Bison Game Day September 9, 2023

THE GENESIS OF A DYNASTY?

NDSU trailed Division I-AA power Montana 24-0 until Bison defensive tackle Dwight Summerville’s 2003 safety changed the momentum of the game

maybe the program

What transpired 20 years ago this week will never be forgotten in the landscape of North Dakota State’s Division I football era. The first win over an FBS team was 2006 at Ball State and the first of nine FCS national titles came in 2011.

It started somewhere, perhaps on Sept. 6, 2003, in Missoula, Montana, when the Division II Bison shocked Division I-AA kingpin Montana 25-24.

The 20-yard fake field goal touchdown pass from Rod Malone to Mike Wieser with 2:13 remaining in the game stood as the game-winner. Equally important was the 110 yards rushing by Kyle Steffes and the steady right hand of quarterback Tony Stauss.

NDSU’s defense threw a second half shutout. Certainly, it helped that Montana kicker Chris Snyder missed a game-winning 40-yard field goal as time expired. But perhaps the play that turned the tide will go down as one of the most important safeties in the history of Bison football.

Down 17-0 and looking every bit of the team that was expected to get blown out, defensive tackle Dwight Summerville sliced through the Grizzlies offensive line and pummeled running back J.R. Waller to the end zone turf. Forever the biggest two points of Summerville’s life.

In a bigger picture, a case can be made that play was the genesis of the Division I FCS dynasty; the headwaters of the river of success.

It had to start somewhere.

“That was a huge momentum switch for us because everything was going wrong,” Summerville said. “I believe that play gave us more hope than we had. One of the biggest plays in my career because

nobody gave us a chance to win. As a team, we needed that, but I didn’t know it was going to be me to do it.”

“It was the spark we needed,” said Mike Sheppard, the strong safety on that team. “It showed that as big as they were, our

weight room matched their weight room because he just absolutely dominated on that play. He turned around and said, now, I need everybody else to make plays.”

Summerville said the Grizzlies were trying a zone run to the right side.

“I always try to get off the ball quickly but the guard reached me, so I ‘back-doored’ him,” he said.

Still, the Bison trailed 24-2 at halftime. At that point, perhaps the experience of head coach Craig Bohl and his assistants paid off. The former players say the staff didn’t panic, and spent the intermission time figuring out how to rally.

“They gave us more confidence that we could come back out and try to compete,” Summerville said. “We didn’t know we were going to win the game but at least try to compete and make it a close game.”

Bohl was in his first year after having been the defensive coordinator at Nebraska, among other major schools. Most of the staff had coached in big-time college venues at some point, with Stauss saying Bohl brought a level of professionalism to the program.

“It always starts with the top,” Sheppard said. “When you see your leaders remaining poised at a time when it can be extremely stressful provides calm to you. It was good that in those moments we had coaches who had been on

and

“It always starts with the top, when you see your leaders remaining poised at a time when it can be extremely stressful provides calm to you. It was good that in those moments we had coaches who had been on bigger stages than that.”

MIKE SHEPPARD, NDSU STRONG SAFETY

BISON WR GREEN CHANGES JERSEY NUMBER TO HIS GRANDMA’S FAVORITE

that has family significance

North Dakota State wide receiver Eli Green changed his jersey to No. 13 this fall — after wearing No. 86 a season ago — a number change that has family significance.

“It’s my grandma’s favorite number,” he said.

The redshirt sophomore from Farmington, Minnesota, had a key 26-yard catch to convert a thirdand-long early in the game last weekend in a 35-10 season-opening college football victory against Eastern Washington at U.S. Bank Stadium. Green finished with two catches for 41 yards.

The Bison are scheduled to play Maine at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Gate City Bank Field at the Fargodome in the home opener. Green said he first wore the No. 13 — a number his older brother also wore — beginning in travel team basketball starting in third grade and wore it all the way through high school.

In addition, his grandma Georgia Freetly is also a fan.

“It sure does make you feel good,” Green said. “She comes to all my games, which I’m really grateful for.”

The 5-foot-11, 185-pound Green is part of a balanced Bison receiving group that had eight different players, including five different wide receivers, catch passes in the season-opener against Eastern Washington. NDSU also had three different tight ends with receptions.

“We all have our own play style I feel like,” Green said of the wide receivers group. “Having all those options, it makes it pretty easy for us to call our whole playbook and execute all our passing plays.”

Green had six receptions for 92 yards and a touchdown last season. His touchdown was a 44-yard catch against South Dakota State in the Division I FCS championship game last January.

Green is hoping plays like that are a precursor of what’s to come during his third season in the pro-

gram.

“I’m very confident with our playbook now going into my third year,” Green said. “I feel I can be a deep threat for the team as well as

getting in and out of routes and completing short-game stuff. ... I’ve got to make the most of every opportunity I have.”

Bison target new recruiting area

The verbal commitment this week of walk-on Will Rosenmeyer is evidence of NDSU opening new recruiting territory. Rosenmeyer, a defensive back from Rock Canyon High School in Littleton, is the first Bison recruit from Colorado in recent memory.

It’s part of a targeted effort by Bison coaches to shift some of

“We all have our own play style I feel like, having all those options, it makes it pretty easy for us to call our whole playbook and execute all our passing plays.”

ELI GREEN, NDSU WIDE RECEIVER

NOTEBOOK

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their out-of-region recruiting from Georgia to Colorado. Georgia was fertile ground for a couple of years with running back Kobe Johnson and safety Dom Jones coming to Fargo.

