Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
We're now do the Bison Bits with TJ. Jeff. Good morning,
good afternoon, good evening, wherever and whenever you're listening to this,
I'm TJ. This is Bison Bits. I'm gonna be talking
a little bits and pieces of North Dakota State football
today as North Dakota State come off their bye week
(00:27):
for homecoming against the USD Coyotes, which from a regular
season standpoint, the Bison have had problems with USD. They've
lost the last two regular season matchups with them. Saturday
was a different story. This game was over really after
the first quarter of the Bison win fifty one to thirteen.
(00:48):
They scored thirteen in the first quarter. They led thirty
for nothing at thirty four to three at the half,
excuse me, thirty four to three, then forty four to three,
and then fifty one thirteen. Another great day by the defense.
Of course, they gave up two hundred and eight yards
in the air. USD did not have one hundred yards
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in the first half. They were at ninety some. The
Bison really clamped down on them. Aidenbauman was thirteen to
twenty one for twoh eight and one interception that was
a pick six by Nathaniel Staling. He took it all
the way to the to the hacienda. What I said
to look for in the running game. LJ. Phillips one
cut and gone. He can create a lot of headaches
(01:32):
for defenses. He had eleven carries for thirty eight yards.
As a team, they were twenty seven carries for eighty
eight yards at three point three eclip. Just a dominating,
dominating game. Two hundred and ninety six yards they gave
up and most of that two ninety six was in
the fourth quarter when the Bison were running third stringers.
(01:53):
Out there, folks, this is a Missouri Valley football game
against the team not nearly as good as we thought,
but against a team that is in the top twenty
five in FCS and they're running third stringers. Amazing. What
the Bison did. Cole Peyton talk about amazing fourteen of
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eighteen through the air for two seventy three and two touchdowns.
He also had eleven carries for one hundred and two yards.
Marika penu in eighteen for eighty six that's almost five
yards a clip. DJ Scott thirteen for fifty fifty carries.
The Bison had fifty carries for two hundred and seventy
four yards. They ran sixty nine plays all together. That
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doesn't even include penalties, something that coach Polisk brought up
guys in the weekly press conference. The first half alone,
the Bison ran forty six plays. USD ran nineteen plays
in the first half. If you want to know what
kind of domination we're dealing with, that's it right there.
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Cole Payton in that game was seven for eight of
fifteen yards or more. And on the year, he's got
eight touchdowns, nine hundred and seventy eight yards passing, and
of course he's rushing the ball all over. Coach Paul
Sick even mentioned it. I was surprised that it might
not be too early to start talking about him as
a finalist for the Walter Payton Award. That's saying a lot.
(03:20):
I thought that was so uh, that was quite the statement.
Paul Sick poo poos a lot of that stuff. He
kind of keeps it under his hat and keeps it
with a grain of sault and takes it with a
grain of salt and not this time. He's really proud
of what his team right now, and he was proud.
He very very happy, very very happy. The Bison had
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twenty fourth first downs to usd's third thirteen. Excuse me.
The Kyles were two of nine on third down and
this is what I gotta tell you, this is what
I'm excited to tell you. We've talked about the lack
of third down efficiency with this team. They were ten
of thirteen on Saturday. Paulisick brought up up in his presser.
(04:02):
Trust me, that's something that they mark every game, that
third down efficiency. They know, they know how important that is.
So great job, great game. They had the ball for
thirty five minutes as well, So looking really really good USD. Dudes,
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USD has got If you're a USD fan listening, your
team's got a crap ton of problems, a litany. I
don't know if they can fix it. Obviously they're going
to try, but I don't know if they can fix
this or not. They can give it a shot, They're
(04:44):
going to have to. But it was really really an
a really really ugly game for USD. I was disappointed
in something that was brought up by our good friend
dom Izzo. USD said before the game that if USD loses,
there will be no postgame press conference. If USC were
to win, there will be a postgame press conference. I
just think that's I just think that's low rent. I'm
(05:07):
gonna say it. I don't think that's very classy of
the program or the coaching staff. I'm not saying that
reflects the players, but university. I can't imagine university thinks
that's a very sportsman thing to do. I believe there
is no rule from the Missouri Valley Conference that there
(05:27):
has to be. Maybe there must not be, but I
think that's something that you have a press conference winner lose.
