UND FB Hopes A Win This Weekend will be Enough for Playoff Berth

Fighting Hawks Beat Northern Arizona in 2016 to Win Big Sky Conference

GRAND FORKS, N.D — Win and they’re in. That’s the way North Dakota Football is treating Saturday’s regular season finale. While they can’t control what might happen elsewhere this weekend, they can control on trying to beat Northern Arizona. A win gives them hope. With everything at stake this time around, the team hopes to come out on top this weekend.

“We just have to go into each game with confidence. Confidence in our preparation. I feel like the coaches are going to get us ready for this week,” senior captain John Santiago said. “The mentality will be the same, just go out there play the best to our potential and hopefully come out with a successful result.”

“Every game has been a big opportunity. I think we just continue what we’ve been doing all season. We want to take things day-by-day. We want to really make sure we execute on everything throughout the week,” senior running back Brady Oliveira said. ” If we have great preparation, when we do go out there we’ll feel well prepared. We’ll go out there and come out victorious.”

“We just need to focus on the preparation and focus on the game plan. If you sleep, you eat, and you rest then you can perform at a high level. It’s if you cut corners and don’t do any of those properly, you won’t,” head coach Bubba Schweigert said. “Today helps us with a day off from school. It’s all about preparation and you’ll be confident in the game.”

The last time UND played Northern Arizona in 2016, the Hawks clinched the Big Sky Conference. They hope for the same luck this weekend.

Kick-off on Saturday is set for 3;30 p.m. central time.