Getty North Dakota Fighting Hawks head coach Bubba Schweigert.
The North Dakota Fighting Hawks football team will visit the Idaho State Bengals at Holt Arena in Pocatello on Saturday for each side’s 2021 season opener.
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The game (3 p.m. ET start time) isn’t on TV anywhere, but anyone in the US can watch North Dakota vs Idaho State live on ESPN+:
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Once signed up for ESPN+, you can watch North Dakota vs Idaho State live on the ESPN app on your Roku, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV or Firestick, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4 or 5, Xbox One or Series X/S, any device with Android TV (such as a Sony TV or Nvidia Shield), Samsung Smart TV, Oculus Go, iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet.
You can also watch on your computer via ESPN.com.
North Dakota vs Idaho State Preview
The Fighting Hawks went 4-1, all in Missouri Valley Football Conference play, in last school year’s pandemic-shortened spring regular season. They reached the FCS Playoffs quarterfinals before falling to the James Madison Dukes 34-21 on May 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,” UND quarterback Tommy Schuster, a second-year starter, said in August, according to KVRR.
The Hawks will open their 2021 fall campaign at the site of one of the worst defeats in program history; in 2019, the Bengals rode a 28-point second quarter to a 55-20 demolition of UND at Holt Arena.
“We haven’t really talked about it a whole lot,” eighth-year Hawks head coach Bubba Schweigert recently said of that defeat, according to the Grand Forks Herald. “Some guys have been there before, but we approach it as we’re a new team. Our guys and coaches know we have to play better.”
While both teams racked up yardage through the air, Idaho State dominated on the ground, rushing 33 times for 213 yards; the Hawks managed just 97 yards on 25 runs.
“The (2019) game got away from us in a hurry in the second quarter,” Schweigert said, per the Grand Forks Herald. “I don’t think we handled it very well, and we compounded our issues. We have to play better. We want to be more balanced to control the tempo of the game. Running the football is part of that.”
Since-departed UND quarterback Nate Ketteringham went 33-of-56 for 360 yards, 2 touchdowns and as many picks. Matt Struck, still the Bengals starter, went 23-of-41 for 396 yards and 5 scores. He didn’t take any sacks.
“They do a good job of getting rid of the ball and some of that was on us a little bit,” Schweigert said, per the Grand Forks Herald. “We always want to pressure the quarterback. That’s been done around here for a long time. Once again, it’s a different team and a different set of circumstances.”
Despite the explosive victory, the Bengals went 3-9 in 2019. Their winning percentage improved only slightly in 2020, going 2-4 in their Big Sky-only slate.
“Defensively, the amount of movement and stuff they throw at you, you have to pick and choose what you want to do,” fifth-year Idaho State head coach Rob Phenicie said of the Hawks, per the Grand Forks Herald. “We dedicated a lot of time to North Dakota this fall camp.”
He added: “You have to be prepared against a Bubba Schweigert-coached team.”