Presents
BISON GAME DAY NORTH DAKOTA STATE
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2023
►When: 1 p.m., Alerus Center, Grand Forks, N.D. ►TV: WDAY (ABC)
NORTH DAKOTA
►Radio: 1660-AM, 107.9-FM
BISON GAME DAY NORTH DAKOTA STATE AT NORTH DAKOTA
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David Samson / The Forum
NDSU and NFL alumnus Phil Hansen shares the stage with Chris Fowler Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013, during the broadcast of ESPN College GameDay.
20 YEARS LATER, PHIL HANSEN STILL CRANKS IT UP ON GAME DAYS Former North Dakota State great still enjoys his role with Bison radio broadcast team BY JEFF KOLPACK The Forum FARGO
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he emergency radio fill-in for the North Dakota State broadcast team on that magical day at the University of Montana had zero experience in the trade. Phil Hansen had been on the other side of the microphone many times, but had never been the guy to ask questions or evaluate a team’s play. How he got to the booth in September of 2003 is another story. Recently retired from the Buffalo Bills after a standout 11-year career, Hansen was living in the Fargo-Moorhead area and was looking at driving to Missoula, Montana, for Division II NDSU’s game at Division I-AA Montana. One look at a map and he shelved that idea. So he started asking around if anybody was flying. He approached WDAY’s Stacey Anderson, whose crew was taking a private plane to Missoula to air the game. “He said, no, can’t do it, the plane is full,” Hansen said. “Well, at least I tried and I put it to rest.” But at about the same time, WDAY was dealing with a change in plans and partnering with a Montana television station to air the game, with sideline reporter Steve Hallstrom going into the TV booth along with radio analyst Mark Speral, a former Bison quarterback. That left WDAY radio scrambling for an analyst to go alongside play-by-play voice Scott Miller. Anderson called Phil back and asked him if he would consider doing the color commentary. “I said, what is ‘color?’ ” Hansen remembers saying. Anderson explained the job responsibilities, but Hansen declined saying he didn’t have a way to Missoula. A spot “mysteriously” opened on the plane. Twenty years later, that radio fill-in is still at it with the Bison broadcast team. “So I went out there and what a glorious game for the Bison,”
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Phil Hansen has seen North Dakota State football go from Division II to a Division I FCS dynasty from the broadcast booth. Hansen said. “I never had any direction or schooling on radio, just kind of listened to other people and that’s how it started.” NDSU upset the Grizzlies 25-24. A year later, the Bison began a Division I schedule. Eight years later, they won their first of nine FCS national championships and one of NDSU’s greatest players has been there every step of the way. “You get an up-close seat,” Hansen said. “And just with what the Bison went through with the transition, there have been a lot of changes moving up to Division I and then being so successful for the last decade.” Hansen spent his entire NFL career with the Bills from 19912001, getting inducted into the Bills’ Wall of Fame in 2011. The club only recognizes one player a year to put into perspective what he meant to the franchise. Trying to remain in touch with the game, and not wanting to coach, he started officiating high
school football games a year after retirement, something he remains doing to this day. In Hansen, listeners get an experienced former player who was also inducted into the Bison Athletic Hall of Fame. But that doesn’t mean he’s always up there waving the green and yellow flag. “The people I talk to think he brings a very honest assessment to what’s going on,” Anderson said. “When things are going good, he’s certainly good at it and when things are going bad he can talk about why they’re going bad. Anybody who knows Phil knows that’s exactly who he is. You don’t get the radio version of Phil and the real live version of Phil, they’re one and the same.” That is true, said Jeff Culhane, the former radio voice of the Bison from 2016-21 and now in the same role at Florida State. When Miller passed away in 2016 and Culhane took the job, it was Phil who provided a good buffer
of still having a legendary figure in the booth. “Sadly when Scotty passed, those were shoes that you could not fill because of how great Scotty was and the amount of preparation that he did,” Culhane said. “But working alongside somebody that has the credentials that Phil has at the collegiate and professional levels, you had to prepare yourself as a playby-play announcer to be ready at the highest level because Phil knows the game so well.” Now 55 years old, Hansen said he would like to keep doing the analyst job as long as the broadcast will have him. He continually does his homework. Three hours before the Bison and Missouri State kickoff last week in Springfield, Mo., Hansen was in the Plaster Stadium press box going over the Missouri State roster. He was paying attention to MSU sports information director
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BISON NOTEBOOK
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North Dakota State University quarterback Cole Payton.
