PHOTO GALLERY

FRISCO, Texas - The most successful season in Jacksonville State's 22 years as a Football Championship Subdivision member did not end with a win.
North Dakota State captured its unprecedented fifth straight FCS title Saturday afternoon at Toyota Stadium, riding a smothering defense and the right arm of senior quarterback Carson Wentz to a 37-10 victory over the No. 1 Gamecocks.

Jacksonville State (13-2) – which boasted the No. 2 offense among all FCS teams at 529.9 yards per game – sputtered from the outset and trailed 24-0 by halftime. The Gamecocks managed to draw to within 24-10 on Connor Rouleau's 26-yard field goal at the 3:41 mark in the third quarter, but the Bison (13-2) added a pair of Cam Pedersen field goals and a short touchdown run by game MVP Wentz to pull away in the waning minutes.

Jacksonville State committed four turnovers and managed just 204 total yards, a season low and the fewest since 2006. The Gamecocks completed only seven passes for 57 yards.

North Dakota State dominated time of possession in the first half en route to its 24-point lead.
The Bison whittled nearly 6½ minutes off the clock on their opening possession, capping off a 15-play march with Pedersen's 29-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead.

Things continued to spiral downward for the Gamecocks over the 23 minutes.

Wentz, rated one of the top quarterback prospects in the upcoming 2016 NFL draft, tossed an 8-yard touchdown pass to Andrew Bonnett and added an 11-yard run following a Jacksonville State turnover for a 17-0 lead with 11:13 to go in the second quarter.

"We jumped on them quickly, which we thought was going to be a really big key," said North Dakota State head coach Chris Klieman.

King Frazier's 1-yard run to cap a six-play, 48-yard drive increased NDSU's lead to 24-0 at the 6:12 mark of the second quarter.

The Gamecocks emerged from the locker room and quickly found the end zone to open the second half, moving from their 27 to the Bison 3 in eight plays. Quarterback Eli Jenkins set up the touchdown with a 46-yard run – by far JSU's longest play of the afternoon – and finished off the drive with a 6-yard TD run to trim NDSU's lead to 24-7 early in the third.

The momentum continued to swing in Jacksonville State's direction when Rashod Byers deflected a Wentz pass and linebacker Brandon Bender picked it off. Bender returned the interception 54 yards to the North Dakota State 13 to set up Rouleau's 26-yard field goal.


POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE


POSTGAME NOTES
- Captains for the Gamecocks: Senior DE/BAN Chris Landrum, Sr., Senior OL Adam Wright, Senior LB Dawson Wells, Senior TE Spencer Goffigan
- Senior Chris Landrum wore #86 Kameron Wood's jersey in honor of the junior, who did not make the trip due to health reasons.
- Jacksonville State won the toss and deferred. The Gamecocks have won the toss 13 times and have deferred each time. JSU has kicked off to start all but one game this season.
- Senior Troymaine Pope had 31 yards in Saturday's game to break the Ohio Valley Conference's single-season rushing record. He finishes the year with 1,788 to break Mike Clark's (Akron) previous record of 1,786 set in 1986.
- Junior wide receiver Josh Barge extended his school-record streak of consecutive games with a catch to 40. The previous record was 32 by Taurean Rhetta from 2004-07.
- Eli Jenkins' touchdown run in the third quarter was the 65th (36 passing, 29 rushing) he's been responsible for in his career, tying Ed Lett's school record set from 1979-82.
- With his 88 rushing yards in the game, junior Eli Jenkins moved into eighth place on the JSU single-season rushing list with 1,161 yards this season. He started the day in 13th place on the list.
- Eli Jenkins' touchdown run in the third quarter was his 15th of the season and 29th of his career. The 29 career rushing scores are sixth in school history.
- Jaylen Hill's interception in the second quarter was his fourth of the season and the seventh of his career.
- Brandon Bender's 54-yard interception return in the third quarter was the longest by a Gamecock this season. It was his second interception of the year and the second of his career.
- Rashod Byers' interception in the fourth quarter was his third of the season and the sixth of his career.
- Sophomore Darius Jackson recorded 1.0 tackles for a loss in the game, extending his school record for TFL in a single season to 19.5 in 2015.
- With 11, senior DeBarriaus Miller notched his first double-digit tackle performance as a Gamecock.
- The loss snaps JSU's 12-game winning streak, which was one away from the school record of 13-straight wins.
- NDSU earns its first win in the all-time series with the Gamecocks to cut JSU's lead in the series to 2-1. JSU won in the 1977 Division II Semifinals and again in the 1989 Div. II Quarterfinals.
- JSU falls to 20-15 all-time in NCAA postseason games and 5-6 in FCS playoff games.
-With his 145 yards (57 passing and 88 rushing), Eli Jenkins moved into second on the Ohio Valley Conference's single-season total offense list. His 3,958 yards this season are a JSU single-season record.
- The JSU seniors finish their four-year careers with a 40-13 record and a .755 winning percentage. Both are JSU Division I records.
- Senior tight end Spencer Goffigan and senior punter Hamish MacInnes both played in their school-record 53rd game at JSU today.

SIGHTS AND SOUNDS AROUND TOYOTA STADIUM