In what was once thought to be an easier ramp-up into conference play the Montana Grizzlies now find themselves facing a top 25 team at home in just their 2nd week of play. The UND Fighting Hawks were such an odd team last year, they were 5-2 at home with wins against Montana (ugh) and then were 0-5 on the road. It was hard to tell how legit UND really was and they closed out their 2024 with 5 straight losses.
UND has a new head coach this year after long-time coach Bubba Schweigert stepped down from the HC role and moved into an administrative one. New head coach Eric Schmidt (presumably no relation to Andrew) was previously with UND up until 2019 but then had left and had short stints as ST coordinator/D-line at Fresno, then ST/D-ends at Washington, and finally DC/LBs at San Diego State. Press writings show that the defensive scheme has adjusted a bit from their 3-4 that they ran a lot to a 4-2-5 – Schmidt is also acting as DC it appears for UND.
UND is returning 6 starters on offense and 5 on defense. Much of their OL from last year returns and as early press has shown their QB who we saw last year is on the team, but now in a backup position. UND didn’t get a lot of love in the MVFC pre-season poll though, voted to finish 7th out of 10. The MVFC doesn’t do pre-season all conference teams but releases a list of players to watch, UND had 2 running backs, 3 OL, 2 LBs, and 1 DB make the watch list.
I think we can all painfully remember last year’s UND game. Montana was up 24-7 at the half and would go on to lose 27-24 in a 2nd half where UND never had to punt, went on long & grueling drives, and Montana’s offense went ice cold.
North Dakota Fighting Hawks: 1-1
35-38 loss @ Kansas State: This game had 9 lead changes as the teams generally went score for score throughout the evening. KSU was looking like they were going to start pulling away at one point, near the end of the 3rd they scored to go up 31-21 and then holding UND to a 3 and out – however KSU’s offense fell apart for a while, with a 3 and out of their own – UND responds with a TD, then a turnover on downs – and UND scores again, now going up 35-31 with just about 4:30 left in the game. KSU woke up, put together a desperation drive and scored with just 32 seconds remaining to retake the lead, UND would get to mid-field in an attempt to win but no further as they ran out of time. The stats don’t suggest as close of a game as KSU out-rushed UND 143 to 102 and out-passed them 318 to 252. UND had a slight TOP advantage and held KSU to just 5 of 13 on 3rd downs.
50-20 win vs Portland State: A good “get right” game for UND, it was 36-6 at the half and they were in firm control of the game the whole way. UND found their ground game against hapless PSU with 275 rushing yards and an additional 171 passing. UND really controlled the clock too – 36:00 TOP and PSU had just 3 possessions total in the 2nd half.
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General Stats
Passing yards per game GRIZ (257 for GRIZ vs 211 for UND)
Rushing yards per game GRIZ (310 for GRIZ vs 189 for UND)
Total offense GRIZ (567 for GRIZ vs 400 for UND)
Passing yards allowed per game GRIZ (108 for GRIZ vs 232 for UND)
Rushing yards allowed per game UND (221 for GRIZ vs 113 for UND)
Total defense GRIZ (329 for GRIZ vs 345 for UND)
Offense points scored UND (42 for GRIZ vs 42.5 for UND)
Defense points allowed GRIZ (17 for GRIZ vs 29 for UND)
Turnover margin UND (-1 for GRIZ / +2 for UND)
Field goal % PUSH (0% for GRIZ vs 0% for UND)
Punt Returns UND (6 yards for GRIZ vs 16 yards for UND)
Kick Returns UND (15.3 yards for GRIZ vs 21.6 yards for UND)
T.O.P. UND (23:51 for GRIZ vs 33:24 for UND)
Red Zone defense (touchdowns) GRIZ (66% GRIZ / 80% UND)
Red Zone offense (touchdowns) GRIZ (85% GRIZ / 78.6% UND)
3rd down offense GRIZ – (58.3% for GRIZ / 38.5% for UND)
3rd down defense GRIZ – (28.5% allowed for GRIZ vs 40.9% allowed for UND)
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I’m having a hell of a time getting the side by side image created so for now I’ll just post that the tally is Montana 10 / UND 6 / Push 1. If I can get the image done I’ll share it later.
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North Dakota Players to Watch:
#11 Jerry Kaminski, QB: Jerry was on the team last year and backed up their other QB, Romfro, but has taken the starting job this year and is rocking it. In two games he’s the leading rusher with 74 total yards and 3 rushing TDs, he’s also passing for just about 200 yards per game and has 5 passing TDs and 0 INTs this season. He’s listed at 6-2, 210 pounds. He’s going to be as much, if not more, of a problem as the CWU QB was.
