Welcome to the FBS, Fargo: Bison Football Sets a New Standard

I’d say the first North Dakota State FBS football game was a success: 18,573 people packed the stands. The atmosphere of the Fargo-Moorhead community felt energized and ready for a new start in a new league conference. And more importantly, they felt ready to press forth on achieving new goals.

These goals set the stage for a new standard for Bison football. As we saw on Saturday night, they can play with the “big boys” in the FBS. The dismantling of Jacksonville State, 33-7, on CBS Sports Network, had hundreds of thousands of eyeballs on the Herd; hundreds of college football influencers commented on X about the performance. 

Barstool’s Liam Blutman said, “The best case scenario for college football this season is North Dakota State winning the national championship.”

Barstool’s Brandon Walker (when ranking week 0 games over the weekend) said, “4. North Dakota State — An awesome scene.” 

Yet, what was an awesome scene that the fans were actually invested into something bigger than an FCS game, and they didn’t leave until halfway through the third when NDSU was up 30-7. It means something to the players and coaches when they see the stands packed. 

Thirteen-thousand fans at an FCS playoff game compared to 18,000 electric fans for your first FBS game inside the dome is a huge difference, and call it what you will, but Fargo brought the energy. Even tailgating was a huge hit; my colleagues were raving about how electric it was and how everyone was having a good time. 

When Kessel scored the first touchdown for NDSU at the FBS level, that’s the loudest I’ve personally heard the dome since the SDSU game a few seasons ago. Bison Overtime’s Ethan Ibach said, “The attendance and sound reminded me of the 2012-2019 days.” 

Besides the atmosphere of the dome, there are some Spectrum game balls and praise that the players and coaches deserve. 

The first Spectrum game ball goes out to quarterback Nathan Hayes. Hayes impressed not only me but all 18,000 individuals in the Fargodome. He threw for a buck-60 and a couple of touchdowns to Kessel and Jax State transfer, Jordan McCants. But the way he was able to command the offense, read defenses and not put the ball into harm’s way was huge. 

The second Spectrum game ball goes to the offensive line and their performance in running the ball. The Bison offensive line — DJ Scott, Nyeoti Punni and Myles Mitchell — rushed for 209 yards, including 185 from “the stable.” The only pushback was in the first quarter with Scott going in between the tackles, but otherwise, that group is solid. The running game helped dominate the trenches and the time of possession. 

The last Spectrum game ball goes to defensive coordinator Grant Olson; his masterclass ranged from a game plan that shut down Deondre Johnson (6’8”, 223 lbs) early, to controlling QB Caden Creel by having Woolen spy on him so he couldn’t get out of the pocket, to finally shutting down a productive rushing attack. NDSU held the Gamecocks to 170 yards all game (31 attempts, 85 rushing yards). 

If Code Green can shut teams down, Hayes can keep the offense afloat and Bison fans keep packing the strongest dome in America with unmatched energy, NDSU won’t just be in good hands — it will be ready to win the Mountain West.