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Grand Forks Herald
8 things to know about UND's opponent Indiana State
- Story byGrand Forks Herald
- 8 things to know about UND's opponent Indiana State
Sep. 23—GRAND FORKS — The UND football program looks to bounce back from its first loss of the season when the Fighting Hawks take on Indiana State at noon Saturday at Memorial Stadium in Terre Haute.
Here are eight things to know about the Sycamores.
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UND will see a first-time starter at quarterback against Indiana State.
Brady Allen, a 6-foot-6, 225-pound redshirt junior, will start at quarterback for the Sycamores after Elijah Owens suffered an injury against Valparaiso last Saturday.
According to ISU's game notes for the UND matchup, Owens is "expected to miss extended time."
Owens has 17 starts across the last four seasons. He was 60-for-97 passing for 788 yards, six touchdowns and two interceptions this season.
Allen, a 4-star recruit out of Fort Branch, Ind., attended Purdue (2022) and Louisville (2023-25) before transferring to Indiana State this spring.
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At Louisville, Allen's longest action was going 6-for-9 for 69 yards and a touchdown against Eastern Kentucky.
Allen threw for 11,918 yards in high school, ranking second all-time in the state of Indiana. He was the 2021 Mr. Football award winner.
The last time Indiana State used just one quarterback every game in a season was in 2015 when Matt Adam took the opening snap in all 11 games.
UND's football facilities are on the site of its own former Memorial Stadium, the Hawks played in Nebraska's Memorial Stadium last Saturday and will play in another Memorial Stadium this weekend in Terre Haute.
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Indiana State's Memorial stadium was built in 1924 and dedicated to the public on May 5, 1925, as the local minor league baseball team, the Terre Haute Tots, played the Peoria Tractors in front of a crowd of 9,000.
The field is now FieldTurf, but Memorial Stadium in Indiana claims distinction as the world's first university to make outdoor application of Astroturf. The school acquired the stadium with ISU opening the 1967 season on the turf with a 41-6 win over Eastern Illinois.
Bleacher seating on one side of the stadium were removed in 1996 and replaced by a landscaped hill which serves as general admission seating and a site for pregame tailgating.
Former UND defensive line coach Austin Flyger is in his second season coaching the Sycamores' defensive line.
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Flyger, a former standout at Augustana, coached for five years at UND as the defensive line coach (2020-24).
This week, UND offensive coordinator Danny Freund credited Flyger for Indiana State's stout defensive front he's seeing on film.
Flyger previously coached at Northern State (twice) and Southern Illinois.
Linebacker Alex Rose is the reigning Missouri Valley Football Conference Defensive Player of the Week.
The redshirt junior, a native of Terre Haute, led a defensive effort that held Valparaiso last week to minus-7 rushing yards — the fewest rushing yards allowed in a single game in Indiana State's records.
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Rose had seven tackles and 1.5 sacks against Valpo. The captain helped the Sycamores post a season-high 5.0 sacks and 11.0 tackles for loss against the Beacons.
Indiana State has a new weapon on offense in redshirt junior running back Aaron Ball, an Illinois transfer.
Ball ran for a career-high 182 yards on 11 carries in ISU's 39-16 win over Valparaiso. He had a 59-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, then after an 82-minute lightning delay, added a 58-yard touchdown run.
Ball's 182-yard rushing effort was the most by an Indiana State running back since Nick Osho ran for 211 yards last season at Southern Illinois.
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Ball, who didn't play in two seasons at Illinois, rushed for 87 yards two weeks ago against Eastern Illinois.
UND head coach Eric Schmidt tipped his cap this week to Indiana State coach Curt Mallory and his longevity in the league.
Mallory is in his 10th season as head coach of the Sycamores.
"Coach Mallory does an unbelievable job there," Schmidt said. "He's essentially the OG right now of our league, a guy who represents us on a lot of committees. He's a real positive guy with a lot of passion. You can tell on the sideline the belief those guys are playing with. It's really exciting to be able to see. You can tell they're a much improved, more confident football team."
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Indiana State's freshman right guard Andy Hertlein was named the MVFC Offensive Lineman of the Week on Monday after Indiana State ran for a season-high 313 yards and put up 568 yards of total offense against Valparaiso.
The 500-plus yard offensive output marked the second consecutive game the Sycamores had recorded at least 500 yards of total offense, the first time the team had accomplished the feat since 2010.
"Offensively, they put up a lot of points and yards throughout the season, even against Purdue," Schmidt said. "They've been running the ball at a really good rate, so offensively, I really feel like they've made a huge jump from where they were a year ago."
One player UND will be happy to no longer deal with at Indiana State is All-American athlete Rashad Rochelle, who spent time with the Seattle Seahawks this preseason but was waived before the start of the NFL season.
Rochelle had four catches for 113 yards in UND's win last season in the Alerus Center. Rochelle had 72 yards and a touchdown catch two years ago when the Sycamores stunned UND in Terre Haute.
