MONTANA STATE PRESS RELEASE
Montana State’s first full scrimmage of preseason camp Saturday will include situational elements and a look at the kicking game. The session offers Bobcat fans full-field, full-contact football. But mostly, says Bobcat head coach Jeff Choate, it’s about youth.
“We’re going to let the young guys go,” MSU’s second-year head coach said of Saturday’s scrimmage that is likely to max out around 60 plays. Choate said that with so many young players he hopes to “get a few folks in the stands and create a little bit of a game atmosphere. We just want to see the guys turn it loose and play. We don’t expect it all to be perfect in terms of the execution, but the energy and effort and enthusiasm has to be present.”
Choate said Saturday’s scrimmage, slated to begin around 11 a.m. in Bobcat Stadium, “will be a little bit of a mix. We’ve obviously been spending a lot of time on situational offense and defense. We’re going to put our veteran guys in a lot of situations – backed up, clutch, which is our two minutes, red zone situations – and we’ll inter-mix that with just play ball with our young guys. We’ll have a little bit of special teams mixed in, as well. It will look like a practice to start, then we’ll have a little special teams, then we’ll have a situation, then we’ll let the young guys get after it a little bit.”
Montana State true freshman running back Troy Andersen/ by Brooks Nuanez
With preseason camp elongated by the elimination of twice-daily practices, Choate said managing the players’ physically becomes paramount, especially with 59 players in either their first or second year in the Bobcat program. “I feel really good about our ability to practice at a high tempo without beating each other up,” he said. “Obviously we have a limited roster at the FCS level and one of the things I probably learned through last year’s experiences is how important it is to manage that roster through a long fall camp.”
Saturday’s scrimmage concludes fall camp’s “phase one. You build toward that second scrimmage as phase two, then you get a mock game week and a true game week.”
The key points of Saturday’s scrimmage, Choate said, will be easy to identify. “Energy, effort and enthusiasm,” he said. “I know it’s not going to be perfect in terms of the execution yet. When you’re on practice 11 or 12 that’s part of the deal, especially when you’re playing a lot of young guys, but hopefully we can create some of the game day jitters and deal with that. But the energy, effort and enthusiasm have to be present.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
