RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 2 sourcesAug. 1—GRAND FORKS — The UND football program went through Day 4 of fall camp Saturday morning.
Here are five observations from practice.
UND redshirt freshman safety Owen Thielges has been the beneficiary of changes at his position in the first few days of fall camp.
Thielges was running as a starter opposite Tyler Erkman on Saturday. Avery Dixon, who was in that role, was sitting out with what appears to be a minor injury.
A safety who was expected to be in the mix this fall, Jett Sutton, is no longer on the roster.
Thielges, who's 6-foot-2 and 195 pounds, is a Moorhead High School product. He played in two games last season, registering three tackles and one for a loss against Valparaiso.
At Moorhead, Thielges was the Section 8 Class 5A Defensive Player of the Year. He picked off 11 passes in his career, where he was a three-time all-conference performer.
UND sophomore cornerback Grant Noland, who emerged in a starting role a year ago, has continued to be steady at fall camp.
On Saturday, he was in perfect position to deny Jerry Kaminski's deep toss to Deng Deng, who had previously made a habit of making catches over defenders during camp.
Noland finished last year with 48 tackles and six pass breakups. He was named to the FCS Football Central Freshman All-American Team.
UND running back Matt Lawson, a transfer from Illinois State, has a background as a slot receiver — a position he played growing up — including catching balls as a youth from Kaminski during 7-on-7 leagues.
On Saturday, UND set up a convoy of blockers to score a touchdown on a screen pass during 11-on-11 play.
In his one season of use at Illinois State, Lawson appeared in 12 games in 2024 and racked up 447 yards and 4.3 yards per carry. He had a career-high 84 rushing yards on 16 carries with a touchdown against Northern Iowa.
Lawson is competing for a role vacated by the transfer of Sawyer Seidl to Wake Forest and the graduations of Gaven Ziebarth and Xavier Leigh.
UND's starting edges are set with standouts Lance Rucker and Kaden Vig.
But the Fighting Hawks will play a handful of others plenty of snaps there, as well.
Brody Thornton, who now wears No. 22, has made enough plays through fall camp to appear in line to be considered UND's No. 3 at his position.
Thornton is a 6-5, 245-pound redshirt freshman from Menomonie, Wis.
He played in three regular season games and two playoff games last season, registering a sack against Indiana State and picking up three tackles and 0.5 tackles for loss in a playoff loss at Tarleton State.
Former UND defensive tackle Emmanuel Olagbaju, who transferred to Iowa in the offseason, played at about 295 pounds.
His replacement in the offseason, Kylyn Macklin of Albany weighs in about 20 pounds lighter than Olagbaju.
However, through four days of fall camp, Macklin has used his speed to spend a lot of time in the Fighting Hawks' backfield.
He was disruptive again Saturday as he played in a starting role opposite Logyn Eckheart.
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