After Makena Simis’ record-setting debut, one could not help but wonder if Montana will have a quarterback controversy once all of its gunslingers are healthy.
During Bob Stitt’s first off-season as the Grizzlies’ head coach, junior Brady Gustafson and sophomores Chad Chalich and Simis battled for the right to be the guy operating Stitt’s vaunted up-tempo offense. Gustafson, a 6-foot-7 Billings West product, ultimately won the job and thrilled in his debut, throwing for 434 yards and four touchdowns as Montana took down four-time defending national champion North Dakota State in Missoula, 38-35.
[restrict paid=”true”]Gustafson came back to earth, throwing three interceptions and committing four total turnovers in a 20-19 loss to Cal Poly the following week. In a 31-21 loss at Liberty, Gustafson suffered an undisclosed but serious injury to his lower leg which he is yet to return from. With Chalich at the helm, Montana won a pair of Big Sky Conference games but the offense looked underwhelming. In a 24-21 overtime loss to Weber State, Chalich went down in with an undisclosed foot injury, opening the door for Simis.
The sophomore from Boise looked shaky against Weber, completing half of his 16 passes and fumbling in overtime to set up the Wildcats’ game-winning field goal.
On Saturday, Simis earned his first start. He wasted no time impressing. On the first play of the game, Montana went deep and Simis sailed the throw. After that, the 6-foot-2 sophomore was right on target. He completed 15-of-22 passes for 321 yards and tied a school record six touchdown passes as Montana dismantled North Dakota, 42-16.
Rumors have swirled all week that Gustafson might be ready for a return next week as Montana heads to No. 13 Portland State. But Stitt now has a starter with excellent confidence following a record-setting performance. So what will the first-year head coach do when his previous starters are healthy?
“We just take it week by week but it’s awesome to have the starting quarterback sitting here right now beside me,” Stitt said. “He did an awesome job. We will keep moving forward with it. We will continue to put the guys out there who help us win. But I’m so proud of Makena right now, I don’t want to talk about that kind of stuff because he just had the best day that a quarterback has ever had at this school so we are going to enjoy this thing.”
Simis expressed genuine delight in his performance following the game, adding he felt a sense of pride of tying Jordan Johnson’s school record for touchdown passes in a game. Johnson threw six scoring passes against Weber State in 2011. Simis said he considers Johnson a friend, just as he considers the players he sat behind as good friends as well.
“You are constantly waiting for an opportunity and it’s not the way I wanted to get my opportunity,” Simis said. “I think I said it last week — Brady and Chad are two of my best friends and you don’t want to see them get hurt but you have to embrace it when the opportunity comes. It was fun.”
Leading up to Saturday’s game, Stitt said Montana might not put a priority on tempo and pace as in the previous six weeks. Montana entered the game averaging 85 plays per game but since the NDSU win, the UM offense had manufactured just 22.4 points per game. On Saturday, the Griz offense gained 488 yards on just 69 plays but it wasn’t for a lack of playing fast. It was because of all the big plays the Grizzly offense ripped off.
Simis threw a 23-yard touchdown to Ben Roberts in the first quarter, touchdowns of 36 and 63 yards to Ellis Henderson in the second quarter, a 12-yard TD to Josh Horner and scoring strikes of 74 and 22 yards to Jamaal Jones in the third quarter.
“We started fast, had 25 plays in the first quarter,” Stitt said. “We weren’t going to adjust the tempo because it helps our offensive line. We kind of went fast — we were at 69 or something like that but in the fourth quarter, we weren’t trying to drive the ball. We were trying to grind some clock and not do anything crazy. I think the tempo was very good.”
A slow start again almost bit the Grizzly defense on Saturday. On UND’s first offensive play from scrimmage, true freshman John Santiago took a handoff off tackle and sprinted untouched for an 80-yard touchdown. Montana’s first two possessions resulted in punts before Simis found Roberts for UM’s first score.
But UND’s defense continued to hold strong in the second quarter. The visitors forced two more Montana punts and a turnover on downs as outside linebacker Brian Labat made back to back tackles for loss to earn UND the ball back. North Dakota responded from the stop with a 12-play drive inside the Montana 10. UND ran six plays within 10 yards of the end zone but three times, junior defensive tackle Caleb Kidder stuffed Santiago or Brady Oliveira and two more times, senior defensive end Tyrone Holmes made tackles for marginal gains as the UND drive stalled out on the 3. A 20-yard field goal by Reid Taubenheim was UND’s last points until last in the fourth quarter as Montana’s defense continued to gain momentum throughout the afternoon.
