5 things you might've missed in UND's 49-21 win over Illinois State

Eric Hylden / Grand Forks Herald By Tom Miller Today at 7:08 PM Listen Comments Share Share this article News Reporting News Reporting Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. The Trust Project What is this? GRAND FORKS — No. 11 UND used a big second quarter and five touchdown passes from Jerry Kaminski to rout No. 10 Illinois State 49-21 on Saturday at the Alerus Center. Here are five things you might've missed during the game. ADVERTISEMENT 1. Mohr ties Schmidt A lot of the preseason buzz about UND's defense surrounded the All-American edge duo of Lance Rucker and Kaden Vig. Yet, Braden Mohr, not technically a starter some games, has now tied now-head coach Eric Schmidt's 2001 regular-season sack record of 10.0. Mohr had 1.5 sacks against Illinois State. Mohr's teammate Lance Rucker holds the overall single-season record of 11.5 he set in 2025. "Pretty impressive," Schmidt said. "Consistently good over occasionally great. The best edge rushers ... you get all these clinics and things people want to talk about ... but when your lower half is constantly making up ground to the quarterback, you're closing ground. You're hard to block." Mohr missed most of the 2024 and 2025 seasons with year-long injuries. "I knew he was going to be better this year," Schmidt said. "I felt like he was going to be better because he finally got to train. He just he's had two really, really tough injuries where it's not six weeks and you're back. These are going to be nine to 12 months that you're going to have to be in PT and AT. This year, he finally was able to train and our strength and conditioning staff and our performance team team did a great job. I think he's got a lot of confidence right now when he's out there playing." 2. Big game for Deng UND wide receiver Deng Deng recorded the first multiple-touchdown game of his career. He finished with four grabs for 81 yards, which included a career-long 41-yard reception. ADVERTISEMENT Deng was also a handful as a pass blocker, opening holes for other receivers in the short passing game. "I think Deng has taken a lot of strides this year," UND quarterback Jerry Kaminski said. "When I look out there, Deng is on our side, I feel a lot of confidence. He's a guy you want to get the ball to, and you trust Deng to go up and make a play. You put the ball around him, and it doesn't feel like a 50-50 ball. It feels like Deng is going to come down with it." Deng has at least 75 receiving yards in six of his last seven games. He has 53 catches for 771 yards and four touchdowns this season. 3. UND wins on perimeter UND didn't come out of the gates running the football. Instead, the Hawks used the short passing game as a bit of a ball-control weapon. Korey Tai had seven catches for 45 yards with a long of 10 yards. "That was probably the one thing we really challenged our team," Schmidt said. "We knew the box was going to be really, really tough on both sides. There were a lot of really good players there. Let's out-compete their (defensive backs) at wide receiver. Latching on to people, blocking, making sure that your assignment doesn't make the play. "(Deng) is hard to get off when he's out there. I mean, he's a big, physical guy." ADVERTISEMENT 4. Finally the bye After playing four-consecutive opponents ranked in the Top 10 of the FCS Top 25, the Fighting Hawks have reached a bye week. UND is off next weekend before finishing at home against Southern Illinois. "We're going to attack the bye week and see what we can improve upon and learn from," Kaminski said. 5. Winning the turnover battle During the Fighting Hawks' recent road struggles, turnovers became a glaring weakness. Not only was UND turning it over on offense but the defense wasn't gaining many takeaways. Against Illinois State, UND grabbed two fumbles and Illinois State botched a punt that helped set up a short field for UND to score a touchdown. The Hawks were 7-for-7 with seven touchdowns in the red zone. "Sometimes it just comes in bunches," Schmidt said. "You're punching at the ball as much as you can. I think we were probably a little simpler today, letting guys just go downhill and play and and not trying to do too much with calls and things like that, and I think that probably helped our guys. "They could just go and go be violent tacklers. (Victor Dawson) is a tough tackle. He's 235 pounds and low to the ground. When he gets his pads going north and south, he's hard to get down on the ground. I thought our guys did a good job of making them earn it. Once the second guy got in there a lot, we were going for the football and almost had a few other ones out." ADVERTISEMENT UND football news UND, banged-up Jerry Kaminski blast Illinois State 49-21 1h ago LIVE BLOG: Illinois State at UND football, 1 p.m. 8h ago UND's developing rush attack to face tough test 1d ago 8 things to know about Illinois State ahead of UND's matchup Saturday 3d ago Illinois State enters UND matchup with strong road reputation 4d ago Comments Share Share this article News Reporting News Reporting Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. The Trust Project What is this? Tags Tags UND FOOTBALL UND SPORTS NORTH DAKOTA FIGHTING HAWKS By Tom Miller Miller has covered sports at the Grand Forks Herald since 2004 and was the state sportswriter of the year in 2019 (NSMA, NDAPSSA), 2022 (NSMA, NDAPSSA), 2024 (NDAPSSA) and 2025 (NDAPSSA). His primary beat is UND football but also reports on a variety of UND sports and local preps. He can be reached at (701) 780-1121, [email protected] or on Twitter at @tommillergf. 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