GRAND FORKS, N.D. — The Montana Grizzlies hit the road for the first time this college football season for a top-25 matchup with former Big Sky Conference rival North Dakota.

The Griz, who opened their season last week with a 29-24 win over Missouri State, are ranked fourth, while the Fighting Hawks are ranked No. 23 after opening with a 21-3 loss at FBS Iowa State last week.

Montana and North Dakota are scheduled to kick off at 5 p.m. (MT) inside the Alerus Center.

The game will be broadcast by Midco Sports and air on the MTN channel across Montana. Coverage begins at 4:30 p.m. with the Scripps Sports Saturday Showdown Pregame Show. Learn more about the MTN channel and where to find it.

The game is also available to stream on ESPN+ or Midco Sports Plus.

Click here for details on how to watch Montana State’s game versus Maine.

GRAND FORKS — The North Dakota Museum of Art is planning to showcase more than 30 pieces of art from its Permanent Collection in an upcoming exhibition, officials have announced.

The public is invited to an opening reception for “Stories of Place: Select Recent Acquisitions” from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 5, at the museum, 261 Centennial Dr., on the UND campus.

A public lecture by the exhibition’s curator Anna Sigridur Arnar is set for 7 p.m. on Oct. 8. A reception is planned for 6:30 p.m. Arnar, full-time curator of modern and contemporary art at the North Dakota Museum of Art, holds a Ph.D. degree, with honors, in art history from the University of Chicago.

The exhibit, which will be on display through Dec. 1, “is another in our series showcasing the museum’s extensive Permanent Collection,” said Brian Lotfhus, membership and marketing coordinator. “Since the late 1980s, the museum has built a collection of over 3,000 pieces of contemporary art.

“The collection has grown, mostly from gifts from artists, pieces acquired from exhibitions the museum has curated, and through generous donors that want to help the museum build a world-class collection,” Lofthus said. “Most recently, an anonymous donor has contributed on a large scale, (these donations constitute) the majority of the current exhibition.”

The “Stories of Place” exhibit draws on the rich range of artwork recently acquired by the museum, Lofthus said. The artworks include collage, sculpture, photography, painting and quilts.

The selected works provide opportunities to reflect on various meanings of the word “place” in the visual arts and storytelling.

“Fundamentally, ‘place’ is the wellspring of human (and non-human) relations; it is a site where stories are formed and reformed,” the announcement said. It is “a container of experience, memory and the imagination, thereby providing rich terrain for artists.”

The exhibition explores specific locations such as Midwest farmlands, the American South and the vibrant Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul, Minnesota.

Some pieces in the exhibit delve into the “spirit” of place, capturing not only the physical likeness but also abstract narratives tied to a place. Others encourage viewers to listen to the “language of the land,” especially when a place is at risk of disappearing, or becoming inextricably altered or damaged, according to the museum announcement.

The artists featured in the exhibition “invite us to consider how place shapes and is shaped by personal memories, imagined realms and the evolving language of the land,” the museum said.

The artists whose work will be displayed include: Diyan Achjadi, Vancouver, British Columbia; LeXander Bryant, Nashville, Tennessee; Edward Burtynsky, Toronto, Ontario; Jamal Cyrus, Houston, Texas; Peter Jemison, Victor, New York; Carolyn Mazloomi, West Chester, Ohio; Teo Nguyen, Minneapolis; Wura-Natasha Ogunji, Lagos, Nigeria; Helen Oji, New York City; Eric-Paul Riege, Gallup, New Mexico; Cara Romero, Sante Fe, New Mexico; Rose Smith and Melvin Smith, Eagan, Minnesota; John Sonsini, Los Angeles; Suyao Tian, St. Paul, Minnesota; Margaret Wall-Romana, Golden Valley, Minnesota; and Joseph Yoakum, Chicago.

For more information, visit

https://ndmoa.com

or call the museum at 701-777-4195.

Welcome back everyone to Three Things We Learned for the 2024 season. Let’s take a look at the win over North Dakota this past weekend in the season opener.

The Passing Game is as Good as Advertised

The Cyclones started the game last week with a bang, scoring a touchdown in less than a minute with huge catches by Jaylin Noel and Jayden Higgins, which signaled an explosive start to the career of Taylor Mouser as the offensive coordinator.

We also saw what the passing game can do on long drives, as the Cyclones were able to dink and dunk their way down the field, largely getting whatever they wanted in the passing game. I think that same formula could be a major key to success for Iowa State against Iowa’s very strong defense.

I also think the Cyclones may have found their third wide receiver in Eli Green, which could prove to be a big boost going forward. Given that defenses will need to focus a ton of their attention on Noel and Higgins, having Eli Green as another option will make it near impossible to cover all of Iowa State’s passing options on a well-designed route pattern. Green plays extremely similarly to Noel, so he’s a natural fit in the offense.

Linebacker is Thin

Most Cyclone fans went into the season largely agreeing that linebacker was probably the weakest position group on the defense, and that turned out to be true on Saturday. What we didn’t know was how shaky the situation actually is, as we found out on game day that Will McLaughlin is out for an extended period of time, and Caleb Bacon went down with a significant injury in the first quarter.

Right now Kooper Ebel, Jack Sadowsky, Zach Lovett, and Cael Brezina look to likely be your top four linebackers, with Jacob Ellis and John Klosterman also getting snaps. The loss of Bacon caused a lot of issues and was likely a driving factor in the twelve-minute-long possession North Dakota was able to sustain immediately following the injury.

This week, Jon Heacock and the rest of the defensive staff will be busy getting that linebacker group stabilized and figuring out a plan to deal with Iowa’s running game and tight end Luke Lachey.

Young Talent is Abundant

Even though Iowa State is returning nineteen of twenty-two starters, there is still a significant number of young players expected to get significant snaps this season, and we saw a few of them in action Saturday.

I think Kooper Ebel and Jontez Williams both had their moments of youth, but otherwise had strong showings against North Dakota that illustrate why we’ve heard so much about them in the offseason and through camp. Ebel looked the part of blossoming into another strong player in Iowa State’s lineage of great linebackers, and Jontez Williams nearly cut off a pass to the flat and took it to the house.

Williams did admit in his postgame interview that he was guilty of getting ahead of himself and not watching the ball in before running to the endzone, which shows maturity on his part.