GRAND FORKS, N.D. - North Dakota will try to keep the momentum rolling this Saturday when the Green and White visit Qualcomm Stadium to play San Diego State at 7:05 p.m. CT. The Aztecs are 1-1 on the young season after defeating Army at home last weekend, 42-7. SDSU will be the sixth FBS opponent UND has faced as the team makes its first of back-to-back Saturday appearances in the Golden State (open Big Sky play at Sac State on Sept. 22).

THE BLITZ

• With its 45-37 victory over Portland State on Saturday, UND remained just one of two unbeaten Big Sky teams through the first two weeks of the season (Montana State).

• The 2-0 start is the first for UND since its first season at the Division I level when the 2008 team started 4-0 under then first-year head coach Chris Mussman.

• UND will play its first road game of the season at San Diego State on Saturday. Mussman is 1-3 in road openers and 7-14 overall away from the Alerus Center.

• After dropping its first two road games of the 2011 season, UND won its last three and will carry a three-game road winning streak into Qualcomm Stadium. Those three road wins were against current Big Sky schools - two of them were in Great West play last season (Southern Utah and UC Davis).

• San Diego State will be the sixth FBS opponent UND will face since moving up to Division I in 2008. The team has yet to defeat a FBS opponent, but two of those games were decided by a touchdown or less (Northern Illinois 23-17; 2010 and Fresno State 27-22; 2011).

• The San Diego State contest will be the first of back-to-back games in the Golden State for UND as the team will open Big Sky play on Sept. 22 at Sacramento State.

• As a Division I team, UND is 1-3 in games played in California with that win coming in  last year's road finale at UC Davis (14-7).

• In the latest Top 25 FCS polls, North Dakota received 18 points in the FCS Coaches Poll (t30th) and 123 points in The Sports Network/Fathead.com Poll (32nd).

HENDRICKSON, HARDIN IN THE NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
Senior quarterback Marcus Hendrickson and junior wide receiver Greg Hardin shared the national spotlight in the FCS ranks following their record-breaking efforts in Saturday's 45-37 victory over Portland State. 

Hendrickson was named the National Performer of the Week and Quarterback of the Week by College Football Performance Awards. He was also named the ROOT SPORTS Big Sky Co-Offensive Player of the Week and The Sports Network Co-Offensive Player of the Week. He was also named a Natioanl All Star by The College Sporting News. In his first career start, the right-handed signal caller went 16-for-25 for 294 yards and tied the UND single-game record with six touchdown passes. Five of those came in the first half. He also led the team with 50 yards rushing.

Hardin was named the Wide Receiver Performer of the Week by College Football Performance Awards and also earned the NCAA.com Offensive Player of the Week accolade.Hardin equaled his career-highs in catches (six) and receiving touchdowns (three), while eclipsing his career-high with 190 receiving yards. He currently leads the FCS with a 146.5 receiving yards per game average. 

• Fans wanting to follow the action from San Diego can listen to the audio broadcast on the UND Radio Network or live streaming on www.UNDSports.com. There will also be a live chat available on the website.

The special teams unit failed to block a kick in the season opener against South Dakota School of Mines, but more than made up for that with three blocked kicks against Portland State. Junior Garrison Goodman blocked his first career kick in the opening quarter, rejecting a 41-yard field goal attempt by Nick Fernandez. Redshirt freshman Casey Young then blocked a punt in the final minute of the first half to set up his team's fifth touchdown of the opening 30 minutes of play. Senior Ross Brenneman rounded out the kick-blocking trio by deflecting a 52-yard field goal attempt by Hernandez in the third quarter.

The UND special teams led all FCS schools last season with 10 blocked kicks during the regular season (six PATs, four field goals). 

Through two weeks of the season, UND once again stands alone on top of the FCS charts with those three blocks. Ten other teams have blocked a pair of kicks through two weeks. 

3 North Dakota

2 Alabama A&M

2 Albany

2 Bryant

2 Campbell

2 Drake

2 Eastern Kentucky

2 Howard

2 Liberty

2 Marist

2 Mississippi Valley State

The North Dakota football team is averaging 40.0 ppg (45 vs. SD Mines; 35 vs. Portland State) in the opening halves of the first two games of the season. The offense has scored 11 of its 15 touchdowns in the opening 30 minutes of those games. Last season, UND scored a total of 161 first-half points (14.6/g).

Junior Greg Hardin moved into a tie for sixth place on the UND career charts for touchdowns following his three-touchdown effort versus Portland State. His trio of scores pushed  his career total to 16. 

• The career-high 190-yard effort was the seventh highest single-game receiving total in UND history.

• Hardin's 146.5 receiving yards per game average is tops among FCS wideouts. He is also averaging 32.6 yards per receptoin.

• With those 190 receiving yards, he now has 1,578 for his career, putting him within 22 yards of cracking the top 10 list for career regular season receiving yards at UND and he needs only 70 to move into seventh place (Tim Gelinske; 1,648).

• The 100-yard receiving game was the sixth of his career and coupled with his 103-yard effort in the opener, marked the first time he had gone over the century mark in consecutive games during his UND career.

• The three-touchdown contest was the second of Hardin's career. As a redshirt freshman, Hardin hauled in a trio of touchdown passes vs. Northwestern State.

• Hardin's six receptions also equalled his career-high set three times before - all as a redshirt freshman (last at Cal Poly; 10/23/10).

• Hardin also made a 27-yard circus catch in the second quarter that led to a go-ahead score. Hardin climbed over a PSU defensive back to make that grab that was voted the No. 2 on Sports Center's Top Plays of the Day.

With its breakout performance through the first two weeks of the season, the UND offense and some of its key contributors have found themselves ranked among the Big Sky's and nation's elite.

