UND FB HC Eric Schmidt 10-13-25

Head UND Football Coach, Eric Schmidt, joins the program to talk about the win against Youngstown State, and the upcoming road challenge with Southern Illinois.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Coach Eric Smith joins his coach congratulations on the victory.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Thanks Sam, good morning.

Speaker 3 (00:06):
How are you guys doing great? Coach doing great? It
was a great und weekend. Hockey was good. Got a
volleyball win on Saturday, Rolling Oral Roberts, got a soccer
win down in Fargo yesterday that was awesome, and of
course Saturday football game as well. So I'm feeling pretty
darn good in the Green and White as we hit
Monday here.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Coach, Yeah, I know it was. It was awesome. Definitely,
congrats all those programs. You know, any sport that you
can you can beat. NDSU is always a rivalry, and
you know, congrats the girls for that. And then you
said volleyball, good wins for them, and obviously awesome to
see coach Jackson get his first sweep here over the

(00:46):
weekend and gets a good team too as well. So
I'd like to say the culture becomes contagious iving around here,
and it's great to see some people in the middle
of their seasons playing well and at the start of
their season is getting off to a good start.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Yeah, we'll put We'll put Tim. I'll let you ask
the first one.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Coach you I know you want to run the ball,
and you run the ball on Saturday. Was that the
most positive thing that came out of that other than
the win obviously?

Speaker 4 (01:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
I mean, I think the start tim was was the
best part of what we did. Just guys were really
locked in, ready to go. We were able to get
two three and outs to start the game on defense
and turn those into points you know, right away, and
kind of rode that that momentum, that wave and got
every last ounce of of points in separation from Youngstown

(01:35):
in the first half there. And then, Yeah, running the
football I think is always going to be something that's
important in our league. I think any you know, good
championship football team can run the ball, they can stop
the run, they can cover kicks, and they're good in
the in the kicking game. So we ran it forty
five times, so we ran it quite a bit and
it was good to see, you know, Sawyer be able

(01:56):
to to be able to be consistent now here. He's
kind of, you know, been our one a guy now
the last three or four weeks and has really gotten
better than it. Was good to see Gavin ze Barth
get off do as well. He's definitely a weapon that
we need to continue to use. And you know, he's,
like I said before, it's one of those deals. He's
he's one of those body blow guys that you give
him the ball. In the first half he might be

(02:17):
only getting two and three yards and things like that,
but as the game wears on and he continues to
pound down you, it becomes you know, those two and
three yard runs become seven and eight, nine and twelve
and fifteen yard runs.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Yeah, because he held then guard kid to not that
much rushing, although he did do some damage passing, didn't he.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah, he And that was one thing I talked with
their coach, coach philis before the game, like a year ago.
You know, it was him with his feet and that
was really what they relied on. And he's done a
great job, you know, just working in the offseason becoming
a way better passer. He's way more accurate, and they
have two receivers team that are that are really good players.
You know, we tried and then did some things to

(03:01):
try to take them away, and then they got a
couple of empty sets. And you know, it's hard when
there's you know, five guys out there running around in
patterns to be able to be able to make sure
that you're always doubling somebody. But one in four are
good players, and they got away from us a couple
of times. And he's a better thrower. He's a way
better thrower. She proved that all year. He proved it

(03:22):
last week against South Dakota State. They were moving the
ball through the air. So we tried to limit him
as much as we can. I thought, some guys it's
a really good job with some of the scramble control
of things. He got away from us really once. Where
was there was you know, there was one explosive run
that was over fifteen yards by him, none by the
none by the tailbacks, and that's kind of been their

(03:43):
mo He's been there, guy that's had explosive run. So
he got away from us one time. But other than that,
that's our guys did a really good job of being
able to just make him earn every blade of grass
you know that he got on Saturday.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
Going back to your comments on Sawyer, you know, kind
of developing in his role Sawyer Sidle. You know, one
thing that I think people sometimes are a little bit
surprised to see is that he's not always looking to
bounce outside I think people are surprised by his ability
of being a bit of a more of a slender back.
He's not afraid to square up and squeeze through that

(04:18):
hole on a on a run that's in amongst the
linebackers and stuff, and he and he squares up and
hits the hole really hard. And I think he made
a comment to me, He's like, Hey, we are philosophy
here is and we're always trying to get better at it.
He made a comment to me, he said, hey, we're
trying to block like linemen when we're asked to block
and pass pro and we're asked to catch like receivers

(04:38):
and then run like like ourselves. Basically, we try to
be that jack of all trades when when called upon.
And I like the fact that he's got that, you know,
that that desire to try to work on those things
to become that complete back right now.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
Yeah, great point. I mean he was a high school
hockey player, so I mean the physicality of you know,
football and running through the tackles and and uh, you know,
being able to break tackles and things like that, he's got.
He's got some strength to him. Obviously, we want to
continue to work on, you know, being able to add
weight to him and and and those things. But but yeah,
I mean that's all of our backs should you know,

(05:15):
really strive to be three down backs, Guys that can
catch the football, Guys that we can have to be
able to to be able to handle, you know, matchups
in the in the protection in the past game two
as well, And that's something I know Coach Davis works
really hard with those guys. They have to be on
the same page. You know. Jerry's out there and Jerry's
kind of you know, taking control of the offense as

