Bison Video Blog: Matching up with the Miners

The Forum's Jeff Kolpack and WDAY-TV's Dom Izzo look ahead to Saturday's game between North Dakota State and the University of Texas at El Paso.WDAY Sports By Dom Izzo Today at 3:57 PM Listen Comments Share Share this article News Reporting News Reporting Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. The Trust Project What is this? North Dakota State football will play its penultimate home game Saturday, when they host the University of Texas at El Paso, one of the other new members of the Mountain West Conference.The Miners enter the game with a 1-6 record, coming off a bye week. UTEP's lone win came against Texas Southern, an FCS team. The Miners have played one of the toughest schedules in the country, facing Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon State and New Mexico so far this year. They have been dominated in conference play, being outscored 115-31 in three losses to the Lobos, Nevada and San Jose State. ADVERTISEMENT UTEP is led by Scotty Walden, in his third year as head coach. Walden came to El Paso after spending four years at Austin Peay in the Ohio Valley Conference. Walden led the Governors to the FCS Playoffs during his tenure and helped Austin Peay schedule NDSU in a non-conference game that was supposed to take place this season, before NDSU moved to the FBS. The Bison enter at 6-2 and 3-2 in league play. NDSU may be without starting quarterback Nathan Hayes this week, who was described as questionable by head coach Tim Polasek earlier this week as Hayes deals with an ankle sprain.The Forum's Jeff Kolpack and WDAY-TV's Dom Izzo preview the matchup and what's ahead this weekend in the Mountain West. READ MORE BY DOM IZZO It's bowl projection season: Looking at Bison's potential postseason spots 1d ago Izzo's Insights: ESPN's College GameDay "100 percent" would have been in Albuquerque had Bison not lost 4d ago The Illinois Boys: Hayes and McCaslin go from high school to Bison teammates 4d ago Comments Share Share this article