McFeely: A win is a win and here come the Jackrabbits – InForum

CARBONDALE, Ill. – If we wanted to see North Dakota State push badly-wounded Southern Illinois into an early exit, this wasn't it. That was professional. Slow suffocation instead of shock and awe.

Maybe it had to do with who the Bison played last week and how much emotional capital they expended in the win against North Dakota.

Maybe it had to do with who the Bison play next week.

Maybe it had something to do with the fact that 18- to 22-year-olds in green and gold were watching a movie about a scrappy team with a true freshman quarterback who had given up a million points in his last three games.

It happens. A win is a win, right?

That was a win, 24-3 for NDSU over Southern Illinois in front of a sunburned homecoming crowd Saturday at Saluki Stadium, and that's about all you can say. That's not necessarily a criticism. Winning is hard.

Next Saturday it will be even more difficult.

Here come the Jackrabbits. Here comes the Dakota Marker trophy.

“That’s what I heard,” NDSU defensive lineman Toby Anene said.

It's official.

David Samson/The Forum

The week is here. No. 1 South Dakota State vs. No. 2 North Dakota State in a nationally televised game that will be crucial in determining the postseason seeding and who has the inside tip to get to the national title game in Frisco, Texas , to return.

It's here. Finally.

We can talk about it openly and enthusiastically without getting the side-eye from Bison head coach Tim Polasek and tut-tuts from players. One game at a time, all right, and that one game has arrived.

Even Polasek admitted to thinking about it before the win over Southern Illinois was official.

“Maybe I was already thinking about it with three minutes to go,” Polasek said on the stadium lawn a few minutes after the end of Saturday’s competition.

SDSU visits what may be the wildest time in Fargo since the city was made up of saloons and brothels in the 1870s.

SDSU is the two-time defending national champion and has taken the title of undisputed kings of the Football Championship Subdivision from NDSU. It wasn't through trickery. It was brute force. The Jackrabbits of 2022 and 2023 were that good.

As former South Dakota head coach Joe Glenn once said of NDSU, “They beat us down and took our lunch money.”

It's safe to say the Bison want it back. Your fans might want it even more.

Even though it felt like the last two games between the Bison and Jackrabbits were a mismatch – SDSU was just that good and fielded an all-star team that no one in the FCS could match – this one feels Rematch more evenly balanced.

The Fargodome will rock in front of a national television audience.

David Samson/The Forum

Just like the good old days when the whole town would cheer for big Bison games. Bring your earplugs and throat lozenges if you have tickets for them.

“It has become such a big deal because they are two exceptional, successful programs. This rivalry was fiercely competitive from the start,” Polasek said. “I don’t think people realize how close it always was, whether it was wins or losses.”

You've read many times at this point that NDSU's best bet would be to exit the watered-down FCS and somehow work its way into a higher-level Football Bowl Subdivision conference. This belief remains. But for one week, everything special about college football will be on display in Fargo and Brookings. We should enjoy every moment.

David Samson/The Forum

It will be two talented arch-rivals, who respect each other but don't necessarily like each other, competing for a trophy in a competition that means everything in both practical and emotional terms, in an atmosphere that promises to go unhinged battle.

“I’m extremely excited,” Bison quarterback Cam Miller said. “We have to play really well. We know what's coming. But we just have to have a great week of training.”

The Bison will have to play better and sharper than they did against the beaten and battered Salukis. What awaits NDSU next weekend looks nothing like what it delivered in Carbondale. Mark Gronowski was a complete freshman five years ago and won two national titles.

“One of the things we have to address is not hurting ourselves. We can’t hurt ourselves by taking penalties in the next game,” Polasek said. “We were able to put out the fire from our defensive penalties today, but we couldn't overcome some of the offensive penalties. Things like this will make the difference next week.”

It's here. Finally, damn it.

I can barely wait for it.

Mike McFeely is a columnist for The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. He began working for The Forum in the 1980s while studying journalism at Minnesota State University Moorhead. He has been at the Forum full-time since 1990, except for a six-year hiatus when he hosted a local radio talk show.