North Dakota State’s football team had just finished a crushing of Sam Houston State when Bison coach Chris Klieman walked into the interview room in the lower level of the Fargodome to address the assembled media jackals.
“Hey, we’re going to Frisco. Heck of a deal,” were the first words out of his mouth.
It’s soon to be January in Fargo-Moorhead. Must mean it’s time to book a trip to Frisco, Texas.
That’s the site of the Football Championship Subdivision championship game and it’s become the preferred mid-winter destination for thousands of Bison fans. NDSU won national titles after the 2011, 2012 and 2013 seasons and each year there were progressively more fans making the southerly migration to the upscale suburb north of Dallas.
Last year about 20,000 Bison backers streamed into north Texas from all over America to see NDSU complete its three-peat.
To heck with Arizona or Florida.
Occupy Frisco.
Again.
“A lot of people doubted us. I remember in our first team meeting coach Klieman said, ‘I fully expect us to be back in Frisco this next year,’” Bison defensive end Kyle Emanuel said after Friday’s 35-3 victory. “We put in a lot of hard work and had a lot of hungry guys. A lot of guys were motivated and here we are.”
Emanuel is a senior, one of starters who returned to the Bison defense after an undefeated 2013 season. That NDSU team, which rolled through most of the regular season and playoffs without much of a struggle, was deemed one of the best-ever in FCS.
Many Bison supporters, media types and fans of other teams (the one that calls Grand Forks home, for example) believed last season was NDSU’s crowning achievement and this year was going to be a reality check. As in, they thought the Bison were going to become an average team.
Wrong.
Embarrassingly wrong, in fact.
Instead, motivated by the negative talk, the Bison are 14-1 and trying to become the first team to win four straight FCS national championships.
“It means a lot to all these seniors,” junior quarterback Carson Wentz said. “From Day One, once Frisco ended last year, a lot of naysayers were out there. We lost 23 seniors and all that. There were a lot of doubters. For these seniors and the rest of us, it means a ton to get back there and we are just excited.”
The Bison have 17 seniors in all, including four who start on offense and those six defensive starters. If you want to get persnickety about it, you could make the argument this group of seniors has had a better run than last year’s collection of highly-touted seniors.
Yes, last year’s seniors won three titles, a ton of games and helped turn NDSU into a national powerhouse and darling of ESPN. But … this group of seniors has actually won more games. Here is a short list of accomplishments:
– A 57-3 record since the start of the 2011 season.
– Those three straight titles, with a shot at a fourth.
– Victories over big-boy conference foes Minnesota, Colorado State, Kansas State and Iowa State.
– A playoff record of 17-0.
– A record 33-game winning streak.
– Two ESPN College GameDay appearances.
Those are achievements that will never be matched by a group of players in a four-year span. Never.
If there is justice in the world, the Bison will defeat Illinois State and win a fourth straight title.
There’ll likely be 20,000-plus NDSU fans trying to make that happen.
“I couldn’t be happier for our seniors,” Klieman said. “They’ve been through a tough, long road. To be able to get this opportunity to go back … I’m so proud of these guys to be able to lead this team again back to Frisco for the fourth consecutive time. That’s so special to me and those seniors.”
(Mike McFeely is a talk-show host on 790 KFGO in Fargo-Moorhead. He can be heard 2-5 p.m. weekdays. Follow him on Twitter @MikeMcFeelyKFGO.)