Five things to watch for at UND football fall camp

Jul. 28—GRAND FORKS — The UND football team will start fall camp at 8:45 a.m. Wednesday morning. It's the first of 25 preseason practices in lead up to the Fighting Hawks' Sept. 2 season opener against Drake at the Alerus Center.

Here's a look at five things to watch for as fall camp begins.

In a surprise offseason move, UND's defensive coordinator of the past three seasons, Brett Holinka, left Grand Forks without a job in hand before eventually landing as a position coach at St. Thomas.

Considering the Fighting Hawks had the ninth-ranked defense in the Missouri Valley Football Conference last season, a change in defensive leadership in 2023 is perhaps not the most unwelcoming of developments.

UND elected to promote safeties coach and recruiting coordinator Joel Schwenzfeier to defensive coordinator.

Schwenzfeier, a Hallock, Minn., native and former standout defensive back at UND, has said he wants to simplify the defense and allow UND's defenders to play faster and more confidently.

Schwenzfeier may have been sending his first message of fall camp with the release of the team's depth chart last week. Every position was listed with 'OR' next to each name, indicating all positions were open jobs and no starters were locked into place ahead of camp.

UND's immediate quarterback situation is clear.

The Fighting Hawks have a veteran starter in Tommy Schuster, who's entering his fourth season as UND's top quarterback.

The backup in 2022, Quincy Vaughn, has moved from quarterback to tight end and is expected to retain a short-yardage rushing role. Moorhead product Trey Feeney, after some youthful struggles early in his career, appeared to right the ship during spring ball and solidified the No. 2 spot heading into the fall.

Yet fall camp quarterback watching is always intriguing, and there'll be plenty of value in looking at rookie Jerry Kaminski, a Sun Prairie, Wis., product, who was named the Wisconsin Offensive Player of the Year in 2022 and is viewed as the possible quarterback of the future.

Kaminski, at 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds, threw for 2,785 yards as a senior and had 94 career touchdowns in his high school career, where he was 30-4.

UND entered the offseason searching for a replacement for Northern Iowa transfer Tyler Hoosman, who became a valuable piece of the 2022 UND offense and is now hoping to stick in the NFL.

The Fighting Hawks didn't land an obvious Hoosman fill-in through recruiting.

That leaves a wide open field to shake out who'll receive those important carries.

Hoosman had 176 carries for UND last year.

Isaiah Smith has carved a role in the passing game out of the backfield and could see more carries than the 61 (second-most for UND) he saw last year.

Luke Skokna has experience in the backfield and is back after an injury-plagued 2022 campaign.

Gaven Ziebarth is a sophomore who has the potential to emerge in camp. Donavan Hunt enters the mix via transfer from Jackson State.

One of the strengths of UND's 2023 team is expected to be a veteran offensive line.

The Fighting Hawks return six offensive linemen with starting experience in 2022 in junior Easton Kilty, fifth-year senior Donny Ventrelli, junior Seth Anderson, junior Brayden Bryant, sophomore Sam Hagen and sophomore Danny Caroll.

Yet, the UND depth chart heading into fall camp says a redshirt freshman has overtaken the starting center position.

Cade Borud, a 6-foot-2, 315-pound Iowa native, is listed as the starting center ahead of Carroll and senior Colin Lavell.

In 2022, UND split time at center between Carroll and Grand Forks native Peyton Lotysz, who has retired from football due to injury.

Accurate snapping in the shotgun, where UND's offense primarily aligns, was an issue at times in 2022.

Despite the loss of NFL hopeful Garett Maag at wide receiver, UND's wide receiving corps will be experienced in 2023 with the return of all-Missouri Valley Football Conference selection Bo Belquist, as well as regulars Red Wilson and Jack Wright. Caden Dennis, Nick Kupfer, Elijah Klein and Nate Demontagnac have also shown signs of figuring into the 2023 offense.

But there's going to be plenty of new blood at wideout to start fall camp, too.

Five new faces will be in the mix at wide receiver, including South Dakota transfer Wesley Eliodor, who showed this spring some of his ability.

In addition to Eliodor, the new wide receivers include Korey Tai of Glen Ellyn, Ill., Adam Poncolet of Goodhue, Minn., Vuciri Hakim of Fargo Shanley and Michael Gross of Eden Prairie, Minn.