The Gophers may never come closer to playing themselves than Saturday when North Dakota State comes to the Metrodome. The Bison have 18 players among their 22 offensive and defensive starters who are from the five-state area. The Gophers have nine. North Dakota State has six starters from Minnesota, while the Gophers have eight home state regulars (none from North or South Dakota). Among second team offensive and defensive players from the state of Minnesota, the Gophers have 12 and NDSU eight.
Gopher co-captain Tony Brinkhaus, the senior center from Bloomington Jefferson, said he knows a lot of the Bison by name, but few personally. Sophomore Tyler Henry is a reserve linebacker for NDSU from Jefferson. Henry was a couple years behind Brinkhaus at Jefferson. He described him as “a very tough kid” who became Jefferson’s best player. Has there been a verbal rivalry between the two Jefferson alums when they see each other? “There was really no trash talking going back and forth,” Brinkhaus said. “He’s more of a mild mannered guy and so am I. So we weren’t jabbing at each other or anything like that.”
With a 1-6 record, 0-4 in the Big Ten Conference, Brinkhaus and his teammates are frustrated. Asked if losing to former Division I-A North Dakota State would be the ultimate frustration, Brinkhaus said he won’t take that attitude. “I am not going to say that because you got to respect every opponent you play,” he said. “I don’t want to put them down because they’re a good team. There’s no doubt that I am going to go into this week expecting to win.”
The Bison are a good team as demonstrated by the close loss (10-9) last season to the Gophers in the dome and a 10 game winning streak since then that’s made NDSU the No. 1 team in Division I Football Bowl Subdivision rankings. That kind of success and the proximity of Fargo to Minneapolis means a lot of support in the dome on Saturday for the Bison. Vocal support for NDSU may exceed fan noise for the Gophers.
Brinkhaus knows that could happen. “It’s tough but at the same time you would rather have a full stadium with opposing fans than somewhere that’s maybe half full,” he said. “Because you know if we’re not going to sell it out with our own fans, then the money’s got to come from somewhere. So it’s just one of those things that I’ve been accustomed to the last couple years with Iowa and Wisconsin coming in here and now obviously NDSU fans are making a name for themselves too.”
A crowd of more than 60,000 will attend the game, the last in a two game series with North Dakota State.