2018 North Dakota State Bison football team

2018 North Dakota State Bison football
2018 North Dakota State Bison football
NCAA Division I champion; MVFC champion
NCAA Division I Championship Game, W 38–24 vs. Eastern Washington
Conference	Missouri Valley Football Conference
Ranking
STATS	No. 1
FCS Coaches	No. 1
Record	15–0 (8–0 MVFC)
Head coach	Chris Klieman (5th season);
Offensive coordinator	Courtney Messingham (2nd season)
Offensive scheme	Pro-style
Defensive coordinator	Matt Entz (5th season)
Base defense	3–4
Home stadium	Fargodome
	Seasons ← 2017 2019 →

2018 Missouri Valley Football Conference standings
v t e
Team	W		L	W		L
No. 1 North Dakota State $^	8	–	0	15	–	0
No. 3 South Dakota State ^	6	–	2	10	–	3
No. 23 Northern Iowa ^	5	–	3	7	–	6
Indiana State	5	–	3	7	–	4
Western Illinois	4	–	4	5	–	6
Illinois State	3	–	5	6	–	5
Youngstown State	3	–	5	4	–	7
South Dakota	3	–	5	4	–	7
Missouri State	2	–	6	4	–	7
Southern Illinois	1	–	7	2	–	9

$ – Conference champion ^ – FCS playoff participant Rankings from STATS Poll

The 2018 North Dakota State Bison football team represented North Dakota State University in the 2018 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by fifth-year head coach Chris Klieman, who also coached his final season with the Bison before heading off to take over for the retiring Bill Snyder at Kansas State. The team played their 26th season in the Fargodome in Fargo, North Dakota as members of the Missouri Valley Football Conference. They entered the season as defending National Champions and had won six of the last seven FCS titles. In 2018, the Bison finished the regular season 11–0, the first undefeated Bison season since the 2013 campaign, and won their eighth consecutive MVFC title. They received an automatic qualifying bid to the FCS playoff tournament and were seeded as the No. 1 team. The Bison then went 4–0 in the FCS playoffs to finish 15–0 and FCS champions.

Preseason

Award watch lists

Award	Player	Position	Year
Walter Payton Award^[1]	Bruce Anderson	RB	SR
Walter Payton Award^[1]	Easton Stick	QB	SR
Buck Buchanan Award^[2]	Greg Menard	DE	SR

Preseason MVFC poll

The MVFC released their preseason poll on July 29, 2018, with the Bison predicted unanimously to win the MVFC championship.^[3]

Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	North Dakota State	390 (39)
2	South Dakota State	270
3	Northern Iowa	258
4	Youngstown State	248
5	Illinois State	248
6	South Dakota	206
7	Western Illinois	163
8	Southern Illinois	139
9	Missouri State	90
10	Indiana State	41

Preseason All-MVFC Teams

The Bison placed eleven players on the preseason all-MVFC teams.^[4]

Offense

1st team

Bruce Anderson – RB

Brock Robbins – FB

Zack Johnson – OL

Tanner Volson – OL

2nd team

Easton Stick – QB

Darrius Shepherd – WR

Defense

1st team

Greg Menard – DL

Aaron Steidl – DL

Jabril Cox – LB

Robbie Grimsley – DB

2nd team

Derrek Tuszka – DL

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 1	2:30 p.m.	Cal Poly*	No. 1	Fargodome Fargo, ND	NBC ND/ESPN+	W 49–3	18,483
September 15	2:30 p.m.	North Alabama*	No. 1	Fargodome Fargo, ND	NBC ND/ESPN+	W 38–7	18,557
September 22	1:00 p.m.	Delaware*	No. 1	Fargodome Fargo, ND	NBC ND/ESPN+	W 38–10	18,883
September 29	2:30 p.m.	No. 3 South Dakota State	No. 1	Fargodome Fargo, ND (Dakota Marker)	NBC ND/ESPN+	W 21–17	18,846
October 6	1:00 p.m.	at No. 22 Northern Iowa	No. 1	UNI-Dome Cedar Falls, IA	NBC ND/ESPN+	W 56–31	9,899
October 13	6:00 p.m.	at Western Illinois	No. 1	Hanson Field Macomb, IL	NBC ND/ESPN+	W 34–7	2,709
October 20	2:30 p.m.	No. 8 Illinois State	No. 1	Fargodome Fargo, ND	NBC ND/ESPN+	W 28–14	18,553
October 27	2:00 p.m.	at South Dakota	No. 1	DakotaDome Vermillion, SD	NBC ND/ESPN+	W 59–14	9,589
November 3	2:30 p.m.	Youngstown State	No. 1	Fargodome Fargo, ND (Harvest Bowl)	NBC ND/ESPN+	W 17–7	18,028
November 10	2:00 p.m.	at Missouri State	No. 1	Robert W. Plaster Stadium Springfield, MO	ESPN+	W 48–7	5,224
November 17	2:30 p.m.	Southern Illinois	No. 1	Fargodome Fargo, ND	NBC ND/ESPN+	W 65–17	18,008
December 1	2:00 p.m.	No. 23 Montana State*	No. 1	Fargodome Fargo, ND (FCS Playoffs Second Round)	NBC ND/ESPN3	W 52–10	17,005
December 8	11:00 a.m.	No. 8 Colgate*	No. 1	Fargodome Fargo, ND (FCS Playoffs Quarterfinals)	NBC ND/ESPN	W 35–0	16,404
December 14	7:00 p.m.	No. 5 South Dakota State*	No. 1	Fargodome Fargo, ND (FCS Playoffs Semifinals)	ESPN2	W 44–21	18,286
January 5	11:00 a.m.	No. 3 Eastern Washington*	No. 1	Toyota Stadium Frisco, TX (FCS National Championship)	ESPN2	W 38–24	17,802
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from STATS Poll released prior to the game All times are in Central time

Source: Schedule

Game summaries

Polls are based on the FCS STATS Poll

Cal Poly

	1	2	3	4	Total
Mustangs	3	0	0	0	3
No. 1 Bison	7	21	14	7	49

North Alabama

	1	2	3	4	Total
Lions	0	0	0	7	7
No. 1 Bison	7	10	7	14	38

Delaware

	1	2	3	4	Total
Fightin' Blue Hens	0	0	0	10	10
No. 1 Bison	28	7	3	0	38

South Dakota State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 3 Jackrabbits	7	0	10	0	17
No. 1 Bison	0	14	0	7	21

At Northern Iowa

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 1 Bison	7	14	7	28	56
No. 22 Panthers	14	10	7	0	31

At Western Illinois

	1	2	3	4	Total
No.1 Bison	3	14	7	10	34
Leathernecks	0	7	0	0	7

Illinois State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 8 Redbirds	0	0	7	7	14
No. 1 Bison	7	14	7	0	28

At South Dakota

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 1 Bison	21	14	7	17	59
Coyotes	0	7	7	0	14

Youngstown State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Penguins	0	0	7	0	7
No. 1 Bison	0	7	0	10	17

At Missouri State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 1 Bison	20	14	14	0	48
Bears	0	0	7	0	7

^[5]

Southern Illinois

	1	2	3	4	Total
Salukis	14	0	3	0	17
No. 1 Bison	28	16	7	14	65

FCS Playoffs

Montana State–Second Round

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 23 Bobcats	3	0	7	0	10
No. 1 Bison	21	17	7	7	52

Colgate–Quarterfinals

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 9 Raiders	0	0	0	0	0
No. 1 Bison	7	7	14	7	35

South Dakota State–Semifinals

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 5 Jackrabbits	7	0	14	0	21
No. 1 Bison	7	7	21	9	44

Eastern Washington–Championship

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 4 Eagles	0	10	7	7	24
No. 1 Bison	10	7	14	7	38

Ranking movements

Ranking movements
**Legend:** ( ) = First-place votes
	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
STATS FCS	1 (151)	1 (157)	1 (154)	1 (152)	1 (152)	1 (155)	1 (160)	1 (160)	1 (163)	1 (160)	1 (158)	1 (155)	1 (155)	1 (156)
Coaches	1 (23)	1 (26)	1 (25)	1 (26)	1 (26)	1 (26)	1 (26)	1 (26)	1 (26)	1 (26)	1 (26)	1 (26)	1 (26)	1 (26)

Players drafted into the NFL

Round	Pick	Player	Position	NFL Club
5	166	Easton Stick	QB	Los Angeles Chargers

References

^ "FCS football: 2018 Walter Payton Award watch list". August 1, 2018. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
^ "FCS football: 2018 Buck Buchanan Award watch list announced". August 2, 2018. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
^ "North Dakota State Picked to Win 2018 MVFC Title".
^ "Preseason All-Conf and Team (PDF) - Missouri Valley Football Conference" (PDF).
^ "North Dakota State vs. Missouri State - Box Score - November 10, 2018 - ESPN".

[1] "FCS football: 2018 Walter Payton Award watch list". August 1, 2018. Retrieved August 1, 2018.

[2] "FCS football: 2018 Buck Buchanan Award watch list announced". August 2, 2018. Retrieved August 2, 2018.

[3] "North Dakota State Picked to Win 2018 MVFC Title".

[4] "Preseason All-Conf and Team (PDF) - Missouri Valley Football Conference" (PDF).

[5] "North Dakota State vs. Missouri State - Box Score - November 10, 2018 - ESPN".

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[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

v t e North Dakota State Bison football
Venues	Dacotah Field (1910–1992) Fargodome (1993–present)
Bowls & rivalries	North Dakota: Nickel Trophy South Dakota State: Dakota Marker
Culture & lore	Thundar "On Bison" Gold Star Marching Band
People	Head coaches NFL draftees
Seasons	1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943–1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
National championship seasons in bold

v t e NCAA Division I-AA/FCS football champions
1970s	1978: Florida A&M 1979: Eastern Kentucky
1980s	1980: Boise State 1981: Idaho State 1982: Eastern Kentucky 1983: Southern Illinois 1984: Montana State 1985: Georgia Southern 1986: Georgia Southern 1987: Northeast Louisiana 1988: Furman 1989: Georgia Southern
1990s	1990: Georgia Southern 1991: Youngstown State 1992: Marshall 1993: Youngstown State 1994: Youngstown State 1995: Montana 1996: Marshall 1997: Youngstown State 1998: UMass 1999: Georgia Southern
2000s	2000: Georgia Southern 2001: Montana 2002: Western Kentucky 2003: Delaware 2004: James Madison 2005: Appalachian State 2006: Appalachian State 2007: Appalachian State 2008: Richmond 2009: Villanova
2010s	2010: Eastern Washington 2011: North Dakota State 2012: North Dakota State 2013: North Dakota State 2014: North Dakota State 2015: North Dakota State 2016: James Madison 2017: North Dakota State 2018: North Dakota State 2019: North Dakota State
2020s	2020: Sam Houston State 2021: North Dakota State 2022: South Dakota State 2023: South Dakota State