BOTH UND AND NDSU NOT AFRAID TO USE MULTIPLE QBS IN ONE GAME Bison established with Cam Miller and Cole Payton, but will UND go to backup Simon Romfo? BY ERIC PETERSON AND JEFF KOLPACK The Forum FARGO he two-look quarterback system that North Dakota State has used this season has been reflected in the statistics. Cam Miller and Cole Payton lead the team in rushing. The University of North Dakota may be thinking about the same thing, only in the Fighting Hawks case that would be three QBs in one game. Tommy Schuster is far and away the starter, but tight end and former quarterback Quincy Vaughn comes in for short yardage situations and the Hawks like what they saw with backup Simon Romfo with a few nifty runs last week against Western Illinois. “You do that to try and add to your team and how you attack people and give them more to defend,” said UND head coach Bubba Schweigert. “We were pleased with how Simon ran the football. To add him to the mix, we think we have another thing that teams need to prepare for. You always want to give new looks.” Romfo had four carries for 34 yards in the 49-10 blowout of WIU. Vaughn has five touchdowns with his 13 attempts. “We see the film on everything,” said NDSU linebacker Logan Kopp. “So we know everything they’re going to throw at us, hopefully, but every year they always throw something new so we have to be ready for anything.” UND is certainly readying for Miller and Payton, with Miller last year hurting the Hawks with 93 yards rushing. “It’s all in preparation, getting your run fits,” Schweigert said. “The quarterback run game is hard because it adds a guy. When you add a quarterback to the run game, you add a gap to the run scheme and it happens to be with very good personnel. Both of their quarterbacks can do it.” Miller and Payton have done it
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Alyssa Goelzer/The Forum
North Dakota State’s Cam Miller celebrates a touchdown against Central Arkansas on Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023, at the Fargodome. to the point this year where they’re leading the Bison in rushing. Payton has 283 yards on 32 attempts, an 8.8-yard average, while Miller and running back TaMerik Williams both have 256 yards. “Very explosive players so that makes it difficult,” Schweigert said. Said Miller: “Obviously the quarterback run game was really effective against them last year and it’s obviously part of our plan each and every week. I think there were some things we did last year that affected them and how are we going to use different wrinkles and different looks to run the same stuff.”
Bison DE Hendricks playing healthy with toughness NDSU defensive end Dylan Hendricks had a key defensive play in
last weekend’s victory against Missouri State, hitting the arm of Bears quarterback Jordan Pachot that led to a Luke Weerts interception in the second quarter. Hendricks has started all five games at defensive end for the Bison this fall. The 6-foot-3, 245pound senior leads the team with 1.5 sacks. He has nine total tackles with two pass breakups and two passes defended. “You’re seeing a healthy Dylan Hendricks,” said Bison head coach Matt Entz. “He’s been able to play full speed, understands what we are doing defensively and he’s a physical kid.” Hendricks was a high school quarterback, but Entz said NDSU recruited Hendricks because of his rugby background. “We knew that he had that
mean streak and that toughness,” Entz said. “I think he’s only scratching the surface.”
