Fargo, N.D. ? North Dakota State coach Craig Bohl isn’t worried about the pressure for his team to improve upon last year’s losing season.

“When you talk all the pressure, you can throw that out the window, that does not faze me,” Bohl said Friday during the team’s annual media day.

The Bison open the season at Kansas University’s Memorial Stadium on Sept. 4.

Bohl said a good team has to be great at the quarterback position and on the defensive line, and “we are excited about where we are at.”

Jose Mohler was listed atop the quarterback depth chart entering fall camp, though Bohl said earlier in the week that competition between Mohler and Brock Jensen was tight.

Mohler has the edge in experience — he made four starts a season ago as a red-shirt freshman, completing 43 of 72 passes for 635 yards, six touchdowns and two interceptions. Jensen, who is a redshirt freshman, has better size, standing 6-foot-3 and weighing 220 pounds.

“I think Jose Mohler has added a little bit of weight, and I thought yesterday he showed his ability to be an improviser,” Bohl said. “He’s taking care of the football a little bit better, which is a major concern that I and coach (offensive coordinator Brent) Vigen had. He can be a bit of a gunslinger at times.”

Bohl said he was high on his linebackers.

“Preston Evans, Brandon Jemison and Matt Anderson, that corps, harkens back to the days of Ramon Humber, Joe Mays and Mike Maresh,” Bohl said. “Now, two of those guys (Humber and Mays) are NFL guys.”

The Bison are in their eighth year under Bohl. They return 41 letterwinners, including six starters on offense, six on defense and one on special teams.

NDSU is coming off a season in which it finished with a 3-8 overall record and a 2-6 mark in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. The Bison are picked to finish sixth out of the nine teams in the league this year.

The first game in the Fargodome is Sept. 18 against Morgan State.

NDSU this season also will play Northern Iowa, Youngstown State, Illinois State and Missouri State on the road; and South Dakota, South Dakota State, Western Illinois, Indiana State and Southern Illinois at home.