Now that the dog days of training camp are in the rearview mirror, the UND Football can fully focus on the beginning of the season and starting off the year on the right foot.

The Green and White kick things off against Wyoming this Saturday in Laramie, WY.

While this is the first time the two football programs have played each other, there is already some familiarity between the two coaches.

UND coach Bubba Schweigert was the defensive coordinator at Southern Illinois while Wyoming head coach Craig Bohl coached rival Missouri Valley Conference program North Dakota State University. During that time, the Bison went 3-1 against Schweigert and Southern Illinois.

It is always difficult to face an FBS football program, but UND has a lot of the tools to make life hard for the Cowboys.

“We haven’t gotten that FBS win yet,” UND captain Dayo Idowu said. “It is a huge opportunity.”

One of Wyoming’s strengths last year was in their run game. Their tandem backfield of Brian Hill and Shaun Wick rushed for 796 and 753 yards respectively, while also adding a combined 13 rushing touchdowns.

The good news for UND fans is that the Green and White specialized in stuffing the run last season and will look to continue that trend.

Anchored by captains Will Ratelle and Dayo Idowu, UND led the Big Sky Conference in run defense by only allowing 12 rushing touchdowns and 2.7 yards a carry all season.

When asked what is going to be key against Wyoming, Ratelle seemed confident in what the team needed to do; continue what it did best last year.

“We need to stop the run. They like to pound the rock up the middle.” Ratelle said. “If we can stuff it up there, I think that we will be in good shape.”

While it will be important to monitor the rushing battle between the two teams, another story to watch is the men who will be throwing the football.

Wyoming will be starting a new quarterback this year, as transfer Cameron Coffman will start for the first time for Wyoming after being a redshirt senior. While he did not play last season, Coffman played 14 games for Indiana, passing for 2,734 yards and 15 touchdowns.

For UND, Keaton Studsrud will be getting the starting nod to start this season over upperclassman Joe Mollberg and Ryan Bartels. While Studsrud may have struggled passing the ball at times in his four games last year, he made some impressive plays with his legs. This year, the sophomore took the offseason and spring football to improve his game, enough so that coach Schweigert trusted him to lead the offense.

“In the end, we think Keaton is the best choice for our football team right now and for how we are going to play. And he’s done a good job.” UND coach Bubba Schweigert said. “We liked what we saw in the spring but we also needed to challenge him to get better and better, and I think he’s done that.”

With stability at the quarterback position for the moment, the offense will be allowed to gel and find a rhythm, something they were greatly lacking in the previous season.

UND will look to start the season off on the right foot with a healthy offense and a solid defense this Saturday in Laramie, Wyoming at 3:00 pm.

Alex Stadnik is the sports editor for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected]