UND Football Looks To Carry 2021 Mojo Into Fall

The Fighting Hawks held their first official practice on Friday morning at Memorial Stadium in Grand Forks

GRAND FORKS, ND (KVRR) – North Dakota had been in a football state of mind all summer but today, for the first time, they got to strap on the pads and hit the field.

“I haven’t really had much time off so just been going football, football, football so we were ready to just get back out here and start another season,” said senior Linebacker Jaxon Turner.

Just four months removed from their last game, an FCS Quarterfinals loss to James Madison rounding out their first year in the Missouri Valley at (5-2).

“We really try to put it behind us but take the good things we did and try to build off them and repeat those in the fall,” Quarterback Tommy Schuster said.

“Ball security, running to the football, those things are what we’re going to look for early cause if we aren’t doing those well, than that means your team isn’t ready to go,” Head Coach Bubba Schweigert said.

A lot of energy on the first day but to Head Coach Bubba Schweigert, that’s expected.

“First day is easy, everybody is excited. But now when you start getting sore and it starts getting more challenging to be out here. Maybe it’s a little hotter, maybe it’s windy someday. Can you be excited and have that same enthusiasm then? That’s really important.”

UND gets going in just over a month when they visit Idaho State on September 4th. It’ll be the first of back to back road games for the Fighting Hawks before returning home to host Drake for their first home game on September 18th.