North Dakota State vs Iowa State football: Getting to know the Bison special teams

Still trying to find a weakness in North Dakota State? It can’t be found on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball, and you won’t be able to find it in special teams, either. All the experience is back at punter and place kicker, along with their default kick returner.

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Special teams unit

P: Ben LeCompte (19, Jr)
PK: Adam Keller (17, Sr)
H: LeCompte
LS: James Fisher (51, RFr)
KR: Christian Dudzik (35, Sr)
PR: Tyler Wrice (4, RFr)

Just like the other two phases of their game, special teams are pretty good. There weren’t a lot of field goal attempts, but Adam Keller went 9-for-12 overall. He made all four attempts inside 30 yards and missed two (5-for-7) between the 30 and 50 yard distance. He missed a lone attempt past 50 yards and had a field goal kick blocked.

Tom Barneson, the place kicking backup, made one 27-yard field goal attempt. NDSU never attempted more than two field goals in a game. Keller missed his first field goal attempt against the Wildcats last year and then missed two (from 48 and 52) against Illinois State.

Ben LeCompte is also back as the punter. He had 52 attempts last season. No punts were blocked, nearly half of his punts landed inside the 20 yard line, and he had 10 touchbacks. LeCompte also takes care of kickoffs, kicking 98 of the team’s 102 total last year.

Christian Dudzik will be the main guy returning punts, and he took two of them to the house last season. There wasn’t a real set guy at kick return last year with three people (John Crockett, Marcus Williams, Ryan Smith) having five or more shots at it, but new guy Tyler Wrice will be called upon for the duties.

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