{"id":12809,"date":"2018-01-07T17:01:33","date_gmt":"2018-01-07T22:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosoncfb.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=12809"},"modified":"2018-01-09T20:21:10","modified_gmt":"2018-01-10T01:21:10","slug":"north-dakota-state-are-fcs-national-champions-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2018\/01\/07\/north-dakota-state-are-fcs-national-champions-again\/","title":{"rendered":"North Dakota State Are FCS National Champions, AGAIN"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Dakota State Are FCS National Champions, AGAIN<\/h2>\n

North Dakota State Are FCS National Champions, AGAIN.\u00a0 NDSU has a long legacy of winning.\u00a0 Saturday night the 40th FCS Championship was played at Toyota Stadium\u00a0in Frisco, Texas.\u00a0 NDSU won its 6th national championship in seven years in front of a standing room only crowd of 19,090.\u00a0 NDSU was the number two seed while James Madison the reigning National Champions going into the game was the number one seed.\u00a0 Last January NDSU had won five straight\u00a0national championships and James Madison killed that streak.\u00a0 Saturday NDSU came out with something to prove.\u00a0 I had the privilege\u00a0of being on the sidelines and watching the game through a camera lens.\u00a0 Being on the sidelines shooting pictures is a unique experience.\u00a0 You get lost in the motion of moving around the field trying to find the best spot for the coolest action shots.\u00a0 You shoot a TON of photos (I shot 1,902) at a game.\u00a0 Meanwhile, only a handful shots turn into a “YES! Look at that” shot.\u00a0 Here are the top shots I took of the Division I FCS Football Championship on January 6, 2018, in Frisco, Texas.<\/p>\n

The On Field Access<\/h3>\n

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As a photographer, you get some pretty cool access.\u00a0 Being able to shoot pictures of a team running on the field is exhilarating.\u00a0 You take 100 shots in a short amount of time and you hopefully get one really great one.\u00a0\u00a0North Dakota State University head coach Chris Klieman running out onto the field with the team.<\/p>\n

Bruce Anderson And The Action Shot<\/h3>\n

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There is a reason Junior running back Bruce Anderson\u00a0was NDSU’s leading rusher all season. He was the workhorse for the Bison offense.\u00a0 Yet the JMU defense held him to 18 carries for 63 yards.\u00a0 Anderson capped off his junior season Saturday with a National Championship as well as finishing with 1,216 yards in 234 carries in 15 games.\u00a0 Did you know that Anderson’s season yardage was 126 yards shy of 1,342 yards which were the combined total rushing yards for ALL 15 of the Bison’s opponents this season?\u00a0 This might be my favorite shot from the game.<\/p>\n

Easton Stick<\/h3>\n

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Easton Stick had his work cut out for him as he faced a relentless JMU defense.\u00a0 Stick finished his junior season with 2,466 passing yards, 164 completions, 28 touchdowns, 8 INTs.\u00a0 As well as a solid ground game with 663 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns.\u00a0 Easton’s game on Saturday was not his most exciting performance of the season.\u00a0 As he was sacked three times one of which resulted in a fumble that JMU recovered.\u00a0 Quarterbacks are fun to shoot but hard to shoot as well.\u00a0 They are often the center of the action which makes them the easiest target for the lens.<\/p>\n

Bryan Schor<\/h3>\n

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James Madison’s junior quarterback Bryan Schor had his hands full with the Bison defense.\u00a0 Yet he kept his team in the game, with his ability to escape the defenders as well as thread the needle to get the ball to his receivers.\u00a0 For the handful of crisp shots I have of Schor I have another 200 hundred blurry shots.\u00a0 Schor kept that Bison defense busy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Right Place Right Time<\/h3>\n

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Sometimes you get lucky and are at the right spot at the right time.\u00a0 That ball lands in the receiver’s hands right in front of you.\u00a0 It makes for a great progression of photos.\u00a0 Darrius Shepard was wide open and Stick threw him a bomb.\u00a0 I was in the perfect spot to catch the action.\u00a0 Catches like this turn are how sports photographers end up shooting 1,900 pictures in a game.\u00a0 Your camera shoots 10 frames a second you just keep shooting. You never know what you have captured until you look through the final photos. Although, my favorite picture in this series is the very first one.\u00a0\u00a0*side note* Yes, this is an excessive amount of photos, but I wanted to give you a glimpse into the process of shooting a football game.\u00a0 I only posted HALF of them.<\/p>\n

The Blocked Kick<\/h3>\n

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Pictures like this are fascinating.\u00a0 Particularly in seeing the full frame, as the two teams and the players all in various stops of action.\u00a0NDSU’s Cam Pedersen’s kick blocked and the ball barely visible\u00a0JMU’s Andrew Ankrah #93.\u00a0 The FCS Championship game may not have been high scoring but the action was fantastic.\u00a0 It was a battle of wills as both defenses did their due diligence to keep the points off the board.\u00a0 Special teams were a mixture of missed field goals and blocked kicks.<\/p>\n

Defense Wins Championships<\/h3>\n
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NDSU LB Chris Broad #1 breaks up the pass to JMU WR John Miller #8 early in the 2nd quarter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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NDSU Jabril Cox #42 returns a fumble finally brought down by JMU Nick Edwards #55 after gaining 12 yards<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Dukes final drive NDSU defense swarms the JMU receivers in the end zone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In fact, we have all heard the saying “defense win championships” that much was true in the FCS Championship game.\u00a0 As North Dakota State outlasted James Madison.\u00a0 With these three pictures, you can see the tenacity of the Bison defense.\u00a0 Their hustle to the ball and drive to finish plays made the difference in the game.<\/p>\n

The Champions<\/h3>\n

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Then ultimately the trophy presentation arrives.\u00a0 This was my first time shooting one of these.\u00a0 The confetti was amazing.\u00a0 The emotions were captivating and the excitement pouring from the National Champions was electric, you did not want it to end. All in all shooting football is a great way to watch the game.\u00a0 It is a rewarding and unique opportunity. One I would not trade for the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Dakota State Are FCS National Champions, AGAIN North Dakota State Are FCS National Champions, AGAIN.\u00a0 NDSU has a long legacy of winning.\u00a0 Saturday night the 40th FCS Championship was played at Toyota Stadium\u00a0in Frisco, Texas.\u00a0 NDSU won its 6th national championship in seven years in front of a standing room only crowd of 19,090.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1643,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2955,2926,2956,79,474,2941,935,473],"class_list":["post-12809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bruce-anderson","tag-bryan-schor","tag-chris-klieman","tag-college-football","tag-easton-stick","tag-fcs-championship","tag-james-madison-dukes","tag-north-dakota-state-bison"],"modified_by":"Mike Loveall","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1643"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}