Oct. 6—GRAND FORKS — After UND’s win last Saturday in the postgame locker room area on Northern Iowa’s campus, Fighting Hawks head coach quickly addressed his team’s focus.
UND snapped an eight-game road losing streak in dominant fashion against the Panthers, but Schmidt had his team thinking about Youngstown State quickly.
The Hawks, who rose two spots in the FCS Top 25 on Monday and now rank No. 13, kick off with the Penguins at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Alerus Center.
“I think that our guys are confident, and they understand what the work it takes in order to be a winning football team,” Schmidt said. “You’ve got to respect that every week. We have to be able to handle success, too. You go on the road and have a good result, but, man, that doesn’t change how we handle (Sunday).
“It doesn’t change how we start preparing on Monday and our coaches have got to do a great job of that because I think sometimes when you’re hurting it’s easy to come back and want to play better. When you have a positive result, maybe some things that you put on tape that aren’t sound, that shows up. That’s going to get exposed throughout the rest of the year. We have to go reset. We know we have a really good team coming to our place. You get to earn your way into big-time games at your place. I can’t wait to see our place. Saturday afternoon is going to be a great environment. It’s going to be a huge football game.”
UND lost in overtime at Youngstown State last season, missing a two-point conversion to win the game.
The Hawks improved to 3-2 with the win over UNI, while Youngstown State is the top team receiving votes just outside the Top 25.
The Penguins are also 3-2 after leading No. 2 South Dakota State 17-7 at halftime before falling 35-30 in Youngstown, Ohio.
“Even after a game like that, we got in the film room (Sunday), and there’s a lot to learn from and a lot to correct,” UND sophomore quarterback Jerry Kaminski said. “I think that’s the fun part about it. You put up 28 points on offense, and there’s so much to correct and there’s so much to get better at. I think it just makes you so much more excited for that next week. I think that’s what keeps us ready to go is just watching that film and knowing how much better we can play.”
UND offensive coordinator Isaac Fruechte wasn’t pleased with himself and the offense in third-down situations and red-zone time against the Panthers.
“The exciting thing is they’re still starving to get better,” Fruechte said. “We had a good day (Sunday) in terms of learning from the film and getting better, then working to apply what we’re doing. It’s awesome to have a leadership council that says, hey, we want to get more reps on a Sunday. It shows us some commitment and falling in love with the process.”