Santiago rushed for 106 of his 178 yards in the first quarter and 145 before halftime. He averaged just 3.3 yards per carry during the second half as North Dakota’s offense never found any flow.
“We have to be able to find a way to come out and get all the gaps canceled and not give up a big play or a double pass or something like that,” Stitt said. “Our guys are lights out the rest of the game. It just seems that the first of the game or the second half starts that way. We talked about it at halftime and I said, ‘You guys have to wake up now. You guys have to come out and play some D.’ And they did. We have to be able to do that in each half down the stretch.”
Kidder led the way with 11 tackles. Senior linebacker Kendrick Van Ackeren added 10 stops, as did Holmes. Holmes also had a sack and strip on UND’s final possession, raising his sack total to 12 this season and further strengthening his Buck Buchanan Award resume. UM senior middle linebacker Jeremiah Kose notched nine tackles and hauled in a third-quarter interception that helped Montana turn a 21-10 halftime lead into a 28-10 lead early in the third quarter, Montana’s largest lead of the season up to that point.
North Dakota’s 3-4 defensive scheme puts priority on bring pressure from its entire front seven. UND entered the game allowing a Big Sky-best 71 rushing yards per game. But Montana piled up 162 yards rushing despite averaging just 3.5 yards per carry. UND’s Dylan Bakker notched 14 tackles and two tackles for loss as UND piled up 11 tackles behind the line of scrimmage, including three by Jake Disterhaupt.
In turn, UND’s strategy left cornerbacks alone on an island. The speed and talent of Henderson and Jones proved to be too much for UND’s secondary to handle on Saturday. Jones finished with four catches for 139 yards and Henderson hauled in three catches for 114 yards.
“This is something that needs to get corrected in our program,” UND head coach Bubba Schweigert said. “It’s really hard to play good defense when you give up big plays for scores through the air. We feel offenses don’t really have to earn it when you give them up that way.
“They are pretty good at those positions, but we have to do better. We have to stay on top of routes and we have to take that as personal battles. Corner is a tough position to play in this league. But we just have to plain do better. We preach to stay on top of routes. One of the touchdowns was a two on one and we didn’t get in the right position. That was a mental error. One of the biggest pass plays in the first half was a mental error. You are going to get beat one on one out there sometimes but we had two mental errors on two of the big touchdowns that just shouldn’t happen. I don’t think the pace really affected us as much as big plays. That’s what was really disappointing. We have to find a way to get it corrected.
“There’s two ways you do it: you improve the guys you have the guys you have on your roster or you do it in recruiting. We have to take a look at both options really hard.”
On Simis’ first touchdown throw, he found the 6-foot-4 Roberts isolated in one-on-one coverage out of the slot. Simis threw a ball over Williams James’ head to a leaping Roberts for Montana’s first touchdown. On Henderson’s first touchdown, it appeared Simis under threw the streaking junior but the ball settled in as Henderson beat one-on-one coverage. Later in the second quarter, Simis rolled to his right and with a flick of the wrist, found Henderson down the sideline. The speedster broke one tackle and raced the rest of the way for the 63-yared score.
In the second half, Simis side-stepped a blitzing defender and threw a rope into a window for Horner’s first touchdown of the season. On Jones’ first touchdown, Simis again threw a laser into a window and again, Jones made the UND defensive back miss before turning on the jets for a 74-yard score. Simis’ sixth touchdown pass came on play-action and was a perfectly thrown ball thrown to the corner of the end zone for Jones’ sixth touchdown this season.
“I haven’t seen the film yet but I think we have to do a better job of executing what our coaches call on defense because it’s not just the back row that’s messing up,” UND senior middle linebacker Will Ratelle said. “We have to get a pass rush and stop the run better. We have to do everything better as a team. If we stop the run better, we get a better pass rush and maybe those plays don’t go for so many yards and touchdowns. We will see the film tomorrow, make corrections during the week and do better next week.”
[/restrict]Photos by Evan Frost. All Rights Reserved.
