UNI football visits North Dakota State with first place in MVFC on the line

CEDAR FALLS - No matter the circumstances, whenever Northern Iowa (4-3, 3-1) and North Dakota State (7-0, 4-0) get together on the football field, it's one of FCS football's greatest rivalry games.

However, Saturday's 2:30 p.m. matchup in Fargo, N.D., provides more intrigue than it has in recent history. After back-to-back wins over top-10 ranked conference opponents, a win would put the Panthers atop the Missiouri Valley Football Conference - something that UNI head coach Mark Farley said he hasn't really thought about.

'No, I never thought of (this game) like that,” Farley said. 'It's great for the players. It's part of being at UNI. They're getting the true sense of what it's like to be at UNI right now. They've held up well, but their biggest test is yet to come.”

North Dakota State does represent, arguably, the biggest test for any FCS program. The Bison come into Saturday's game with the No. 4 rushing offense in the FCS, its No. 1 defense and a plus-11 turnover margin.

'Their system is pretty consistent every year,” Farley said. 'Their secondary does a nice job of fitting the gaps they're responsible for and they always do a nice job with their fronts. So, schematically they've always been sound. Like I said, they've got really good football players with a really good system.”

Eli Dunne and the UNI offense will be challenged by something their own defense has had success with in harassing opponents the past two weeks: a multiple-front defense devised to confuse offenses. It may seem obvious, but in a game where the margin for error is so small, whichever team is able to stay in favorable down-and-distances will provide itself the freedom to make its best calls both offensively and defensively - something that becomes paramount when two teams like this clash.

'I think we have to force them to do something they're not comfortable doing,” UNI defensive coordinator Jeremiah Johnson said. 'If we can get them out of two-back (personnel), or if we can get them out of their pair (personnel), ultimately if we can get them to play left-handed, then I think that's going to help us.”

These two teams know each other perhaps better than any other pair of opponents in the FCS. The familiarity goes beyond the football field, given the fact NDSU's staff has three coaches that previously coached at UNI. Head coach Chris Klieman, defensive coordinator Matt Entz and first-year offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham will be part of a Bison staff that's aiming for its 100th win this decade (99-12 since 2010).

'Everybody tries to (make them play left-handed). Nobody's been able to do that to them,” Johnson said. 'So I don't know if we'll be able to, either, but what I do know is if our kids run and they play fast and we can execute and fit where we need to fit in the run, you know, where we need to fit in the run - they might leak for three (yards), it might leak for five (yards) - as long as we can keep them from getting chunk plays in the run game and chunk plays in the pass game, then ultimately I think we'll have a chance to be successful.”