8 things to know about UND football's next opponent Illinois State

Nov. 15—GRAND FORKS — The UND football team closes the regular season Saturday against Illinois State at 1 p.m. at the Alerus Center with both teams in search of a seventh win of the year.

Here are eight things to know about the visiting Redbirds.

Illinois State spent most of the season with returning starting quarterback Zack Annexstad.

Annexstad suffered a knee injury in Illinois State's win over Missouri State two weeks ago, and he was unable to play last week at Murray State.

Illinois State turned to Tommy Rittenhouse, who had started the final three games of the 2022 season for Annexstad, a one-time Minnesota Gophers transfer.

Redbirds coach Brock Spack, though, told Scott Prerost of the Illinois State student newspaper he isn't ruling out Annexstad for UND.

"I can't. No. I can't do that yet," Spack is quoted by Prerost on X, formerly Twitter. "We'll play it by ear this week and try to let you know. We'll see."

Rittenhouse, a 5-foot-11 sophomore, threw for 165 yards last week, a career-high, as Illinois State rushed all over Murray State.

Illinois State received a shot in the arm this offseason with the addition of junior transfer running back Mason Blakemore from Northern Illinois.

Blakemore played in six games in 2022 at NIU, carrying 23 times for 88 yards and a touchdown.

At ISU, Blakemore is having a monster season. He's the No. 2 rusher in the Missouri Valley Football Conference — just behind South Dakota State star Isaiah Davis.

Blakemore is averaging 98 yards per game. He's rushed for more than 100 yards in a game four times.

He had 169 rushing yards and three touchdowns last week against Murray State.

Although it's unclear who's going to be throwing the passes Saturday, Daniel Sobkowicz will be the likely target.

Sobkowicz is No. 2 in the MVFC in receiving, just behind Missouri State's Raylen Sharpe.

The 6-foot-3 sophomore, in his third season in Normal, has had at least 54 yards receiving in every game this year.

Sobkowicz had 11 catches for 170 yards and three touchdowns against Youngstown State earlier this season.

UND and Illinois State haven't played since the 2021 season, where the Fighting Hawks clipped the Redbirds with a touchdown pass with less than five minutes left in the fourth quarter.

On the game-winning pass, Quincy Vaughn threw a touchdown pass to Gaven Ziebarth in the end zone from 3 yards out.

Senior Brock Boltmann had the play of the game for UND with a 37-yard catch to set up UND's late score.

Botlmann was one of seven different players to take snaps at quarterback in that game. Tommy Schuster, Quincy Vaughn, Boltmann and even running back Otis Weah took snaps for UND.

For Illinois State, Jackson Waring, Bryce Jefferson and Britton Morris all took snaps. Jefferson was stripped by Quinton Urwiler on a blitz and fumbled, which led to UND's first touchdown — Schuster's 9-yard pass to Jake Richter.

The reigning MVFC Newcomer of the week is Illinois State junior linebacker Amir Abdullah, who was all over the scoresheet in a 44-7 win over Murray State last week in Normal.

The transfer from Nebraska-Kearney led the defense with nine tackles, a sack, 1.5 tackles for loss and had a 30-yard interception return.

Abdullah's interception was one of three Redbird picks. The ISU defense held Murray State to 123 passing yards.

Illinois State leads the MVFC in sacks, and it's not that close.

The Redbirds have 36 sacks on the season, with Youngstown State's 29 next-best this year.

Abdullah has 9.5 sacks to lead the league, while Josh Dinga has seven and Jalan Gaines has 5.5

Dinga is a 6-foot-6 redshirt senior defensive lineman from Sun Prairie, Wis., the same hometown as UND safety Kadon Kauppinen.

Gaines is a 6-4 senior defensive lineman and a transfer from Dubuque.

Illinois State rallied to beat Missouri State 36-35 on Nov. 4.

After scoring a touchdown with 38 seconds to go, ISU elected to go for a 2-point conversion and the win.

Missouri State scored a go-ahead touchdown with 3:03 to go off a 28-yard run by Celdon Manning. The Redbirds answered and scored on a Wenkers Wright 1-yard run with 38 seconds left.

On the conversion, Rittenhouse threw a short pass to Wright for the conversion. He appeared to lose control as he turned to the end zone and the pass was initially ruled incomplete. After a review, the play was overturned.

Pro Football Hall of Famer Terrell Owens, whose son plays at Missouri State, posted to social media about the play.

"There's ABSOLUTELY NO WAY this is a catch!!! The "ENTIRE OFFICIATING CREW" should be FIRED!!!" Owens wrote on X, as he quote-Tweeted a video of the play.

The Redbirds are 0-3 against teams then-ranked in the Top 25. Illinois State has losses to South Dakota State, Youngstown State and Northern Iowa.

But the Redbirds lost to SDSU 40-21, and the Jacks have made a habit of drubbing quality programs in search of their second-straight FCS national title.

Youngstown State picked off Illinois State 41-38 and Northern Iowa got the Redbirds 24-21.

With six wins on the season, Illinois State comes to Grand Forks hoping for a shot at the FCS playoffs with a win over the ranked Fighting Hawks.