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FRISCO, Texas — The final countdown is on.
With South Dakota State and North Dakota State arriving in Texas on Thursday and taking on the gamut of team photos, media responsibilities and (closed) practices on Friday, less than 48 hours remain before the Dakota Marker rivalry is played before a national TV audience for the first time.
No, the 75-pound stone trophy isn’t at stake this time around — that’s always been the case when the Jacks and Bison have met in the postseason — but something far greater, a trophy that will never leave the display case, is on the line Sunday afternoon.
“It's not the Dakota Marker game, which has a life of its own. Obviously, in Frisco, you're playing for the prize,” said SDSU coach John Stiegelmeier. “But it's against a rival, and I think that's a neat story for both our programs, both our universities and the Missouri Valley Football Conference.”
Stiegelmeier and NDSU head coach Matt Entz were both complimentary of each other’s programs and acknowledged that the two team’s familiarity with one another has added an extra wrinkle to the preparations for this championship game.
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“There's familiarity on both sides. We both have a pretty good bead on personnel, a good bead on what each team likes to do from a schematic standpoint,” Entz said. “So I anticipate there'll be a little bit of a chess match at different times on Sunday, but at the end of it, it's the team who's able to execute the best and make the fewest errors that’s going to have the greatest chance to win.”
Entz also alluded to several players who suffered recent injuries being limited or unavailable, saying “we weren’t ever going to get as healthy as I’d like to,” though he didn't provide specifics.
Stiegelmeier noted that the Bison will field plenty of talent at every position regardless of injury status. However, the loss of utility back Hunter Luepke, who suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in November that required surgery, is likely to make the Bison offensive approach “a little different” to what SDSU encountered in October.
Neither coach was keen to discuss prior championship experience at length, even with its disparity both in volume and success — NDSU is 9-0 in Frisco, while SDSU is 0-1.
Instead, both opted to underscore that all prior results effectively go out the window upon reaching this stage. Teams that advance as far as a national championship don’t do so by accident, they have the talent, coaching and confidence to win the one game necessary to end the season as national champions.
Underdog, favorite, it hardly matters. All that’s left is to play the game and crown a champion.
“You’ve just got to go beat them; you can't outsmart them,” Stiegelmeier said. “… They are the best coached team we faced in the Missouri Valley, so we're looking forward to the challenge.”
“The fact that we're down here, there's a great opportunity and our kids have earned this opportunity,” Entz said. “I think that's all the motivation that they need right now. We get to play for a national championship on Sunday and we're excited about that.”
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