A cousin, tight end Shane Robison, now plays football for the Cats.

But Jorgenson, who in the mid-1990s was sports director in the Electric City at KRTV, is far from conflicted over Saturday’s college football playoff game in Bozeman between the Bobcats and North Dakota State Bison. The former Shepherd sports star is in his fourth year as the director of sales and broadcasting for NDSU athletics and will be on the field as the sideline reporter for the Bison flagship radio station this weekend.

“North Dakota State is a rising program,” said Jorgenson. “I think it’s a very even matchup.”

The Bison, 8-4 and ranked 21st in the FCS Coaches’ poll, take on the seventh-ranked Bobcats (9-2) in the FCS playoff round of 16. The game kicks off at noon and will be televised across the Treasure State by the Altitude Network.

“NDSU has a very good defense,” Jorgenson said. “In all the years I’ve followed NCAA I-AA football, this is one of the top defensive lines I’ve seen.”

Jorgenson followed the Bobcats closely while growing up and became even more familiar with the Big Sky Conference during professional stints as a broadcaster in Kalispell, Great Falls and Missoula. He covered Montana Grizzly football and basketball for KPAX in Missoula before taking his current position in Fargo, N.D.
“It’s been awesome,” he said. “To be connected and part of the team, it’s a good feeling. It’s a lot of fun getting caught up in the excitement of something like this.”

North Dakota State was an NCAA Division II football power for years and earned five D-2 national championships from 1983-90. Former MSU head coach Earle Solomonson had a lot of success with the Bison and Great Falls businessman Greg Hagfors, whose boys Bryn and Gavin were both football standouts at C.M. Russell High, was an All-American offensive lineman at NDSU.

Jorgenson provides yet another Great Falls football connection to the Bison. His late Grandpa, Don Jorgenson, was a former Billings Senior star.

“Shane Robison’s mom, she’s a Jorgenson,” he said of his cousin, a former star tight end at Billings West.

“I went to a lot of Montana State camps growing up,” he said. “I was definitely more Bobcat than Griz.”

He remains in touch with the Treasure State.

“I read the Tribune online every day,” he said.

The Bobcats defeated the Grizzlies 21-16 on Nov. 20 to earn a share of the Big Sky championship and the league’s automatic playoff berth. Montana State is seeded fourth in the playoffs and, after last week’s first-round bye, will play host to the program’s second home playoff game since 1984 on Saturday at Bobcat Stadium.
The weather might be inclement, but Jorgenson doesn’t expect that the Bison – who play their home games in a dome – will be adversely affected.

“The elements in Fargo here are brutal,” he said. “The team will practice outside all week to get acclimated. I don’t think the weather will be a factor at all.”

The Bison defeated Robert Morris 43-17 last week in a first-round playoff game. That came a week after NDSU was blanked 3-0 at Missouri State.

“I was there at Missouri State,” said Jorgenson. “The wind was howling about 30 mph in one direction and you just couldn’t throw the football. So the defenses stuffed the box and it just became a stalemate. Plus we had injuries. At the end of the day, North Dakota State was down to its third-string quarterback.”

Starting quarterback Brock Jensen, a redshirt freshman from Waupaca, Wis., has recovered from a shoulder ailment and is expected to be under center on Saturday.

Jensen, a 6-3, 220-pounder with a big arm, will square off with MSU freshman sensation Denarius McGhee, the all-Big Sky QB who has thrown for nearly 3,000 yards and 22 touchdowns this season.

If the North Dakota State defense, which ranks ninth in the country in scoring defense (16.7 ppg), is a particular team strength it should not be a surprise. Bison head coach Craig Bohl, who is 60-29 in eight seasons at NDSU, is a former defensive coordinator for the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

Jorgenson first met Bohl about a dozen years ago when he left Great Falls for a TV job in Kearney, Neb., which covered a lot of Husker football.

“He’s a real disciplinarian and runs a great program,” said Jorgenson.
The former TV sportscaster expects a close, low-scoring game.

“This time of year when it’s so cold out, it’s hard to put up a lot of points,” said Jorgenson. “And you’ve got North Dakota State’s solid defense going up against a really good Bobcat offense. It will be interesting to see how that plays out.”