In the 1960’s there was a famous television commercial that had the tag line of, “Where the rubber meets the road.”
It refers to the moment when action is required, or when ideas must face reality and a decision must be made. It can also mean when the action really begins, or when theory becomes reality.
All of these apply to the Idaho State football team when it faces the first real test of the season this Saturday at North Dakota inside the Alerus Center in what is expected to be a near sellout crowd.
Both teams come in at 1-1, but on paper, the Fighting Hawks have the better resume and are ranked 10th in the nation. They lost on the road to Iowa State of the Big-12, 21-3, to open the season before rallying back from a 14-point deficit for a 27-24 win over perennial FCS power Montana last Saturday at home.
UND took the lead with slightly more than two minutes remaining. It then hung on after the Grizz missed a 54-yard field goal that would have tied the game.
ISU played well in losing to Oregon State on the road to open the season. It then blasted Division II’s Western Oregon, 50-10, last Saturday.
North Dakota, which went 7-5 and made the playoffs last season, was supposed to be rebuilding and was pegged to finish towards the bottom of the tough Missouri Valley Conference. But so far, it is exceeding expectations. Against Montana for example, the Fighting Hawks ran for 243 yards and had a massive 15-minute advantage in time of possession.
Bengal head coach Cody Hawkins was asked what has impressed him the most about North Dakota after watching the tape and who some of its key players are.
“You look at them on tape and up front they are awesome,” Hawkins said. “I think losing their quarterback last year (Tommy Schuster) to Michigan State was obviously a big loss. But they’ve got that All-American receiver Bo Belquist. He’s still a total threat and the quarterback they have now (Simon Romfo), he’s a problem running it. It’s a different type of problem presented from it.”
“On defense their interior guys and their linebackers, Wyatt Pedigo, that guy is a ball-playing Jessie,” Hawkins continued. “I mean he hits, he fills gaps, whether he is zone dropping or playing the run, that guy plays his absolute tail off. The have a couple of edge guys in Logyn Eckheart, Lance Rucker, Josh Navratil. They are electric guys. And in the secondary, both of their corners (Antonio Bluiett, Devin Hembry) are long. They’re bigger than Oregon State’s guys. They’ve gone with the big people beat up the little people philosophy.”
UND also loves ball control. Against Iowa State, it had a 12-minute drive basically eat up an entire quarter. Montana ran a total of 13 plays in the entire second half. Given the challenges ISU has on defense, Hawkins was asked how the Bengals could prevent the Fighting Hawks from doing that again this Saturday.
“I think the way to prevent that is you have to create negative plays in early down and distance situations. But they’re so big, it’s just hard to do,” Hawkins said. “I think you have to play with leverage and to attack those gaps at pad level. We have to find a way to create some negative plays and put them in long down and distance situations. So a huge emphasis on creating those negative plays. ... If we can’t, its going to be a long day.”
Even though the Bengals are flying to North Dakota, this still won’t be an easy trip. Complicating matters is the kick off time, 1 p.m. in Grand Forks. It’s different from the later afternoon starts that ISU usually plays.
“Our pregame routine, we’ve got it buttoned up to four hours before kickoff,” Hawkins said. “I think night games are harder than early games because you don’t want to get up and practice, then sit around, then do a walk through and sit around, then watch TV and then go play a football game.”
“Early games is how college football should be played. You just get up and go. We’re a morning practice team. So for our guys, they’ll get to sleep in. Our guys wake up at 6AM, so they’ll wake up later Saturday. Our guys are used to the get-up-and-go routine and I think that’s what they’ll favor.”
Another factor will be the stadium itself and the expected crowd. UND had more than 11,500 fans at the Alerus Center last week. That impacted Montana and is sure to come into play on Saturday. But the fact that ISU plays in a dome may be helpful, at least Hawkins thinks so.
“I don’t know if it is an advantage, but hopefully it phases us less, but man they’ve been packing that place,” Hawkins said. “They have done such a good job establishing themselves as a quality football team in the Missouri Valley Conference. People have just been getting more excited about it. That place is going to be loud.”
In an effort to prepare for that noise, ISU had stadium crowd noise turned up full volume and blared through the speakers at the ICCU Dome Wednesday morning at practice.
Another thing to watch Saturday is, can ISU run the football? That’s been an ongoing issue for the team and it could be very hard to do as UND will crowd the line of scrimmage and force you to throw. The Fighting Hawks trust their two cornerbacks to be able to handle receivers one-on-one.
FROM THE SIDELINES:
- North Dakota leads the all-time series 6-3, but surprisingly the Bengals are 2-1 in Grand Forks.
- The teams last met in September 2021 with North Dakota winning 35-14 in Pocatello.
- Bengals kicker Gabe Panikowski was named Big Sky Conference Special Team Player of the Week for his performance vs. Western Oregon. He had three field goals and five extra points.
- Bengals starting center Alex Ramirez, who left the Western Oregon game with a left lower leg injury, is doubtful Saturday according to Hawkins. He’ll be replaced by Zac Shiroma. After two games, that appears to be the only significant injury to Idaho State.
NORTH DAKOTA NOTABLE ALUMNI:
Phil Jackson, former NBA player and Hall of Fame coach; Jonathan Toews, former NHL player/Stanley Cup champion; Sam Anderson, actor; Irv Kupcinet, former NFL referee/nationally syndicated columnist; David Jones, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Craig Smith, Utah men’s basketball head coach.
BROADCAST INFORMATION:
- Television: Midco Sports/ESPN+ Pay Subscription Service (Kickoff: noon, MDT).
- Radio: KISU-FM 91.1 (Pregame: 11:30 a.m.; Kickoff: noon).