It’s the final home game of the season this Saturday vs. Southern Utah – kickoff is at 1:00pm.

Thunder Lake Lodge

This final home game also doubles as the annual Senior Day, where the school honors the graduating seniors for all their contributions to the UND Football program.

This years 18-man class has a nice mix of high-end talent, depth and a heck of alot of great kids that represented UND well. There are definitely some big shoes to fill in 2020.


2 Jade Lawrence LB 6-1 214 Moorhead, Minn. / Moorhead High School

The former Spud has been a four-year contributor at OLB for UND.  A smaller, quicker linebacker, Lawrence has racked up 20 TFL’s and 6.5 sacks in his career.  Lawrence also was on several special teams in his career and even added two interceptions, as well.  A leader on the team, Lawrence has had a very nice career and his versatility will be missed.

 

5 Leonard Nelson IV DB 5-10 200  Roseville, Calif.

The transfer from American River College played in 10 games last season, while battling injuries and has played most of this season, as well, at safety for the Hawks.  Nelson notched 12 tackles, 2 TFL’s and 1 INT in his career – the INT was very memorable as it won the game for UND last season vs. Portland State when he returned it for a TD to seal the win.  Nelson also got to play with his brother, Caleb (freshman), this season for the Hawks.

 

6 Evan Holm DB 5-11 182  Edina, Minn. / Edina High School

The Edina product has been a steady force at corner for UND throughout his career.  He had an abbreviated season in 2017 due to injury but has played in 29 total games over his career.  Holm has two interceptions and 17 pass breakups over his career.  There is a chance that Holm returns next season as he has only played two games this year and can redshirt.

 

8 Nate Ketteringham QB 6-4 203 San Diego, Calif. / Centennial High School

The Sac State transfer sat 2017 but won the starting job in 2018.  Ketteringham had to transition back to a spread system this season with the naming of Danny Freund as offensive coordinator but has really blossomed in this type of attack.  Ketteringham also has shownOverall in his UND career, Ketteringham played in 19 games – going 354-595 for 3,902 yards and 30 TD vs 18 INT.  He also rushed for 165 yards and 8 TD.

 

10 Andrew Zimmerman QB 6-2 216 Sr. Monroe, Wash.

Zimmerman has been a team leader during his three years on campus.  He transferred to UND from Fresno City College and immediately was thrust into action due to injury.  Zimmerman was named captain last season.  During his time at UND, Zimmerman went 47-86 for 649 yards and 6 TD.  His most memorable game was the home opener this season vs. Drake when he came in for an injured Ketteringham and blew the game open by throwing for 132 yards and 2 TD’s.

 

11 Travis Toivonen WR 6-4 212 Red Wing, Minn. / Red Wing High School

Toivonen was viewed as a heck of a basketball player who was going to make the transition to football due to his size.  The transition was a successful one as the for Red Wing star has been a mainstay in the lineup for the UND offense for 4 years now.  Along with teammate Noah Wanzek, Toivenen chose not to redshirt for the betterment of the team in 2016 and helped them earn their first Big Sky championship & playoff berth.  To date Toivenen has caught 126 passes for 1,526 yards and 12 TD’s over his Fighting Hawks career.  A great teammate and true success story.

 

20 Teddy Sherva RB 5-9 171 Anoka, Minn. / Anoka High School

Sherva came to UND from Central Lake College (MN) and redshirted in 2017.  He has played in five games over his career but has been a great locker room guy to have on the team.  There was a nice story written by Tom Miller about Teddy and his journey that ended at UND – take time to read it because it says alot about this young man.

 

 

28 Austin Gordon RB 5-9 203 Maple Grove, Minn. / Wayzata High School

Gordon began his career as a walk-on running back that showed some flashes of speed/quickness but was buried behind two all-time UND greats in John Santiago and Brady Oliveira.  Gordon then moved to OLB for a season before moving back to RB this year.  He has a been a swiss-army knife guy for the Hawks, including play on special teams.  Gordon rushed 48 times for 275 yards in his career.

 

31 Noah Wanzek WR 6-4 210 Jamestown, N.D. / Jamestown High School

The former Blue Jay standout was mostly known for basketball coming out of high school but transformed himself into one of the best wide receivers in school history through sheer effort & hard work.  Coaches have raved about Wanzek since his first year on campus when he started as a true freshman at WR.  When you talk about the “hometown North Dakota kid success story” – Wanzek is it.  For his career he has caught 190 passes for 2,535 yards and 18 TD’s. He has played in 43 games over 4 seasons for the Hawks.

 

33 James Johannesson RB 6-1 240 Fargo, N.D. / Fargo South High School

The former Fargo South Bruin began his career at Minnesota but transferred to UND for his sophomore season.  He backed up Oliveira and Santiago for two seasons but did rack up enough carries to show his speed and bruising running ability.  At 6’1″-240, Johannesson has been a nice complement to the smaller RB’s McKinney, Gee, and Gordon.  I was able to interview James earlier this year and he is a well-spoken guy.  For his career JJ has rushed the ball 245 times for 1,383 yards and 15 TD’s.

 

39 Tykeise Johnson DB 5-11 190 Coon Rapids, Minn. / Coon Rapids

The Central Lakes College transfer started most of the 2018 season at safety for the Hawks.  Johnson notched 46 tackles, 3 TFL’s, and 1 sack in his two year career at UND.  This season he has been a backup at safety but has been a valuable special teams contributor.

 

 

44 Donnell Rodgers LB 6-1 238 Woodbury, Minn. / Woodbury High School

The evolution of Donnell Rodgers at ILB has been impressive, to say the least.  The former high school running back came in as a bit of an unknown, at least to us, but has steadily become a force on the inside for Eric Schmidt’s defense.  In 2019, Rodgers has taken it to another level is playing at an all-conference level.  We compared it to the play of Will Ratelle back in 2015 when he led UND to a 7-4 record.  Despite only play in two games in 2017 due to injury, Rodgers has still amassed 224 tackles, 22 TFL’s, 9 sacks, and 2 INT’s in his career.

 

50 Andre Steiger LB 6-0 230 Glen Ellyn, Ill. / Glenbard South High School

The Chicago product came to UND as a walk-on linebacker but has slowly worked his way into the lineup to the point where he has played 50-60 plays a game the second half of this season. He has also been a steady contributor on special teams. In his career, Steiger has 61 tackles, 6 TFL’s and 2 sacks over 31 games.

 

 

55 Mason Bennett DE 6-4 258 Winnipeg, Manitoba / Vincent Massey High School

The Winnipeg product has been one of the most dominant Hawks defensive lineman in recent memory.  Bennett has improved each and every year to the point where he has been double-teamed on many occasions, which obviously helps out the defense as a whole.  A humble leader on the team, Bennett missed a few games this season due to injury but has played in 41 games over his four-year career and totaled 115 tackles to go along with an astounding 29.5 TFL’s and 18 sacks, which currently puts him 3rd overall in school history for that statistic.

 

58 Tyron Vrede LB 6-0 225  Amsterdam, Netherlands

Vrede has had a long, winding path to UND but has made the most of it during his time on campus.  Originally from the Netherlands, Vrede went to Garden City CC and then committed to the Hawks before the 2018 season.  Vrede played in 2018 and was granted another year this past offseason, which greatly helped UND’s depth at ILB.  Over his career Vrede has amassed 50 tackles, 10 TFL’s and 3.5 sacks.

 

67 Patric Rooney OL 6-3 289 Edina, Minn. / Benilde-St. Margaret’s School

The leader of the UND offensive line  – Rooney has been a rock at center for the past four seasons.  Despite missing several games earlier this season due to injury, Rooney has played in 40 games in his career and even scored a TD earlier this season when he quickly pounced on a loose ball in the end zone!  The offensive line has been an over-achieving unit all season and Rooney is the one that led the charge.

 

86 Alex Wilde WR 6-3 210 Sioux Falls, S.D. / SDSU

Wilde played three season at South Dakota State before transferring to UND in the off season.  Originally recruited by UND, Wilde instead chose the stay home and play for the Jackrabbits where he had 27 catches for 354 yards and 2 TD’s.  This season Wilde has been a backup at WR and has caught 2 passes for 34 yards.

 

88 Alex Cloyd TE 6-4 251 Omaha, Neb. / Millard South High School

The Omaha product originally came to UND has a big, athletic blocking TE but with the move to a spread offensive Cloyd slimmed down and became more of a receiving/special teams threat this season. Cloyd had two TD’s for his career coming into this season but has already caught 3 this year. He also has become a special teams ace, blocking TWO punts that both were recovered for TD’s and both essentially won the game for UND.  For his career, Cloyd caught 24 passes for 292 yards and 5 TD’s.