The University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks (2-1) and the North Dakota State Bison (3-0) square off in Grand Forks Saturday, October 2.
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The game (3 p.m. ET start time) isn’t on TV anywhere, but anyone in the US can watch North Dakota State vs North Dakota live on ESPN+:
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North Dakota State vs North Dakota Preview
NDSU is fresh from a bye week, which head coach Matt Entz says came at just the right time. “I think after three games, it’s beneficial to have it,” Entz said this week, via 247 Sports. “It’s nice to have a time to understand where we’re at and where our depth is at. We are now going into eight straight weeks which is a lot. I thought the timing worked out well for us though. The concern is always that you’ve broken routine and you have to work back into it, but I think we have a veteran enough group that we should be okay.”
The Bison last played on September 18, beating Towson, 35-7. Quarterback Quincy Patterson II went 6-11 for 165 yards, a touchdown and an interception in the win, while also rushing for a score.
Running backs Dominic Gonnella (92 yards on 13 carries) and TaMerik Williams (79 yards and a score on six rushes) also contributed to a dominant rushing attack, but they’ll face a big test against North Dakota this weekend. Much will fall on the shoulders of Patterson, who has been shaky at points this season.
“He’s got to do a great job of the mental prep and watching film and being able to see the rotation of the safety’s, alignments out of backers, things that give away the pressure, if there’s pressure coming, but it’s just a critical for our offensive lineman to see demeanor of stances, and is this player on or is he off, is he dropping,” NDSU head coach Matt Entz said about Patterson heading into this game, via KRFTV. “We have to do a really good job of identifying that.”
The Fighting Hawks are coming off a bye, and they last played on September 18, when they handed Drake a 38-0 beat down. North Dakota quarterback Tommy Schuster went 23-36 for 234 yards, two TDs and an interception in a winning effort. He got a good amount of help from his two running backs, Isaiah Smith (125 yards, 1 TD) and Luke Skokna (123 yards, 1 TD) along with a stingy defense.
The Fighting Hawks are scoring 32.3 points a game on offense while allowing 20.7 points a game to opponents. They’ll be going up against a Bison squad that’s averaging 42.3 ppg on offense and giving up just 4.3 points a game on defense.
“You have to do a good job on first and second down if you ever want to get into that attack mode,” North Dakota head coach Bubba Schweigert said. “You have to do a good job of defending the run and put yourself in favorable downs. He’s very capable of making all the throws and running the football. You can’t let him have explosive plays which is a real challenge. They have really good talent and you need to force them into second and long and third and long.”