UND Football Working On Closing Out Games Heading into 2019 Season

Fighting Hawks started 5-2; Finished 6-5

GRAND FORKS, N.D. — North Dakota football had a great start to their 2018 season going 5–and–2 through their first seven games. One of the issues addressed this off season, how the Fighting Hawks finished.

In the final four games, UND closed out with a 1–and–3 record missing out on the FCS playoffs at 6–and–5. The Hawks have been building off what went wrong down the stretch of the season.

Offensive coordinator Danny Freund says that starts with improving the team’s chemistry and growing more together as a unit.

“The biggest thing to me is the team chemistry. The connection those guys have with their teammates,” Freund said. “Finding ways to ‘hey when it gets tough in the fourth quarter do you trust the guy next to you to do his job.’ We’ve really tried to build those relationships and really push that through to our team this year and I think having seniors who have been through some of those games, the experience part of it is going to pay off for us.

The UND offense returns starting quarterback Nate Ketteringham, running back James Johanassen and receiver Noah Wanzek just to name a few.