2) NDSU Prepares for 15) ACU in FCS Playoffs Second Round

THE BISON HOLD HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE THROUGH THE PLAYOFFS (IF WIN) UNTIL THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME IN FRISCO, TX.

FARGO (KVRR) – Playoff football returns to the FargoDome Saturday as NDSU hosts Abilene Christian in a top-15 showdown.

The Bison are coming off a 1-point loss to South Dakota in the regular season finale and after a bye-week in the first round of the FCS playoffs, NDSU will now go up against a Wildcats squad that owns a 9-4 record and is number three in the entire FCS in total offense.

“This is an explosive offense,” said NDSU head coach Tim Polasek on ACU. “Sometimes the playoffs are cool because you get into watching league to league. It’s a little bit hard to figure out where the matchups, how it is going to go. The bottom line is this quarterback is productive. We’re expecting the starting quarterback to play. We’ve seen some really good receiving groups. This group has probably the most diversity as far as being able to beat you on the outside with big guys, inside guys that do a really good job with (yards after catch) yardage. Tackling is going to be important. Getting the 50-50 balls out of the air is going to be important. They’ve got our full attention, and then right along with that, they have a 1,000-yard rusher.”

The Bison have the goal of returning the program to championship glory and to help attain that, Polasek said he put the team through more physical practices over the weekend than what teams in years past have had going into the playoffs.

“We’ve had a really, really good week of practice,” said junior linebacker Logan Kopp. “Before the season even started, one of our main goals was to be the most physical team in the country, and that starts at practice every day. We got to do some real contact, some real hitting. We were able to take advantage of that, and hopefully we can take the physicality that we’ve had at practice and take it into the game on Saturday.”

While the Wildcats have a Quarterback leading an explosive offense, the Bison have a Walter Payton Award finalist on their side: Cam Miller. He shares what it means to be one of three finalists for the award.

“I told the guys, you know, the most important thing is hoisting that trophy at the end of the year,” said Miller. I think that’s a lot more important than any sort of individual award.”

Miller also shared what his mindset is heading into his final playoff run of his college football career.

“I just think everybody has the same mindset where, you know, each game could be our last,” said Miller. “I think guys are going to fuel off that and it’s going to I think help us to play better.”

NDSU and ACU kick off at 2 P.M. Saturday at the FargoDome.

ESPN has exclusive coverage of the NCAA FCS playoffs. Saturday’s game will be on ESPN+ with Noah Reed (play-by-play) and Craig Haubert (analyst) on the call. ESPN+ is available to subscribers on ESPN.com and the ESPN app.