There are a few reasons for the switch, according to head coach Matt Entz.

First is cost. Airline tickets from Fargo to Denver are more affordable than those from Fargo to Atlanta, meaning a cost savings to the football program and potentially to the recruit and his family.

Second, Bison coaches

DYNASTY

CONTINUED from W2

bigger stages than that.”

There was no reason to expect the result. NDSU finished 2-8 in an injurysavaged 2002, the first losing season since 1975.

The Bison opened the season at home with a rather ordinary 28-7 win over Division II Tusculum (Tenn.). A half-full Fargodome crowd of 10,581 didn’t exactly make for an electric atmosphere.

Tusculum quarterback

Tony Colston completed 32 of 40 passes, not a statement game by the Bison defense in general and the secondary in particular. Certainly, the Bison had to up their game against Montana’s veteran quarterback Jeff

believe Colorado high schools have a talent level equal to that of the Twin Cities area and is underrecruited. There aren’t many FCS programs that recruit Colorado and only a handful of FBS Group of Five schools are regulars in the state. Colorado State, of course, and Wyoming are two Mountain West Conference schools that mine the state for football talent.

Entz also cites retention. He believes the lower cost of airline tickets will allow Bison players to get home more often if they desire, even if it’s just for an off weekend or holiday.

The Bison will continue to look at Florida and

north Texas for players, as they’ve successfully done in Division I.

CAA changes first word in name

It’s still the CAA, but there was a major change to the name of Maine’s league in the offseason.

The Colonial Athletic Association is now the Coastal Athletic Association. The move is a reflection of the league’s expanding footprint in recent years, with members spanning from Massachusetts to South Carolina. The CAA may have lost James Madison two years ago, but is now at 15 footballplaying members with the addition of Campbell

“It’s been two decades but it feels like yesterday, honestly like yesterday,” Stauss said. “In some respects, and this is going to sound weird, but we were just a bunch of misfits going into the Montana game. Some of us had already tasted the big game and we just brought that in. It was just amazing in hindsight.”

Disney.

“We were predicted to not have any chance to even win the game,” Summerville said. “The crowd was crazy for me so that was one thing that stood out.”

It was a monster game overall for Summerville,

who led the team with eight tackles, with three of those for lost yardage.

“You can win some games when the running backs don’t make it to the linebackers,” Sheppard said.

Sheppard and linebacker Josh Mock, meanwhile,

University (N.C.), Hampton University (Va.), Monmouth University (N.J.), North Carolina A&T and the State University of New York at Albany.

It means the league is no longer geographically concentrated around the colonial states. It will keep its same logo.

With 15 schools, each team will play eight conference games making for an off-balanced schedule. Of the five CAA teams ranked in the FCS coaches top 25 poll this week, the Black Bears avoid Delaware and New Hampshire this season.

Etc. etc. etc.

This is the first meeting between Maine and

were equally as stout with seven stops each.

“When people don’t believe you, you want to prove them wrong,” Summerville said. “I just believe as a team we were like that, we wanted to prove people wrong.”

Stauss, who transferred from Northwestern, was out to prove he could still play at a high level. He completed 22 of 31 passes in that game, but didn’t turn it over and wasn’t phased by the 23,000 fans at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

“It’s been two decades but it feels like yesterday, honestly like yesterday,” Stauss said. “In some respects, and this is going to sound weird, but we were just a bunch of misfits going into the Montana game. Some of us had already tasted the big

SCORE BISON

FO OT BA LL AC TION !

North Dakota State. The Bison and Black Bears were scheduled to play at the Fargodome in 2001, but the game was canceled due to the 9/11 attacks.

• The Black Bears don’t beat themselves; they’re a plus-seven in turnover margin in the last six games dating to last season and finished 2022 ninth in the FCS with nine total turnovers.

• The Bison have won 24 consecutive home openers with their last homeopening loss coming in 1998, a 23-21 defeat against Emporia (Kansas) State.

Head coach Matt Entz earned victory No. 50 at NDSU last Saturday

game and we just brought that in. It was just amazing in hindsight.”

Sheppard, Summerville and Stauss were all new, in a sense, that season. For Sheppard, it was just his second game making the switch from linebacker to strong safety and that included a new playbook with a new staff. Summerville was a transfer from Holmes Community College (Mississippi) and Stauss came from the Big Ten Conference.

It worked out for all three in more than just football. Sheppard carved a highly successful financial services career in Wisconsin. Summerville married Bison basketball player Leah Klabo, works in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and is an assistant high school football coach at nearby Sauk Rapids.

against Eastern Washington. He has a 50-7 career mark with the Bison. Maine turned to a familiar face when it hired Jordan Stevens as its head coach before the 2022 season. Stevens played for the Black Bears from 2006-09 and was a Maine assistant from 2011-15. He was an assistant at Yale before returning to his alma mater. A win over No. 2 NDSU would give the Black Bears a win over the highest-ranked opponent in program history. The current leader is a 23-18 victory over No. 3 Weber State in 2018.

Stauss just finished his 20th year working for StrataCom in Fargo.

“It’s so fun to look back,” he said. “I start thinking about that win in Montana every time this time of the year rolls around. Just to think of where this string of (Division I) wins started and I really do think it started there.”

Moreover, it may have started in the south end zone with the play of Dwight Summerville’s life.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Jeff Kolpack at jkolpack@forumcomm.com. Twitter@KolpackInForum