GRAND FORKS, North Dakota — At the end of the day, he’s just a freshman.
Those were the words spoken by Montana State co-defensive coordinator Jamie Marshall referring to North Dakota transcendent tailback John Santiago. On Saturday, Santiago and his fellow true freshman backfield partner Brady Oliveira looked anything but rookies.
[restrict paid=”true”]The duo combined to rush for 397 yards and score four touchdowns in North Dakota’s 44-38 upset win over No. 19 Montana State here on Saturday.
“I made sure to give them big hugs after the game,” UND sophomore safety Cole Reyes said after an 11-tackle performance that also included an interception and a fumble recovery. “It’s week by week with those guys. They come to practice every day. They practice hard and you see the success they are having.”
Santiago ripped off a 45-yard touchdown in the first quarter, a 75-yard touchdown in the second quarter and scored the game-winning touchdown from four yards out with one minute, 41 seconds to play. All told, the 5-foot-9, 170-pounder carried the ball 30 times for a career-high 230 yards. He extended his UND freshmen rushing record as he became just the second North Dakota back to surpass 1,000 yards during the team’s Division I era. Santiago now has 1,162 yards and 11 touchdowns this season.
“The kid is unreal,” MSU senior captain defensive tackle Taylor Sheridan said. “I talked to (Santiago) after the game and I don’t know a better running back in our conference and I told him that. I told him to keep working hard and I’m sure he will. He looks like a guy who works hard. I have total respect for the kid, 170 pounds and he knows how to break tackles. I tell you what, as soon as you get in the open field, I’m not catching him and no one else is. The kid is unreal, great player.
Santiago was a known commodity entering the game. He had five 150–yard games overall this season and a streak of five straight 100-yard games against Big Sky play entering the game. He rushed for a career-high 178 yards and piled up 299 all-purpose yards in UND’s 42-16 loss at Montana the week prior.
Oliveira on the other hand had played sparingly entering Saturday afternoon’s action at the Alerus Center. The 5-foot-10, 220-pound true freshman from Winnipeg, Canada, earned just 43 carries entering Saturday, including 16 the week prior in Missoula. He entered Saturday’s action with 167 yards rushing, averaging 3.9 yards per carry.
On UND’s third possession, Oliveira nearly tripled his career-long run by ripping off a 30-yard touchdown in which he made a trio of MSU defensive players look silly by diving into each other has he rumbled in for his first career touchdown. In the fourth quarter, Oliveira ripped off a 28-yard run to set up Santiago’s game-winning score. All told, Oliveira equaled his previous season total with 167 yards on 12 carries.
“I like having John there,” Oliveira said with a smile during his first-ever post-game press conference. “He’s the speed guy, I’m the power back. Having that duo is really cool. Me and John, we are super close friends. We get along very well. We watch film together and talk about defense. I think we build off each other and it’s great to have him here.”
“We are two different backs,” Santiago said. “My speed and his power played to our advantage today. When we both play lights out, we can make a difference in the game.”
North Dakota entered the game wanting to control the clock and avoid a shootout with the top scoring team in the Big Sky Conference. Instead, Montana State’s hapless defense continued to flounder as MSU gave up 426 yards rushing and 548 yards to one of the four statistically worst offenses in the Big Sky.
“I think it was the simple inside zone mostly that we hurt them with,” Oliveira said. “Me being power run, running that inside zone, I hit the hole hard and got those yards. On film, watching them I didn’t think there would be cutback lanes but my vision, I just saw the lanes and I hit it. The holes were huge.”
Santiago has torn up defenses from Wyoming to Portland State to Montana to Montana State. UND head coach Bubba Schweigert spent most of his years as a defensive coordinator before taking the head job at his alma mater before last season. Watching Santiago’s speed, Schweigert wanted to find a compliment to his elusive back.
“They are a really good compliment to each other because they are different styles. I was coaching defense for a number of years and it’s really difficult when you bring a different type back. You are looking at a slasher and all of a sudden, you have a guy who hammers it up in there,” Schweigert said following his first career win over Montana State. “I love the one-two punch.”
