As the 2025 FCS offseason marches on, HERO Sports will look at five questions for the 2024 quarterfinalists.
First up is North Dakota State.
NDSU finished 14-2 last year, beating Montana State 35-32 to win its 10th FCS national championship. Here are five questions for the Bison entering 2025.
Is There A Quarterback Battle?
Cam Miller continued NDSU’s strong lineage of quarterbacks. He’ll be the fifth-straight full-time Bison starting QB to get a shot in the NFL, following Brock Jensen, Carson Wentz, Easton Stick, and Trey Lance, three of which were draft picks.
The Bison now face a rare question in their decade+ of dominance: Who will the starting QB be?
It seems it is fifth-year senior Cole Payton’s job to lose. Payton has been used as a running threat for multiple seasons, rushing 151 times in 39 games for 1,141 yards and 18 touchdowns. He had 615 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns in 2023 and was then limited to eight games in 2024 after suffering a torn labrum in his right shoulder.
Payton is a left-hander who was a highly-touted recruit out of Omaha and who some Bison fans were calling for during Miller’s early-career up-and-down performances. The question surrounding him is how good of a passer is he, and how well can he process a defense presnap and postsnap. He may be very, very good at those under the tutelage of Miller and QBs coach Randy Hedberg, but we won’t know for sure until live action hits. In Payton’s NDSU career, he has gone 37/58 passing for 469 yards, five touchdowns, and two interceptions.
Nathan Hayes, a fourth-year junior, could also push for the starting job. He showed flashes late in blowout games last season, and hype is starting to build around his potential.
Who Is The Next QBs Coach?
Speaking of Hedberg, the quarterbacks coach recently announced his retirement after a 45-year college football coaching career.
He arrived at NDSU in 2014 and has done nothing but send four straight QBs to the NFL: Carson Wentz (1st round), Easton Stick (5th round), Trey Lance (1st round), and Cam Miller (potential/likely 2025 draft pick). Those are massive shoes to fill on the coaching staff.
A natural replacement would be NDSU offensive coordinator Jake Landry, who currently coaches the running backs. Landry has spent most of his coaching career coaching quarterbacks and was previously the QBs coach at FCS member St. Thomas. He played quarterback at UND from 2007-2010 and was a two-year starter.
Who Takes Over At The Offensive Tackle Spots?
Just as impressive as NDSU sending QBs to the NFL is the offensive line pipeline to the pros, especially at the offensive tackle position. Just about every starting tackle has gotten a shot in the NFL going back to 2011: Paul Cornick, Billy Turner, Joe Haeg, Zack Johnson, Dillon Radunz, Cordell Volson, Cody Mauch, Jalen Sundell, and Grey Zabel.
Mauch, Volson, Radunz, Haeg, and Turner were all drafted in rounds 2-5, and Zabel will very likely add to that list.
Zabel (6’6″ 305 lbs) and Mason Miller (6’7″ 305 lbs) starred at the tackle spots for NDSU in 2024. Replacing them will be a tough task, although the Bison continue to reload at that position. NDSU also has a third starting spot open at the guard position.
Who Grabs The Middle Linebacker Spot?
NDSU wasn’t quite as dominant at the middle linebacker position in recent years, but they got great performances in big games from Luke Weerts and Nick Kubitz, who split time there for the last three seasons.
The sixth-year seniors are now out of eligibility after playing a combined 131 games.
NDSU has solid experience coming back at outside linebacker, led by Enock Sibomana and Logan Kopp. The Bison will need someone to step up into the MLB spot.
Is Any Transfer Portal Help Necessary?
NDSU has key losses to graduation, but it’ll return an overall experienced team in 2025.
Offensively, NDSU returns two starters on the o-line, its top two rushers (Jerry Rice Award winner CharMar Brown and Barika Kpeenu), and its top two receivers (All-American Bryce Lance and Chris Harris).
Defensively, NDSU returns nine of its top 15 players in snaps.
There will be a lot of talent available in the spring transfer portal window as FBS teams cut their rosters from 120-ish players to 105 due to the House settlement. How many of those lower-tier FBS players are good enough to be impact players at the FCS level will be a mixed bag. But FCS teams will have plenty of guys to evaluate and try to land some diamonds in the rough. There are plenty of examples of FBS players not getting on the field and then starring at the FCS level. Sometimes they just need a chance in the FCS, whereas their path to playing time in the FBS was blocked.
With that said, how much portal help does NDSU need with the experience returning? The Bison may try to upgrade the talent in the secondary, which was inconsistent in 2024 but brings back a lot of snaps. They already landed two FBS transfer defensive backs: Air Force’s Jaylen Archibald and Texas Tech’s Jalon Peoples. NDSU may also look to land an impact pass-rusher on the edge and a tight end.
Player retention has been strong for NDSU this offseason, helped by its healthy NIL collective. It didn’t lose one player to the portal after its national championship win. That allows the Bison coaches to be choosy in who they bring in via the transfer portal.
