... Valley News Live (KVLY-TV, NBC, Channel 11/KXJB-TV, CBS, Channel 4, Fargo) sports director Scott Peters; KFYR-TV (Channel 5, Bismarck) sports director Lee Timmerman, and former Bison standout and current Moorhead High head coach Kevin Feeney are in the booth, while Valley News Live weekend anchor Brian Shawn is on the sidelines ... The other network stations include KMOT-TV (Channel 10, Minot), KQCD-TV (Channel 7, Dickinson) and KUMV-TV (Channel 8, Williston).
GoBISON.COM VIDEO/AUDIO/LIVE STATS: Follow on the Internet at GoBison.com with live streaming video, audio (Bison Radio Network) and live in-game statistics.
IN THE NCAA FCS STATISTICS: North Dakota State's defense continues to rank 4th in scoring defense in the NCAA FCS at 9.3 points per game ... The Bison have limited opponents to 28 points compared to 110 points in the first three games last season ... Team-wise, NDSU is 5th in punt returns (23.30 avg/r), 10th in net punting (38.74 avg/p), 13th in pass efficiency defense (96.81), 14th in sacks (2.67 avg/g), 16th in turnover margin (+1.00 avg/g) and 17th in tackles for loss (7.33 avg/g) ... Individually, freshman running back Ryan Smith jumped to 5th in punt returns (22.78 avg/r) after returning five for 146 yards vs. Morgan State (9-18-10) including a season-long 51-yarder ... Linebacker Matt Anderson is tied for 21st in interceptions.
SPECIAL TEAMS X-FACTOR: Senior punter John Prelvitz punted five times for an average of 39 yards, but spotted two inside the 5 yard line ... Prelvitz ranks 10th in NCAA FCS in punting at 43.21 avg. and the Bison are 10th in net punting at 38.74 ... He matched a career-high with eight punts for an average of 44.1 and net of 38.1 yards per kick (compared to 23 net per kick for Kansas) at KU (9-4-10) ... Against Morgan State, Prelvitz placed two inside the 20 (35 in career) ... He has fifteen 50+ yard punts in his career.
BISON QUICK-HITTERS: North Dakota State's defense has eight takeaways through the first three games compared to 12 overall in 2009 ... The Bison came up with two interceptions vs. Morgan State (9-18-10), the second of the season by linebacker Matt Anderson and first career pick for cornerback Marcus Williams ... NDSU has four interceptions this season compared to only three overall in 2009 ... Redshirt freshman Brock Jensen came off the bench to throw three TD passes as North Dakota State defeated Morgan State 35-9 on Sept. 18 ... Making his first collegiate appearance, Jensen entered the game in the second quarter in relief of injured starter Jose Mohler ... Jensen's first TD pass came with 22 seconds left, a 13-yard strike to Warren Holloway, to put NDSU ahead 14-9 before halftime ... The Bison scored three times in the fourth quarter to pull away ... Jensen had TD passes of 11 yards to Holloway and 21 yards to D.J. McNorton ... Jensen completed 8 of 17 passes for 117 yards and rushed 13 times for 57 yards ... Cornerback Freddie Banks recorded his first career interception late in the second quarter at UNI (9-11-10) ... Tight end Landon Smith made a career best three receptions for 47 yards at Northern Iowa (9-11-10) ... Quarterback Jose Mohler completed 20 of 35 passes for 247 yards -- all career-highs -- in the loss at nationally-ranked UNI (9-11-10) ... Mohler, who completed passes to nine different receivers, also rushed 16 yards for NDSU's first touchdown of the season ... The -41 yards rushing (including 11 sacks for -77 yards) against UNI is the lowest figure since the Bison had 3 yards in a 20-14 loss to UC Davis during the 2005 season. ... North Dakota State was ranked No. 18 in both national polls released Sept. 20 ... On Sept. 6, the Bison made their first appearance in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) Coaches Poll since Nov. 17, 2008, and The Sports Network/Fathead.com poll since Oct. 13, 2008 ... Wide receiver Titus Mack made a career-high four receptions for 46 yards against Kansas (9-4-09) ... The 6-3 win over Kansas was the lowest combined output since NDSU's 9-0 loss at Southern Illinois (11-19-05), while the three points allowed were the lowest since a 45-0 shutout vs. Mississippi Valley State (10-14-09), and the six points scored is the lowest since a 37-6 loss at Cal Poly (10-8-05) ... The 59 points vs. Wagner in 2009 were the most scored by NDSU since 2006 when the Bison defeated Concordia-St. Paul 66-7 in the season opener ... With a 54-26 record, NDSU head coach Craig Bohl is No. 5 on the school's all-time win list ... Bohl is one of four Bison coaches with 50 wins ... NDSU is 7-7 against nationally-ranked opponents over the past five seasons (2010: L UNI; 2009: L Southern Illinois, L UNI; 2008, L South Dakota State; L, Youngstown State, W Southern Illinois, L Western Illinois; L UNI; 2007: W, Cal Poly, W, Western Illinois, W, Sam Houston State, 2006: W, Georgia Southern, W, Cal Poly, W, South Dakota State) ... North Dakota State was ranked in the top five for 19 weeks (including eight weeks at No. 1) during the 2007-08 seasons ... The Bison were ranked in the top 10 for 21 weeks in a row and were in the top 25 for 41 weeks in a row ... The 48-45 shootout with Sam Houston State was the most points allowed since 2002 when the Bison lost 49-42 at Nebraska-Omaha.
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