In six games against Big Sky Conference competition (Montana State played Eastern Washington in a non-conference game), the Bobcats are giving up 318 rushing yards per game, including 350 per game on the road. Santiago and Oliveira join a list that also includes Eastern Washington junior Jabari Wilson, Cal Poly sophomore Joe Protheroe, Northern Arizona senior Casey Jahn and Portland State senior David Jones of running backs that have rushed for career-high yardage against Montana State. The six running backs surpassed their career highs in yardage by an average of 91 yards.
The main culprit for the Bobcat defense has been poor tackling.
“I have no clue why we can’t tackle,” Sheridan said. “I hoped we would find out before it was too late. Now it is.”
Montana State gave up 292 yards and more than 10 yards per rush in the first half. MSU gave up 5.6 yards per carry after halftime, but the adjustments came too late as UND equaled its single-game season-high with 31 points in the first half.
“Out of that bunch set, we changed some stuff to stop that because that was the only formation that was really beating us and once we got that, we kind of got settled down in the second half. We played Bobcat defense in the second half,” MSU sophomore Mac Bignell said after raising his season-high tackle total with nine stops on Saturday. “That’s how we were supposed to play. We just have to play like that the whole game.”
“I don’t know exactly what adjustments we made, but it felt at halftime, the discussion we had were the same things we were saying all week at practice,” Montana State ninth-year head coach Rob Ash said. “I don’t think it was anything magic in terms of new schemes, different concepts. I think we just fit things better, wrapped up better, got off blocks better, made some progress. Frustrating thing was that game plan was in place when we started the game, too.”
Missed opportunities were not limited to the defensive side of the ball for Montana State. For the first time this season in a conference game, MSU’s defense forced multiple turnovers. Sheridan forced a fumble that MSU converted into a game-tying touchdown in the second quarter.
Late in the second quarter and early in the first half, MSU incurred its first spat of turnovers this season. Following Santiago’s 75-yard touchdown run, MSU quarterback Dakota Prukop threw one of his poorer balls of his career as Reyes notched an interception. MSU forced a turnover on downs but on the second play of the ensuing drive, Prukop again threw into coverage, again looking for Justin Paige. This time, UND’s Jahmere Irvin-Sills intercepted the pass.
On the first play out of halftime, sophomore Jayshawn Gates fumbled on a jet sweep play. Senior William James forced it and Reyes recovered. The miscue was MSU’s first fumble this season.
In the fourth quarter, MSU junior Jessie Clark notched a sack-strip that redshirt freshman DeMonte King recovered. But four plays later, Prukop was stripped and UND got the ball right back. On the ensuing UND possession, Bignell stripped UND sophomore Josh Seibel and MSU sophomore Tyrone Fa’anono but MSU again could not covert as the next Bobcat possession ended in a punt with the score tied 38-38.
“Keep an edge on defense,” Reyes said of his team’s mentality after suffering a pair of fourth-quarter collapses earlier this season. UND blew a 31-15 lead in a 37-31 loss to Idaho State and a 24-10 lead in a 25-24 loss to Weber State. “Keep your foot on the gas pedal, don’t let up. A couple of fourth quarter comebacks we’ve given up, we maybe got comfortable. We had to keep the guys up and motivated.”
UND assumed control and marched down the field thanks to Santiago and Oliveira. Montana State had one more chance trailing 44-38 with less than 100 seconds to play. Paige dropped a third down pass from Prukop and the junior’s fourth-down attempt was swatted down at the line of scrimmage. The result was a loss that likely cost Montana State a playoff berth.
“Offense was under the gun all game,” Ash said. “That’s what has happened to us. Under the gun all game to perform, it’s tough to sustain it.
“It’s a crazy game when it comes down to the chances. We had the key fumbles and we couldn’t capitalize. It was one of those days.”
[/restrict]Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
