ADAMS — Southland senior Mike Goergen didn’t get to play a lot of football this past fall, but if he has it his way he’ll see a lot more time in the gridiron a couple of years down the road.

Goergen, a running back and linebacker for the Rebels who sat out most of this season with an injury, recently made his verbal commitment to play football at North Dakota State University in Fargo, N.D. as a walk-on.

“It’s a big relief off my back and I don’t have to worry about where I’m going to go anymore,” Goergen, who also plays on the Southland basketball team, said. “Now I can just go out and have fun during basketball season.”

NDSU will graduate just seven seniors from this team, so Goergen will likely red-shirt next season and he’ll have a shot at an athletic scholarship the following year.

The Bison won the NCAA Division I FCS national championship last season and they finished this year’s regular season as the No. 1 ranked team. NDSU is 10-1 overall this season as it prepares for the postseason.

“It made a big difference that they’re a winning program. I didn’t want to go just anywhere,” Goergen said. “It’s gonna be tough to play at that high of a level since I’m coming from a small school. It’s gonna take a lot of work.”

Goergen will likely play safety or outside linebacker at the next level and that’s fine with him as he likes defense more than offense anyway.

He’s excited to have a chance to play in the Fargodome, which holds approximately 20,000 fans.

“I liked their program and facilities. It kind of fit and the Fargodome can be pretty electric,” he said.

Goergen had considered going to Division II Winona State, where his former teammate Alan May is playing. May, who is a redshirt freshman with the Warriors (9-2 overall), has 7 catches for 151 yards and 369 return yards this season.

“I thought about going to Winona to play with Alan again, but I decided to have a new challenge and make my own path,” Goergen said.

While Goergen played in just one game this past season due to an injury, he was a strong force for the Rebels two years ago when he scored 20 touchdowns, racked up 706 yards on the ground (5.8 per carry) and hauled in 21 passes for 310 yards (14.8 per catch).

Southland will open its boys basketball season when it hosts Wabasha-Kellogg Friday at 7:30 p.m.