GRAND FORKS, N.D. – After a month-long build up to the College Football season in the Red River Valley, the University of North Dakota will open its 2021 season on Saturday, Sept. 4 at Idaho State. The No. 8 ranked Fighting Hawks and Bengals will kickoff at 2:05 p.m. Central time.
The matchup will air live on ESPN+ as well as on The Home of Economy Radio Network with the pregame game show starting at 1:30 p.m. Jack Michaels and Tom Dosch will have the call on KFGO 790 and 104.7 FM with the assistance of Paul Ralston on the sidelines.
UND begins the season as a consensus top-10 in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) for the first time since 2017, ranking eighth in the Stats Perform and as high as seventh in the FCS Coaches Poll. It is only the third time in North Dakota’s FCS history it has begun the season ranked in the Preseason Polls.
Head coach Bubba Schweigert enters his eighth season leading the Fighting Hawks, who are playing on the road to open the season for the first time since 2017, aiming for its first road-opening win since 2015 when North Dakota defeated Wyoming for the team’s first FBS win, 24-13.
While the Fighting Hawks are coming off of a 5-2 campaign that saw them advance to the Quarterfinals of the FCS Playoffs, Idaho State finished the COVID-19 Spring season of 2021 2-4. However, the Bengals defeated their rival Idaho, who ranked 24th in the country. The scrappy ISU program ranked eighth in the country in passing thanks to the arm Tyler Vander Waal, the reigning Big Sky Conference Newcomer of the Year.
– The University of North Dakota finished 5-2 last Spring and reached the Quarterfinals of the FCS Playoffs.
– Bubba Schweigert’s teams are 4-3 in season-openers, leading North Dakota to victory in the last three.
– The Fighting Hawks were one of the least penalized teams in Spring 2021, finishing fourth in FCS with 3.43 per game.
– North Dakota was one of nine teams to block multiple punts last season and is one of only eight teams to accomplish the feat in three of the last four years in FCS.
– UND is ranked inside the top-10 inside both the Stats Perform and FCS Coaches Polls, ranking eighth in the former and seventh in the latter.
– Matt Waletzko and Otis Weah combined for eight preseason All-America honors this summer.
– Weah was also named to Walter Payton Award Watch List as one of 35 players named by Stats Perform.
– The Fall 2021 opener is UND’s first season-opener on the road since 2017 when the University of North Dakota met Utah.
– North Dakota’s last win on the road in a season-opener was in 2015 when the Kelly Green and White defeated Wyoming in 2015 to earn the program’s first win over a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent.
– Saturday’s contest will be the ninth meeting between UND and ISU since the series began in 1965. The Fighting Hawks lead the all-time series, 5-3.
– Since 2008, North Dakota is 8-5 in season-openers.
– The Fighting Hawks finished the Spring of 2021 ranked 10th in the FCS in sacks with 11 players accounting for 24 sacks. UND returns 10 of those players.
– North Dakota’s offense set a record for fewest negative plays in a season (24) and only allowed two sacks to finish third in the NCAA and first in the Missouri Valley Football Conference.