I think you do that winner lose. I thought I
was really disappointed USD from that standpoint, But hey, we're
gonna move on. This Saturday, the Bison will play their
next opponent, and that's gonna be Illinois State, who I
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believe is in number six in the nation. I believe
they're seeing at number six in the nation, they're for
sure top ten. So now you have a big one
versus I think six top ten matchup. We're gonna find out.
I'm gonna look at the rankings real quick. We're gonna
find out. Well, I was gonna say, we're gonna find
out what the Bison are all about. But I'm not.
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I'll get to that in a second. Illinois State is
ranked sixth. They slid down one place. Montana State hopped them.
They're three and one on the year. They had to
buy last week with so many in the Missouri Valley.
The prior week they played in North Alabama, the Lions
of North Alabama, who were one and three at the time.
I don't know if they won last week or not,
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but Illinois State struggled at home to one in three
North Alabama. They won it in overtime thirty eight thirty six.
They actually show lost. North Alabama tied it up late
gate thirty eight seconds left in the game. Twenty eight
seconds they scored a touchdown in North Alabama and missed
the extra point. And I think they win that game.
And we aren't getting as excited as we are. It's
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a night game, which is a little unique. Missouri Valley
usually plays usually plays day games. With their conference schedule.
There's some talk of that's in North Alabama's or North
Alabama that's Northern Illinois doing. They've wanted to do that
more of a psychological thing to get the Bison off
their program. Their travel schedule that's been brought up a
(07:19):
little bit. Policy kind of smiles when he talks about it,
but I think it's a factor for him. I think
he realizes that's happening, and it's a little bit of
a play from Illinois State to have the game at
it's six o'clock Central, seven o'clock out on the East coast,
and then of course wherever you're sitting, if you're sitting
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in the mountain time zones five o'clock. Politics said, you know,
that's not going to change too much. We're gonna have
an extra pregame meal or an extra meal. I guess
if it's before a game, it is a pregame meal.
They're gonna have extra meeting time and extra walkthrough. They'll
keep them busy. The theory behind that is changed the
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time due a later time, throw them off their schedule,
get them lying around a little bit more, laysing around
on the road in a hotel room. Folks, this isn't
the Bison's gone through this stuff before, they dealt with
this before, they're gonna they're gonna manage it, just likeing.
Polasek is a he's very structured, I think, probably more
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than matt Enz, very structured. In my opinion anyway, I
think he's gonna be fine. The team's gonna look good,
and in Illinois State's not a slouch. They're three and one.
They shouldn't be, but they have a really good quarterback
coming out to Tommy Rittenhouse is coming back, and he's back.
He played really well in his last game. He had
three tds. He was twenty to thirty six against North Alabama.
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They ran the ball for two hundred and seventeen yards.
That's five point three yards an average, So that was
led by Rittenhouse too. He's a he's a good he's
a really good quarterback. Now he's not played well against
North Dakota State eight and quite frankly, every year everyone
talks about Illinois State. Lookout, they're gonna they're gonna give
North Dakota State a little bit of a push. It
(09:08):
hasn't really happened. It's been a while since Illinois State
beat them. I don't know if that's gonna change much
this coming week. Illinois State was supposed to have a
pretty good defense and they just haven't. They They give
up thirty six points to a really lowly North Alabama,
So I don't know how that defense really is. I
(09:29):
don't know how they're gonna play against this Bison front
because right now, folks, that offensive line h North Dakota
State's offensive line is humming. They the old school. They
pushed USD out of the way. I just don't know
how that front seven from Illinois State's gonna be able
to gonna handle that. They're gonna have to. I don't
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know they can conduct themselves in a manner that's gonna
make a difference. The Bison are clicking on all cylinders.
We know, oh that Illinois State has a pretty good offense.
Flipping the ball over here, I just give you the stats.
They're fine. But man, oh man, North Dakota States linebackers
are playing as well as anybody in the nation, anyone,
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and they were so much faster than USD. It was tremendous.
It was unbelievable how fast the Bison were compared to USD.
USD was so slow. We'll see if the Bison are
just as I would say, just as fast as Illinois State,
if they're quicker than Illinois State, we'll see. The linebackers
are playing well, the defensive line are playing well. They're
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not getting a lot of sacks. But they're getting a
lot of pressures and hurries. And again they're doing what
I thought they would do last week with Boumban, they
got him off his spot. He gets off his spot.