(05:37):
far as protections and slipping protections and getting us in
the right protections and you know, the offense, love line,
our tight ends, our running backs all need to be
on the same page. And they've done a good job
of that. We haven't you know, had many free runners
at Jerry here all year long, and especially I would say, man,
you can't be wrong in the A and the B gaps,
and a lot of times that that's the linebackers coming up,
you know, in the A gap, and our running backs

(05:58):
got to be able to step into that in that position,
put their face on it and really protect our quarterback
and Oliver back to have improved throughout the year here
of being able to be able to protect the quarterback.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
I was just going to say one other thing that
I thought, you know, you know, the force down in
the first half, and you guys run a play that
I think, you know, basically had nobody running with the
tight end. It was just a matter of making sure
that the throat was there, that the tight end didn't.
You know, his feet got tangled up just a little bit,
but he was able to steady himself and haul it

(06:32):
in for a big score. You know, you got to
have that fearlessness in your play calling every now and then,
knowing when to pull the trigger and take a shot.
And that was certainly a big one.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
I think. Yeah, just you know, calculated risks I think
are important. We wanted to say we felt like we
had momentum. You know, we had stopped them twice, we
scored on the first drive. Really felt like, you know,
we wanted to score touchdowns, try to create some separation
up fourteen enough, and was a big play and obviously
Hayden did a good job. It's not always it's not

(07:04):
always easy in short yard situations. There's a lot of
traffic on the other side of the ball that he
had to he had to be able to elude and
make it look like a running play as long as
he can. So he kind of got out of that
you know, group of bodies or maths of humanity, and
he started stumbling around there a little bit. And then
you know, as he's tripping and kind of stumbling, the
balls in the air, so he's trying to accelerate because

(07:24):
you know, Jerry had some people in his face too
as well, so it wasn't there was no style points
and I want to think everybody was you know, in
the place was like wondering if he was going to
be able to stay up and run underneath it. Credit
to Hayden, you know, first career touchdown, like I said,
for him to be able to do that was big,
and just think, you know, our guys have done a
good job throughout the entire week and really the year.

(07:45):
Like we we really talk about, you know, respecting the
process and being loyal to winning and you know, winning
requires your best every single day, and you know, getting
back to that process part of things like win or lose,
We have a twenty four hour rule and then it's
get back to the new control and now get back
to work, you know, football. For these guys, the games
are obviously the best things that they get to do

(08:07):
every single week, but the practices are the hardest thing,
you know, that they get to do every week.

Speaker 4 (08:11):
So we got to make sure we do a good
job of every single guy is boiled to win in
and putting on the line every week for the family business.
And I think our guys have done a good job of.
I guess that regrouping and restarting every single week, no
matter you know, what's being said or what happened the
week before. Man, the opinions in our building and what matter.
And now it's time to get ready for SIU.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
Talk about Southern Illinois a little bit. What do you
know about them? What do you see?

Speaker 2 (08:37):
Very similar as far as athletic quarterbacks? Kids different? You know,
bo at Youngstown was five ten, He was you know,
a little juice box back there. Man, he was built,
thick lower half, you know, an emerging quarterback with his
arm and things like that. Now we're going to play
a prototypical kid that can run six foot three two
and fifteen pounds, you know, really good runner, good thrower.

(09:01):
They got three receivers that are all good players. Defensively,
I think they're much improved. They've done a really good
job of playing sound, stopping the run. You know. I
think they're talented in the in the defensive backfield. So
they've lost two games. They were they did a good
job in the first half down in Fargo last week,

(09:22):
and then turn the ball over, you know, and that's
really where the game got away from. I think it
was ten to ten. They were going in right before
halftime and then ended up fumbling, went down seventeen to
ten at halftime, and then Plumbo was coming out of
second half driving it again. So both of there, you know,
both of their turnovers, I think that had three of them,
but two of them were backbreakers where hey, you're moving

(09:42):
the football and then and then you end up turning
it over. So that game and then the Purdue game,
and they were in the Purdue game for.

Speaker 4 (09:48):
A long time too as well.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
So they're a good football team. They're gonna be you know,
they were number I think eight in the country here
a week ago. They'll probably be somewhere around, you know,
twelve or fourteen. I think, you know, they're right on
the cost of being a top ten team, you know,
in the country and going into their place, Amanopolos, we
know that we'll get their best, so it'll be it'll
definitely be a great challenge for our guys here down

(10:10):
there on Saturday.

Speaker 3 (10:12):
So it's you know, what you play for being meaningful
games at this time of year, and the Valley's always
going to give you that, and there nothing's going to
be given. And I know you guys are relishing another
great opportunity here on the road on Saturday afternoon. Coach,
thanks for dropping by and visiting with us. Have a
great week of prep and we'll talk to you Tuesday
night for some Hawk talk.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
Okay, sounds good. Thanks guys, have a great day, all.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
Right, Thank you. There goes coach Eric Schmidt. His thoughts
following the win on Saturday and heading into another pivotal
Saturday ahead. They all seem to be at this time
of year, especially if you get out to four wins
like North Dakota, they all become a little bit more important.
They all have a little bit more emphasis, at least
for the fan base. It's perking everybody's ears up. Okay,

(10:55):
where where can things go from here? And so that's
that's when it's fun. But it's also challenging and it
will be fun to see how North Dakota continues to respond,
with another huge test on Saturday against Southern Illinois