Kolpack and Izzo Podcast

North Dakota State returns to the field after its bye week Saturday as they will host surprising Missouri State.

The Bears enter on an eight-game winning streak after losing their first two games of the season. MSU is in its final season of FCS football after announcing this spring they are moving up to FBS and Conference USA in 2025.

Ryan Beard is in his second year as head coach of the Bears, who has turned the reigns over to former Minnesota transfer Jacob Clark. Clark enters with 25 touchdown passes and over 3,000 passing yards.

The Bison offense has been electric this year, averaging nearly 38 points a game. NDSU's defense will get a challenge from a high octane offense.

It's set to be an emotional day with 25 seniors set to be honored before the game. It's a huge class of seniors as some sixth year and fifth year players will play their final regular season game inside the Dome.

The Forum's Jeff Kolpack and WDAY's Dom Izzo preview the matchup between the Bison and Bears.

North Dakota State and Northern Iowa will play in a football game inside the Fargodome for the first time in three years Saturday afternoon.

The Panthers last trip to Fargo coincided with the last time UNI made the FCS Playoffs, 2021. The Panthers posted a 6-5 regular season record and lost in the first round to Eastern Washington.

Since that game in Cheney, Washington, the Panthers have posted a 14-16 record, including six straight losses in 2024 after a 2-0 start. Inconsistent quarterback play and poor defense has plagued UNI in that stretch as they come to Fargo this weekend.

Panthers head coach Mark Farley has gone with sophomore Matthew Schecklman at quarterback over the last handful of games, he threw for 270 yards and three touchdowns last week in UNI's 49-42 loss to Missouri State.

The Bison enter on an eight-game win streak and are getting a couple of players back this week. Cornerback Jailen Duffie will return after missing the last two games with concussion symptoms, defensive tackle/end Will Mostaert will be back after missing last week's game with a hip injury.

Wide receiver Mekhi Collins is expected to return as well after missing last week's game.

The Forum's Jeff Kolpack and WDAY's Dom Izzo discuss the matchup with Northern Iowa, the potential return of Cole Wisniewski to the lineup and the upcoming renovation vote on the Fargodome.

It was an emotional win for North Dakota State last week against South Dakota State and it came at a cost.

The Bison lost two more defensive starters to injury in that game, linebacker Oscar Benson and safety Sam Jung. Benson will be back at sometime this year, while Jung's career is over with a torn pectoral muscle.

NDSU will press on, playing it's ninth consecutive game this Saturday as they travel to Kentucky to face Murray State, the newest member of the Missouri Valley Football Conference. The Racers are led by first-year head coach Jody Wright, a former South Carolina assistant.

MSU is 1-6 on the season and 0-4 in league play. They've allowed 72, 31, 59 and 40 points in its four league games, with only two of those games being single digit contests.

Former Bison quarterback Jayden Johannsen is the starting quarterback for the Racers, who transferrred to Murray after a great career at South Dakota Mines in Rapid City, South Dakota. Johannssen was a finalist for the Harlan Hill Award in 2022.

MSU play athe 50-year old Roy Stewart Stadium, which had nearly 16,000 fans in it last week for Homecoming when they hosted Illinois State. This is a new location for the Bison, who will fly in to Paducah, Kentucky, about an hour north of Murray, before busing there for the game on Saturday.

North Dakota State and South Dakota State will meet for the Dakota Marker for the 21st time Saturday night at the Fargodome.

This will mark the first night regular season game in Fargo since the 2016 season opener, when NDSU beat Charleston Southern in overtime.

SDSU comes into this game with a 5-1 record, having won five straight after a season opening loss to Oklahoma State, that snapped a 29-game win streak.

The Jackrabbits haven't lost a game to an FCS team since December of 2021, in the FCS semifinals at Montana State. 

They are trying to win in Fargo for a third straight time, something that hasn't happened since FDR was president.

North Dakota State has a six-game win streak after losing its season opener at Colorado. The Bison are a beat up unit on defense, losing three starters last week at Southern Illinois.

Preseason all-conference selection Dylan Hendricks is out and will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury, while middle linebacker Nick Kubitz is questionable after he suffered a concussion last week.

The Jackrabbits have won five straight in this series, forcing ten turnovers against the Bison, while NDSU hasn't forced any turnovers from SDSU.

North Dakota State hits the second half of the 2024 season this Saturday as the Bison will head to Southern Illinois to take on a struggling Salukis team.

SIU, which has made the playoffs three of the last four seasons, has had a run of injuries that's tough to fathom. Nick Hill will start a true freshman at quarterback this weekend in Jake Curry after his top three quarterbacks all suffered season ending injuries. Curry was inserted into the game last week against Illinois State, throwing two interceptions in the 45-10 loss to the Redbirds.

SIU has lost three straight games, with the defense being the biggest issue.

North Dakota State heads to Carbondale on a five-game win streak, including two dominant wins to open Valley play. The Bison have won three straight in this series, including a 21-18 win at Saluki Stadium in November 2022.

Quarterback Cam Miller is expected to play after suffering an ankle injury late in the third quarter last week against North Dakota. Miller has started 44 straight games for the Bison after being inserted into the lineup nearly three full years ago.

