Southern Illinois University
8-5
North Dakota St.
11-1
Football's season ends at North Dakota State
12/04/2021 | 6:01:00 | Football
FARGO, N.D. — In the last five years, only three teams have beaten FCS powerhouse North Dakota State. Southern Illinois was one of them — climbing the mountain to not just beat the Bison but dominate them in a game last spring.
On Saturday in the FargoDome, NDSU returned the favor, handing SIU a 38-7 loss in the second round of the FCS Playoffs.
Well-rested after a first-round bye, the Bison (11-1) owned the line of scrimmage, rushing for 389 yards and controlling the ball for 38 of the game's 60 minutes. It was a complete reversal from the spring game.
"We came up here with a team that believed that it could win," said SIU head coach Nick Hill. "That wasn't able to happen tonight and you tip your cap to them. They're playing at a super-high level at the line of scrimmage, especially on the offensive line."
North Dakota jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter, but Southern answered with a touchdown to cut it to 10-7 early in the second. The Salukis scored on a 4th-and-1 play in which Nic Baker hit Landon Lenoir for a 22-yard touchdown strike.
Baker completed 23-of-32 passes for 220 yards and broke the single-season passing record at SIU, but it wasn't enough.
The game swung back in favor of the Bison on their next drive — a punishing 13-play, 65-yard effort that ended with a TaMerick Williams 1-yard TD plunge to make it 17-7.
After a quick 3-and-out by SIU's offense, NDSU marched 63 yards in 11 plays to add another seven to the scoreboard and put the Salukis deeper into a hole.
"We were able to get it to 10-7 and at that point, you have to get a stop, or when it's 17-7, you have to score right there," Hill said. "We just weren't able to do it, and the main reason is, they're probably the best team in the country. I'll tip my hat to the team that's able to de-rail these guys, because it's got to come through Fargo, and that's a tough task."
Williams led the Bison with 112 yards on 17 carries, and Quincy Patterson added 84 yards on seven attempts out of the Wildcat formation. NDSU averaged 6.3 yards per carry.
"They wear teams out, they grind you," Hill noted. "Two and three yard runs become 10 and 12-yard runs. It's a formula that's been going on for a long time."
"They kept running it and we just couldn't stop it," added SIU defensive tackle Keenan Agnew, who had Southern's only sack of the day. "Kudos to them, they did a lot of things well, but it was very frustrating for us the whole game."
The Salukis (8-5) came up one win shy of a fall-season sweep of the league's football-centric Dakota schools, having already beaten South Dakota, South Dakota State and North Dakota — a remarkable achievement for a program that until last spring, hadn't been to a playoff game since 2009, let alone challenge the conference's elite.
"The type of change that the sixth-year seniors brought to this program — like Coach Hill said, it's been like a 10-year battle to get (SIU) back on track," said linebacker Bryce Notree, the team's leading tackler this season. "When I look around the locker room, there's a lot of good players in there, a lot of good memories, a lot of good times. We won a lot of big games, and I feel like we've changed this program and left a legacy."
This year's version of Saluki Football was the most successful in more than a decade — nationally ranked for 23-consecutive weeks, winning a pair of road playoff games and beating eight Top 25 teams, including No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4.
"What they mean to me personally, what they mean to this program — we hadn't been to the playoffs at all, let alone win a playoff game since 2009," Hill remarked. "They were not afraid to play anybody. They played them all. That's what I'll remember most about them. In a time that anyone can leave (in the transfer portal), they all stayed and saw it through."
Southern played its 23rd game this calendar year — going 6-4 in the spring season and 8-5 in the fall. That came on the heels of a 7-5 campaign in 2019, giving the program three-straight winning seasons for the first time since 2007-09.
"Getting to seven, eight wins can't be ok," Hill said. "What do we have to do to get to 10, 11, 12, 13? It's recruiting. It's definitely players over plays. It's continuing to develop a roster, not just to win seven games and get to the playoffs."
The spring season ended in the round of eight teams, and the fall campaign the final 16. Hill offered a challenge to his returning players.
"What do we have to do that we're one of those final four teams?" he asked. "Whether it's physically, the off-season, winter conditioning, that's what you should be training for, to put yourself over that hump."
Team Stats
SIU 0, NDSU 7
NDSU - Cam Miller 9 yd run (Jake Reinholz kick), 9 plays, 83 yards, TOP 4:44
SIU 0, NDSU 10
NDSU - Jake Reinholz 20 yd field goal 9 plays, 65 yards, TOP 3:51
SIU 7, NDSU 10
SIU - Lenoir, Landon 22 yd pass from Baker, Nic (Gualdoni, Nico kick) 5 plays, 75 yards, TOP 2:04
SIU 7, NDSU 17
NDSU - T. Williams 1 yd run (Jake Reinholz kick), 13 plays, 65 yards, TOP 7:09
SIU 7, NDSU 24
NDSU - Cam Miller 5 yd run (Jake Reinholz kick), 11 plays, 63 yards, TOP 4:58
SIU 7, NDSU 31
NDSU - T. Williams 1 yd run (Jake Reinholz kick), 15 plays, 75 yards, TOP 8:31
SIU 7, NDSU 38
NDSU - Q. Patterson 32 yd run (Jake Reinholz kick), 5 plays, 61 yards, TOP 2:52
