2008 North Dakota Fighting Sioux football team

2008 North Dakota Fighting Sioux football
Conference	Great West Conference
2008 record	6–4 (1–2 Great West)
Head coach	Chris Mussman (1st year)
Home stadium	Alerus Center (Capacity: 12,283)

2008 Great West football standings
	Conf				Overall
Team		W		L		W		L
#10 Cal Poly $^		3	–	0		8	–	3
UC Davis		2	–	1		5	–	7
North Dakota		1	–	2		6	–	4
South Dakota		1	–	2		6	–	5
Southern Utah		1	–	3		4	–	7

$ – Conference champion ^ – FCS playoff participant Rankings from The Sports Network FCS Poll

The following are the events of the season for the 2008 North Dakota Fighting Sioux Football Team.

The season was the first in which the team jumped from Division 2 and competed in the Division 1 Great West conference. UND faced many challenges in the season with the biggest being new coach Chris Mussman as Dale Lennon left to go coach at Southern Illinois. UND also had to replace their leading rusher Ryan Chappell as he was suspended for academic reasons.

The Sioux started out with four straight wins including their first win over a FCS opponent as they held on to beat the Idaho St. Tigers 38 to 35. The Sioux then went down to face Southeast Louisiana. The Sioux would fight back from down 38 to 21. The comeback was almost completed but kicker Brandon Hellavang missed a 49-yard field goal as time expired. Brady Trenbeath also had 201 yards receiving for the Sioux. After two weeks off the Sioux had a home game against the Western Washington Vikings.

The Sioux went on to win 42 to 32 but the story was Sophomore running back Jash Murray securing the starting job as he rumbled for 223 yards and two scores. The following week the Sioux went to the UC Davis Aggies in their conference opener. The Sioux got blown out but found a positive as true freshman Ismael Bamba showed his speed as he scored on a fifty-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Danny Freund.

After a blow out loss to Dale Lennon's Southern Illinois Salukis UND had the home finale against the Southern Utah Thunderbirds. After UND took a 14 to 0 lead at halftime the Thunderbird came within five. With just over a minute left Southern Utah scored on a sixteen-yard score and won the game 15 to 14. In the final game of the season the Sioux took on the South Dakota Coyotes, another transition team. In the final game of the season the game was tied at halftime at 17. The Sioux took a thirty-one to seventeen lead with eight minutes left. The Coyotes fought back and tied the game with over a minute left to send it into overtime. After a UND stop the Sioux would end the season as Hellevang kicked the ball right through the uprights from 33 yards out to give UND a six and four record.

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent^#	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
August 28	7:00 PM	Texas A&M-Kingsville*	Alerus Center • Grand Forks, ND		W 40–14	11,434
September 6	1:00 PM	St. Cloud State*	Alerus Center • Grand Forks, ND		W 17–2	9,143
September 13	1:00 PM	UW-LaCrosse*	Alerus Center • Grand Forks, ND (Potato Bowl)		W 7–3	10,256
September 18	7:30 PM	at Idaho State*	Holt Arena • Pocatello, ID		W 38–35	5,970
September 27	6:00 PM	at SE Louisiana*	Strawberry Stadium • Hammond, LA		L 35–38	5,216
October 18	1:00 PM	Western Washington*	Alerus Center • Grand Forks, ND	FS-North	W 42–32	12,164
October 25	8:00 PM	at UC Davis	Aggie Stadium • Davis, CA		L 21–34	8,876
November 1	2:00 PM	at #11 Southern Illinois*	McAndrew Stadium • Carbondale, IL		L 21–40	8,082
November 8	7:00 PM	Southern Utah	Alerus Center • Grand Forks, ND		L 14–15	7,840
November 22	12:00 PM	at South Dakota	DakotaDome • Vermillion, SD	MC23	W 34–31 ^OT	7,885
*Non-conference game. Homecoming. ^#Rankings from The Sports Network FCS poll. All times are in Central Time Zone.

Leaders

Passing	Att	Com	Yds	TD	Int
Danny Freund	220	315	2407	23	7
Jake Landry	3	4	77	1	0

Rushing	Att	Yds	TD
Josh Murray	188	1212	12
Brandon Brady	56	233	3
Catlin Solum	29	127	1

Receiving	Rec.	Yds	TD
Brady Trenbeath	85	1001	10
Alex Nicholas	39	444	6
Ismael Bamba	21	310	3
Josh Murray	21	187	0

References

^[1]
^[2]

↑ "North Dakota - Cumulative Season Statistics". Archived from the original on 2009-08-11. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
↑ "Search Results for "undathletics.com"". Archived from the original on 2009-08-11. Retrieved 2009-08-09.

North Dakota Fighting Hawks football

Venues	Memorial Stadium (1927–2000) Alerus Center (2001–present)

Bowls & rivalries	Nickel Trophy (North Dakota State) Sitting Bull Trophy (South Dakota)

Culture & lore	"Fight On Sioux" "It's for You, North Dakota U" Pride of the North

People	Head coaches

Seasons	1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

National championship seasons in bold

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