FARGO — The focus for the 2026 North Dakota State football recruiting class wasn’t necessarily going to be on offensive linemen, since the Bison hit that position hard the previous year. That changed when Earl Brown and Tucker Thieneman walked into the picture.

Brown is 6-foot-5, 303 pounds from not far away in Pillager, Minnesota. Thieneman is 6-5, 290 from Pewaukee, Wisconsin, who had offers at Mississippi, Missouri, Florida and Maryland. Those are Southeastern Conference and Big Ten Power Four schools if you’re scoring from home.

How did FCS NDSU get him?

Certainly the lineage of NFL offensive linemen from NDSU didn’t hurt, with the likes of current players Grey Zabel, Cody Mauch, Dillon Radunz, Cordell Volson, Jake Kubas, Mason Miller and Jalen Sundell.

NDSU head coach Tim Polasek

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