2 weeks Ago By Mike McFeely
MURRAY, Kentucky — It's debatable if North Dakota State quarterback Cam Mille r broke a sweat on Saturday afternoon, with temperatures at Roy Stewart Stadium in the low 60s and a moderate wind. He didn't even see halftime without seeing more of the bench. Miller was 5 of 5 passing and by the time he was replaced by Nathan Hayes , the Bison had a sizable lead on their way to a 59-6 victory over Murray State.
It made for the first extensive experience for the sophomore Hayes, who took over the primary backup duties this week after a shoulder injury to Cole Payton. Hayes finished 9 of 15 for 141 yards and two touchdowns. He had a long carry of 16 yards on three attempts.
He replaced Miller late in the second quarter. "We were kind of thinking that the plan was to do the second half. Cam played really well, the whole offense played really well so when my number was called it was go-time," Hayes said.
"It was kind of unexpected, so I didn't have to think or anything. Just go in there and make some plays." His first pass to Chris Harris went for 26 yards to the Bison 46-yard line.
Barika Kpeenu followed with a 24-yard run. The drive concluded with Hayes' first career touchdown pass, a six-yarder to Bryce Lance with 53 seconds left before halftime. "We a little RPO (run-pass option) there and I saw man coverage out there and I knew I had Bryce running that slant, so I knew Bryce was going to make a play so I just had to put it on him," Hayes said.
"Bryce is a really good player. What did he have today? Three touchdowns? So that's a heck of a day. He did a really good job.
" The Bison led 42-3. Hayes came to NDSU in 2022 from St. Charles East High School outside of Chicago.
He redshirted that season and played sparingly last year in three games. He got on the highlight reel this year in the season opener against Tennessee State, taking a keeper 51 yards for a touchdown in the second half. About the only nit-pick Bison head coach Tim Polasek had was Hayes scrambled and didn't slide before taking a hit.
"Hopefully you guys saw that he hung in there, he went through his progressions. But you see the ability as a drop-back passer. That ball he threw to the field side (to Harris) was on time, in rhythm on third down," Polasek said.
"I thought it was really important for us to call the offense as long as we could to get him those valuable reps. Now, he's got to be a little smarter when he's running. We've got to be sharp about taking hits.
" With starting left guard Griffin Empey out with an injury, promising redshirt freshman Jack Liwienski got his first career start and significant playing time. He did OK, as the Bison tallied 459 yards of total offense. Liwienski wasn't the only young player to have an impact, as NDSU emptied the bench in the second half and allowed their backups and youngsters to get some action.
"I did look at the depth chart and I was like, you know, man, I'm excited to see this guy play. I'm excited about watching this guy," Polasek said. True freshman safety Will Steil recovered a fumble in the end zone to thwart a Murray State scoring drive in the second half.
True freshman running back Peder Haugo got some carries in the fourth quarter, the third game in which he's played. True freshman linebacker Donavan Woolen was on the field a lot in the second half, the fourth game in which he's played. That means if he plays in one more, he'll lose his redshirt and have one fewer year of eligibility.
Redshirt freshman offensive lineman Beau Johnson and sophomore Devin Lockerby are among the other players who got plenty of run in the second half. "I think Woolen, it looked like he played OK. It looked like he was fitting the runs pretty good," Polasek said.
"We got Grey Zabel out early so Beau Johnson was able to finally get some of his first playing time. Empey didn't play so Jack Liewinski, right? ..
. I couldn't even go through the whole list. It was really good to see our effort level and togetherness in the third and fourth quarter.
" NDSU didn't hurt its turnover margin advantage this season. The Bison forced five Murray State turnovers, improving their turnover margin on the season to 14. The Bison picked off three Murray State passes, including career firsts for linebacker Enock Sibomana and cornerback Jaquise Alexander.
They also recovered two fumbles. Sibomana returned his for a touchdown and a 21-0 Bison lead off tipped pass. "Really, it's not just me overall.
It was the whole defensive effort," Sibomana said. "It was more than must me on that play. It had to be a great breakup .
.. for me to make that play.
Defense overall, we played good." Alexander sniped the first play of the third quarter, a pass from Jayden Johannsen that was slighly off the mark. That led to Marty Brown's third rushing touchdown and a 49-3 lead with almost two full quarters remaining.
NDSU safety Darius Givance picked off his second pass in three weeks in the second quarter, a leaping pick near his own goal line. In what is becoming more common than what it used to be, NDSU won the pre-game coin flip and took the ball, instead of deferring to the second half. NDSU barely broke a sweat on the first drive.
Barika Kpeenu ran for 17 yards on the first play. NDSU's first five plays all went for at least 10 yards, with an 11-yard pass from Miller to Lance reaching the 7-yard line. Brown scored on the next play on a play that would have went for more than seven yards if it weren't for the end zone.
Miller was 2 of 2 passing on the drive with both receivers, Braylon Henderson and Lance, wide open on their routes. The Bison had two punts blocked in the fourth quarter as Murray State continued to bring pressure even with the score being out of hand. In a bit of gamesmanship, Polasek countered with a fake punt to take the pressure off.
But punter Kaedin Steindorf's run came up short. Polasek said the Bison had their third-stringers on the punt team, so he wasn't concerned about the issue going forward. "Obviously they were aggressive.
I do appreciate Murray State's coach continuing to play the game out. He's trying to prove a point to his team about getting better, therefore we have to have answers. We can't give up blocked punts.
And to give up two is really unfortunate, but those are all learning lessons for a really young group that wasn't our ones, that wasn't our twos. We were pretty deep into the depth chart on that unit," Polasek said. "I called the fake because I knew we were getting the all-out block and quite frankly I was OK with the sportsmanship of it.
" Key Bison players Mekhi Collins (receiver), Griffin Empey (left guard) and Will Mostaert (defensive tackle) missed the game with injuries along with the other players already reported out with injuries. ..
. NDSU starting middle linebacker Nick Kubitz returned to the field after missing last week with a concussion. .
.. Cornerback Jailen Duffie missed this second straight game after suffering a concussion at Southern Illinois Oct.
12. ..
. The Bison were 34.5-point favorites, according to ESPN Bet.
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Receiver RaJa Nelson , battling an internal injury all season, did not play. Polasek has hinted the only remaining regular-season game in which Nelson will play is the South Dakota game Nov. 23.
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Murray State retired former star defensive end Austen Lane's jersey No. 97. Lane played from 2006-2009 at Murray State and was a first-team All-American and Buck Buchanan Award finalist his senior.
Lance is current a heavyweight mixed-martial arts fighter in the Ultimate Fighting Championships. ..
. In a statistical oddity in the first half, the Bison had a 16-15 edge in first downs, Murray did not punt, yet NDSU led 42-3 at halftime. The Racers, in fact, didn't punt all game.
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