Nov. 11—GRAND FORKS — The UND football team had two key situations to grab control of the game last Saturday against North Dakota State at the Alerus Center.
The Fighting Hawks had an opportunity on first-and-goal from the 3 to try to get ahead 14-3 early in the game. Instead, UND threw three incomplete passes and missed a short field goal.
Then, late in the fourth quarter, UND was stuffed on fourth-and-1 from midfield when the Bison knifed into the backfield on a Jerry Kaminski quarterback designed run. If UND extends that drive, the Bison comeback becomes a much more difficult proposition.
On Monday, as the Hawks try to turn the page from the 15-10 loss to the Bison for two final regular-season games, UND offensive coordinator Isaac Fruechte knows criticism comes with the territory.
“It doesn’t bother me at all,” Fruechte said of fans second-guessing his play-calling.
Fruechte said he sees two key issues in short-yardage shortcomings for the Hawks.
The first issue is self-inflicted miscues. UND was facing third-and-goal at the 1 leading up to the first-and-goal at the 3 situation. A false start penalty at the 1 pushed UND back to the 6 before a Bison defensive penalty brought the ball back to the 3.
The second issue is personnel, which Fruechte said deserves more of his attention in that situation.
“I think I can do a better job of making sure that we’re all on the same page through the week and have the right guys in the game, so that we can go and execute at a high level,” Fruechte said. “In no way, shape or form would I go back and change anything that we did. I trusted what our kids did throughout the week. I trusted the plan and the prep. I think we had the right idea with it.
“You look at it and say, yeah, we threw it a bunch of times. Well, two of the three plays were run-pass options. So if one guy moves to the left a little bit, then everybody is happy because we run the ball. It is what it is. I’m not going to dictate my life off of certain people. It’s all good. We’re going to be all right. We’re going to get it fixed. We’re going to do a good job of executing at a high level.”
UND head coach Eric Schmidt said he maybe should’ve called a timeout on fourth down.
“There just wasn’t a great look for us,” Schmidt said. “The offensive line didn’t want to stand over the ball and wanted to get off and be able to try to get a half a yard, but I think the right thing to do there was either to try to freeze them, see the look they’re in and get in the right play, or just call timeout and make sure we’re giving our guys the best opportunity to be able to win. But even after that, there were still a lot of avenues to still win that football game.”
Adding to the issues of short yardage, especially at the goal line, are two key injuries for UND. Running back Gaven Ziebarth, a bigger frame than UND’s other primary back in Sawyer Seidl, has been sidelined with a collarbone injury the last few weeks.
On Monday, Schmidt said Ziebarth has surprised the staff with his quick recovery. The hope was for Ziebarth to participate in non-contact drills at practice this week to build up for a chance to play in the regular-season finale at home against South Dakota State, a game that could determine UND’s playoff fate.
The other injury hanging over UND’s trouble in the red zone is the team’s kicking situation. Starting kicker C.J. Elrichs has also been out the last few weeks due to injury. Schmidt said Monday the team hopes to have Elrichs back for this weekend’s matchup at Murray State.
Who: No. 13 UND at Murray State.
When: 11 a.m. Saturday
Where: Murray, Kent.
Records: UND 6-4, Murray State 0-10.
