October 14, 2025 • 8 mins
UND Head Football Coach Eric Schmidt reflected on the team’s 35-17 win over Youngstown State. He emphasized the importance of taking the lead by halftime, noting that teams who are ahead at the break typically come out on top. Coach Schmidt also stressed the value of consistent practice, strong sportsmanship, and staying focused. “Every story will be written,” he said, highlighting that the theme for the week is simple but powerful: you have to work.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hoctoc down. Well, that's a little loud there. Sorry about that, everybody.
We'll get you all squared away so it's not too
loud and not blowing your ears out. But of course
this is live radio and we're learning as we go,
and we're gonna talk a little football. We're gonna talk
a little hockey tonight, and we're gonna talk a little
soccer as North d goot to soccer, entertaining some big
ones here this week starting on Thursday, but we do
(00:23):
swing right into football before North to Gota Heads and
hits the road to Carbondale, a place where coach Eric
Schmid resided for a little while. Let's give it up
for head coach Eric Schmid and North Dakota football. Big
win on Saturday against Youngstown State thirty five seventeen, and coach,
you knew that was gonna be a challenge. We talked
about it on this program about bow bruntguard and some
(00:43):
of the things that he could do, and you're never
comfortable when he's doing the things. But I thought, what
was so good about that game? And you can maybe
correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought, in that instance,
it was the early start about getting getting his offense
off the field, and then you guys took advantage and
really kind of grabbed the game by the reins right away.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, fast stards important. You know, We've done a good
job of that all year long. It's something we really
emphasized with our guys. I think I talked about it
on here a week ago. But you're winning at halftime.
The statistics will tell you in seventy five percent, it's
actually more than that, you know, is now, So I
think getting off the fast starts is important, especially at home,
getting the crowd into the game. We went three and
out scored on offense, went three and out scored on
(01:24):
offense again, a little disappointing. We gave a big kickoff
return r'd be right after that, and then there was
you know, a couple third.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Down calls in there that I'd like to have back.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
I think we could have put our guys in a
few better spots to be able to be able to
get a stop. But then I thought the huge they scored,
but I thought the response right after that, the long
kickoff return by Sawyer side al and then ze Barth
being able to Gavin to be able to go sixty
yards and make it twenty one to seven.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
We kept momentum. Then throughout the entire half.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
There was a Jerry run at some point where he
had to get a first down and he juked I
think two players.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Basically.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
We talked about brun Garden his ability to avoid and
he does trust me. But when Jerry needed to make
a play, there was one of those in that game
as well.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, in the in the fourth quarter there to to
go down and uh and really put the game away.
You know, I think it's just it's Jerry, it's quarterback grid,
it's competitiveness, it's hey, I'm keeping the offense on the field,
you know, to be able to h to really make
a guy miss and get an eight yard run on
fourth and two like those are those are the difference makers,
you know, And I think when you get into those situations,
you know, it's it's players overplace and it's you know,
(02:27):
I mean making sure that you put the ball in
the right person's hands. And even if there's a you know,
I mean a defensive end there. We feel good about
Jerry being able to make that guy miss and then
make something positive happen.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
When you look at Gavin z Birth, I thought that
Isaac Frickty yesterday during the media day says something that
because we don't always interact on a daily basis with
the player, and Gavin's a veteran, but he said, you know,
Gavin is a is a guy that has emotion and
he has swings and and you you try to harness
it a little bit and when he hits that mark,
(02:57):
so to speak, watch out. And boy at least done
that day. And and and I think coach Frickty said
it best. He said, I think it all came down.
He had really good practices and it just all came
to a head on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, And I think that's uh, that's the situation for
most people is you know, we we got done talking
to our team here this morning about competitive greatness and
competitive spirit and and every week, you know, there's a
new story that's going to be written, and you know
it's it's going to be written based off of what
we did today, what we do tomorrow at practice, what
we do Thursday, Friday, and then what we do Saturday
(03:30):
from two to five o'clock, you know, and then there's
going to be you know, the the theme for the week,
you know, based off of that and I think that's
the one thing that we keep talking to our guys
is that, hey, even if you know you might be
not you might not be getting the playing time that
you want, the carries you want, you're a tour or
three whatever that might look like, like, you have to work,
you know what I mean, And it's time on task.
It's uh, that's why you practice every day, you know.