The eyes of North Dakota will be fixed on the Fargodome Saturday afternoon as North Dakota State will host the University of North Dakota in a large Missouri Valley Football Conference game.

The Bison come in ranked second, while the Fighting Hawks come in seventh. This is the second time in the last four years the two teams are ranked in the top ten, UND and NDSU were ranked second and fourth in the spring season of 2021.

Each team has high-flying offenses so far in 2024, NDSU has the eighth ranked offense in FCS, with UND coming in at tenth. Both teams are averaging 39 points per game.

Fighting Hawks running back Gaven Ziebarth has ran for 249 yards and four touchdowns, he scored three times against NDSU last October.

UND senior wide receiver Bo Belquist has found the endzone three times in four career games against the Bison, racking up 12 total receptions.

NDSU quarterback Cam Miller is on a different level in 2024, completing 78 percent of his passes, going 216 straight passes without an interception. His last pick came against South Dakota State last November, a span of 11 games.

North Dakota State returns home Saturday to welcome in Ohio Valley Conference member Tennessee State for a first-time meeting between the schools.

This is the beginning of a home and home series, with the Bison returning to Nashville and Nissan Stadium next season, which is the home of the Tennessee Titans. That game will be played on Sept. 6.

The Tigers are coached by former Heisman Trophy winner Eddie George, who was hired in 2021. George is a hero in Nashville after starring for many years with the Titans, leading them to their only Super Bowl appearance in Super Bowl XXXIV.

The guys discuss NDSU's issues after the season opening loss to Colorado and where the back end of the defense goes from here. They also discuss Cam Miller's strong start and what to look for in this game Saturday.

They also chat about the changes to how the game will look for fans. There are some significiant changes to the Gameday atmosphere, including a new team walk that will take the Bison player right through the west-side tailgate lot.

The road to the NCAA Basketball Tournament once again runs through Sioux Falls.

For the first time in a handful of years, the Summit League men's tournament is wide open. After back to back years where a team was unbeaten in the regular season, South Dakota State won the league this year losing four times.

North Dakota State enters with its lowest seed in six years, the Bison are seeded fifth after losing their final two games of the regular season. NDSU will face St. Thomas Sunday at 6 p.m. The Bison split the season series with the Tommies, including a 64-50 win in Fargo on February 22.

North Dakota comes to Sioux Falls with the highest seed the Fighting Hawks have ever earned as a member of the Summit League. UND finished third and will take on Omaha Sunday night at 8:30 p.m. Paul Sather's team swept the season series from the Mavericks.

The women's side sees SDSU return as the top seed after a second consecutive unbeaten season. Aaron Johnston's team has been beset by injuries, but yet the Jacks finished 16-0 in league play.

Jory Collins team comes to Sioux Falls as the second seed for the second straight year. It was a disappointment last year as the Bison lost in the opening round to seventh-seeded Kansas City in the opening round.

This year's Bison are led by all-Summit first-team member Elle Evans, who was also selected to the defensive team. NDSU has earned the most wins in the Division I era and seems primed for a run to Tuesday's championship.

The Forum's Jeff Kolpack and WDAY's Dom Izzo offer their thoughts on the tournament and what to expect over the next few days.

The second half of the Summit League basketball season has arrived and things couldn't be more different on the men's and women's side.

The men's race is a complete free-for-all, with the conference leaders each with three losses, South Dakota State and North Dakota. That's after North Dakota State went to Brookings and beat the Jacks 74-73, the fifth separate overtime game that the Bison have played this season.

It was a much needed win for NDSU, which now sits just a half game out of third place and with a win Saturday at UND, can launch themselves right into the conversation of a Summit title.

Meanwhile, the NDSU women came up short to SDSU Thursday night, falling 65-58 to the Jacks, losing for a 20th straight time in the series. This game was different than the previous 19, as NDSU tied the game with 1:45 to. SDSU finished on a 8-1 run to close it out.

The Bison sit in third place in the league standings with a huge game  looming in Grand Forks Saturday to remain in the top half of the conference race.

On the football front, new head coach Tim Polasek has filled out his staff with the hiring of Jake Landry as offensive coordinator. Landry joins Will Johnson and Devin Klieman as the new pieces of the NDSU coaching staff heading into the 2024 season.

Tim Polasek's first coaching staff is starting to come into shape.

This week Polasek announced the hirings of Devin Klieman, the son of former NDSU head coach Chris Klieman as the safeties coach and Will Johnson as the new cornerbacks coach.

Each have been graduate assistants at their previous stops and will be making their position coaching debuts in the 2024 season.

Polasek has another hire to make with longtime assistant and former standout player Tyler Roehl leaving to take the associate head coach and offensive coordinator job at Tennessee State.

Roehl leaves Fargo after not being selected as the new Bison head coach that went to Polasek.

Roehl's NDSU career began in 2004 as a player, then returned on Craig Bohl's staff in 2011.

He was hired full-time by Klieman in 2014 to coach the fullbacks and tight ends and was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2019.

The Forum's Jeff Kolpack and WDAY's Dom Izzo discuss the departure of Roehl and who could potentially replace him.

They also talk about where each of the NDSU basketball teams sit at as the halfway mark of the Summit League season approaches.

The Bison women sit at 5-1 in league play, while the men are at 2-4.