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National rankings: Neither team is ranked.
Series: Minnesota Duluth leads 11-3 and has not lost a game against the Golden Bears since 2004. That includes a 33-13 victory Oct. 16, 2021, when the Bulldogs broke from a 12-0 lead after three quarters with a couple touchdown passes from Logan Graetz and a 10-yard TD run by Cazz Martin.
Coaches: Curt Wiese is 84-20 in nine seasons at UMD; Shannon Currier is 48-57 seasons at Concordia, which includes two stints with the Golden Bears sandwiching five seasons as the head coach at Truman (2004-08).
Outlook: Minnesota Duluth is coming off a 49-14 home victory over Mary as freshman quarterback Kyle Walljasper ran 14 times for career highs of 123 yards and four touchdowns. Starting quarterback Garrett Olson was 16-for-23 passing for 250 yards and also hauled in a 15-yard touchdown pass. The Bulldogs also intercepted three passes and had seven quarterback sacks in their most complete game of the season. … Brandon Alt was 17-for-26 passing for 255 yards and two touchdowns as Bemidji State broke from a 13-0 halftime lead to down Concordia-St. Paul 44-0 last week. Conner Cordts was 12-for-28 passing for 134 yards and Jaylin Richardson rushed 16 times for 84 yards but the Golden Bears couldn’t penetrate the end zone. … Cordts is 90-for-183 passing for 1,071 yards, with five TDs to three interceptions, numbers you wouldn’t normally expect for a winless team.
“Honestly, they’re not a lot different than last week’s opponent (Mary),” Wiese said. “They’re a team that in the win/loss column has struggled but they’re a talented football team that has been in a lot of games this year, so it’s a team you’re going to need to prepare hard and play well against to make sure you’re not the first (to lose to them).”
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Richardson, meanwhile, has rushed 78 times for 455 yards, good for 5.8 yards per carry, so Concordia can move the football. The Golden Bears have had very competitive games with Augustana (5-1), Southwest Minnesota State (4-2) and Minnesota State-Mankato (4-2).
“They’re young, and they’ve got a lot of transfers, really in every spot,” Wiese said. “They’ve got guys from kind of all over who are probably still trying to figure some things out, but athletically I like them. Offensively, their quarterback runs around really well and they’ve got a big tailback, so this is not a much different matchup than we’ve seen the first six weeks.”
