Add to that, Cook is not one who uses social media platforms like Twitter or Instagram much. He prefers to keep that “outside noise” on the, well, outside. But inside, that ESPN coverage still seems to be burning this week.
“Obviously it’s motivation for me,” he said. “Everyone wants to see the Bison lose and that’s just a great feeling to me. When we go into an opposing stadium, they know that this is their national championship and this is an important game. I love to get everyone’s best game when we play them, it makes the season all that much more fun. It doesn’t bother me, I try to stay within my team and keep them working.”
The work this week is preparing for Missouri State, a 2 p.m. Saturday kickoff in Springfield, Mo., that all of a sudden has taken on another twist for the three-time defending FCS champions.
NDSU got beat in every phase in a 38-14 loss at Southern Illinois. That includes the offense, where the likes of high-powered weapons like receiver Christian Watson have been kept relatively quiet through two games. He has two receptions in NDSU’s 1-1 start to the Missouri Valley Football Conference season.
Watson was one of the explosive players in the 2019 FCS playoff run. He does have a 30-yard jet sweep to his credit, which helped put the game away against Youngstown State, but that’s been about it.
“It’s finding our flow,” Watson said. “There is no time to wait and find that flow, we needed to have found that flow a little earlier. But you can’t do anything about what’s happened already, all we can do is continue to work and continue to get better. We have to be better and we will be better.”
NDSU apparently will have to be better without starting receiver Phoenix Sproles, who remains sidelined rehabilitating a knee after injuring it last October against Central Arkansas. Sproles and Watson were one of the top 1-2 receiving punches in the Valley in 2019, particularly in the postseason.
“Just from a personal level with Phoenix, it’s tough not having him out there,” Watson said. “I wish I could have him out there because he’s one of my best friends, but from the aspect of the whole team, I know we have guys who are able to make plays.”
With Sproles and 6-6 sophomore Zach Mathis out, NDSU is turning to sophomore Braylon Henderson and freshmen Jake Lippe and RaJa Nelson.
“I have complete 100 percent faith in the other guys who need to step in when we have guys like Phoenix and Zach who are out right now,” Watson said. “It’s getting those young guys acclimated quickly and being able to fill that role Phoenix isn’t able to fill right now.”
Watson said he hasn’t necessarily noticed teams ganging up on him with double coverage. Certainly, Watson is drawing the other team’s best cornerback in single coverage.
“Even if they try to double me or heavily focus on me, we have plenty of other guys able to step up and not let them do that,” he said.
Watson burst on the scene nationally in the semifinal win over Montana State with two touchdowns in 20 seconds. One was a 75-yard touchdown catch; the other a 70-yard run. It was a sample of the speed of a 6-foot-3 receiver, who tore by the Bobcats’ secondary with ease.
Those explosive plays have been absent this spring.
NDSU’s longest pass play was 37 yards from quarterback Zeb Noland to Lippe, and that was a “Hail Mary” at the end of the first half against SIU. Against Youngstown, the longest pass play was 13 yards.
“I think I have a long way to go to be where I want to be at,” Watson said. “Every other person on the field expects a lot out of me, I expect a lot out of myself and I never want to let my teammates down so every opportunity I get I need to make the most of the opportunity. I need to continue to get better and go out there and make the plays I know I should make.”
Cook, who heard Watson talk about complacency, said “it was tough to see the ego blowing up on this team.”
“We needed a humbling experience like that to get back to where we need to be and working the way we need to be,” Cook said. “I’m just happy we had this happen to us in the regular season and not the playoffs because it would hurt more if the season was done.”
And he’ll be happy if he never gets another notification from ESPN on a Bison loss.
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March 03, 2021 at 05:00AM
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