Game 593: No. 1 North Dakota State dominates Delaware for 24th straight win, 47-22
Newark, DE – The perennial FCS champion North Dakota State Bison visited Delaware and not just dominated No. 18 to confirm that they are head and shoulders above most FCS programs, they stomped a traditionally good and well-coached program, 47-22. The score is not indicative of the dominance we saw in a game that marked the first time collegefootballfan.com got to see the Bison play. With a new head coach, a new QB, and new defenders in their lineup, they suffered a slight setback and then did whatever needed to be done at will to batter the Hens. They can contend to play at the next level and have proven that with wins over FBS teams in previous years. From all over the country but mostly in the cold regions of the upper Midwest, NDSU recruits players that could most likely play at the next level. Under their third HC in eight years, the program looks like it will just reload under new coach Matt Ertz.
Blue Hens seemed ready to fight
The Fighting Blue Hens (2-1) made a statement looking like they were ready to make this a game when Luke Frederick blocked NDSU’s punt after its first series that bounded through the end zone for a safety and a sudden, 2-0 UD lead. Aside from Jake Roth’s 36-yard FG for Delaware at the end of the first, the Bison stampeded to a 27-5 lead by halftime.
Instead of taking the momentum to the Bison after the safety, the Bison turned the tables with SS Michael Tutsie’s pick to put NDSU at the UD 35. Kobe Johnson scored from the one and the Bison never looked back over their shoulders. Griffin Crosa’s 46-yard kick gave the visitors a 10-5 lead at the end of the initial period.
Thundering Herd – wasn’t that Marshall?
Bison QB Trey Lance (18 of 23 for 195 yards and three TDs) threw a 24-yard TD to Adam Cofield to cap a 75-yard drive to bolster the Bison lead. Late in the quarter, Crosa put up three again from the 23. To top off an 80-yard drive, Lance tossed a five-yard touchdown pass to TE Ben Ellefson with 30 remaining for the 27-5 half time lead. The one-sided action frustrated the UD fans among the 14,489 in attendance. It bored and disappointed collegefootballfan.com who expected to see more enthusiasm and resolve from a Delaware program trying to rekindle their own dominant FCS days of the past. A loss at NDSU last season in Fargo did not spark the flame we had hoped to see.
Halftime Blues
Guest Game Analyst Frank Lorito (Parsippany, NJ Poop Factory alum) and I sauntered to the Delaware Stadium Beer Garden near our GA section for a couple of Blue Moons as our way of supporting the Blue Hens who were making us “blue”. Frank met an acquaintance during the break who follows UD closely and said he thought HC Danny Rocco was just “sliding into retirement”. Can’t agree. He’s made some strides up since taking over from previous HC Stan Brock three years ago. We changed seats for better views and possibly better results in the second half.
Hope in Henderson
Following another UD three and out to start the second half, the Bison stampede continued 50 yards with Lance throwing TE Noah Gindorff a four-yard TD pass. Two points went for naught, extending the NDSU lead, 33-5. The UD crowd abandoned hope for the exits of their stadium still under construction. Their faith in this program is going to require some refurbishing as well. HC Danny Rocco replaced starting QB Pat Kehoe (2 for 9 for a paltry 11 yards, one INT) with Soph QB Nolan Henderson. With the game seemingly out of reach, he sparked a little life into the offense (9 of 12 for 125 yard and two TDs) leading to a Roth FG of 23 yards in his first series of the second half. NDSU dominated into the final period, 33-8. Yawn.
Henderson stirred some further interest and his Smyrna, DE HS classmate Will Knight (8 carries for 116 yards) burst 59 yards to the Bison 20. A seven-yard pass to Gene Coleman II gave UD its first TD. They even topped it off with a successful two-point conversion on Thyrick Pitts’ option pass to fellow WR Chichi Amachi. The 33-16 score brought some momentum to give the remaining Blue Hen fans some call for optimism. At this point with 12:01 remaining, I thought the opportunity called for an onsides kick. The Hens lined up in their basic kicking formation, but I pictured Roth just knocking it off the tee for ten yards and jumping on it while the Bison fell back to block. He didn’t, but from what I saw, it could’ve worked. Delaware blew a chance to at least hold down the score while using clock. Rocco must have decided to write this game off at this point. Too bad.
Still thought it was good idea
Methodically, the Bison rushed five times including Kobe Johnson’s (11 carries for 101 yards, one TD) jaunt to the ten where Adam Cofield plucked the Blue Hens once again to make it 40-16. UD responded once again with Henderson barking signals. He found Amachi in the left corner of the end zone. This time the two-point attempt failed. However, with an influx of clean jerseys, the substitute Bison refused to yield. Saybein Clarke put the exclamation point on the dominant NDSU performance with a 20-yard TD run with 1:35 left. Game over. The defending champs left their vanquished foe and head to the next victim of another run at a national championship. Still say they should have onsides kicked.
Next!
The Bison (3-0) return to Fargo to face another top FCS challenge in No. 4 UC Davis (2-1). Will they dominate? We think so. Looking to make it 25 in row before heading into Missouri Valley Conference play. Winning is embedded in this program – seven championships in eight years. No. 20 Delaware hosts Penn as the Ivy Leaguers finally join the fray just this weekend for the first of only ten games they all play. Will Rocco start Henderson against the Quakers? He’s got to be thinking about it.
As for collegefootballfan.com, needing to attend two games on our pace to catch Game 600 on October 19, our original plans for this weekend got terminated by bugs. We planned to see Yale open at home against Holy Cross at 1 pm, and then go see another Ivy League member, Brown, visit the Bryant Bulldogs at 6 pm in Smithfield, RI. That plan became a no-go when the kickoff got moved up to 3 pm. According to the Bryant website: “Due to the heightened risk during evening and nighttime hours of Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE), a mosquito-borne virus in the area, the University is rescheduling outdoor activities accordingly in an effort to minimize the possibility of exposure for our fans and participants.” Bugged-off!
So luckily but regretfully for collegefootballfan.com, we will fall back to an original plan when that became available as the Boston College at Rutgers kickoff was announced for 12 noon. Right after that, we head down the Turnpike to see Princeton in their opener against Butler, a team they trounced in the opener of their 10-win season last year, in a 5:00 start. Lucky that we get to see two games as we desired. Regretfully, we anticipate two blow-outs. Also, we’ve already seen both BC and RU play already.
Extra Points:
UD football fandom is not what it used to be. Over the years, I’ve attended sold out games filled with excited Blue Hen fans for season openers (William and Mary) , critical conference games (James Madison, ten years ago) non-conference powers (Georgia Southern) in town, and for play-offs (Lehigh) on a cold December day at Delaware Stadium. Now it’s really disappointing to see so many empty seats for a game where the Hens are on the rise and the number one FCS team in the nation came calling. I see a big change to be honest in attendance at major football program throughout the country. I guess it’s the preference nowadays to sit at home and turn I off if it’s a clunker. Takes away from the atmosphere by keeping fans away from the stadiums. I also think a lot of die-hard, school-spirited fans are moving on and upward.
Celebrity sideline sighting:
