Kansas who? Rock chalk what? Only seventy-two hours removed from their eye-popping, defensive grind-it-out, season-opening win at the University of Kansas, the game was already ancient history for North Dakota State football players.

 

“We use the twenty-four hour rule. We celebrate the win for twenty-four hours then we come back, focus down, and get ready for Northern Iowa,” said junior defensive end Coulter Boyer. Boyer played a significant role in the Bison defensive attack against the Jayhawks with two sacks and six tackles. “We put the [Kansas] game behind us. We are focusing on UNI and getting prepared.” 

 

NDSU coaches are guarding against a letdown against Northern Iowa with a laser-like emphasis on the “F” word. The word of the week for Bison football is Focus with a capital “F.”

 

“We need to focus, get in the film room, make sure we know what we’re supposed to do, know what they’re coming with. We’ll be prepared for what they do,” said linebacker Chad Willson, the Missouri Valley Football Conference defensive player of the week following his 12 tackle, forced fumble, and one pass break-up performance in Lawrence.

 

What is the key to avoiding a letdown against the Panthers? Focus. What do the Bison need to do to beat the Panthers for the first time since 1982? Focus. “We know that the Kansas game doesn’t really mean anything as far as conference is concerned,” said Willson, a transfer from Snow Junior College in Utah. “This is the game that really matters. This is the game we need to win to start conference play.” 

 

Since joining the Missouri Valley in 2008, the Bison are 0 – 2 against the Panthers, including a 42 – 27 loss last year at the Fargodome. In that game, the teams combined for 27 penalties totaling 272 yards. The Bison were flagged 14 times for 151 yards. Things got heated when a near-fight broke out after Pat Paschall was slammed into the sideline wall by a Panther defender after running out of bounds.

 

Bison head coach Craig Bohl summed up the relationship between the teams during his weekly televised coaching show. “Quite frankly, it’s a good-old grudge match. They don’t like us and we don’t like them.”

 

The rekindled rivalry isn’t lost of the players. “It’s a great rivalry, we haven’t beaten them in the two years we’ve been in the same conference. We know that,” Boyer said, echoing his coach. The teams are both former members of the now defunct North Central Conference. It will be the 43rd meeting between the schools, with UNI holding a 24 – 18 series edge.

 

NDSU has its work cut out for them if they hope to follow the Kansas win with a win in their Missouri Valley opener. In two years of conference play, the Bison have yet to win their conference opener. To reverse that trend, the Bison will have to win at one of the toughest places to play in FCS football: the UNI-Dome. In nine seasons under head coach Mark Farley, the Panthers are 49 – 10 at the UNI-Dome. That’s an .831 winning percentage if you’re scoring at home.

 

However, the experience of playing at Kansas in front of nearly 50,000 screaming partisans cheering against them should help NDSU as they prepare for the atmosphere at the UNI-Dome. “It’s an incredibly tough place to play,” explained Boyer. “It will be loud. Playing in Kansas, it got us more game ready for it. We go from almost 50,000 to maybe 16,000 people, but it’s equally loud.” 

 

To win, according to Bohl, the Bison will have to control the line of scrimmage. “We’ve got to control the line of scrimmage. When we’re able to do that, that’s going to allow us to open our offensive playbook.” The Bison offense struggled at Kansas, managing only 168 yards of total offense and ten first downs. 

 

“This is the biggest game of our season so far and we need to focus on this one. They’re a good team,” said Willson. “We enjoyed our win, but we have to forget it and make sure we take care of what we need to do against UNI.”