Montana State’s second season begins on Saturday in North Dakota. The Bobcats hope an atypical mid-season non-conference game can spark a successful stretch run.
MSU sputtered to a 3-3 start that included two wins against five Division I opponents. The Bobcats entered a week that is usually reserved for a bye with a 2-2 Big Sky Conference record. Instead of taking its league scheduled bye — MSU took its bye in Week 2 instead — Montana State played its third and final non-conference game of the season last weekend. Montana State destroyed FCS independent East Tennessee State 63-7 in Bozeman.
[restrict paid=”true”]The Buccaneers are a first-year FCS program after cutting the program in 2003. The roster includes more than 80 freshmen. Odds makers had Montana State as a 53-point favorite and MSU covered the spread by three points. Still, Montana State head coach Rob Ash said he gleaned confidence by watching the film as the Bobcats prepare to head to Grand Forks on Halloween.
“From a personnel standpoint, probably the toughest area to get a read on things was on special teams but in terms of offense and defense, particularly their offense against our defense, they were sound, they block plays the right way, they have people going to the right places,” Ash said. “So we can get a very good read whether we are reading the blocks right, getting to the right gaps, on the right men in coverage. I thought there was a lot of good reps, good takeaways from the game.”
The runaway victory included a slew of firsts. On offense, redshirt freshmen running backs Tavon Dodd and Noah James scored their first career touchdowns. With junior Gunnar Brekke out with a concussion — an injury that will keep him out this week again — true freshman Logan Jones earned his first two career carries. On special teams, sophomore Jayshawn Gates returned his first career kick for a touchdown.
On Defense, redshirt freshman safety DeMonte King notched his first interception and junior defensive end Jessie Clark recorded his first career sack. The junior college transfer also notched three quarterback hurries and showed good speed off the edge. Sophomore defensive tackle Matt Brownlow forced his first fumble. Junior Zach Hutchins switched to Will linebacker from Bandit end earlier last week. Against ETSU, Hutchins notched his third sack of the season and played well behind sophomore Blake Braun.
“Execution level was a lot better overall and we liked what we saw personnel wise in some of the guys who saw a lot more reps than they had in previous weeks,” first-year defensive coordinator Kane Ioane said. “(Sophomore defensive end) Robert Wilcox showed some really good things at the defensive end. He’s got tremendous physical ability that can help us. We just have to make sure he’s in the right spot all the time and doing the right things. Jessie Clark continues to progress at that Bandit position. He continues to show he’s a good football player who has big-play ability. Zach Hutchins made the switch to the linebacker position and you can tell he has good football instincts, very physical football player who plays with a tremendous motor that makes up for most of the mistakes he may have.”
While playing Bandit, Hutchins showed good pass rush skills but he and the entire Montana State defense has struggled on the perimeter in all facets of defensive football. At home, the Montana State defense has been solid, allowing 15.5 points. But MSU’s home schedule includes brand new ETSU, Division II Fort Lewis and Big Sky foes Cal Poly and Sacramento State, a pair of teams with a combine three Division I wins.
Ash said he liked Saturday’s performance and hoped to build upon it this week in practice as his team prepares for a UND squad trying to snap a three-game losing streak. Montana State is allowing 54.3 points per game on the road. Ash said he has identified several basic defensive concepts Montana State is struggling with, things that prompted change to the scheme and lineup on Saturday.
“I think it’s pretty evident from the film that we are still struggling with boot (leg) concepts and we are working on that and I think we are getting a lot better at that in the room and we will get better at it this week,” Ash said. “There’s some three-level stuff in the passing game where we have to get the second level defended first and make the throw go to the lowest level, the shallowest route. Those kinds of things are the ones I was thinking about and the ones we will definitely get fixed this week.”
On Tuesday, Ash announced sophomore defensive Devin Jeffries would have hip surgery and miss the remainder of the season. During preseason camp and the beginning of this season, Hutchins and Jeffries were MSU’s primary Bandit ends, a standup position that plays on the edge in the Bobcats’ new 3-4 scheme. Last week, Montana State scrapped the 3-4 principles and played four down defensive linemen almost exclusively.
Hutchins will remain at Will and serve as Braun’s backup. Junior Fletcher Collins returned to practice on Tuesday after missing the last three weeks with a hand (thumb) injury. He will serve as redshirt freshman Grant Collins’s backup at Mike linebacker. Sophomore Marcus Tappan, a Cincinnati transfer, is the No. 3 at both inside linebacker spots.
Along the defensive line, Clark will be the starter at Bandit with junior Shiloh LaBoy as his backup as the position will more closely resemble the way it looked when Buck Buchanan Award winner Brad Daly played it. The other end spot will be a rotation between Wilcox and sophomore Tyrone Fa’anono. The inside positions will include senior Taylor Sheridan at 3-technique and Tucker Yates at nose tackle with seniors Nate Bignell and Connor Thomas rotating heavily. Junior defensive tackle Joe Naotala remains out with a concussion.
Montana State needs four more wins to reach seven Division I wins, the unofficial baseline mark for consideration in the 24-team field for the FCS playoffs. The Bobcats have this week’s trip to North Dakota plus a road trip in two weeks to Idaho State along with home dates on November 7 and November 21 date against No. 17 Montana. Ash said he’s glad his team carries the feelings from a win into the four-game stretch.
“It always feels good to win but we have to continue to get better,” Ash said. “We’ve coached this thing since the Portland State game as a two week process. We had to get better through the game last week, we had to get better into this next week and continue to build. I think the guys really have their arms wrapped around that, they understand that and we will continue to make progress.”
[/restrict]Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
