ND State

MSUcantouchus · Post by **MSUcantouchus** » Sun Aug 28, 2005 11:42 am

Just a little stuff i found on ND State that is interesting. Never too early to look ahead.

The North Dakota State University football team is heading into its second season in NCAA Division I-AA looking to avoid a sophomore slump.

The Bison are ranked in the top 25 in at least one preseason poll.

"We take that seriously," Bohl said. "We don't focus on not being able to make the playoffs or any of the things we can't accomplish. We focus on the things we can accomplish. This team believes it can win the Great West Conference and finish in the Top 10 at the end of the season."

Quarterback Steve Walker, a sophomore who replaced Tony Stauss with three games left last season, returns as the starter. In his three games last year, he threw for 705 yards and 10 touchdowns, with no interceptions.

"I'm trying to enter this season with the same mind-set I had as last year," Walker said. "I was able to work my way up to the No. 1 spot, and now I just have to hang onto that, and do my best to lead us to some wins."

The Bison offense will by spurred by returning running backs Kyle Steffes and Cinque Chapman, who combined for more than 1,800 yards rushing last season. Steffes was first-team all conference and second-team all-Midwest Region last year.

"I think it's going to be a great season," he said. "Personally, I'd like to be the leading rusher in the conference and be the leading scorer. With the guys we have, I think we can do that."

The Bison also have experience at wide receiver, with three-year starters Marques Johnson and Travis White both returning. (White hurt knee on Aug 22 and is out for year)

On defense, the secondary returns three key members of a unit that gave up just five touchdowns last season. Craig Dahl, Bobby Babich and Scott Walter will be joined by newcomer Nick Schommer, a redshirt freshman from Wisconsin.

At linebacker, Joe Mays emerged last season as a true freshman and was among the team's leaders in tackles for loss. He will start this season at middle linebacker, a key spot in Bohl's defense.

"He made some huge plays last year, but there were times where we could see on film that he was way out of position, too," Bohl said. "This year, it's about turning that potential into a mature player."

Both the offensive and defensive lines have holes to fill. All-American center Rob Hunt was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts, and all-conference defensive linemen Isaac Snell and Dwight Summerville are gone.

"There's a lot of ability but a lack of experience on both sides of the ball," Bohl said. "They're working hard, and we think they'll be solid units by the time Sept. 1 rolls around."

Sounds like they have a great ground game but it may be hampered by a young O-line. They play a tougher schedual this year with only 1 d-2 game instead of 3 so they may have been a little overrated last year. We shall see huh? They return 11 starters.

MSUcantouchus · Post by **MSUcantouchus** » Sun Aug 28, 2005 11:54 am

Here is some more specifics if anyone cares.

1. They lost 3 of 4 starters on D line

2. They lost 2 out of 3 lb's

3. Young O-line but all but one is 300+

4. Half the secondary graduated

5. Special teams looks to be in nice shape.

6. They way they talk is that they have lost of depth to fill these holes.

WYOBISONMAN · Post by **WYOBISONMAN** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 9:48 am

The loss of Travis White will hurt us. That guy caught everything. The O-line will be untested. Watch for the results of the NW State game on Sept 10th. That will be very telling as to how tough the Bison will be. If NDSU goes down to Louisiana and wins.....lookout. The season opener on Sept 1 is against an OK D2 school and NDSU should blow them out. Sept. 17th is against Weber, and that should also be a Bison win.

JahGriz · Post by **JahGriz** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 10:21 am

How's the Bison D looking? Better be good if you plan on slowing the cat O, that is for sure. Do you have guys to step up at LB and DB, I see, in the previous post that you lost 2 starting LBs and "half" of your starting secondary.

WYOBISONMAN · Post by **WYOBISONMAN** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 4:49 pm

NDSU should be reasonably deep on D. The biggest question will be the play of the O-line.

bisonguy · Post by **bisonguy** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 10:20 pm

JahGriz wrote:How's the Bison D looking? Better be good if you plan on slowing the cat O, that is for sure. Do you have guys to step up at LB and DB, I see, in the previous post that you lost 2 starting LBs and "half" of your starting secondary.

One of the "new" LB's(Joe Mays) saw quite a bit of playing time last year, and the other(Mike Maresh) should do quite well. NDSU returns the #2 corner and the #3 corner from last year(now the #1 and #2), SS is returning, FS should be good.

Here's the link to the NDSU two-deep http://www.bisonzone.com/index.cfm?page ... &id=101006[/url]