Getty Cam Miller and the North Dakota State Bison open their 2023 season against EWU.
The North Dakota State Bison (0-0) will kick their 2023 season off taking on the Eastern Washington Eagles at U.S. Bank Stadium on Saturday, September 2.
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The game will be televised locally on ABC North Dakota, but if you don’t live locally or don’t have that channel, you can watch a live stream of the game on ESPN+:
ESPN+ includes hundreds of college football games in 2023, plus dozens of other live sports, every 30-for-30 documentary and additional original content (both video and written) for $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year (or $13.99 per month for a bundle of all three of ESPN+, Disney+ and Hulu).
Once signed up for ESPN+, you can watch Eastern Washington vs North Dakota State live on the ESPN app or ESPN.com.
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EWU vs NDSU Football 2023 Preview
North Dakota State went 12-3 overall last season, going 8-1 at home. The Bison averaged 34.3 points a game on the offensive side and surrendered 20.2 points a game on defense. North Dakota State had a run-heavy offense, netting over 265 yards per game on the ground.
Senior quarterback Cam Miller will lead the Bison offense once again. In 15 starts, Miller completed 65.8% of his passes for 1,975 yards, 13 touchdown passes and five interceptions, also rushing for 15 scores.
“We feel like we’ve done a good job of preparing this group,” NDSU head coach Matt Entz said about his squad. “They’ve had great energy, great focus throughout the entire three weeks, three and a half weeks leading up to this game. Really looking forward to it.”
On the other side, EWU finished with a 3-8 overall record last season. On offense, the Eags scored 24.6 points per game, but they struggled mightily on defense, surrendering a whopping 42.4 points per contest.
The Eagles will be led on offense by quarterback Kekoa Visperas, who has just one start in his collegiate career. Despite his inexperience, his teammates say Visperas has been putting in the work required to make things happen. “You look at how much he’s grown as a leader,” EWU wide receiver Jakobie James said. “He was watching film on North Dakota State in January. The amount of hours we spent together – thousands of hours – it’s ridiculous.”
The opportunity to play at an NFL stadium (U.S. Bank Stadium is Home to the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings) is also exciting to both teams. It will be the first collegiate game ever played at the stadium.
“I think I counted 16 or 17 guys in our two-deep (depth chart) probably that are from Minnesota,” Entz said. “It has a ton of value especially when you start talking about recruiting as well. I think it’s probably the area of our greatest alumni…population. Another opportunity for our alumni to be engaged with our football program and also to engage with one another. I see it as a win-win. Now, we’ve got to go down there and play really well. We’ve got to go down there and enjoy the opportunity but we’ve got to make the most out of it as well.”
Dom Izzo (play-by-play), Kyle Emanuel (analyst) and Logan Campbell (sideline) will provide the game’s televised commentary and analysis.