It's ugly Rittenhouser can take off. So if Rittenhouse takes off,
that's a little bit different animal. You get him off
his spot or running quarterback's not going to lose sleep over.
He will tuck and go. So the Bison wi't have
(11:01):
to account for that because he Renhouse is accounting for
well over fifty percent of their offense. So you shut
him down. Now you'll see what happens. I think you'll
have a pretty easy Bison victory. Something that I'm going
to bring up, speaking of speaking of quarterback rankings and
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so on, Cole Peyton, I just looked this up. Cole
Payton is the in terms of quarterback rankings in all
of Division one football FBS and FCS. Cole Payton is
ranked number one. He is the top rated passer in
both of those divisions. So he's he's higher ranked than
(11:47):
what's his name down in Miami. I say, what's his name?
So you can't remember his name. He's higher ranked in
the quarterback at the University of Alabama and quarterback in Michigan,
Ohio State. Cole Peyton is the man and there were
four scouts at the Bison game on Saturday. The Denver
Broncos are one of them. I can't remember the other three.
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Rumor has it there looking at Cole Peyton, maybe as
a tight end, possibly linebacker, but I just don't know
if that's good or not. But tight end. I have
a feeling they may think a little differently when they
see him passing live pass in person like he did Saturday,
you might start hearing some grumblings about Peyton being maybe
a quarterback in the NFL. We'll see he ran through people.
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Cole ran through that USD third and sixteen. He rolls,
drops back, rolls to his left, doesn't see anything, takes
off running to his left, so he's on the left sideline,
cuts all the way back to the right. A defender
tries to tackle him, He bounce right off Cole. Cole
just just strew him to the side, goes all the
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way around to the right sideline and picks up the
first down. He is right now a man among boys.
So Cole Peyton keep it up. Bison keep it up.
How do I think this game is gonna play out?
The Bison defense are gonna keep Rittenhouse in the pocket.
They'll let him throw. They don't want him running all over.
They're gonna let him throw. They're gonna get some good pressure,
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dial up some blitzes and see what he's made out of.
And I think they'll they'll corral the passing game a
little bit. They don't want him running, So I think
that's what you're gonna see a lot of maybe a
little bit different mentality, but you're gonna see linebackers really
flow the dbacks. They run that cover too, so that's
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not gonna change Byson run that Tampa two offensively. I
think I think anything's anything's possible. They're throwing the ball
more than some people thought, and I think they're just
gonna say, look, we could do both. If you want
to run a safety too safety high, we're gonna run
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the ball. If you want to drop the safety down
in the box, we'll throw it. I think they're comfortable
with whatever Illinois State wants to give him. The Wison
will take it, and some they'll take more. I think
they're not gonna have too much problem. I don't know
if the weather's going to be a factor. I e'ven
looked at the forecast. It's been pretty the weather's been
pretty nice in the Upper Midwest, So I don't know
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if that'll be a factor. But it wasn't a factor.
It rained at the Citadel, that was no factor. Rained
a little bit at Tennessee State in Nashville, that was
no factor. I don't think there'll be a factor at all.
My final prediction to this game, I think Cole will
throw for over two hundred yards. Bryce Lance, We'll have
another big game like he did Saturday. He just he
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ran all over the field wide open. They just could
not seem to defend him. And when you have a
quarterback put dropping dimes and you're catching it in stride,
you're gonna have a big game. And I still see
that happening today. The tight ends, Finndig has really established
himself as quite the tight end. He created problems. There
was just problems everywhere for the University of South Dakota.
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I see this game somewhere around a score of sough
thirty thirty five twenty Bison win thirty five twenty No,
I said, I said, what did I say the previous
(15:32):
game thirty like thirty four thirteen something like that. I
was wrong there, Bison put up way more points. But
I'm saying thirty five twenty for this game to win
over Illinois State, and with that, we're gonna go. I'll
be watching this out in the Black Hills where my
(15:54):
parents live, spend some time with them, leaving the family
bind to go hang out with my mom and dad.
So I will talk about it next week. I appreciate
you listening tuning in until next time, Take care of
yourself and each other. Bye bye,