Getty North Dakota Fighting Hawks head coach Bubba Schweigert.
The North Dakota State Bison will host the North Dakota Fighting Hawks at the Fargodome on Saturday in the Missouri Valley Football Conference’s spring season, which was prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The game (3:30 p.m. ET start time) will be televised locally on NBC North Dakota and MidCO SN, but if you don’t have those channels, anyone in the US can watch North Dakota vs North Dakota State football live on ESPN+ right here:
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North Dakota vs North Dakota State Preview
The Fighting Hawks, playing in their first MVFC campaign, pounded the Western Illinois Bulldogs 38-21 last week to improve to 4-0 on the spring season, with all their games coming in conference play.
Redshirt freshman quarterback Tommy Schuster completed 29 of 37 passes for 328 yards and a trio of touchdowns in the team’s first road test of the year. Running backs Otis Weah and Luke Skokna, a redshirt sophomore and a sophomore, respectively, combined to rush 32 times for 196 yards and a pair of scores.
“It was new for a lot of our guys — we have 17 guys that had never been on a trip here at UND,” North Dakota head coach Bubba Schweigert said, according to the school’s athletics website. “I thought our players handled the travel well and I challenged them to focus on the performance.”
A victory against North Dakota State would give the Fighting Hawks their first 5-0 start since they joined Division I in 2008.
The Fighting Hawks and NDSU haven’t met in conference action since 2003, when they were members of the North Central Conference in Division II. The teams squared off in 2015 and 2019, with the Bison sweeping their in-state rivals by a combined score of 72-16.
“It’s obviously a big game for us, we haven’t been in the same league for many years,” Schweigert said, per the school’s athletics site. “We’re looking forward to that. We’re trying to get our fifth win and it would be over a very good football team and a program that we have a lot of respect for.”
The Bison improved to 3-1 in the conference’s spring season last week, besting the Illinois State Redbirds 21-13 at home. NDSU is 4-1 on the year, as they defeated the Central Arkansas Bears 39-28 back in October.
Against the Redbirds, freshman quarterback Cam Miller completed 5 of 7 passes for 61 yards, adding 57 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
This week, Bison head coach Matt Entz praised North Dakota for their undefeated start and complimented the work of offensive coordinator Danny Freund, as the Fighting Hawks are averaging 32.8 points per game.
“Right now, on paper, they’re better than we are,” Entz said, according to the Grand Forks Herald. “In their two-deep, they have 14 seniors. Everyone loves to have that veteran leadership. There’s continuity in the program. Coach (Danny) Freund has done a really good job in his second year. I’m sure there’s a level of consistency and comfort they have in his system. I’m sure they’re playing really confident because they’ve beat some good football teams.”