Beaver Fever Friday – Sage Booker – Football

No. 15/9 Beavers return home to host Concordia-St. Paul this Saturday at the Chet

Beavers play first home game since end of September against Minnesota State

The No. 15/9 Bemidji State University Football team returns home for the first time since the end of September to welcome Concordia-St. Paul to Chet Anderson Stadium this Saturday for a 1 p.m. kickoff in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play.

Bemidji State (5-1, 5-1 NSIC) piled up over 30 points for the fifth time this season in claiming the 33-23 road win at Wayne State. The Beavers took their first two drives of the game right down the field for a 14-0 lead. The defense limited Wayne State several times in the red zone to three field goals, one touchdown and a turnover on downs. Brandon Alt threw for 345 yards and three touchdowns, with Dhel Duncan-Busby having a big game with seven catches for 108 yards and two touchdowns.

The top four teams in the NSIC standings remain tight entering this week. Augustana and Minnesota State are both 7-0 overall and 6-0 in NSIC play. Bemidji State is tied with Minnesota Duluth at 5-1 in NSIC play. Wayne State is fifth at 4-2. One of the undefeated teams will fall this week as Minnesota State travels to Sioux Falls to face Augustana.

BSU leads the NSIC in third down conversion percentage allowed on defense (.324) and in fourth down conversion percentage (.667). Bemidji State is 36th nationally in third down conversion percentage and 15th in fourth down conversion percentage. BSU leads the conference in first down allowed on defense (104), to rank 26th nationally. The Beavers are first and 10th nationally in punt return yards allowed (1.0), first and 24th in red zone offense (.893) and first and sixth in team tackles for loss per game (9.5). BSU ranks in the top 25 nationally in fewest penalties (31), 13th nationally, kick return defense (15.0), 14th nationally, kickoff return yards per game (23.22), 24th nationally, passes intercepted (10), 20th nationally, passing offense (278.7), 11th nationally, red zone defense (.619), 13th nationally, sacks allowed per game (1.0), 21st nationally, scoring defense (16.2), 20th nationally, team sacks per game (3.33), eighth nationally, total offense per game (428.2), 25th nationally, turnover margin (.0), 22nd nationally and in turnovers gained (15), 23rd nationally.

Individually, Alt ranks 24th nationally in completions per game (18.50), 20th in passing touchdowns (15), 17th in passing yards per game (258), and 24th in total offense per game (270.7). Marko Jovisic is 26th nationally in field goals per game (1.0) and 28th in field goal percentage (.750). De’vonta’ Roberts leads the NSIC and is 11th nationally in kickoff return yards per game (28.2). Princeten Harris leads the NSIC and is 33rd nationally in passes defended per game (1.2). Duncan-Busby leads the NSIC and is third nationally in receiving touchdowns (9), 20th in scoring per game (9.0), and 25th in total touchdowns. Marcus Hansen leads the NSIC and is fourth nationally in tackles for loss per game (2.2), and is 16th nationally in sacks per game (0.92).

Alt eclipsed 10,000 career passing yards at Wayne State. He enters the game this week with 10,197 career passing yards. Over the past 32 games, Alt has thrown for 99 touchdowns and has 109 for his career.

The defense has 20 sacks and 10 interceptions on the season. Although the defense didn’t record a sack the past two games, the Beavers have at least four sacks in the other four games. The defense did tally two interceptions to record multiple INT for the fourth game this year. Caleb Young returned a pass 63 yards for a touchdown against Wayne State. The Beavers have returned 10 interceptions for 225 yards this season.

Alt has completed 111-195 for 1,548 yards and 15 touchdowns to just four interceptions this season. Sam McGath adds 9-15 for 124 yards and three touchdowns.

On the ground, Ali Mohamed leads the team with 70 carries for 319 yards and five touchdowns. Sage Booker adds 43 carries for 218 yards and three scores. Jarrett Gronski adds 117 yards on 34 carries and a TD, while McGath has the other rushing touchdown on 14 attempts and 109 yards.

Duncan-Busby has caught 28 passes for 443 yards and nine touchdowns. Jake Hill and Brice Peters are both over 200 receiving yards with Hill hauling in 17 passes for 251 yards and Peters with 16 catches for 216 yards and a touchdown. Joey Baron, Booker and Mike Wandmaker all have two receiving touchdowns this season.

