Schlossman: Now, the gauntlet starts for UND football

GRAND FORKS On Bo Belquist's second catch of the day, he secured the ball along the sideline and ensured both feet were in bounds.

He turned upfield, juked Murray State defensive back KaVan Reed, cut behind a Korey Tai block and scored.

His stat line at that point started to read like Randy Moss on Thanksgiving Day: two catches, 141 yards, two touchdowns.

By the time Saturday's game mercifully ended, UND had scored more points than it had in any football game in 96 years.

ADVERTISEMENT UND's 72-35 win over Murray State was the latest chapter for an offense that has been stunningly efficient after losing creative playcaller Danny Freund, four-year starting quarterback Tommy Schuster and 80 percent of the starting offensive line in the offseason.

The Fighting Hawks are averaging 39 points per game and 48 at home.

New offensive coordinator Isaac Fruechte has unlocked an explosive passing game and turned Belquist from an excellent possession receiver into a deep-ball threat.

Belquist's longest reception last season was 41 yards his only 40-yard play in 2023.

Belquist already has six receptions of 40-plus yards this season, the same number as his first four years combined.

He's hauled in touchdown passes of 69, 41, 73 and 41 in the last eight days.

He's 35 yards from leading the FCS in receiving.

UND hasn't sacrificed the run game, either.

It is averaging 229.6 yards per game on the ground.

It has been six years since UND averaged more than 185 rushing yards per game.

ADVERTISEMENT It has been as good of a start as possible for UND.

The Fighting Hawks are 4-1.

Their only loss came on the road at Iowa State, which is 4-0 and ranked inside the FBS top 20.

UND beat 2023 NCAA FCS finalist Montana and is ranked in the top 10.

But for all the superlatives of the first five games, the direction of the season has yet to be determined.

The schedule now turns.

There are no more nonscholarship opponents like San Diego left on the docket.

They're done with Murray State, which hasn't won a road game in two-and-a-half years.

UND has seven games left.

Five of its opponents were ranked in last week's FCS poll, including Nos.

1, 2 and 5.

ADVERTISEMENT The Fighting Hawks play more games on the road (four) than at home (three), and since Halloween 2018, UND is 29-3 in the Alerus Center and 7-23 away from it.

UND is 1-6 on the road since Nov.

6, 2022.

The victory came at Murray State.

The challenging road begins against North Dakota State next week in the Fargodome.

The Fighting Hawks blew out the Bison last season in Grand Forks, but they're 0-4 in Fargo in the Division-I era.

"We want to really focus on us and our preparation," UND coach Bubba Schweigert said.

"I think that's what our team has done a good job of.

Obviously, with this game coming up, there's going to be a lot of attention given to it.

They're a very good team.

They won handily (Saturday).

"We want to get really prepared to go down there and play a really solid football game.

You want to play your best each and every week.

That's what we want to do next week.".

This article has been shared from the original article on grandforksherald, here is the link to the original article.