The North Dakota Fighting Hawks aren’t familiar with playing at Husky Stadium simply because they’ve never played Washington. This will be a first-ever meeting between the two teams.
1. OFFENSE
They’re an FCS Independent team now, coming from the Big Sky, and last year they won just three games. But they do have a trio of real good players on offense in quarterback Nate Ketteringham and tailback duo Brady Oliveira and John Santiago.
The two tailbacks earned All-Big Sky honorees for the second consecutive season in 2017, while Santiago earned All-American accolades for the third consecutive year after averaging a Big Sky-best 6.0 yards per carry and leading the FCS with 1,780 all-purpose yards during the regular season
Last weekend in their opener against Mississippi Valley State, Oliveira and Santiago both rushed for over 100 yards (108, 101 respectively) and Ketteringham threw for 225 yards and three touchdowns. So this offense does have the ability to move the chains, but against a Pac-12 defense that had to deal with Auburn last weekend — it may be more of a challenge than head coach Bubba Schweigert wants to deal with.
2. DEFENSE
For whatever it’s worth, North Dakota’s defense, anchored by leading tackler Noah Larson (a freshman linebacker) collected seven sacks, forced two turnovers, and held the Delta Devils (0-1) to -27 yards on the ground in the 35-7 victory.
A couple guys to keep an eye on are 6-4, 257 lb. DE Mason Bennett, who led the defense with two ssacks and three tackles-for-loss against MVS, and senior DL, Austin Cieslak who recorded 1.5 sacks in the opener.
3. THE TEAM
Believe it or not, North Dakota actually tied with Eastern for the Big Sky conference title just two seasons ago; posting a 9-3 record and getting the #7 seed to the FCS playoffs.
Head coach, Bubba Schweigert is a former defensive coordinator and his defenses (for the league they’re in) have performed quite well the past five seasons he’s been the head coach, and before as a coordinator.
4. AGAINST THE PAC-12
Last season, ND played Utah at Utah and lost to the Utes 37-16.
Other than that, it’s not played against any other Pac-12 teams since playing Oregon in the 1930’s (series tied) and Arizona State (ASU leads series) in the 1940’s.
5. WHAT COACH PETERSEN SEES
“They’re not a spread offense…they’re a two-back offense, and they’re good at it”, Petersen said this week, “Last year they were predicted to be real good and win (the conference) again — then they had all these injuries — which just changes everything.
“So there are a few of those guys back on defense and in their secondary — but their style on defense is real different than what we’ve seen in the last handful of games.”
