Oct. 19—GRAND FORKS — Even in the moments after the UND football program knocked off then-No. 1 South Dakota State last Saturday at the Alerus Center, Fighting Hawks head coach Eric Schmidt delivered a message of reality in the postgame press conference.
"Humility is always a week away," Schmidt said.
The challenge for the Hawks this week is to bring program momentum on the road to South Dakota and the DakotaDome, a venue known for killing momentum over the years.
The 1 p.m. Saturday matchup will be a Top 10 battle, as UND rose from No. 11 to No. 6 after beating the Jackrabbits. The Yotes, meanwhile, are ranked No. 8.
The Fighting Hawks haven't won in Vermillion since 2008, when now-offensive coordinator Danny Freund threw for more than 300 yards and Brandon Hellevang delivered a 33-yard field goal in overtime.
"Every week is new," Schmidt said. "I just feel like for us, (last Saturday) was an opportunity to be a desperate football team. We wanted to be the hunters, not the hunted. I thought our guys really embraced that, and now it's about improvement. It's the relentless pursuit of continuous improvement. It's our guys doing a great job of translating what we do during the week to Saturday afternoon.
"It goes way back to what we do in our year-round calendar. It goes back to January ... but part of that process is game day. The mindset, focus, energy and effort you bring on those days, it's going to take a lot of physical and mental strain for us to be able to go down there. There's going to be a lot of adversity. It's another hard place to play when they're going. You've got to be able to change momentum and get it back to your sideline, otherwise you're going to deal with noise and all those things."
Some of UND's biggest moments in the Division I era have been followed by lackluster performances. The most notable, perhaps, came after a 49-24 win over North Dakota State in 2023. The following week the Hawks fell 27-0 at Northern Iowa. In 2018, after winning at Sam Houston State, the Hawks came home and loss to Idaho State.
"There's always room for improvement," UND defensive tackle Tyler Henry said. "We're not going to be content, at all. It gives us confidence (to beat SDSU), but we aren't saying we are the best of the best. We still want to be desperate."
UND's defense has now strung together two strong performances. The Hawks shut out Northern Iowa two weeks ago in the second half, holding the Panthers to 0 yards in the third quarter. UND followed that up by giving up 10 points to the Jacks, including three points that came after UND's offense fumbled deep in their own territory.
"It's just a standard of operation," Schmidt said. "It's how you go about every single day. You don't rise to the level of the occasion. You fall to the level of your training. I think our guys have a really good understanding of that. They understand what it looks like to go out and compete and practice and improve. We have an entirely new challenge as far as what we're going to see offensively and defensively. We hit the reset button Sunday night, and now it's putting the work in necessary for us to be able to have a positive result down in Vermillion on Saturday."