I don’t know about you but I had an outstanding time on Saturday. What an atmosphere that was inside the Alerus Center!
The UND football team and staff was sick of hearing fans complain about how they can’t win the big game. They can’t beat the Bison. Can’t do this, can’t do that. Blah Blah. The Hawks came out like a pissed off football team that wanted to end all narratives. A team on a mission.
A score of 49-24 did just that – end all narratives of what they cannot do.
Credit to Bubba Schweigert, Danny Freund, Joel Schwenzfeier and staff on having their team ready to play. Saturday was the most complete game they have ever played vs a quality opponent. The game plan’s were surprisingly simple. Run the ball a lot. Stop the run and make the Bison throw.
Where else to start than Luke Skokna’s electric opening kickoff return for a touchdown. The Alerus Center went absolutely bananas and it set the tone for the game. It showed UND was ready to go in this one and is a different animal at home. Great blocking by Shawn Kostich’s return team, as well. I don’t think anybody even touched Skokna.
Not to be outdone, Malachi McNeal burst through the inside of the Bison front and blocked their punt in middle of first quarter. Two huge special teams plays all in a matter of 10 game minutes. That is how you win a big game!
The UND offensive line was dominant. The best I have seen them look, maybe ever. The running game was there from the beginning to the end. UND did to NDSU what the Bison have done to them so many times down in the Fargodome. The Hawks rushed for 215 yards on 39 carries. NDSU only rushed for 148 yards on 39 carries.
The holes were noticeable on a consistent basis and pass protection was solid when called upon. The line of scrimmage was moving down field on run plays. When you see UND running on third down and converting – things are going good.
UND was 9-12 on third down. NDSU was 5-12.
The most impressive part was UND just ran the ball at will. Their worst runs were two yards falling forward. The running backs were always falling forward, which tells you they are stronger than the guys tackling them & the pile is moving the right direction. That wears on a defender after awhile.
Fullback/tight end Jaden Norby was having a day blocking, as well. Quite the weapon in the run game on the counter/swipe stuff.
RB Gaven Ziebarth was a war daddy on Saturday. He has become the between the tackles runner in 2023 with the departure of Tyler Hoosman, who was excellent at that role last season. The holes were sizeable but Ziebarth would then drag defenders for more yards all on his own. He ended the day with 161 yards on 18 carries. Definitely a coming out party for Ziebarth on the big stage.
Danny Freund committed to the run and shelved the fancy stuff. UND only threw the ball 12 times, with Tommy Schuster completing 9 of them (9-113-2 TD). No trick plays, just straight diesel all game.
The boxes were so light all game. 5 defenders, maybe 6 at the most. It was probably pretty easy to keep running it. It feels like NDSU spread out a bit too much with UND’s 11 personnel, etc.
Freund seemed to have NDSU figured out when it came to pressures. Multiple times I noticed he had an RPO called when the Bison were bringing pressure from their linebackers. One time in particular was Luke Skokna’s 13 yard touchdown reception where UND lined up in quads. Tommy had the run option first, but saw the pressure coming, knew he didn’t have the numbers so he threw the bubble to Skokna. They now had three blockers for whoever was left and Skokna made one miss on the way to the end zone.
Bo Belquist gutted it out with a bad shoulder and made a difference. His twisting touchdown was all him. Bo had 2 catches for 41 yards and the one TD.
The UND defense battled their ass off all game. Much like they did in 2021, they slowed down the Bison rushing game greatly, forcing them to throw for their yardage this time. The defensive line did their job and allowed the inside linebackers to fly around. Not super flashy but definitely effective. Tackling was very good in this one – sure, definitive tackling.
DE Ben McNaboe was a terror off the edge. He had UND’s lone sack and was in QB Cam Miller’s face on the interception. Very active and disruptive. Speaking of disruptive, Wyatt Pedigo was a wild man again out there. Kid has endless energy and endless desire to hit people.
C.J. Siegel made the play of the game on his 3rd quarter interception. It was 28-17 and NDSU was driving. A score there is not great for UND and momentum. Siegel read the stalk/leak out route that UND also likes to run, coming off his deep clearing route to jump the pass and bring it all the back to the NDSU 23.
The Bison came out second half and ran pin & pull right away, something they didn’t do to my recollection in first half. That can be tough to defend if it gets going. However, UND safety Cole Davis flew up “Cole Reyes-style” and knifed it down for a three yard gain in the alley. If he doesn’t make that tackle T.K. Marshall was more than likely gone for a long touchdown. Huge play. NDSU then pretty much gave up on the pin & pull stuff, surprisingly.
NDSU QB Cam Miller did his best to keep NDSU in it but their passing game is so limited that when they get behind it’s hard to catch up. Miller ended the day 11-16 for 175 yards and 1 TD. He also added a rushing touchdown on their first score of the game. UND had a perfect call on that TD run but the OLB got caught in no-man’s land and couldn’t get back out to Miller who ran around the end for the easy touchdown.
We stated in the podcast that the Bison running back rushing game didn’t worry us much. That held true as Tamerik Williams and Marshall combined for only 71 yards on 15 carries.
In fact, we were most worried about the QB rushing game, which killed UND last year. This year NDSU only tried it a couple times to very modest results, pretty much abandoning it once they saw how UND was going to defend it. Strange decision, to say the least, but I suppose when you get behind it’s hard to justify tough QB run yards.
Senior safety Kadon Kauppinen played his tail off all game. You could see this meant something to him the way he was taking on lead blockers, attacking the alley repeatedly on runs/screen plays. His passion was noticeable and fun to watch.
The referees refused to call holding. So many holding penalties could’ve been called but they wouldn’t do it for some reason. Just brutal. Then, when they finally called one it was on a third down incompletion. Gee thanks.
UND only punted once in the game.
Kickoff coverage was excellent in this one. Those guys were absolutely flying down the field and limited UND to a total of 64 return yards on three attempts.
Time to get back on the horse. The season keeps rolling on and UND has all their goals still right there for them to achieve. Next up is the Northern Iowa Panthers (3-3). This is a good football team that plays very well at home (sound familiar?). It is a resume-building game that will also keep UND in the Top 10 of the polls with a victory.
Kickoff is set for 4:00pm.
Photos courtesy of Russell Hons and UND Athletics