Tyler Bruggman marched Montana State’s starting offense down the field with precision, executing an array of plays that are sure to be staples in Courtney Messingham’s offense this fall. The well-traveled signal caller threw a frozen rope to the wide side of the field for his first completion and into a window to crossing tight end Austin Barth for another first down. The Scottsdale Community College transfer used his eyes to perfectly set up a screen to Chad Newell for a long gain. The former 4-star recruit who also made stops at Washington State and Louisville lofted a perfect strike to John D’Agostino in the far corner of the end-zone for a 20-yard touchdown on the first possession.
For a moment, the new looked reminiscent of the old for the Bobcats.
MSU quarterback Tyler Burggman (11) throws under pressure from linebacker Joey Michael (42)
A season ago, Montana State’s electric offense lit up scoreboards as Dakota Prukop’s unorthodox, unstoppable style helped MSU pile up points and yards in bunches. But the offense lacked any ability to control the clock and the unit was defined by missed opportunities early as much as theatrics late. Montana State’s defense looked like a sieve for the duration of the campaign, surrendering 40 points and 504 yards per game against Big Sky Conference opponents.
So when Bruggman marched the Bobcat 70 yards in nine plays, completing five of his first seven passes for 67 yards along the way, one could be forgiven for assuming the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. Even with Prukop fighting for a job at Oregon and Montana State adjusting to a new coaching staff for the first time in a decade, it looked like the offense could be dynamic and the defense porous once again.
After Bruggman’s initial touchdown pass however, the defense buckled down, the special teams struggled mightily and Montana State’s quarterback of the future flashed his talent in the present.
The Bobcat offenses managed just two short field goals the rest of the way during the 87-play session that supplied one hour, 18 minutes of live action to the roughly 500 fans in attendance on Friday night. From huddling on offense to tackling in the open field on defense, the Bobcats displayed several forgotten traits for the majority of the first public scrimmage new head coach Jeff Choate’s first fall camp.
“I was very pleased with the mindset,” said Choate, who will serve as a collegiate head coach for the first time in a game on September 1 at Idaho. “They didn’t lack focus. I felt that earlier today as I was walking through the locker room. They wanted to simulate a game situation in their mind and I was pleased with that.
“I thought defensively, there was some good contact out there. It wasn’t touch football. Our guys were flying around out there, playing physical, putting hats on people. That’s how we have to be.
MSU tight end Woody Brandom 46) looks for space with buck end Grant Collins 41) in pursuit
“Offensively, we need a couple of more explosive plays. But I thought they operated within the offense well. We were able to mix tempos on a few of the drives. I thought Courtney did a really nice job. I was in his ear saying let’s go, let’s go. For him to balance into that and call the play quickly, I was pleased with that.”
After the initial drive, the defensive locked in thanks to a good push by the front four, good fills by the linebackers and sure open-field tackling by the secondary.
The second-team defense shut down the second-team offense on its second possession, forcing a punt after four plays. A Shiloh Laboy touch sack of redshirt freshman quarterback Brady McChesney aided the first top of the day. Laboy, a junior who transferred to MSU before last season, took most of the first-team reps at end with Tyrone Fa’anono and Devin Jeffries on the shelf with injuries.
Because the drive lasted a short duration, the second offense took the field again, this time with true freshman quarterback Chris Murray at the helm. Fellow freshman running back Anthony Pegues ripped off 28 of his scrimmage-high 48 rushing yards thanks largely to a pile-driving block of redshirt freshman cornerback Chris Harris by towering wide receiver Cam Sutton.
Murray showed his elusiveness, ripping of a pair of first-down runs but the drive stalled out inside the red-zone. True freshman kicker Gabe Peppenger, a walk-on from Missoula Sentinel locked in a competition with redshirt freshman Devon Tandberg, missed a 29-yard field goal to the left.
After a series of poor punts from Tandberg and true freshman Jered Padmos, the first-team offense took the field gain. Bruggman began the drive with a laser to Paige for a 21-yard gain. His second throw, a dump-down to senior running back Gunnar Brekke, netted 14 yards and his third completion of the drive was a bullet to Paige on a hitch for another first down.
MSU quarterback Ben Folsom (12) behind center
“In college football, you don’t often see guys throw hitches to the field or the curl routes to the field (wide side of the field or far hash) and Tyler has a strong enough arm to throw it,” Choate said. “We probably could’ve gone down the field and hit JP (Justin Paige) with that route over and over because you are going to play off coverage because you are worried about the vertical route. There’s a lot of things that Tyler did that maybe didn’t look spectacular to the naked eye but you are watching and you realize that’s a good decision, that’s where you want to go with the ball. That’s going to keep us on the field.”
Bruggman finished 9-of-17 for 132, including the touchdown to D’Agostino, a sophomore out of Bozeman High. Paige, a junior with blazing speed who is currently averaging 32.5 yards per catch in his career, finished with five catches for 67 yards.
After Paige’s final catch of the day, the Bobcat starting offense stalled out. Brekke’s patient 12-yard got MSU inside the 10 and Newell’s four-yard burst got it inside the 3. But redshirt freshmen Marcus Ferriter and Josh Hill stood Newell up short of the end-zone on third down, leading to a 19-yard field goal by Tandberg.
“All the things we’ve worked on over and over and over again, the emphasis we’ve put on tackling is starting to show up,” Choate said. “I’m proud of our coaches and I’m proud of these kids.
The No. 2 offense had a similar result on Folsom’s final drive of the day. Junior college transfer defensive tackle Brandon Hayashi’s sack set up a long-yardage situtation that set up a fourth and long. Folsom hit senior Brandon Brown for a 21-yard gain, then hurried up and hit Brown for seven more yards. Still operating in the up-tempo, sophomore Noah James rumbled for 21 yards, but the drive puttered out at the 10. Peppenger hit a 27-yard field goal.
Murray, a 6-foot-3, 190-pounder from Lawndale, California, owned the rest of the day. He led the third-team offense on a 12-play drive against the first-team defense that included two completions to classmate Kevin Kassis and two more completions to fellow freshman Karl Tucker, the second a 25-yard gain into the red-zone.
MSU quarterback Chris Murray (8) evades pressure from defensive lineman Lewis Kidd (97)
On a third down and 11 to go from the 14 yard line, Murray took the snap at the middle of the field, scanned through his reads and smoothly rolled to his left outside the hash. He stopped on a dime, juked a defender to the ground, peeled back all the way to the other side of the hash and trotted into the end-zone. The play was negated by Sutton’s illegal block in the back on redshirt freshman Sidney Holmes, but showed the smooth, talented gunslinger’s running ability.
“He’s California cool,” Choate said. “I say, ‘You watch the clock’ and he just gives me the thumbs up like ‘I got this, coach. Don’t worry about it.’ He’s a unique athlete. You can see when he gets in the open field, he has great vision.
“I’m not going to say he’s the fastest guy on the team but I wouldn’t want anyone else to race him. I think his straight ahead speed is pretty special. We just have to have that conversation about what’s best for Chris, what’s best for the program. If those two things match up, that’s a good thing.”
Murray finished 9-of-12 for 85 yards and added seven rushes for 45 yards. Following the performance, Choate told a story of Murray at his inner-city Los Angeles high school. Murray is 17 and will not turn 18 until October. As a prep freshman, he won Lawndale’s starting quarterback job as a 13-year-old freshman. But state rules did not permit him to play the first few weeks of the season until he turned 14.
“It’s not like he hasn’t been under pressure,” Choate said. “He’s comfortable with the setting because he’s played the position for a long time because he has the confidence and the swagger about him.”
MSU linebacker Joey Michael (42) rushes quarterback Tyler Bruggman (11)
Choate lamented the early penalties, including a holding penalty that set up a long yardage situation, an offside penalty on the defense that allowed a fourth down conversion and Sutton’s violent block in the back on Holmes. He said the kicking and punting positions are concerns and still a work in progress. He praised Bruggman for his decision making and praised his defense for their open field tackling. At the end, he acknowledge that, as predicted, Friday’s scrimmage served as a pivot point as MSU enters the stretch run of its fall camp with the season-opener less than two weeks away.
“I think what is going to have to happen here the next couple of days is we are going have those conversations about let’s put our best 11 on the board on offense and defense,” Choate said. “Now who is the next best 11? Who do we have to have based on things we have to be able to do? We have to get closer to that.
“Because really, we have to start pairing down the reps for these guys. These guys have to start understanding their role. As we get into game planning, you can really only get a handful of guys ready at every position.”
MONTANA STATE SCRIMMAGE STATE AUGUST 19, 2016
RUSHING: Anthony Pegues 7-48-0, Noah James 6-18-0, Gunnar Brekke 4-24-0, Sean Opland 3-3-0, Chad Newell 2-6-0, Jayshawn Gates 1-13-0, Tyler Bruggman 1-4-0, Chris Murray 7-45-0.
PASSING: Tyler Bruggman 9-17-0, 132, 1 TD; Chris Murray 9-12-0, 85, 0; Brady McChesney 7-12-0, 67, 0; Ben Folsom 5-9-0, 61, 0.
RECEIVING: Justin Paige 5-67-0, Austin Barth 1-10-0, Chad Newell 1-20-0, Johnny D’Agostino 1-20-1, Gunnar Brekke 1-14-0, Cameron Sutton 4-32-0, Brandon Brown 2-26-0, Will Krolick 1-1-0, Woody Brandom 2-21-0, Karl Tucker II 3-34-0, Kevin Kassis 1-3-0, Keon Stephens 2-40-0, Noah James 1-9-0, Connor Sullivan 2-14-0, Dalton Daum 1-9-0, Jayshawn Gates 2-24-0.
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
