MANHATTAN — North Dakota State believed all along, a belief that began not so long ago in Fargo, N.D., one that has produced back-to-back FCS national championships, putting the Bison on the college football map.
Supremely confident North Dakota State believed it could load up its talent cart, journey down through the Black Hills state, down through Nebraska and on into Kansas and knock off defending Big 12 champion Kansas State on Friday night at the “new-look” Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
Capped by a methodical, you-knew-it-was-coming, 18-play, 80-yard touchdown march that ate up a precious 8½ minutes, North Dakota State crashed the Wildcats’ season-opening festivities as quarterback Brock Jensen tumbled into the end zone from just inside the 1-yard line with 28 seconds remaining. It completed the comeback from a two-touchdown deficit for the Bison during a 24-21 triumph before 53,351 fans, the second-largest crowd in school history.
After picking off Kansas State quarterback Jake Waters’ last-ditch effort, the Bison ran the final seconds off the game clock and celebrated on the field before rushing over to a yellow-clad, southeast section to bask in the glow with the some-6,000 North Dakota State fans that trekked to the game.
“We have a remarkable program,” said Bison head coach Craig Bohl, a former longtime assistant at Nebraska. “We have a remarkable group of seniors and they have a tremendous amount of confidence. They are not cocky, they have a strong conviction, and we even talked about that during the course of being down by a couple possessions.
“It certainly doesn’t surprises us, but I just think it is just another notch. We’ve had a lot of these type of wins, but never over a program like this.”
North Dakota State has now won seven of its last 10 games against FBS teams.

• Dudzik grew up KSU fan — Perhaps no one was soaking in the moment like Bison punt returner and former Topekan Christian Dudzik, whose 49-yard return set up North Dakota State’s first points, a 5-yard scoring pass from Jensen to running back Ryan Smith, coming out of the backfield, for a momentum-seizing 7-0 lead after one period.
Kansas State was Dudzik’s team growing up.
Dudzik, who moved to Omaha, Neb., from Topeka before entering the fourth grade, used to wear a No. 7 Michael Bishop jersey to KSU Stadium as a youngster, watching Kansas State rise into one of the top programs in the nation. Bishop, a record-setting passing quarterback from Blinn Junior College in Brenham, Texas, led the Wildcats to the first No. 1 ranking in school history in 1998. Bishop finished No. 2 behind Texas running back Ricky Williams in the Heisman Trophy balloting that season.
“(I remember) the Locketts, both Aaron and Kevin, Michael Bishop, Michael Beasley, Ell Roberson, Darren Sproles, Darnell McDonald ... I could name tons of them.
“I had a Michael Bishop jersey that I got for Christmas. Even when I moved to Omaha, I came to camps here for three years.”

• Snyder only one mad? — Kansas State was coming off an 11-2 season, led by quarterback Collin Klein, the Big 12 Player of the Year and a Heisman finalist. Klein captivated the nation with his toughness by bull-dozing opponents with his running prowess and leading the Wildcats to a No. 1 ranking in the BCS standings before everything went south after a late-season loss at Baylor. Kansas State, which lost to Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl, has now lost three of its last four games since falling to Baylor.
Even though Kansas State has been decimated by graduation on the defensive side of the ball, where only two full-time starters return in linebacker Tre Walker and defensive back Ty Zimmerman, Snyder said he is concerned that his team as a whole didn’t act angry about losing to the Bison.
“I would like to see a whole bunch of mad guys, in all honesty,” Snyder said in his postgame conference. “I did not see any. That is concerning, that is for sure.”
Whether they were distracted in game preparation by the pageantry of the unveiling of Snyder’s statue and the west-side renovations is debatable, but the bottom line is Kansas State didn’t want it as much as the Bison did.
That’s the way Wildcats junior wide receiver/kick returner Tyler Lockett saw it. He finished with seven catches for 113 yards, including a 56-yard catch-and-run from Waters to give Kansas State a 14-7 lead with 13:59 remaining in the third quarter.
Of Kansas State’s 321 yards in total offense, Waters completed 21 of 29 passes for 280 yards, including six catches for 108 yards for wideout Tremaine Thompson, situated opposite Lockett. Thompson had its first touchdown on a 45-yard catch-and-run.
“It seemed like they wanted it more than us,” Lockett said of the Bison. “They were capitalizing on third down-and-3 and third-and-8 and all we needed was one more stop.”
Kansas State failed to plug the middle on defense, couldn’t defend on the corner, couldn’t defend slant passes and couldn’t wrap up when making a tackle, with Bison ball-carriers gaining additional yardage on several occasions.
The Wildcats’ woes weren’t isolated to their defense. They managed only 41 net rushing yards.
“Even our offense, we didn’t play our best game,” Lockett said. “We’ve still got to be able to know and learn how to fight through like we did last year when we faced adversity.
“We’re a running team. Not being able to run the ball, like we did last year and how we’ve been doing in practice, it really hurts because it makes you one-dimensional. We want to be able to be two-dimensional because the running game opens up the passing game.”
Lockett used virtually every word but mad when describing the mood of the team.
“You can say it’s disappointing, frustrating, angry ... there’s a lot of things that go through your head,” Lockett said. “It’s always how you respond. A lot of people took this loss as disappointed, some may be angry and some may be frustrated.
“Did we take it for granted? I don’t think we did. I just think we didn’t execute like we did in practice or last season.”