(03:52):
And it's it's it's being able to point the ball
on defense. It's the rhythm and the timing that goes
into offense when you practice at full speed.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
And I've said it before.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
You want to be a good football player, you got
to play football, you know, and you got to go
out there and and put the work in.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
It's that simple.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
And then that's uh, you know, Gav I think is
has done a good job of of becoming more and
more consistent, understanding what his strengths, what his weaknesses are,
and working on those weaknesses and continuing to, you know,
to make his strengths to strengths. And I think he's
a back that as you go on throughout the season,
you know, he starts to wear and tear on guys.
I mean, it is what it is people get tired
as the year goes along, and you've been hitting, and
(04:25):
you've been hidden and you've been hitting, and.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
You're not very fun to tackle after a while.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Exactly, you know. And I think that's he's the type
of back that can really, you know, you know, make
you pay the price to be able to get him
to the ground.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
We're going to give some love here to a couple
of things. Number One, Malachi McNeil, everybody, not the conference,
but the nation, name the stats, perform FCS National Defensive
Player of the Week, Malachi McNeil, you Indy Football Captain,
National Defensive Player of the Week. You deal with him
every day. You said yesterday something that I nearly fell
(04:58):
over in press conference. You say, he'll still sit up front,
he'll still take notes like he's a first year player.
That's that's incredible to a person like me. You think,
like a guy would kind of know things, and he
still does the same things he did when he came in.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah, I mean, he'll he'll sit down there in a
base teaching of a defense and and he'll go back
to those original based teachings and take notes and be
really detailed and in what he does and and just
I think it's it's his way of making sure that
there's no you know, I left dotted, no t left
uncrossed that he hasn't done in order to be successful.
And he's just that type of guy, like he understands
(05:33):
that you attack this thing the right way with a
growth mindset that you can get better. That's how you're
going to get better. And he's he's steadily improved here
throughout his career. And you know, I told these guys,
you know, really when we got here, but out throughout
our entire you know, I mean process here that we
go through that Hey, we need to have our older
guys having their best year this year in Melochai as
well in his way right now of covering out you know,
(05:55):
I mean the best year of his career.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Well, I just really enjoy any time I get to
speak with Malachi because he when he talks to you,
it's infectious and what he feels you feel and he
conveys it so well. And I just think the guys
that play with him they feel it too, and that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yeah, he's he's a great leader.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
You know, he's got attitude of gratitude for people that
pour into him, help him solve problems, make him a
better player. He's appreciative to all those people who's appreciative
of this place for everything that's done for him on
and off the field, and he's represented us in the
right way.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
He's just you know, I mean, he's a leader.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Like I said, he's he's a first class individual and
those are the type of guys that you win championships with.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Now another.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Title.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
BJ Fleming earned the title of Missouri Valley Football Conference
Newcomer of the Week. He's become a great target for
quarterback Jerry Kaminski. I tell you what, anytime Bj Fleming,
whether it's an intermediate route, a short route, he can
turn it into something. And then of course we've seen
what he can do when allowed to run free as well.
And he's just a guy. You had to kind of
(06:56):
give him a little a little rope as far as
getting some time to kind of figure out how this
is all gonna work coming from a different place. And
and I think he's handled it the right way so far,
don't you think.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I just think, you know, we try to take the
rope away from him, be honest, Okay, hammering on him
and hammer on because there was more in there, and
we knew there was more in there, and I think
he really figured out like, hey man, you chose here
because when we recruited you, we talked about we're gonna
coach you hard, you know what I mean, and not
sweep things underneath the doorstep and make sure that there's
a standard of work every single day that you need
to be able to be able to do. Because we
(07:28):
knew there was more inside of him just watching him
go through you know, workouts, watching him you know, in
spring practices and all that kind of stuff, it was like,
all right, like this is something that we knew we
needed when we evaluated our team a year ago. We
needed somewhere that could take the top off the coverage,
that could you know, just really push defenses and make
them have to respect.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Him and in his speed.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
And he's really turned in now to a you know,
a complete wide receiver.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
There's obviously he's got to do.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
It now, you know, through time and continue to be
able to get better. But I've seen the improvement here
over the last month of the season where I really
feel like, you know, he's done a good job of
really settling in and just showing up every single day,
and once again I'll say it, but it's what we
want our guys to be able to do. It's how
you get better. It's relentless pursuit of continuous improvement. And
(08:14):
that's what he's done a good job of. And now
he's starting to, you know what I mean. See the
production go up every single Saturday.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
It's the Missouri Valley Football Conference. There's a challenge at
every turn each and every week we'll talk about the
challenge coming up with Southern Illinois coming up this Saturday,
when head coach Eric Schmidt and our show called Hawk
Talk returns all across the Fighting Hawks Radio network
Hoctoc down. Well, that's a little loud there. Sorry about that, everybody.
We'll get you all squared away so it's not too
loud and not blowing your ears out. But of course
this is live radio and we're learning as we go,
and we're gonna talk a little football. We're gonna talk
a little hockey tonight, and we're gonna talk a little
soccer as North d goot to soccer, entertaining some big
ones here this week starting on Thursday, but we do
(00:23):
swing right into football before North to Gota Heads and
hits the road to Carbondale, a place where coach Eric
Schmid resided for a little while. Let's give it up
for head coach Eric Schmid and North Dakota football. Big
win on Saturday against Youngstown State thirty five seventeen, and coach,
you knew that was gonna be a challenge. We talked
about it on this program about bow bruntguard and some
(00:43):
of the things that he could do, and you're never
comfortable when he's doing the things. But I thought, what
was so good about that game? And you can maybe
correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought, in that instance,
it was the early start about getting getting his offense
off the field, and then you guys took advantage and
really kind of grabbed the game by the reins right away.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, fast stards important. You know, We've done a good
job of that all year long. It's something we really
emphasized with our guys. I think I talked about it
on here a week ago. But you're winning at halftime.
The statistics will tell you in seventy five percent, it's
actually more than that, you know, is now, So I
think getting off the fast starts is important, especially at home,
getting the crowd into the game. We went three and
out scored on offense, went three and out scored on
(01:24):
offense again, a little disappointing. We gave a big kickoff
return r'd be right after that, and then there was
you know, a couple third.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Down calls in there that I'd like to have back.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
I think we could have put our guys in a
few better spots to be able to be able to
get a stop. But then I thought the huge they scored,
but I thought the response right after that, the long
kickoff return by Sawyer side al and then ze Barth
being able to Gavin to be able to go sixty
yards and make it twenty one to seven.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
We kept momentum. Then throughout the entire half.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
There was a Jerry run at some point where he
had to get a first down and he juked I
think two players.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Basically.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
We talked about brun Garden his ability to avoid and
he does trust me. But when Jerry needed to make
a play, there was one of those in that game
as well.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, in the in the fourth quarter there to to
go down and uh and really put the game away.
You know, I think it's just it's Jerry, it's quarterback grid,
it's competitiveness, it's hey, I'm keeping the offense on the field,
you know, to be able to h to really make
a guy miss and get an eight yard run on
fourth and two like those are those are the difference makers,
you know, And I think when you get into those situations,
you know, it's it's players overplace and it's you know,
(02:27):
I mean making sure that you put the ball in
the right person's hands. And even if there's a you know,
I mean a defensive end there. We feel good about
Jerry being able to make that guy miss and then
make something positive happen.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
When you look at Gavin z Birth, I thought that
Isaac Frickty yesterday during the media day says something that
because we don't always interact on a daily basis with
the player, and Gavin's a veteran, but he said, you know,
Gavin is a is a guy that has emotion and
he has swings and and you you try to harness
it a little bit and when he hits that mark,
(02:57):
so to speak, watch out. And boy at least done
that day. And and and I think coach Frickty said
it best. He said, I think it all came down.
He had really good practices and it just all came
to a head on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, And I think that's uh, that's the situation for
most people is you know, we we got done talking
to our team here this morning about competitive greatness and
competitive spirit and and every week, you know, there's a
new story that's going to be written, and you know
it's it's going to be written based off of what
we did today, what we do tomorrow at practice, what
we do Thursday, Friday, and then what we do Saturday
(03:30):
from two to five o'clock, you know, and then there's
going to be you know, the the theme for the week,
you know, based off of that and I think that's
the one thing that we keep talking to our guys
is that, hey, even if you know you might be
not you might not be getting the playing time that
you want, the carries you want, you're a tour or
three whatever that might look like, like, you have to work,
you know what I mean, And it's time on task.
It's uh, that's why you practice every day, you know.
(03:52):
And it's it's it's being able to point the ball
on defense. It's the rhythm and the timing that goes
into offense when you practice at full speed.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
And I've said it before.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
You want to be a good football player, you got
to play football, you know, and you got to go
out there and and put the work in.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
It's that simple.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
And then that's uh, you know, Gav I think is
has done a good job of of becoming more and
more consistent, understanding what his strengths, what his weaknesses are,
and working on those weaknesses and continuing to, you know,
to make his strengths to strengths. And I think he's
a back that as you go on throughout the season,
you know, he starts to wear and tear on guys.
