North Dakota State wins fifth straight nat’l title

North Dakota State will have its top NFL prospect back at quarterback for its fifth consecutive FCS national championship game.

Quarterback Carson Wentz will start the FCS Championship game, slated for Saturday morning at 11:00 A.M.

Wentz, a potential first-round pick in the National Football League draft, hadn’t played since breaking his right wrist in a loss to South Dakota. “They’ve helped me mentally and physically”.

“We jumped on them quickly, which we thought was going to be a really big key”, said North Dakota State head coach Chris Klieman.

Jacksonville State briefly made things interesting by scoring 10 straight points in the third, but that comeback effort would be short-lived.

Jacksonville State hung in with North Dakota State early, but the damn burst in the second quarter. The quarterback completed all six of his pass attempts on that drive, including an eight-yard touchdown pass to tight end Andrew Bonnett. Running back Troymaine Pope, who rushed for 665 yards and eight touchdowns in their three playoff wins, carried the ball only nine times for 31 yards and his only reception went for negative yards. “If we played the way we played all season, the outcome of the game would have been different, and we didn’t do that”, Jenkins added, the emotion in his voice growing.

Jenkins finished 7-of-20 passing for 57 yards with two interceptions, and ran 15 times for 88 yards and JSU’s only touchdown.

“We’re going to the game this weekend”. JSU came into the game averaging 529.2 yards per game, but managed only 204 yards of offense against the Bison. Landrum said their focus is on winning their title, and not worrying about how much attention the Crimson Tide will get in preparation for their championship game.

Eli Jenkins, the Gamecocks dual-threat quarterback, fumbled at the end of a run that was recovered by Greg Menard at the JSU 23. In the fourth quarter, there were three turnovers in a row, with Jacksonville State fumbling the ball, then NDSU throwing an interception, then JSU throwing an interception right after that.

“We just built off each performance”, DeLuca said. “Hat’s off to coach Entz and the defensive staff, as well as all these defensive players, because I think we have the best defense in all of FCS football this year without question, especially as the season wound down”. It means a lot to me.

“It’s a great day”, said Brian Hinton, father of two young boys playing in the game.

Wentz showed off his legs after the interception, putting the Bison up 17-0 after an 11-yard touchdown run.