After a pair of back-to-back disappointing 3-8 seasons in 2013 and 2014, the Bemidji State football team has finally returned to its usual winning ways.
With six wins on the season, the Beavers have already secured a winning season for the first time since going 7-4 in 2012. It’s quite the accomplishment for the Beavers - especially since they started the season 0-3.
But head coach Jeff Tesch said his team still has something to play for - an Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference North Division title. And although the Beavers don’t still control their own destiny, winning a share of the division championship is still very much in play when they take on Northern State at 1 p.m. Saturday at Clark Swisher Field in Aberdeen, S.D.
And Tesch said after the Beavers (6-4, 5-1 NSIC North) won six games in a row it might be good for the Beavers to play their final game following a loss.
“It would mean a lot, especially starting out 0-3,” Tesch said. “Maybe this group’s better with their back against the wall and a little adversity. They seem to just respond well to those things. That’s the goal and I think that would be a great accomplishment, especially the way we started.”
Like the Beavers, the Wolves (6-4, 6-0 NSIC North) also struggled to start the season. They lost their first four games - all cross-division games - before reeling off six straight in North Division play. Their marquee win was two weeks ago, a 23-15 victory over the same Minnesota Duluth team that beat BSU last Saturday.
Tesch has noted some similarities between the Wolves and his Beaver squad - namely, a strong defense. The Wolves’ scoring defense has given up just 20 more points than the Beavers have.
BSU has given up just 21 points in their last two games.
“”We have the same records and their defense has been a little bit like ours,” Tesch said. “They bend here and there, and then all of sudden they’re getting turnovers, a very opportunistic type of team. Offensively, they started to click more and more as the year goes.... They’re very similar in a lot of ways and they’re peaking at the end of the season, too.”
Northern State lost star quarterback Jared Jacobson to graduation last season, but his replacement, freshman Kyle Lavand, has been a decent replacement. He’s completed 165 of 285 passes for 1,819, 18 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
Overall, NSU’s total offense is about the same as BSU’s - middle-of-the-pack for the conference, but not terrible.
The Beavers were held to nine points last week against Minnesota Duluth.
“It was one of those gut-wrenching ones where you played well enough, especially defensively, to win,” Tesch said. “If we would have had the ball a little bit more offensively we could have put some more points up.”
If the Beavers want to be successful in Saturday's finale, they’ll have to avoid turnovers - especially interceptions. BSU is 0-4 when quarterback Jordan Hein throws an interception and 6-0 when he doesn’t (in all Hein has thrown four interceptions on the year - one in each game they’ve lost).
Either way, Tesch is glad that the season has ended this way after the way it looked way back in September.
“I’m proud of the guys,” he said. “(Winning) is kind of what we were used to, what we expected, what we were hoping would happen again.”
