Bison Focused on South Dakota State Despite Klieman News

The Bison play in the FCS Semifinal Friday night at 7:00

FARGO, N.D. — With the news of head coach Chris Klieman accepting a job at Kansas State, the team is still trying to focus on its upcoming matchup against South Dakota State.

NDSU is in its eighth consecutive FCS semifinal with the matchup on Friday night.

The Jackrabbits lost two games this season, one of them coming in week four against the Bison in the Fargodome.

Klieman says the Jacks have not changed much from the beginning of the year. But, their freshman running back Pierre Strong Jr did not play against the Bison in September though and has since put up 1,000 rushing yards.

“They’re running a lot of the same stretch concepts with him, a lot of the zone stuff, a lot of things to change your eyes,” Klieman said. “I think they do a great job of motioning wide receivers, motioning tight ends or moving tight ends on the snap to try to change your eyes. They’ve always done a good job of that, but I think the strong kid is a really good football player coming on in the last half of the season. Obviously he was newcomer of the year.”

The game can be seen on ESPN2 Friday night.