5 things to know about UND football's weekly press conference

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Aug. 18—GRAND FORKS — UND football head coach Eric Schmidt and offensive coordinator Danny Freund addressed the media Monday during the program's weekly press conference at Memorial Village.

Here are five highlights from the press conference.

Schmidt said a handful of true freshmen are pushing to both see the field and make the travel squad.

With the new five-year eligibility rules, college football programs no longer need to designate which true freshmen they'd like to play a first season.

On the offensive line, although most starting roles are established, Schmidt said a few rookies are pushing for backup jobs including Central Cass' Aiden Wunderlich, Evan Zabel of Alexandria and Jordan Ellis of Waukegan, Ill.

"I think they're battling to get on the plane to be in the top 10, 11, 12 guys in our offensive line," Schmidt said. "I think that's been a positive — just the depth there that we feel like those guys can add to us."

Schmidt said there is potential for rookies to play at the wide receiver position and at linebacker, notably Nate Appleget.

"We knew that was a position there was going to be some opportunity there for young guys to be able to play," Schmidt said. "We have a lot of guys who have FR after their name, whether that's first or second year guys. I think that competition is ongoing. But I do think Nate will be a guy we're going to count on here to to help us. He'll play some reps on defense. You know, if we play tomorrow, he'll play some reps on special teams there, as well."

Mason and Isaac Beaver at defensive tackle are also expected to play as true freshmen.

"Mason and Isaac Beaver are going to be guys that are, without saying, going to play football for us, and they're going to be guys that'll be on the field on Saturday," Schmidt said.

Schmidt said the latest stretch of fall camp has been the most challenging, and that's by design.

The Hawks went through Practice No. 17 on Tuesday morning.

"Wednesday will be practice 18, and then we transition into some of our Long Island prep after that," Schmidt said. "So our guys have done a great job. We talk a lot around here about great teams are built in practice, just precise training, doing a great job with skills and techniques and fundamentals and situational football.

"That's where we ended the last block. We have a saying around here that practice is about performance and the games are for learning, and we give our guys a ton of feedback. Feel like there's a huge opportunity for growth right now because of how much we're investing in football. It's football all day, so this last block was was probably the most challenging block that we had for our guys. We wanted to create the most challenging practices that we could, obviously, in the in the safest environment possible. But I thought our guys have really leaned into and pursued it. We have a lot of what I call devastators on our team. If you took football away from them, they would be devastated. It's a huge part of their lives, and I've really been excited just to watch the guys go through this process."

UND opens the season Aug. 27, Thursday, against Long Island at the Alerus Center.

UND's kicking competition might have a surprise candidate.

In what was expected to be a race between Kenten Laughman, who handled kicking duties after the injury to C.J. Elrichs last season, and Sawyer Riffle, a true freshman from Brainerd, Schmidt indicated another name is in the mix: punter Luke Silvernale.

"We feel really good about Luke where we're at as far as punting," Schmidt said. "I think the kickoff job yet and the field goal job are … Luke's a guy that has put his name squarely into that conversation."

Silvernale, a senior from Grand Rapids, Mich., had a punting average of 44.4 yards last season with a Missouri Valley Football Conference-best 26 punts inside the 20-yard line.

Silvernale has 39 career kickoffs with seven touchbacks.

Despite practicing with live tackling quite a few times during fall camp, Schmidt said the team is mostly healthy.

He expected just three players to be sitting out early this week with injuries among the 100-plus players on the roster.

"The goal now is these next two days is to finish strong, to do a great job of being able to to finish this thing the right way," Schmidt said. "A lot of positives. We'll probably have everybody in some capacity practicing tomorrow, except for three guys. So that's a good spot to be in when when you got after it here as much as we as we have. There's a certain amount of volume that I think that you got to go live in order to get your team ready to go for the first game. We've done that, and now it's it's about finishing strong and getting ready for Long Island."

Freund was asked to assess his group of wide receivers.

He said Deng Deng, Caleb Goodloe and Korey Tai have separated as the leaders.

"Deng has so much potential," Freund said. "He's had a really good summer, good fall camp. Goodloe has really been impressive, consistent day in and day out. Tai is a guy who is really talented and just developing the confidence in him."

Freund pointed to Cam Weir, Kristen Hoskins and Sam Strandell as pushing to be in the next mix at wide receiver.

"There's some young guys too that are kind of pushing," Freund said. "It's a deeper, competitive group. It's maybe not as much production and game experience, but I think that won't matter as much once these guys get on the field. I think people will see the talent level they have and the connection they have with the quarterbacks."

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