Miller, Harper hope to bounce back

Fresh off of last week's 66-6 loss at Iowa Western, the Harper College football team comes home to play North Dakota School of Science at 1 p.m. today.

“We just played the three toughest games of the season — we have some winnable games ahead,” said Harper coach Eric Waldstein.

North Dakota is coming off a close loss to College of DuPage last week. Waldstein is hoping he can exploit the fact that North Dakota feature five freshman starters on the offensive line.

“We feel like stop North Dakota's run game,” he said. “We are going to try to blitz them and make them think a little bit.”

For the Hawks (1-3) to be succesful on the offensive side of the ball, Waldstein would like to see the running game get on track.

The Harper coaching staff has been working hard this week with freshman quarterback Cody Miller. The coaching staff believes Miller has become conservative during the season — which he was not during spring drills.

“One of the things we have been on Miller about this week is, ‘Don't be afraid to throw the ball,' ” Waldstein said. “He took some hits (against Iowa Western) because he was hesistant to throw the ball.

“You can only take so many of those big hits and get up.”

The Hawks worked hard this week in practice on special teams after having a a punt and an extra point blocked at Iowa Western.

Waldstein was not happy with the way some of the special-teamers blocked last week.

“We do two special teams (drills) at pracice,” he said. “I told the guys we are going to put some guys out there that are hungry.”