On defense, Max Buduris leads the team with 33 tackles (27 solo), along with five tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks and four pass breakups. Jarrett Klein is second on the team with 28 tackles (18 solo), 1.5 tackles for loss, an interceptions and a forced fumble. Spencer Wehr (27 tackles), Hansen (25), Stephen Hoffman (24), Cole Sorby (21) and Young (20) all have at least 20 tackles. Hansen has 13 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks. Hoffman adds six tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks. Harris and Jamel Stone lead the team with two interceptions apiece, while Harris, Buduris and Savon Cameron all have four passes defended to lead the team.

Bemidji State is 11-8 in the series against Concordia-St. Paul since 1999 and have won the last two meetings. BSU is 7-2 at home in the series. Last year, the Beavers dominated in the 44-0 matchup in Bemidji. Over the last two games, Bemidji State has outscored CSP 86-14.

Brent Bolte stands alone in second in program history for wins by a head coach with 57. His .740 winning percentage is the best all-time and he is second in program history for conference wins at 54

Bemidji State had just their second home loss over the past two seasons, both against Minnesota State. Bolte is 28-9 during his time as head coach at home

Bemidji State enters this week ranked No. 15 in the AFCA Poll and No. 9 in the D2Football.com Poll. The Beavers opened the season ranked eighth in the Lindy’s College Football Preseason Poll

BSU leads or is tied for the NSIC lead in 6 categories following week seven

In 77 games under Bolte, BSU has scored less than 20 points just seven times, which occurred once last year

Forty-five of Bolte’s wins have come when scoring at least 30 points, which has happened in five games this season

Bemidji State is 13-3 on the road over the past two-plus seasons and Bolte is 29-11 away from Bemidji

BSU has allowed 14 or less points in four of six games this season and has won by at least 20 points in four of the five victories. Twice the Beavers have won by over 30 points

Bolte is 3-1 against Concordia-St. Paul and 2-0 at home. The Beavers have won those three meetings by an average of 36.3 points outscoring the Golden Bears 140-31. The only game in the series of those four that CSP won was in 2019 in St. Paul coming away with the 24-23 overtime victory.

Bemidji State picked up their 400th program victory at Wayne State last week

Including his time as an assistant, Bolte is 165-88 with the Beavers

The defense didn’t allow any team to rush for over 200 yards last year and seven times held teams under 100 rushing yards. So far in 2023, the Beavers have limited four teams to under 100 rushing yards and only one team to rush for over 200 yards

When BSU leads at the half, they hold a 22-0 record in the last two-plus seasons. The only loss this season against Minnesota State was the only time trailing at the break

BSU has continued to dominate in the red zone to start the 2023 season. The Beavers have scored on 25 of 27 chances so far this season for 147 points. The drives have ended with 19 touchdowns and six field goals

On the flip side of that, the defense has allowed just 21 trips inside the 20 and 13 scores for 63 total points. The last home game against Minnesota State, the Mavericks were inside the 20 six times, but only scored on three drives. Last week at Wayne State, the Wildcats scored on four of five drives, but three of those drives resulted in field goals. The Beavers also held a goal line stand to turn the ball over on downs

The defense forced four interceptions in week one, which is the most in a game since tallying four against Minnesota Crookston during the 2019 season. BSU added two more in week three, five and seven for 10 on the season to rank second in the NSIC and 20th nationally

Six times last year Bemidji State tallied at least four sacks in a game. The high was nine against MSU Moorhead on Oct. 15, 2022.This season the defense continues to post high sack numbers. Four times this season the Beavers have at least a sack and have 20 on the season to rank second in the NSIC and eighth nationally

For the sixth time this season, Bemidji State had more passing than rushing yards. Dating back to the 2019 season, Bemidji State has now gone 32 straight games throwing for more yards than rushing. Five times during the 2019 season the Beavers had more rushing than passing yards.

Bemidji State ranked in the top-25 nationally last year in passing offense (4th), red zone defense (13th), rushing defense (22nd), sacks allowed (5th), scoring defense (25th), scoring offense (11th), team passing efficiency (10th), team passing efficiency defense (22nd), team sacks (9th) and total offense (10th)