Days counting down until 2023 FCS Championship

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - Back from a winter break, both North Dakota State and South Dakota State are buckling down and finalizing their game plans for one another.

Both teams say that not only facing each other earlier in the year, but having a strong rivalry between the two will make this a special FCS Championship game. But that comes with different hurdles to overcome when getting prepared.

For SDSU, Head Coach John Stiegelmeier says having to get ready again for NDSU with plenty of time to do so can be tough because they give themselves too much time to think. For NDSU, the loss earlier in the year presents a number of shortcomings to overcome with their gameplan, not wanting to fall into the same mistakes back in October.

“Coaches normally get essentially three days to put in a game plan, and to have three weeks is scary, honestly. So I wanted our players to get out of here and forget football. I wanted our coaches to get out of here, and forget about football. I got out of here and forgot about football.” Stiegelmeier said.

“So if you can’t win on the perimeter, it gets difficult to be able to run the football. They force you to become one dimensional. We’re going to have to find ways on the perimeter, out of the backfield, whatever it might be to win some one-on-one matchups at different times.” NDSU Head Coach Matt Entz said.

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