FARGO -- North Dakota State students sitting around Garrett Bruhn in a school cafeteria may want to be on guard. The Bison freshman fullback is digesting anything in his sight.
It's all in the name of keeping his weight up to Division I Football Championship Subdivision standards. Fresh from high school in Beatrice, Neb., Bruhn didn't have the luxury of a redshirt season to gain strength.
By his estimate, he's about 225 pounds at the beginning of each practice - about 220 at the end of them.
"When I'm full, I try to eat more," Bruhn said. "I'm just trying to put weight on now."
He'll need every pound Saturday when the Bison open Missouri Valley Football Conference play at Southern Illinois.
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It's being billed as a physical matchup.
"That's one thing from last year that was established," said SIU head coach Dale Lennon.
Last year resulted in a 35-27 Bison win, a game that saw NDSU rally from a 20-0 deficit. It was the pinnacle in NDSU's first season in the Missouri Valley, a league that team coaches bill weekly as a smash-mouth conference.
That style fits an offense with a bruising fullback like NDSU. Bruhn is scheduled to start depending on the status of senior Lee Vandal, who may return to the lineup after being sidelined the first three games with a knee injury.
Junior Drew Hushka, the starter the first three games, hurt his shoulder last week against Wagner College (N.Y.) and won't make the trip. Vandal was hurt in NDSU's last intrasquad scrimmage in August.
"The first play of the scrimmage when Lee went down, I knew right away that I was going to have to play right away," Bruhn said. "I was looking forward to the challenge."
The debut will always be one to remember - at Iowa State in front of almost 50,000 fans.
"And then the first game came and it's a whole different ballgame," Bruhn said. "The speed of the game probably picked up 10 times as fast as high school. You just feed off that as a football player when the crowd is electric."
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Bruhn's electricity the following week at Sam Houston State (Texas) generated a 10-yard touchdown reception.
"The corner fell down so I was wide open," he said. "All I had to do was catch it and walk into the end zone."
Easy. Much easier, anyway, than gaining weight during the season.
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