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.