-9999
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. CRAMER. Mr. President, I thank Senator Hoeven. I just want to fully associate myself with every word of Senator Hoeven and every thought you just heard. John Hoeven is not just a Senator who represents the State that the Bison play in; he is a fan. To say the least, he is a fan.
Senator Hoeven did a great job, as have ESPN and everybody else, in highlighting the legacy of the Bison Nation. There has been 9 out of 11 national championships.
One of the things I really appreciate about Coach Matt Entz--who, by the way, was named this year again the FCS Coach of the Year. That is the second FCS National Coach of the Year in the last 3 years. He has been the coach for 3 years.
But, as he likes to point out, while it is, in fact, the ninth national championship in 11 seasons for the Bison, it is the first one for this team--a fact that we sometimes forget. Excellence over time requires one excellent team after another. So I want to focus just a little bit not so much on the legacy but on this particular team.
Remember, as Senator Hoeven said, they beat the Bobcats 38 to 10. It became 38 to 10 after they had been ahead 35 to 0. That is not a minor thing in collegiate football. But the 38-to-10 victory tied with the fourth largest margin of victory in FCS championship game history. After that is NDSU's 28-point victory over Towson to cap the 2013 season. It was the fourth time NDSU has won the FCS championship by 26 or more points.
North Dakota State's 108 rushing yards in the first quarter and 160 in the second quarter marked the third and fourth times in the 2021 FCS playoffs that the Bison ran for 100 yards in a quarter. Imagine that. Twice they did it in the same game--103 in the first quarter and 116 in the second quarter of NDSU's second-round win over Southern Illinois.
Now, NDSU's 28-to-0 halftime lead was the largest halftime margin in FCS championship history, passing the 24-to-0 Bison lead over Jacksonville State in 2015. In other words, this team, this one team, is excellent among excellence. They had 378 yards rushing and 540 yards of total offense. That was the most by the Bison in FCS championship game history, surpassing a 300-yard rushing performance against Sam Houston State in 2012 and 488 total yards against Eastern Washington in the 2018 season.
We have to talk a little bit about fullback Hunter Luepke, who was voted the Most Outstanding Player of the championship game. He tied a career-high with three rushing touchdowns--the first three of the game, one shy of the FCS championship game record of four rushing touchdowns by Furman's John Bagwell in 1985.
This team, this one excellent team out of dozens of excellent teams over the years, and this one excellent player obviously stand out, along with their one excellent coach, as I said earlier, Matt Entz, the FCS National Coach of the Year.
I love that Senator Hoeven consistently refers to these players as student athletes because, remember, before they are football players, they are students, and I think it is worth noting what exceptional students they are.
NDSU's Cole Wisniewski was the winner of the NCAA Elite 90 Award. The Elite 90 is presented to the student athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA's championships. But he is one among many. Five student athletes were named to the football all-academic team. NDSU linebacker Jackson Hankey headlines this group of five student athletes named to the Missouri Valley Football Conference All-Academic Team on December 14.
I think it is important to highlight and be specific about these guys. Hankey is a senior from Park River, ND. John and I know Park River. It is a pretty small place. He has an undergraduate degree not in underwater basket weaving and not even in physical education, although there is nothing wrong with that, but, rather, in agricultural economics. He was selected to the first team with a 3.636 grade point average.
Here are the other four besides him: Hunter Luepke, the outstanding player of the game, has a 3.42 GPA in finance. Sophomore defensive tackle Eli Mostaert has a 3.733 GPA in finance. Kicker Jake Reinholz has a 4.00 GPA in the master's degree program in mechanical engineering. The senior defensive tackle, Lane Tucker, has a 3.857 GPA in the MBA program. Great athletes are smart athletes. Great athletes are smart athletes.
All right. To continue that, this is a tribute. Well, while they take the stage on ESPN and on game day and the various programs, it is important to point out that North Dakota State University's athletic teams achieved a remarkable--remarkable--semester last fall with a 3.418 grade point average among all 427 student athletes. Three Bison teams earned the highest ever GPA. The statistics are incredible. They are incredible in terms of academic achievements of these outstanding athletes throughout all of the sports at North Dakota State University, not just football. But they definitely lead the charts.
So, to wrap up, in talking again a little bit about the dynasty, one of my favorite quotes--and I refer to it a lot; I use it a lot when I talk about Bison football--is Aristotle, who said:
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, [therefore], is not an act, but a habit.
It is not an act. It is a habit.
There are 9 out of 11 national championships in the FCS alone. Before that, as Division II, they won several national championships. They never lost a national championship. In other words, they repeatedly win national championships. That makes winning habitual. It is habitual.
They made their ninth appearance, as I said, in the championship game--the most of any FCS team. They won them all, as we know. They now have 17 football national championships in history. They won their last 13 title game appearances. I mean, it is kind of remarkable. They improved to 41 and 3--imagine this, Senator Hoeven--41 and 3 in FCS playoffs since 2010.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
I, as well, salute Dean Bresciani, the president; Matt Entz, the head coach; the entire coaching staff; the entire faculty; every student athlete; and every parent who got these student athletes to college.
It is just a remarkable thing to be able to represent this level of excellence, and I join Senator Hoeven in saying: ``Horns up! Go Bison!
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source