FARGO — To say people have differing views of Pro Football Focus is being mild. The analytics website, available through subscription, is used widely by media covering the NFL and college football as a tool to illustrate good or bad performances. Coaches, meanwhile, often advise caution when using PFF’s numbers and sometimes outright dismiss them with extreme prejudice.
Like the time I mentioned PFF to a coach and he scoffed before saying, “You mean the numbers put together by some guy sitting in his mom’s basement, plotting positive and negative plays on a message board?”
Um, yeah. Those numbers. (To which most NCAA Division I programs subscribe, by the way.)
So anyway …
PFF’s numbers are telling a story this season — and for the last few seasons — that 10 years ago would have been unbelievable.
North Dakota State, the dynasty built on the power running game, is graded as the top passing offense in all of Division I, including the 136 Football Bowl Subdivision teams and the 129 in the Football Championship Subdivision.
The Bison’s quarterback, Cole Payton, is graded as the top passer in Division I among QBs with 50 or more dropbacks through Week 5.
Take it for what it’s worth, but the 10-time FCS national champions have transitioned the last few years from a ground-and-pound outfit that beat opponents to metaphorical death into the Fargo Air Show (if the actual Fargo AirSho will pardon the trademark infringement).
This didn’t happen overnight and it’s not necessarily a new story. According to PFF’s grades, the Bison were also the top passing team in Division I in 2023 and 2024 (when they were tied with Mississippi). This season they are graded at 94.8 of 100 in team passing.
(Watch Mike’s appearance on “Hot Mic” this week below.)
Former quarterback Cam Miller, an eventual sixth-round draft pick in the NFL, last season graded as the second-best passer in college football, just a fraction behind Jaxson Dart of Ole Miss, a first-round draft choice.
Payton, NDSU’s first-year starter, grades out at 95.6 in passing. He also has the top overall offensive grade at 96.0.
The grades are based on Payton’s statistics and quality of his throws. He’s 53 of 74 (71.6%) for 979 yards, eight touchdowns and 0 interceptions.
Payton is averaging 13.2 yards per attempt, best in the nation, and is tied for first in the PFF stat of “big-time throws.” He has 14 of those, defined as “a pass with excellent ball location and timing, generally thrown further down the field and/or into a tighter window.”
In layman’s terms, he’s dealing.
Bison head coach Tim Polasek, one of those who urges caution when using PFF, said the numbers show NDSU’s efficiency in the pass game.
“Football is a whole industry, right? It’s an entertainment business and Pro Football Focus has become a part of that. People value it. It means something,” Polasek said at his weekly press conference Tuesday. “I don’t know who’s grading this stuff and what house they’re in when they’re grading it, but I know we’re really efficient right now and we’re getting a ton of explosives. Couple that with (Payton’s) completion percentage and it kind of makes sense.”
Payton has 23 pass plays of 20 yards or more, 31% of his 74 completions, and has just one “turnover worthy play” per PFF, defined as “a pass that has a high percentage chance of being intercepted or a poor job of taking care of the ball and fumbling.”
North Dakota State quarterback Cole Payton fires a pass for a completion against Tennessee State on Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025, at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tenn.
David Samson / The Forum
“We’re not just doing it with screens. Sometimes the higher-rated efficiency teams are screen teams and RPOs (run/pass options) and they just kind of dink and dunk you,” Polasek said. “I had a conversation with a quarterback recruit this weekend, just that we’re moving that part of our program’s history forward and we’re really comfortable winning in the pass game if we have to.”
Saturday’s 51-13 victory over South Dakota was the perfect illustration. Payton was 7 of 8 on pass plays of 15 yards or more. Yes, he can throw. Yes, he can throw deep. Yes, he can throw deep accurately. Yes, it helps the Bison have the best receiving corps in FCS.
Payton’s 32-yard completion to Bryce Lance along the right sideline on NDSU’s first drive was a football version of a Rembrandt. The quarterback took a shotgun snap, dropped two steps, pump-faked and lofted a rainbow pass nearly 40 yards that dropped perfectly over Coyotes cornerback Mikey Munn and into the arms of Lance at the 10. He stepped out of bounds at the 8 and the Bison scored two plays later.
“He’s done a really good job of seeing the big picture,” NDSU quarterbacks coach Joe Beschorner said. “We’re running a double-move, expecting single coverage because we’re motioning a guy. I think we’re going to get rotation and they do rotate to Bryce, which is a good idea, right? But for Cole to see that, big picture-wise, and not be locked in on, ‘OK, this is what I did last week.’ No, he’s seeing this thing from a holistic approach and sees the safety getting over the top and understands he needs to put a little bit of air under it, and put it on the outside shoulder. That was a good job.”
Worthy of a 95.6 PFF grade, if coaches believed in such things.
Mike McFeely is a columnist for The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. He began working for The Forum in the 1980s while he was a student studying journalism at Minnesota State University Moorhead. He’s been with The Forum full time since 1990, minus a six-year hiatus when he hosted a local radio talk-show.