I mean, it is what it is people get tired
as the year goes along, and you've been hitting, and
(04:25):
you've been hidden and you've been hitting, and.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
You're not very fun to tackle after a while.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Exactly, you know. And I think that's he's the type
of back that can really, you know, you know, make
you pay the price to be able to get him
to the ground.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
We're going to give some love here to a couple
of things. Number One, Malachi McNeil, everybody, not the conference,
but the nation, name the stats, perform FCS National Defensive
Player of the Week, Malachi McNeil, you Indy Football Captain,
National Defensive Player of the Week. You deal with him
every day. You said yesterday something that I nearly fell
(04:58):
over in press conference. You say, he'll still sit up front,
he'll still take notes like he's a first year player.
That's that's incredible to a person like me. You think,
like a guy would kind of know things, and he
still does the same things he did when he came in.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah, I mean, he'll he'll sit down there in a
base teaching of a defense and and he'll go back
to those original based teachings and take notes and be
really detailed and in what he does and and just
I think it's it's his way of making sure that
there's no you know, I left dotted, no t left
uncrossed that he hasn't done in order to be successful.
And he's just that type of guy, like he understands
(05:33):
that you attack this thing the right way with a
growth mindset that you can get better. That's how you're
going to get better. And he's he's steadily improved here
throughout his career. And you know, I told these guys,
you know, really when we got here, but out throughout
our entire you know, I mean process here that we
go through that Hey, we need to have our older
guys having their best year this year in Melochai as
well in his way right now of covering out you know,
(05:55):
I mean the best year of his career.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Well, I just really enjoy any time I get to
speak with Malachi because he when he talks to you,
it's infectious and what he feels you feel and he
conveys it so well. And I just think the guys
that play with him they feel it too, and that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yeah, he's he's a great leader.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
You know, he's got attitude of gratitude for people that
pour into him, help him solve problems, make him a
better player. He's appreciative to all those people who's appreciative
of this place for everything that's done for him on
and off the field, and he's represented us in the
right way.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
He's just you know, I mean, he's a leader.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Like I said, he's he's a first class individual and
those are the type of guys that you win championships with.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Now another.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Title.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
BJ Fleming earned the title of Missouri Valley Football Conference
Newcomer of the Week. He's become a great target for
quarterback Jerry Kaminski. I tell you what, anytime Bj Fleming,
whether it's an intermediate route, a short route, he can
turn it into something. And then of course we've seen
what he can do when allowed to run free as well.
And he's just a guy. You had to kind of
(06:56):
give him a little a little rope as far as
getting some time to kind of figure out how this
is all gonna work coming from a different place. And
and I think he's handled it the right way so far,
don't you think.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I just think, you know, we try to take the
rope away from him, be honest, Okay, hammering on him
and hammer on because there was more in there, and
we knew there was more in there, and I think
he really figured out like, hey man, you chose here
because when we recruited you, we talked about we're gonna
coach you hard, you know what I mean, and not
sweep things underneath the doorstep and make sure that there's
a standard of work every single day that you need
to be able to be able to do. Because we
(07:28):
knew there was more inside of him just watching him
go through you know, workouts, watching him you know, in
spring practices and all that kind of stuff, it was like,
all right, like this is something that we knew we
needed when we evaluated our team a year ago. We
needed somewhere that could take the top off the coverage,
that could you know, just really push defenses and make
them have to respect.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Him and in his speed.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
And he's really turned in now to a you know,
a complete wide receiver.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
There's obviously he's got to do.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
It now, you know, through time and continue to be
able to get better. But I've seen the improvement here
over the last month of the season where I really
feel like, you know, he's done a good job of
really settling in and just showing up every single day,
and once again I'll say it, but it's what we
want our guys to be able to do. It's how
you get better. It's relentless pursuit of continuous improvement. And
(08:14):
that's what he's done a good job of. And now
he's starting to, you know what I mean. See the
production go up every single Saturday.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
It's the Missouri Valley Football Conference. There's a challenge at
every turn each and every week we'll talk about the
challenge coming up with Southern Illinois coming up this Saturday,
when head coach Eric Schmidt and our show called Hawk
Talk returns all across the Fighting Hawks Radio network
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