 

Passing Efficiency                                            

Marcus Hendrickson (258.3)                         1/1

Marcus Hendrickson (8) 1/1

Receiving Yards/Game

Greg Hardin (146.5) 1/1

Greg Hardin 1/1

Greg Hardin (4)                                                 1/1

Greg Hardin (24)                                               t6/1

Scoring Offense (points per game)          

North Dakota (55.5) 3/1

North Dakota (527.0) 5/2

North Dakota (256.6) 1/1

North Dakota (15) t2/1

• UND is 64-12 in 11 seasons at the Alerus Center, including a 10-0 mark in the Division II playoffs. 

• Head coach Chris Mussman is 18-6 all-time at UND's home facility and improved to 3-0 in season openers at the Alerus thanks to the 66-0 victory over South Dakota School of Mines on Aug. 30. 

• In those 18 home wins under Mussman's guidance, UND is averaging 37.8 ppg and the team is 16-2 when scoring 20 or more points.

• The North Dakota offense churned out a school record 653 yards of total offense last Thursday in the team's 66-0 season-opening win over South Dakota School of Mines. It was the most lopsided victory in program history since a 69-0 victory in 1972 over Morningside in North Central Conference play.

• Only Old Dominion, who totalled 723 yards in a 57-23 victory over Duquesne, had more yardage at the FCS level in week one. 

• Four different running backs churned out 370 yards on the ground, which was the fifth most by a FCS team in the opening week. Junior Jake Miller led the quartet with a 178-yard effort on only 12 carries. He averaged 14.8 yards per tote, which was second among FCS running backs with double-digit carries (Indiana State's Ezayi Youyoute, 14.9/c; 11 for 164). 

• Redshirt freshman P.J. Sparks rushed for 97 yards and a touchdown in his collegiate debut.  He reeled off the longest play from scrimmage for UND with a 45-yard scamper in the fourth quarter.  

• Eight players accounted for the nine touchdowns scored by UND with senior running back Mitch Sutton being the only one to score twice. 

• The 66 points were the most in the Division I era by a UND team. 

 
PASSING FANCY

• The quarterbacking duo of Braden Hanson and Marcus Hendrickson combined to put up the most efficient passing game in UND football history in the season opener versus South Dakota School of Mines.  The fifth-year senior duet went 18-for-20 for 283 yards and four touchdowns to post a combined passer rating of 274.86. 

• Hanson started things off by connecting on 13 of his 14 passes for 188 yards and two  touchdowns. His only incompletion was on a throw away to avoid a sack. Hanson's passer rating of 252.80 was the best single-game effort at the FCS level in week one. 

• Hendrickson relieved Hanson midway through the second quarter and also only missed on one his passes (six attempts). He finished with 95 yards, including a 44-yard scoring strike to Greg Hardin that was the first of his career. He added an 11-yard scoring toss to Blair Townsend to cap a 31-point second quarter.

Seniors Ian McGurran and Ross Brenneman will serve as the permanent team captains for the 2012 season. Both players were voted captains of the 2011 squad at the conclusion of the season as well. What made the designation even more special for McGurran is that his father, John, also served as a football captain on the 1982 UND team. The McGurrans become just the second father-son tandem to serve as UND captains after Glenn “Red” Jarrett and his son, James, were both captains as well. The elder Jarrett was a captain on the 1930 team, while James served as a captain for the 1959 team. McGurran is the only player on the 2012 roster to have started all 34 games since the start of the 2009 season. Brenneman has started 32 of 34 games.

There were several veterans in the starting lineup on both sides of the ball in the season opener versus South Dakota School of Mines, but there were also a handful of first-time starters on those units. On offense, senior quarterback Braden Hanson, left guard Brandon Anderson and wide receiver Jameer Jackson all made their first career starts. While, defensively, middle linebackers Ben Peters and Brian Otto and safeties Baylee Carr and Will Lewis all made their first career starts. Three more players made their first career starts against Portland State as well. Junior Garrison Goodman got the nod at middle linebacker and was impressive with a career-high 12 tackles. Strong safety Erik Mersereau also started his first game, while, on offense, fifth-year senior Marcus Hendrickson finally got a turn behind center and flourished in his first career start.

Junior linebackers Cordero Finley and Dominique Bennett did their part in holding Portland State to zero third-quarter points on Saturday. The duo  registered  the first interceptions of their respective careers off PSU freshman Kieran McDonagh.

UND will be in a new league this season and with that usually comes new opponents, but the Green and White have actually played eight of the nine Big Sky teams on its docket. The only new opponent in that bunch is Eastern Washington - the 2010 FCS National Champion. There are two more new opponents on the schedule, but SD Mines and San Diego State are both non-conference tilts. Portland State, who is a Big Sky member, is the other non-conference game, but UND has played the Vikings twice before. Montana and Montana State are old North Central Conference rivalries that will be renewed with the membership in the BSC. UND has played Montana State 28 times and Montana 19 times before on the gridiron. The UND gridders will play those schools on back-to-back Saturdays in October this season.

Head coach Chris Mussman's assistant coaching staff stayed in tact for the most part with only three new additions being added to the fold. Wes Nurse will coach the cornerbacks and joins the staff after one season in the same role at UC Davis. Jeff Richter, a former UND defensive lineman, will begin his first season in 2012 as the team's tight ends coach. Kyle Myers, who was a volunteer assistant in 2010 returns in a paid capacity and will assist with the linebackers. Mike Mannausau will have a new title to work with in 2012 as he was promoted to associate head coach and will be the sole defensive coordinator this season. Josh Kotelnicki was named assistant head coach during the summer and has added that title to his role as the linebackers coach and special teams coordinator. Luke Schleusner will coach the position he played at UND as he moves over from coaching the tight ends and fullbacks to directing the wide receivers.