December 5th, 2024 6:30pm
For the second consecutive year, the Harding Bisons are representing the Great American Conference in the Super Region Three final. After defeating Grand Valley State a year ago, the Bisons now face No. 1 seed Ferris State on the road for the right to go to the semifinals.
Harding has played great the first two rounds of the playoffs, smothering both Pitt State and Grand Valley State, but the Bulldogs will be another animal (literally!) entirely. Ferris State annihilated Central Oklahoma last week, 78-17, piling up nearly 500 yards on the ground against the Bronchos. While we know that’s not going to happen against this elite Harding defense, the task will still be tall for the Bisons.
Let’s dig into this matchup and see who’s going to come out on top on Saturday.
The Bisons have rattled off five straight games of at least 400 yards rushing. That’ll be put to the test against a really good Bulldogs defense that gives up just 101.3 yards per game on the ground and 3.0 yards per carry. Here’s a wild stat for you: Ferris has given up just six rushing touchdowns all season. The Bisons have rushed for six touchdowns in a game seven times. So there's a whole lot of strength on strength going on here. When you look at the Bulldogs defensively, there’s no one who just jumps off the page statistically. It’s a very sound unit, racking up 82 tackles for loss and 23 sacks, but no one on the roster has more than eight TFLs or three sacks. That the Bulldogs have been able to do what they’ve been able to do this year without some big time star is really impressive. On the other side, the Bisons have been equally impressive with the stable of backs they have at their disposal. Two of them are 1,000-yard rushers and neither of them are last year’s leading rusher, Blake Delacruz. That’s pretty wild stuff to have three guys in your backfield who have rushed for 1,000 yards in a season before. That level of depth has allowed the Bisons to be more explosive this year than past years, and that’s really what makes this Harding team better than past iterations.
For Ferris State offensively, it all starts with quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, a junior who appeared in eight games a season ago. This year, he’s thrown for over 2400 yards with 20 touchdowns while rushing for 731 yards with 18 touchdowns. He leads the team in carries with 125, so he’s the catalyst for this balanced and explosive offense that averages nearly 500 yards and 45 points per game. He’s supplemented by Kannon Katzer, who leads the team with 790 yards rushing and an astonishing 8.7 yards per carry. At receiver, there’s a lot of talent with 12 guys catching a touchdown pass this year. Emari O’Brien leads the team with 37 receptions.
The last image we have of Ferris State is Bulldog after Bulldog running unscathed through the middle of the Central Oklahoma defense. I highly doubt we’re going to see that on Saturday. The Bisons have allowed a TOTAL of 169 yards on the ground the last four games, and that includes the two playoff games. Harding has allowed just three opponents to cross the century mark on the ground this year, so I’d expect things to be difficult for the Bulldogs to come anywhere close to their season average of 260 yards on the ground.
This one should be an outstanding game. It’s a bummer this is a national quarterfinal game and not the national championship. Curse you, regionalization. However, the Bulldogs fell to Pitt State in the season opener, 19-3, the same team Harding just smashed, 48-3. The end of the season wasn’t full of dominating performances, either, as the Bulldogs beat Saginaw Valley by three and Davenport, 24-9. The Bisons have obliterated everyone in their path this year, with the exception of the loss at Ouachita Baptist back in October. I think it’s worth saying that the farther we get away from that game, it’s clear the Tigers made that their Super Bowl, because it’s a complete outlier for Harding in every way.
I think the Bulldogs will definitely slow the Bisons down. I’d be surprised if Harding hit 40 points again this week. However, I don’t know how effective the Ferris State offense will be. There’s a pretty wide range in results this year for the Bulldogs, both in results and production. There’s no such range for the Bisons. I think we’ll have a close one in Michigan, but it’s the defending champs who march on.
Harding 31, Ferris State 17