THIS WEEK: One week after the North Dakota State football team won its own homecoming game, the third-ranked Bison (5-0, 2-0 MVFC) have a chance to spoil the party for Illinois State (2-3, 0-2 MVFC) as the homecoming guest this Saturday, Oct. 16, at Hancock Stadium (13,391) in Normal, Ill. Game time is 2 p.m. The Redbirds are coming off a bye week after dropping back-to-back Missouri Valley Football Conference games to Southern Illinois and Missouri State.
 
TELEVISION: The statewide ABC network of WDAY (Fargo), WDAZ (Grand Forks), KBMY (Bismarck/Dickinson) and KMCY (Minot/Williston) will have live coverage beginning at 2 p.m. with Dom Izzo calling the play-by-play, Sean Fredricks as color analyst, and Logan Campbell and Zach Staton reporting. Illinois State's broadcast will be available to ESPN+ subscribers on ESPN.com and the ESPN app.
 
RADIO: Coverage begins at 1 p.m. CT on the Peterson Farms Seed Bison Radio Network including 107.9 The Fox in Fargo with Jeff Culhane (play-by-play), Phil Hansen (analyst) and Cole Jirik (sideline). Extended coverage locally on Bison 1660 and 92.7 FM includes "Bison Tailgate" from 10:00-11:00, "Bison Game Day" from 11:00-1:00 and the "Bison Hotline" call-in show following the network broadcast.
 
ONLINE: NDSU All Access offers subscription video streaming for home games and free audio streams for all NDSU football games through GoBison.com/allaccess and the NDSU Athletics mobile app. Live in-game statistics will be available on BisonStats.com. Follow along with in-game updates on Twitter @NDSUfootball.
 
THE SERIES: This is the 15th meeting between North Dakota State and Illinois State. NDSU has won 10 straight to take a 12-2 lead in the series dating back to 2007. The Bison are 4-1 at Hancock Stadium with three straight wins since a 34-24 loss in 2010 on the Redbirds' home field.
 
LAST YEAR: Jayden Price returned a punt 85 yards for a touchdown and Cam Miller came off the bench to rush for a team-high 57 yards on 11 carries to spark North Dakota State to a 21-13 home win over Illinois State last year. Miller's six-yard rushing TD capped a 13-play, 84-yard drive that ate up 8:13 of the fourth quarter. Linebackers Jackson Hankey and James Kaczor each made a team-high seven tackles while the Bison defense recorded seven tackles for loss, five pass breakups and the first career interception by safety Dom Jones.
 
BISON WIN HOMECOMING GAME: Quincy Patterson had two rushing and two passing touchdowns, and the NDSU defense recorded five sacks in a 34-20 homecoming win over Northern Iowa last week. Christian Watson caught five passes for 163 yards—all in the first half—including an 85-yard touchdown as Patterson finished 11 of 21 passing for 182 yards and two TDs. Jake Reinholz made field goals from 27 and 22 yards to help NDSU build a 13-10 halftime lead, and the Bison capitalized on special teams and defense in the second half. Jayden Price's 41-yard punt return to the UNI 9 set up a 4-yard TD run by Patterson, and a sack fumble by Will Mostaert recovered by Costner Ching to set up a 3-yard TD pass to tight end Noah Gindorff four plays later to make it a 27-10 game.
 
MOVING UP: North Dakota State moved up two spots in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 media poll and AFCA FCS Top 25 coaches poll after a turbulent weekend in the Football Championship Subdivision that saw No. 2 South Dakota State take a 42-41 overtime loss at home to Southern Illinois and No. 3 James Madison lose 28-27 at home to Villanova. Defending national champion Sam Houston (5-0) remains No. 1 and Eastern Washington (6-0) climbed two spots to No. 2. The Missouri Valley Football Conference has SEVEN teams ranked this week with South Dakota entering both polls at No. 21 after a 20-13 home win over North Dakota, which dropped nine spots with the loss.
 
RED ZONE SUCCESS: North Dakota State leads the FCS in red-zone defense (.429) allowing two rushing touchdowns and one field goal in seven opportunities inside the 20-yard line. Only Princeton, with one less game played, has allowed fewer red zone opportunities (6). NDSU opponents have two turnovers on downs, one interception and one fumble in the red zone.
        FCS Red Zone Scoring Defense Leaders
        .429 - North Dakota State (3-7)
        .462 - Penn (6-13)
        .556 - Dartmouth (5-9)
        .600 - Montana (9-15)
        .600 - South Dakota State (9-15)

TOP-RANKED DEFENSE: In addition to its No. 1-ranked red zone defense, North Dakota State leads the FCS in scoring defense (8.6 ppg) and ranks fifth in total defense (252.0 ypg), sixth in sacks (3.4/game) seventh in rushing defense (73.4 ypg). The Bison are also No. 2 in third down conversion defense (22%) and seventh in punt returns averaging 15.4 yards per return with Jayden Price ranked sixth nationally at 15.4 yards per return.
 
NO. 1 RUSHING ATTACK: NDSU continues to rank No. 1 in the FCS averaging 289.8 rushing yards per game and 6.53 yards per carry. Only Florida (6.67 ypc) and Coastal Carolina (6.64 ypc) are averaging more yards per carry in Division I football. NDSU has four running backs averaging over six yards per carry in TaMerik Williams (8.7), Jalen Bussey (8.1), Dominic Gonnella (7.0) and Hunter Luepke (6.8), plus quarterback Quincy Patterson's 5.0 average and team-high 53 carries.