No. 1 NDSU vs.Indiana State Preview

Coming off an emotional homecoming slaughter of Youngstown State, the number one ranked Bison will square off in another conference showdown against Indiana State University on Saturday at the Fargodome.

The Sycamores will come into chilly Fargo looking to do something they have not been able to do since the NDSU football team joined the conference back in 2008: beat the Bison.

The Bison will be riding a ten game winning streak into Saturday afternoon, as Shakir Bell and the 4-2 Sycamores look to end a four game losing streak against the Bison.

Bell comes into Saturday’s contest ranked third among Indiana State’s all-time rushing leaders with 3,256 yards. Last season, the Bison were able to bottle him up for a season low of 79 yards on 16 attempts.

“We’re going to use last year’s tape as a principle and see what we can learn from that,” said Coach Bohl in his press conference Monday. “He’s a very talented running back and is very electric.”

The junior from Indianapolis is among the leaders in the FCS in rushing at 937 yards in six games for the Sycamores. Defenses have been struggling all year to keep the 5’8 Bell out of the end zone as he has crossed the goal line eight times already this season.

“We’re not going to stop him, we need to neutralize him,” said Bohl.

And neutralize him is what the top ranked Bison defense plans to do. The Bison defense is coming off one of their more impressive outings of the year, stalling a good YSU offensive attack last week. The defense forced three turnovers, one to start the game when Christian Dudzik pounced on a fumble, and another leading to six points by Marcus Williams.

“Marcus’ play changed the dynamic of that game,” said Bohl.

With last week’s interception, Williams not only swung the momentum, he is making his way into the record books himself. Williams is now tied for second in school history with 14 interceptions and the return for a touchdown was his fourth in his spectacular career thus far.

On the other side of the ball, Brock Jensen and his Bison offense will look to come out firing against a suspect Sycamore secondary. Jensen has continued his consistent play from the first snap of the season and is even gaining the praises of Coach Bohl. Jensen has thrown the ball 121 times this season and is still yet to throw an interception. Not counting his fumble that was quickly pounced on by the Bison last week, Jensen has been doing a masterful job with ball security all season long.

Jensen will look to lead the Bison once again and inch closer to another Missouri Valley championship, but in the words of Coach Bohl, “It’s not far from the penthouse to the outhouse, and in the Missouri Valley play you need to be playing well or you’re going to get beat.”