GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- The first day of August also marks the first day of fall camp for the 2017 edition of the North Dakota football team. The Fighting Hawks will report back to Grand Forks next Tuesday, looking to make each of the 30 days leading up to their season-opener at Utah productive ones as the 103 players in attendance will be busy throughout the month prepping for the Utes.

The defending Big Sky champions will not hit the practice field under the watch of Schweigert and company until Thursday, Aug. 3 at 8:30 a.m., but the two days prior will be busy with physicals, meetings and the team's annual Media Day Luncheon. Head coach Bubba Schweigert begins his fourth season in 2017 and the reigning Big Sky Coach of the Year is 21-14 during that span and has won at least two more games than the previous year in each of those seasons.

Schweigert and his coaching staff along with 13 players will be in attendance at the program's annual Media Day event that will give local and regional media an opportunity to discuss the upcoming season before the bulk of fall camp commences. The players expected to attend are Tyus Carter, Brandon Dranka, Jake Disterhaupt, Drew Greely, James Johannesson, Jade Lawrence, De'mun Mercer, Brady Oliveira, Cole Reyes, John Santiago, Keaton Studsrud, Demon Taylor and Noah Wanzek.

That group includes this year's quartet of captains as Reyes and Studsrud return to that post and are joined in their second year of captaincy by Disterhaupt and Santiago. Reyes recently returned from Park City, Utah where he was chosen as the Big Sky Preseason Defensive Player of the Year and the Fighting Hawks were tabbed to repeat as league champions in both the Big Sky media and coaches' preseason polls.

Reyes was also one of a Big Sky-best five Fighting Hawks to land on the Preseason All-Conference Team. He was joined on that team by Deion Harris, Santiago, who held two spots, Oliveira and Taylor. Unfortunately, a day after being named to this team, Harris, who garnered All-America honors in 2016, was lost for the season after suffering a lower-leg injury in offseason workouts.

Santiago has been an All-Big Sky first teamer at running back each of his first two seasons for the Fighting Hawks and was also chosen as the return specialist on the preseason squad. Oliveira, who garnered All-Big Sky third team honors last season, joined Santiago to form the league's preseason running back tandem. Taylor enters his second season as a starter on the offensive front for UND and was a second team All-Big Sky performer as a sophomore in 2016.

All 21 members of the 2017 recruiting class will be in attendance when fall camp starts next Tuesday. The 20 that signed with the program back in February and Quintin Seguin, who joined the class in April, will be pushing a veteran-laden squad that returns nine starters on offense and five on defense.

The only new coach on Schweigert's 10-man assistant coaching staff is running backs coach Malcolm Agnew. He was a special assistant at Nebraska during the 2016 season and is just two years removed from his collegiate playing career that included stops as a standout running back at Oregon State (2011-12) and Southern Illinois (2013-14).

Unlike years past, the 25 practices permitted before the season opener will all be single-day practices after the NCAA eliminated two-a-day practices from fall camp. 

Here is the complete 2017 Fall Camp key dates and a practice schedule: 

Dates and times are subject to change | All practices are scheduled for Memorial Stadium |
All fall camp practices are open to the public and media

-- UND --