DIVISION I FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: MONTANA ST. VS NORTH DAKOTA ST.

January 8, 2022

Matt Entz

North Dakota St. Bison

Postgame Media Conference

North Dakota State 38, Montana State 10

MATT ENTZ: You know, all the credit goes to our coaching staff, to our administration, President Bresciani, Matt Larson. Our players did an unbelievable job over the course of the last year, I should say, but most importantly the last three weeks, of just getting locked into the details, coming ready to work every day, and enjoying one another.

I think that's the thing that I get most excited about when I think about this group of kids.

That was a good win. That was a good football team on the other sideline. Brent does a great job. You can tell his impact in that program.

It was going to be hard to beat the Bison today, especially when you have guys like Cordell Volson, Jackson Hankey, Hunter Luepke; Cam Miller continues to get better. My message to him today was, Be the best Cam Miller you can be.

So many people want to know who's going to be the next Carson Wentz or Trey Lance or Easton Stick. I need Cam Miller to be the best Cam Miller he can be; same with Quincy Patterson. And those two young men, the way they share the room, the way they work together, along with Coach Hedberg is unbelievable, and I think it shows the servant leadership and the Bison pride that fills our program.

With that, I'll open it up if there's any questions.

Q. Coach, just start with Hunter Luepke's first touchdown. Looks like he kind of went into the contact when he probably could have gone into the end zone. Is it a tone setter when you have a guy that runs as physical as Hunter does?

MATT ENTZ: Of course it is. I think it's a tone setter when you have five offensive linemen, you've got your crew chiefs, your tight ends. I know it's intangible and you can't measure it, but we want to lead the country in physicality. When you have a back like that, it sure helps.

Q. When did you get a sense that this game was really going in your direction?

MATT ENTZ: Well, I mean, probably at halftime you felt -- when you're able to score 28 in the first half.

But I don't know if I ever felt comfortable. Maybe when the PowerAde came over my shoulders, that might have been when I started to feel comfortable.

I wanted to see us finish, and that's what we talk about here is putting complete games together. I thought our kids came out with great energy. We challenged them to start fast, cut it loose, and I think you saw that early in the game when we were able to have some success early.

Q. Coach, even with the change at quarterback for MSU, Lance McCutcheon, their receiver, 86, still found a fair amount of room to operate and make an impact. What did you see from him?

MATT ENTZ: Well, he's a big, long kid, creates separation with his size; a couple 50/50 balls he was able to go up and get. We knew that was one of their things if they saw press coverage they were going to check to the fade.

They got a couple on us and I'm sure we'll get to the film at some point and go back. I wish we could have those plays back, but they've got good players on that team.

Q. Every season is different and you can never judge it the same way. For you, now that the title is secured, what can you define this team for this season?

MATT ENTZ: Well, you know, I spoke to someone earlier today, the common word that came up before we walked out for the game from our captains and from our seniors was the word "love." I think these kids appreciate one another. They appreciate the energy. They appreciate the hard work.

It's all about their teammates. This isn't a spotlight program. You're not coming here to be the guy and to have gaudy stats. You're coming here to win and hopefully win championships and get a degree.

So I think just the camaraderie that this group had, we've had practicing football for a year, so it is a unique group. They've probably practiced 200 days in the last year, and we've spent a lot of time with them as coaches. They've spent a lot of time with us and our families.

I think that closeness and that tight knit-ness that we've created helped us get to where we are today.

Q. Describe the field conditions today.

MATT ENTZ: Oh, it was a little wet, but it was the same for both teams. Mother Nature wanted to get involved, and she did. We had to change some things a little bit. I know up front we were losing our feet with our D-line a little bit at different times, so we probably went to more power rush versus trying to take edges and just do a better job of keeping the quarterback in the pocket.

But like I said, I don't think the field conditions had any impact truly on the outcome of the game.

Q. Talk about your game plan kind of changed because I've never seen you guys run the ball a lot, like an option type format. Is that something you guys decided to do just to kill clock?

MATT ENTZ: Well, it's just one of those things that we've probably had in the playbook and wanted to take advantage of. We knew late in the game that we wanted to run the football and start using that clock up and trying to put this game away.

I mean, I think it was just -- when you have three weeks you want to bring out some things that maybe you haven't shown during the regular season.

Q. You guys are so consistently excellent on the offensive line, and you guys dominated one of the best defensive fronts in the country today. How important was that today, but also how do you maintain so much consistent domination in that element of the game?

MATT ENTZ: Well, winning the line of scrimmage is critical for us in every game, and that's one of our emphases that we have going into every game. We have to, again, lead the country in physicality, and we're going to do that with our O-line and D-line.

We've got great depth in those two position groups. I think we're probably one of the few teams in the country that celebrates O-linemen. O-linemen are cult heros in Fargo, North Dakota. Cordell, everyone knows who 67 is. We celebrate those guys. We lean on those guys.

I've said it a hundred times and I'll keep saying it: This program is built on our O-line and good defense, and if we can do those two things, we have an opportunity to win every game.

Q. Christian Watson seemed to make some big catches early on to jump start your first two drives. His impact, and what does it mean to win a ninth championship as a program, FCS championship?

MATT ENTZ: Well, Christian, deep-ball threat. We tried to run the double post early with him; thought we were going to get it to Babicz because we had the safety fall off it because he saw Christian down the field.

But he did, he had four targets, four catches. They were all big. I think one of them was a 3rd down catch that was critical later in the game.

But just having Christian, he brings leadership. He's played a lot of football for us. He brings energy. He's been a -- it's been wonderful having him and his family associated with this program.

To win a ninth championship, I kind of like what we did with our hype video. This was the first championship for this team. Don't get caught up too much in the numbers. But I am super excited for this group of young men and the fact that they were able to end this season in championship format.

Q. What continues to make Luepke so dominant when he's running the ball?

MATT ENTZ: Big, strong, physical kid. He runs with it behind his pads. He's got the best offensive line in front of him in the country. He's got the best coaching staff on the offensive side of the ball, and he's got the best strength coach in the country. You add all those things up, it makes for good players.

Q. Along the same lines as the offensive line, I wonder if there's one matchup in the interior especially that really stood out? And then if this game -- what reminded you most about the 2019 game?

MATT ENTZ: You know, I don't know if anything reminded me of the 2019 game. This was this year's game. I enjoyed every moment of it just being out there and seeing these guys compete at the highest level.

I apologize, I've got a bunch of knuckleheads to my left here bothering me right now.

It was fun to see these guys, all their work and all their effort come full circle, and they earned this today.

Q. Coach, final comments on a ninth National Championship in 11 years.

MATT ENTZ: There's too many people for me to think of right now that I need to thank. I know President Bresciani is here, Matt Larson, my family, our players. We've got some kickass kids on this football team. Excuse my language, but they know what I think of them, and what an amazing finish to what was an unbelievable year.