• Sams flashes speed — While Waters had his moments and struggles, getting picked off twice, Kansas State backup QB Daniel Sams showed promise by flashing 17 yards untouched for a touchdown the first time he ran the football. He easily looked like the fastest player on the field, but Waters took most of the snaps thereafter and at the end.
“Daniel Sams, that was poor coaching on our part,” Snyder said. “We put him in one play and he’s in the end zone.
“That falls back on us not utilizing him more.”

NOTES — Snyder’s 20-game winning streak in home openers was snapped. ... The game time temperature was 98 degrees, the second-hottest home opener since 2000 against Louisiana Tech (109). ... Former Kansas State head coach Jim Dickey, who guided the Wildcats to their first bowl game in 1982, where they played Wisconsin in the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La., took part in the coin flip. ... Kansas State entertains Louisiana-Lafayette, which fell to Arkansas 34-14, on Saturday, starting at 5:30 p.m.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Friday

At Manhattan
Bill Snyder Family Stadium

North Dakota State 24, Kansas State 21
North Dakota State    7    0    10    7 — 24
Kansas State              0    7    14    0 — 21

SCORING SUMMARY
First Quarter
NDSU—R.Smith 5 pass from Jensen (Keller kick), :56.
Second Quarter
KSU—T.Thompson 45 pass from Waters (Cantele kick), 10:13.
Third Quarter
KSU—Lockett 56 pass from Waters (Cantele kick), 13:59.
KSU—Sams 17 run (Cantele kick), 9:58.
NDSU—Vaadeland 9 pass from Jensen (Keller kick), 3:43.
NDSU—FG Keller 41, :12.
Fourth Quarter
NDSU—Jensen 1 run (Keller kick), :28.
A—53,351.

TEAM STATISTICS
                                NDSU    KSU
First downs                     19    17
Rushes-yards           43-215    23-41
Passing                        165    280
Comp-Att-Int          21-30-1    21-29-2
Return Yards                  49    11
Punts-Avg.               4-42.3    5-43.8
Fumbles-Lost                0-0    1-0
Penalties-Yards             1-5    2-10
Time of Possession    36:03    23:57

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—N. Dakota St., Ojuri 10-127, Crockett 16-50, R.Smith 2-16, Lang 1-14, Wahlo 1-5, Jensen 12-5, Team 1-(minus 2). Kansas St., Hubert 10-23, Sams 2-17, Waters 11-1.
PASSING—N. Dakota St., Jensen 21-30-1-165. Kansas St., Waters 21-29-2-280.
RECEIVING—N. Dakota St., R.Smith 8-72, Vraa 3-20, Bonnet 2-19, Gebhart 2-10, Lang 1-11, Vaadeland 1-9, Woods 1-8, Crockett 1-7, Ojuri 1-5, Wahlo 1-4. Kansas St., Lockett 7-113, T.Thompson 6-108, Cu.Sexton 4-35, Trujillo 1-9, Hubert 1-8, Miller 1-5, Gronkowski 1-2.