The UND football team comes together after a scrimmage that was open to the public. (Bottom) UND coach Bubba Schweigert looks on during the practice. Photo by Nick Nelson/The Dakota Student.

Even in spring, UND football is in the air.

The UND football program got to show its fans what the team will look like come Sept. 1, when they take on Stony Brook to open the season. UND fans piled into the brand new High Performance Center to watch the “green and white” scrimmage and they were in for a treat.

The scrimmage started off with UND coach Bubba Schweigert thanking all of the fans and the private donors who donated to help build the HPC. He then concluded by telling the fans how the afternoon would go.

Most football fans will tell you that the most important part of a game takes place between the 20-yard lines on each end of the field, otherwise known as the “red zone.”

That is how the spring game would start, with the offense having the ball at the 20-yard line. That was the only part of the scrimmage where fans would see starting quarterback Keaton Studsrud, who threw two beautiful balls to wide receiver Luke Stanley for two touchdowns.

While Studsrud looked good, the wide receivers struggled in the beginning as they dropped multiple passes in the endzone. But as the day went on, the offense continued to improve.

Overall, Schweigert liked what he saw from the offense.

“Well, I thought we took care of the ball,” Schweigert said. “You have to secure the football because we want to end with a kick on every possession, whether it’s a field goal, an extra point or even a punt. We feel like there is only one bad play in football and that is a turnover.”

Last season, the defense was exceptional and was a huge part as to why the Fighting Hawks went 7-4 on the season but barely missed the playoffs. While still looking good, Schweigert thinks his defense still has room for improvement.

“Today I thought we played hard, but we have to get a lot better,” Schweigert said. “We played a lot of young guys and we were really testing them today. Communication and formations were a problem, but it was an evaluation day and we will improve by fall camp.”

Defensive coordinator Eric Schmidt thought his defense played well overall.

“We emphasize no big plays in spring camp, and today, I think we gave up only one long post, so that was good,” Schmidt said. “Overall, our consistency needs to get better.”

The most impressive player of the day was University of Wyoming transfer Oscar Nevermann.

The running back, a native of Sweden, ran hard and physical all day, and he, along with Brady Oliveria, provided excellent depth behind star running back John Santiago, who didn’t get many looks in the scrimmage.

Nevermann said he feels good about his performance, but still feels he has aspects of his game to improve on.

“I still have some things to work on,” Nevermann said. “I would like to improve on my top speed a little, but overall I thought I did very well today.”

Although Nevermann had to sit out last season due to academic reasons, he said he feels like UND got left out of the FCS playoffs.

“Our number one goal is to win the Big Sky and make the FCS playoffs,” Nevermann said. “Ever since the committee left us out of the field, we have been hungry to leave no doubt and make the FCS playoffs.”

Saturday was an excellent start to achieve that goal, and from now until Sept. 1, the motto in that UND locker room will be “day-by-day.”

Hunter Plante is a sports writer for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected]