It’s becoming a Montana State tradition but the feeling before each “Gold Rush” never gets old for the Bobcats.
“One of the greatest memories I have in football was my first year here running out of the tunnel for the ‘Gold Rush’ the first time,” MSU captain junior quarterback Dakota Prukop said two days before his team opens its 2015 campaign. “The adrenaline rush was unreal.”
“It’s been a long time since we got to run onto the field,” MSU senior captain Taylor Sheridan said. “Gold Rush is one of our favorite games. Everyone is out there, it’s under the lights and it’s the first one. It’s very exciting for everybody. We can’t wait.”
Montana State is expecting a sellout crowd as it opens its season on Thursday night under the Bobcat Stadium lights. Montana State’s opener against Division II Chadron State, the first game played under the new lights installed earlier in the summer of 2012, set a stadium-record with 20,767 in attendance. The following year, MSU opened up with Monmouth in front of 21,007. Those marks could be challenged on Thursday night. Montana State sold 4,100 student tickets on Monday morning alone.
Fort Lewis is a small college of less than 3,500 students in Durango, Colorado. The Skyhawks averaged 1,534 fans during five home games last season. FLC hasn’t had a winning record in seven seasons.
“Thursday will be the most people almost everyone on our team has ever played in front of,” Fort Lewis senior quarterback Jordan Doyle, who redshirted during the 2011 season at Iowa State, said on Tuesday morning. “Everyone is super stoked about it. I’m sure there will be nerves like any opening game. But Montana State is a great team, ranked toward the top of the FCS so it will be great competition for us and great to see how we matchup and what we can do against great players.”
Montana State enters Thursday’s showdown with high expectations, including a No. 11 national ranking and a spot atop the preseason Big Sky Conference coaches’ poll. Fort Lewis is trying continuing building under well-traveled head coach John L. Smith. After stops over the last two decades at Utah State, Louisville, Michigan State and Arkansas, Smith has led the Skyhawks to a 7-15 record the last two seasons.
Smith has coached in front of 80,741 at Doak Campbell Stadium against No. 2 Florida State. He’s walked the sidelines in front of 105,194 in Ohio State’s Horseshoe and 80,795 at Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. He’s felt 111,609 erupt at the Big House in Ann Arbor, Michigan and 101,486 chant in unison in Happy Valley against Joe Paterno and Penn State. In 2012, he watched Kenny Hill throw his fourth touchdown, a game-winner in overtime to lift Texas A&M past Arkansas in front of 86,442 at Kyle Field in College Station.
The Skyhawks have opened up against Big Sky teams — Southern Utah in 2013 and UC Davis last season — but neither school possesses the home-field advantage provided by Bobcat Stadium. MSU ranked second in the Big Sky and fourth in the country by averaging more than 17,000 fans per game last season, a number that fell slightly from 2013’s program-record of 19,704 per game.
“I think it’s going to take a quarter for us to get used to it, to be honest,” Smith said with a laugh on Tuesday. “We are going to come in there and our eyes are going to be big like a deer in the head lights. It will take a little while for us to get used to the crowd, get used to the noise, the whole surroundings, the field being smaller, the players moving faster, all of those things. Hopefully we get our feet on the ground after a quarter or so and play a good football game.”
Much of MSU’s formidable preseason reputation is born of an offense that returns largely in tact after setting a school record with 496 points last season. On the other side of the ball, the Bobcats are hoping to right the ship with new defensive coordinator Kane Ioane at the helm and at least nine new starters on the field.
On Thursday, linebackers junior Fletcher Collins, sophomore Mac Bignell and redshirt freshman Grant Collins will each make their first college starts.
“I’ve been waiting for it, but I’ve definitely been working hard as well with that mindset that nothing is set in stone,” said Grant Collins, the 2013 Class AA Defensive Player of the Year during Bozeman High’s 13-0 state title season. “To finally see it rolling up and here I am as a starter, it feels great to finally see all that hard work pay off. To finally get a chance to come out under the lights is so cool.
“I’m feeling confident going in. Two great coaches, Coach Ioane and JO (linebackers coach Jody Owens) have been coaching me up really well, getting me on the right track, been hard on me. It’s got me ready for this game.”
The defensive secondary will look to replace three starters. Senior Des Carter started last season at UAB. Redshirt freshman DeMonte King will make his first start at free safety. Senior Trace Timmer will start opposite classmate Bryson Keeton at cornerback.
“I feel confident,” said Timmer, a Great Falls product and the son of MSU Hall of Fame linebacker Kurt Timmer, a member of MSU’s 1984 national title team. “Take it one step at a time, but I feel so good. I don’t feel any different than any other game in the past. Football is football to me. I don’t let the emotions get the best of me so I’ll come out playing like any other game.”
In seven of Rob Ash’s nine seasons, the Bobcats have opened up with an FBS opponent and earned a healthy payday. Two of the last three seasons, MSU has foregone playing up and instead played opponents from the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, including the opener against Chadron in 2012.
Ash said his hope is that MSU will soon move to an all-Division I schedule. Athletic director Peter Fields said he agrees with the goal. MSU is a heavy favorite over FLC, a team picked to finish toward the bottom of the RMAC. Regardless of the opponent, Ash and his troops are just ready to play football against someone besides themselves.
“Our schedule is so tough to put together, I’m just happy to have 11 games,” Ash said. “Wherever they fall and whatever level it is, home or away, we are just happy to have a full schedule. First games are always great, exciting, fun for the guys because you are coming out of camp and it’s been eight months since you played. It doesn’t matter who you are playing.”
[/restrict]Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Right Reserved.
