Jul. 24—GRAND FORKS — The UND football program’s successor to veteran quarterback Tommy Schuster is undecided.
On Wednesday, Fighting Hawks coach Bubba Schweigert set the stage in clear terms.
“There’s a quarterback competition at the University of North Dakota,” Schweigert said during a video call of Missouri Valley Football Conference coaches.
When UND opens fall camp on July 31, junior Trey Feeney, redshirt freshman Jerry Kaminski and junior Simon Romfo will battle for the title of No. 1 quarterback.
Schuster, the starting quarterback for UND for the past four-plus seasons, elected to use his final season of eligibility at Michigan State.
“The way we sent them off in the spring was to keep competing and learning … no decisions have been made, and we’ll have competition in fall camp,” Schweigert said. “That’s healthy for us and the individuals. We have to have this room be all-in and support each other in order to execute at a high level.”
Schweigert said he hasn’t set a timeline for establishing his starting quarterback in lead up to UND’s season opener at Iowa State.
Schweigert said leaving the quarterback job open after spring was a joint decision with new offensive coordinator Isaac Fruechte, who came to Grand Forks from Winona State after the departure of play-caller Danny Freund, who went to South Dakota State this past offseason.
“We’ll let it play out,” Schweigert said. “When we’re ready to name who’s going to start at Iowa State, we’ll make that decision.”
Feeney, Kaminski and Romfo all put together impressive prep backgrounds. Feeney and Romfo even experienced a touch of success in 2023.
Feeney, the son of former North Dakota State standout Kevin Feeney, is 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds. He played in seven games last season, throwing for a 33-yard touchdown pass in Week 1 against Drake.
In a reserve role last season, the left-hander was 15-for-20 for 217 yards passing.
Feeney was the Minnesota Gatorade Player of the Year at Moorhead in 2020 after throwing for 1,973 yards, 36 touchdowns and just one interception in his senior season.
Kaminski, who’s 6-2 and 200 pounds, redshirted in 2023 and didn’t see any action. As a high school senior at Sun Prairie East High School, Kaminski won the Dave Krieg Award as Wisconsin’s top senior quarterback. He threw for 2,785 yards and 40 touchdowns, while rushing for 296 yards and five touchdowns.
Romfo is 5-11 and 190 pounds from Calvin, N.D., where he was a standout for Langdon-Edmore-Munich. He didn’t lose a single game, finishing 37-0 with three state championships as a three-year starting quarterback for the Cardinals. Romfo threw for more than 7,700 yards and 100 touchdowns while rushing for another 3,100 yards and 47 scores.
Romfo showed some effectiveness as a rushing threat in 2023 during his role as a change-of-pace quarterback. That was on display in a win over Western Illinois, where Romfo scored on touchdown runs of 5 and 10 yards.
Grand Forks Herald
