North Dakota at Nicholls
Nicholls comes into the playoffs on a four game winning streak. In doing so, they also snagged the Southland Conference’s automatic berth in the playoffs. Overall they sit at 8-4, but two of those losses came to FBS programs, Kansas State and Texas State. The offense is led by senior quarterback Chase Fourcade. 2019 has been a little more difficult this time around as his TD/INT ratio is 15/10. Part of that may be that he has only one receiver averaging over five catches per game, Dai’Jean Dixon. However, Dixon has picked up his production lately. The running game is a split venture between sophomore running back Julien Gums and Fourcade, himself. Total, they’ve combined for 27 rushing touchdowns. The defense is generally porous, ranking 83rd nationally in total yardage and 67th in scoring (28.2 ppg).
North Dakota comes into the playoffs playing only an eleven game schedule. They’ve won four of their last five, the one loss a close 30-27 effort at Weber State. Quarterback Nate Ketteringham is generally effective, but has the occasional game with multiple interceptions. He shoulders most of the offense but James Johannesson will chip in taking the rock also. The receiving corps is good with Noah Wanzek and Garett Maag leading the way. Defensively their numbers almost match identically to the offense in both scoring and yardage.
This is an interesting match-up of two pretty hot teams. Going into the final weekend, neither was a lock to make the field but both won and the rest is history. Generally speaking each team scores and allows right around four touchdowns per game, so you can figure on this one being higher scoring.
Prediction: North Dakota 35, Nicholls 28