Kava would be in favor of NDSU-UND traveling trophy NDSU and UND used to play for the Nickel Trophy when both teams were in Division II, but the traveling trophy has been retired so the rivalry game currently isn’t played for any hardware. The Bison play South Dakota State for the Dakota Marker, but Bison defensive end Jake Kava wouldn’t mind adding another trophy game for in-state rival UND. Kava is in his sixth season with the Bison and played his high school football at Fargo Shanley. He said the game against the Fighting Hawks is a big deal, in
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HANSEN
from Forum Communications, NDSU taking it inCONTINUED from G2 house to currently Learfield. Hansen still Rick Kindhart going over enjoys the game days, the pronunciations of going on road trips and Bears players. seeing different parts of He wants to be objecthe country. tive in his analysis, “He has been the conwhich for the most part stant of seeing all these hasn’t caused any inner amazing moments of strife with all of NDSU’s NDSU football,” Culhane success. The 3-8 season of said. “Living it as a play2009 got tough in that er, one of the all-time regard. greats if not the greatest “The sport of football is player ever at North more important than the Dakota State University, Bison,” Hansen said. to be the eyes for all the “They play the sport but Bison fans for this amazyou have to be true to the ing run that he has seen sport, too. You can nitfrom the transition of pick all you want but Division II to the kings of when they’re winning the FCS, Phil Hansen has David Samson/ The Forum that’s a good thing.” been the constant.” Former North Dakota State player Phil Hansen greets The radio broadcast That constant gave the former Bison football staff member Brian Gordon after rights have changed Bison coaches a challenge the final walk through practice at the Toyota Stadium of sorts before the first hands over the years, complex in Frisco, Texas, on Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023.
NOTEBOOK CONTINUED from G4 particular for the in-state players on the roster. “I think that would be awesome,” Kava said of adding a traveling trophy for the UND game. “That’s one of the cool things about college football. I look at the Gophers and I think they play for a trophy every other game in their conference. ... I think it would be cool to play for something.”
Bison lead FCS in turnover margin It’s not unusual for big games to be decided by turnovers. If that’s the case on Saturday, NDSU is trending in the right direction. The Bison lead the FCS in turnover margin along with Eastern Illinois and San Diego — all with a plus-10.
The Bison have forced 11 turnovers on eight interceptions and three fumble recoveries while committing only one mistake, a interception against South Dakota two weeks ago. Last week, the Bison picked off three Missouri State passes and recovered a Bear fumble, although they were only able to turn those into seven points. “Still, we were able to get our offense on the field,” Entz said. Where that made a difference is in time of possession, with the Bison having the ball for seven more minutes than the Bears. “I don’t know where that sits analytically in terms of wins and losses,” Entz said of time of possession, “but for the Bison we feel like that’s
NDSU at University of Minnesota game in 2006. One of the assistants wondered aloud to Hansen if the Bison don’t fare well against the Gophers, it could potentially be very damaging to recruiting in the Twin Cities. “I looked at him and said, well, don’t go down there and get your butts kicked,” Hansen said. “It’s an opportunity. Go down there, prove you belong. Craig Bohl did a lot of making teams think they belong.” Bohl was the former Bison head coach who was 2-1 against the Gophers, with the only loss 10-9 in that ‘06 game. And perhaps a jumping off point in the FCS national discussion, Hansen remembers, came on
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the flight home from the Eastern Washington quarterfinal playoff game in 2010. The Bison lost in overtime, but … . ”Just the feeling of we belong here,” Hansen said. “We can do this. They’re not that good. Just watching the team go from Division II and knowing and proving that they belong, you’re no different than another player that goes to a Division I school across the ball from you. You can tell them that 1,000 times but they need to experience it and prove it themselves and that’s what they and the coaches did.” Readers can reach Forum reporter Jeff Kolpack at jkolpack@forumcomm.com. Twitter@KolpackInForum
an important caveat for us to have success.”
Etc. Etc. Etc. • The series dates back to 1894 with UND having a 62-50-3 edge all-time. The Bison have won all five games in the Division I-level meetings. NDSU earned a 42-21 victory against the Fighting Hawks at the Fargodome last season. In 2021, the Bison won 16-10 at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks. • NDSU is tied for the top spot in the FCS in turnover margin with a plus-10 mark through five games. The Bison forced four turnovers at Missouri State last weekend. • Bison quarterback Cam Miller is completing 78.5% of his passes to rank third in the country among all NCAA divisions.
David Samson/The Forum
North Dakota State’s Jake Kava gives a thumbs up during a photo shoot during Bison football media day at the the Nodak Insurance Football Performance Complex on Friday, August 11, 2023.
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