Daniel Polansky is a part of college football history

The Bison earned a place in the college football history books with their fifth straight FCS title, and Gatzke native, Daniel Polansky, is a part of it all. 

Daniel, son of Gary and Laurie Polansky, is a redshirt sophomore on the North Dakota State University football team. As part of the Bison herd, he headed to Frisco, Texas, where the Bison were named the 2016 NCAA Division I FCS Champions for the fifth consecutive year, which is a first in college football history! The Bison played in front of 21,836 fans (majority in green & gold) at the Toyota Stadium in Frisco on Saturday, January 9th. They went up against the Jacksonville State Gamecocks and came out on top AGAIN with a final score of 37-10.

History was made that Saturday and Daniel Polansky says it’s just a truly special team to be a part of. He has made the trip down to Frisco three times now with the team – if anyone can give us an inside look, he’s our guy. The Grygla Eagle conducted an interview with Polansky the day after the championship game.

What day did the team fly down to Frisco, Texas? We flew out of Fargo on Wednesday morning, January 6th.

What sorts of activities did you guys do in the days leading up to the big game? Well, basically in Frisco we ate, had meetings, practiced and ate some more! In our free time we just hung out at the hotel with each other. However, on the Thursday leading up to the game, we had a community outreach event where we played flag football with kids with special needs and disabilities. We basically let the kids play but most of them needed a lot of assistance. We had players from our team with their buddies play against Jacksonville State’s players and buddies. I got to be a buddy for that event, and my buddy Andy was in a wheelchair; we had a great time. (We also won that game! Ha.) 

Right after that we had the annual BBQ bowl were we went to the Main Event, which is an arcade with games, laser tag, bowling, bull riding, pool and all you can eat Texas style barbeque. We had competitions against our opponents, Jacksonville State, at this event that included pool, bowling, bull riding and eating. We lost them all except for the bull ride!

So that brings us up to game day! How were you feeling about it going in? Before the game we were very excited, but we had also been here before so we knew what it would take to win the game. Pride in our preparation. We practiced very hard and watched a lot of film the 3 weeks leading up to the game and after all of that we knew that we were more prepared than them and we felt confident going into the game. We knew they would be very talented, they had a bunch of players that transferred from SEC schools and were very talented so we knew we needed that type of preparation and great execution on the field.

Various news stations showed how the team walks to the stadium amongst a parade of fans! That’s got to be fun, huh?! The entrance walk into the stadium before the game is always a great experience! It really shows how much the fans really support the team. It’s kind of one of those moments that you only see on TV at big schools like Ohio State or Alabama, but that fact that our fans do that is just great!

Are you still playing wide receiver on the team? And what about the special teams kick return unit like last year? Yes, I am still playing wide receiver. This year I haven’t been as involved as last year with special teams but I still go out there every once in awhile. 

Did you get any field time during the championship game against Jacksonville State (Ala.)? I dressed for the game, but I didn’t get in. Although, when we were up 24-0 I thought I might have had a chance, but we kind of ran out time to get everyone in, which was a good thing because we just wanted to end it as quick as possible!

So the final score was 37-10! Can you give the Eagle readers a short game recap in YOUR words? The game started with us on offense and even though it only ended with a field goal it was probably my favorite drive because there was one point when we ran the same play 6 times in a row. It was reminiscent of running the old Charger/Blue Devil sweep. We just basically said ‘try and stop our physicality’ and I thought that made a huge statement for the rest of the game. 

We really just played them throughout the whole game. I don’t know if it was the cold (40° is cold for Alabama guys!) or our defense, but their offense that had been very explosive all year didn’t look comfortable. It also helped that we had Carson Wentz back!

What took place after the Bison’s victory? After the game, we celebrated with fans and the team, and then went directly from the stadium to the airport. We arrived back in Fargo around 9pm that same night.

How does it feel to be a part of all this awesome history being made? All I can really say is that this is a truly special place to be at and a team to be a part of. Right now it’s just hard to grasp what we have accomplished the last 5 years (I’ve been here for 3 years) and I don’t think we will really realize until years down the road. 

Just the fact that nothing like this has ever been in college football before, at any level, just amazes me because we did it at the D1 level! I think we have been able to achieve this success from all of us buying into the culture at NDSU and having great coaches and amazing support from former players and all of the fans in BisoNation.

So what’s next for the herd, Daniel? Well, we usually we get about a week and a half off from working out and then start our winter training for next year!