Bison Defense Preparing For The Run Saturday Against Illinois State

Redbirds rushed for 409 yards against Southern Illinois last weekend

Fargo, N.D. — The Bison welcome the Illinois State redbirds to the Dome Saturday. The Redbirds come in ranked eighth in the country after a dominating 51–3 beat down of Southern Illinois. Much of the success in that game came from 409 rushing yards by their backs.

The Redbirds switched how they do things on the offensive side of the ball. Last year, they ran a spread offense. This year they rely a lot on the running game. The Bison said it’s something they’re used to as the offense is very similar to how they operate.

“It’s one of those things where yesterday I turned on the film and was like man this is our offense kind of and I was expecting more like last year where we saw a spread offense,” Bison defensive end Greg Menard said. “It’s very different this year, they’re running the ball and have a couple really good running backs.”

“They’re really physical I think. They have really good running backs and a good o–line,” Bison safety James Hendricks said. “They’ll be run first and like time of possession. It’s real similar to our offense and what we’ve faced all year long.”

Kickoff from the Dome is set for 2:30 p.m. Saturday.