#9 Seidl Sawyer, RB: UND rotates a lot of RBs, Sawyer is the starter, listed at 5-10, 175. He’s got 69 rushing yards and 2 rushing TDs. He’s also got 15 receiving yards, and we’ll see him returning kicks, he’s got a 36 yard return this year already.
#20 Xavier Leigh, RB: Leigh is a guy we’ll see kind of all over, listed as a running back, he’s got the most amount of carries on the team at 19 – but he’s 4th in total rushing yards with 60. He’s the leading receiver though, he’s got 6 catches for 68 yards.
#84 Nathan Hromadka, TE: This guy is a big dude and a real RZ threat, he’s 6-6, 230 pounds and is 2nd on the team in receptions with 62 and he’s got a team high 2 TD receptions.
#7 Malachi McNeal, LB: McNeal made the MVFC “watch list”, he’s 2nd on the team in tackles right now with 10, he’s already got 3 QB hits as well. He’s listed as a 6-1, 230 pound LB. Last year he had 68 tackles, 6 TFLs, 2 sacks.
#0 Lance Rucker, DE: Rucker had 37 stops and 2 sacks last season plus 1 fumble forced and 1 recovery. He’s got 7 tackles, 1 TFL, and has even blocked a kick so far this year. He’s listed at 6-3, 230 pounds, he also made the MVFC watch list.
#11 Zach Lewis, DB: An NAU transfer, he’s a safety, he’s got 6 tackles, 0.5 sacks, he’s got a few returned punts too. At NAU over 2 seasons he had 113 tackles, 3 INTs, and 1 forced fumble.
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Keys to a Grizzly victory
- Stop / Slow the run – What killed Montana last year against UND and what hurt them in the first half of the CWU game was some inability to stop the run. UND runs a lot of split zone plays and their QB will be a pain in the ass as a mobile QB. We’ll need more of what we saw in the 2nd half instead of the 1st half of last week’s game. The Grizzly DE’s and LB’s need to set and hold the edge far better.
- Force UND errors – It’s a tall ask b/c so far they really haven’t made any. UND has already played a game in a hostile spot too, so they’ll be somewhat acclimated to the crowd. I think the Grizzly defense needs to force 2 or more turnovers – can we get their QB to actually throw a pick or two?
- Keep everything in front of you – I’m worried about some more deep shots here, CWU tried to throw a few tricks at us that monumentally failed but I’d bet we get more trickery from UND. Griz will have to concede some yards I’d bet but lets not get beat deep.
- Standout special teams – It looks like we’ll get tested big time here, the Montana ST vs UND could be something to watch. Their return game is really good and ours statistically would’ve looked much better save a penalty that negated a kick. The team that can better flip the field could be the winner.
- Convert those damn 3rd downs – Can’t have a repeat of last year, just can’t. The offense has to keep the ball moving and cannot go ice cold.
- Making field goals might be the difference maker – Montana hasn’t attempted a kick yet, meanwhile UND has missed both of their attempts, both against PSU. Their kicker is a returning guy and was pretty solid the year before going 14-19 – not sure what was going on against PSU.
- Step-up games from guys not named Wortham and Gillman – Cat is already out of the bag that we’ve got two absolute dudes, Gillman was known before the season and Wortham’s now a known quantity too. This game I’d really like to see more from Davis, Bohannon, Deck, Gale, and Rocker – I think UND is going to key in on stacking the box to stop Gillman and keeping a sharp eye on wherever Rocker goes. This should create opportunities for others.
- WA Griz needs to be wild – Can’t stress this enough, we’ll need far more crowd energy than we had last week. I don’t think the K-State crowd brought the energy we know we can bring. Keeping the Griz motivated and UND rattled is a must, that’s what we can do on Saturday!
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I think this will be a tough one, I really like what I see from the UND offense and the CWU game gives me some worry about Montana’s ability to stop the run, wrap up, and really impose their will defensively. If this turns into a knock-down / drag-out fight is Montana prepared enough to come out on top? We’ll see!
Obviously there’s some motivation from last year (for the portion of the team that remembers that game) so I’d bet some guys are really looking forward to getting back out there against these guys. I also think this game could be a pretty quick one, in terms of lot of run plays that keeps the play clock moving fast – meaning that Montana’s drives need to all be pretty solid.
I like our chances considering we’re at home, but I see a nail biter. I’m going to call it a Montana victory, but it ain’t pretty… 24-20.
Go Griz!
