The UND football team scrimmages at Memorial Stadium last Saturday. Photo by Jennifer Friese/The Dakota Student.

The UND football team finished its final spring practices this past Saturday with a team scrimmage at Memorial Stadium.

For head coach Bubba Schweigert, this was an opportunity to get an early look at who will be starting this fall.

The quarterback position had yet to be determined.

“We’re going to look at it tomorrow and evaluate it,” Schweigert said. “We would like to go into our summer with a quarterback named, and we’ll look at it and evaluate what we saw today and throughout the spring. It’s just not a one day decision.”

Sophomore Ryan Bartels and freshman Keaton Studsrud both saw action under center on Saturday morning. Both quarterbacks were able to register a touchdown pass, as Strudrund went 8-for-15 with 133 yards passing. Bartels went 10-for-15 with 86 yards, completing three touchdown passes.

“Offensively, we made some big plays and changed field position,” Schweigert said. “I was happy to see that. Obviously, if we’re going to play the way we want to play, we’re going to have to really take care of the football, and we got to do a better job of that.”

The second year head coach took some positives out of Saturday’s scrimmage, but Schweigert still feels there are areas of his team’s game that need improvement.

“We have had a pretty balanced spring,” Schweigert said. “Whenever we went competitively, we had the offense make plays. Some days, we had defense make some plays, but what we are trying to look for is consistency, and that’s the goal. If there is one thing we have to look at, our offense was early in the scrimmage. We have to be much more competitive in those short-yardage situations. I thought defensively, that’s where we were a little bit ahead today.”

The defensive side of the ball came up with four turnovers in the 60 play scrimmage.

Bartels was picked twice while the defense recovered two more fumbles. Though this was a time for players to prove what they will be able to provide for the team in the fall, Schweigert decided to keep out 20 players out of the action.

Stopping the run was where North Dakota’s defense was at its best. Out of the four North Dakota running backs who got carries, none of them rushed for more than 10 yards.

“Stopping the run, you can’t put it in any other way,” defensive lineman Jordan Hinojosa said. “We were violent, we were vicious and the run game — they just couldn’t get through us, couldn’t stop our front seven.”

North Dakota also didn’t see action from recent University of Minnesota transfer Jephete Matilus.

The linebacker played in 21 games as a Gopher and will play his final season of collegiate football with UND. Matillus is known for his abilities on special teams, and will compete for a playing time at the outside linebacker position.

While many players are looking for a place on the field, last weekend proved valuable in working toward improvement.

“I thought we did well,” freshman quarterback Keaton Studtrud said. “We obviously have a lot of things to work on. Overall, I thought it was a good day to get out and get some contact and to go live against the defense is always good. I thought we had some improvements in some areas, and obviously there is some work we need to do in others.”

Ben Novak is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected].