BSU Football to Lean on Experience in NCAA Playoffs

Bemidji State football is headed back to the Lone Star State for the NCAA playoffs, this time in the first round.

Last year, the Beavers’ season ended in Texas at San Angelo State. This year, they will be taking on UT Permian Basin, a program they’ve never played that’s making its first playoff appearance.

BSU is on its third straight appearance, winning in the first round the previous two seasons before falling in the round of 16. The Beavs are confident that experience will aid them on Saturday.

“Being out for the third time’s going to be a lot easier for us to kind of see the goal in mind and stay on the path,” said senior offensive lineman Ty Cobb. “We have to treat it like a business trip, we have to go down there and not treat it like a vacation, not have to gawk at the new city and new state that a lot of guys who – we have a few guys on the line who haven’t flew before, so we gotta keep those guys under our wings and make sure they’re ready for the task at hand.”

“We understand the travel, we understand logistics, and at the end of the day we’re going to go play a college football game,” said head coach Brent Bolte, “and that’s what we gotta keep in mind and go just play, relax, and loose, and go have fun, and I think that experience, doing it in the past and winning before, certainly gets our guys more confident as we look at it.”

BSU and UTPB will play at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 18.