Brian Armstrong likened Wednesday morning to the feeling he gets on game days at Bobcat Stadium during the fall.
“I couldn’t sleep last night and I was up at 5 a.m. this morning,” Montana State’s new offensive coordinator said with a smile. “This is always so fun.”
MSU’s newest coordinator had the first of 15 opportunities to help overhaul Montana State’s ordinary offense on Wednesday with the opening of spring drills.
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Armstrong, who took over for Courtney Messingham after Messingham took the OC position at North Dakota State in February, is tasked with helping an offense that battled the turnover bug for most of 2016 before catching fire, at least in the run game, to close Jeff Choate’s first campaign at the helm.
After six consecutive Big Sky Conference losses, Montana State ran the ball with authority in wins over UC Davis and rival Montana to close a 4-7 record, MSU’s second straight losing season after a string of 14 straight winning autumns in Bozeman.
The recently proud Bobcats won three straight Big Sky titles between 2010 and 2012. Three straight seasons plagued by lackluster defensive play resulted in the firing of Rob Ash, the all-time winniest coach in program history, and most of his staff following the 2015 season.
In the first year under Choate and defensive coordinator Ty Gregorak, Montana State made significant strides in scoring defense, total defense and passing defense. The Bobcats ranked in the top five in the league in almost every major defensive category.
But an offense that failed to produce points and that turned the ball over 24 times in a six-week span proved to be the Bobcats’ demise during an 0-6 start to league play. Behind an improved offensive front, MSU rallied, rushing for 268 yards in a 27-13 win over UC Davis and rolling up 368 yards on the ground in the 24-17 win over UM in Missoula. But the overall numbers — 25 points, 368 yards of total offense per game, -7 turnover margin — left MSU with much work to do in Choate’s second season.
“We have to get better,” said Armstrong, who coached MSU’s offensive line last season after spending the previous four campaigns as the head coach at Rocky Mountain College in Billings. “Like I talked to them after practice, this should be the baseline, as bad as it should get. We want to stack some days on top of each other. We have 15 opportunities to get better.”
The first of those 15 practice opportunities commenced at 7 a.m. on Wednesday. During Choate’s first spring ball, the Bobcats were short-handed at several key positions because of class conflicts, particularly in the defensive secondary. MSU frequently drilled with “ghost” corners because of the lack of live bodies.
To remedy a similar occurence, Choate elected to have MSU’s spring practices three times a week early in the morning before class conflicts could get in the way for most of his players. The Bobcats will practice Friday and Saturday of this week, then Monday, Wednesday and Saturday for the next four weeks, ending the session with the Sonny Holland spring game in Bozeman on April 22.
“There is a lot of research out there about why going in the morning is better for athletes,” Choate said the day before opening spring football. “It really compartmentalizes their day, allows them to get the hardest physical part of the day over with. Once they shower and get out of here, they don’t have to worry about football. The days we practice, we won’t meet. We will meet on the off days. So they will get up, come to practice, then it’s all about school.”
“I remember being an athlete, looking at the practice schedule and you see 24 periods, the last three conditioning and you are in math and you aren’t thinking about math, you are thinking about running.”
Aside from the difference in start time, the Bobcats will have plenty to adjust to in the coming weeks. Sophomore Chris Murray is the incumbent instead of the upstart at quarterback after earning Big Sky Freshman of the Year honors despite starting just five games.
In a role reversal, he is the favorite to start under center ahead of senior Tyler Bruggman, a journeyman who made stops at Washington State and Louisville before MSU, will be the challenger. Bruggman was not present Wednesday; Choate said he is dealing wtih a family issue in Arizona and will be back on Saturday.
While Bruggman struggled mightily against Big Sky competition — he threw three fourth-quarter interceptions in a 19-17 loss to North Dakota and did not surpass 100 yards passing in losses to Sac State and Northern Arizona before being benched — Choate still left the door open for the strong-armed quarterback competing for the starting job.
“I think it’s going to be interesting because I think when you look at how the offense is coming together, there are things that Brian brings in terms of a high-efficiency passing game that really fit Tyler,” Choate said. “I think that it will be interesting to see how that thing plays out but we are always trying to create competition.”
Montana State will also have to learn the nuances of Armstrong’s offense. The former Frontier Conference Coach of the Year produced prolific offeses at Rocky but will have to find replacements for steady tailbacks Chad Newell and Gunnar Brekke along with All-American guard J.P. Flynn.
Armstrong and Choate both mentioned trying to simplify the run schemes and the protection packages in an effort to push the tempo more often. Armstrong said he uses an offensive scheme devoid of numbers, instead choosing to use only words.
Offensively, the Bobcats will “front-load” the installation of all Armstrong’s new concepts within the first five or six practices, then come back and add things like pre-snap motions and other aspects of the scheme.
“I thought for the most part, guys understood what we were trying to accomplish offensively on Day 1,” said Armstrong, a Helena native who like Choate is a Montana Western alum. “It’s amazing what a difference a year makes.
“I’m in a different spot. But we have spent some time just in the short time since Courtney left making sure we were all on the same page. I really felt like from a coaching staff, we understand what we are trying to accomplish and that trickles down to the kids. Now, we need to do it better, we need to do it faster, we need to do it more physical. But if everyone is on the same page, we have a chance.”
Montana State’s lineup returns four starters on the offensive line, all of its top wide receivers, all its starters on the defensive line, both its outside linebackers along with two corners and three safeties with starting experience. But the Bobcats will have to acclimate to Armstrong, new quarterbacks coach DeNarius McGhee, new secondary coach Mark Orphey and Josh Taufalele, Armstrong’s replacement coaching the offensive line.
Choate said Orphey, a graduate assistant at South Carolina the last few years, has smilar drill work and philisophies as former secondary coach Gerald Alexander even if he doesn’t have Alexander’s outrageous personality. Taufalele was noticeable right away with his energetic, demanding coaching style. McGhee is already a proven commodity, at least with his reputation at MSU. The former star quarterback was the general for MSU’s three straight conference titles.
“We are really fortunate to bring some young coaches in here who have the ability to be stars in this profession down the road,” Choate said.
Despite some of the veterans that will return in the fall, MSU began spring short-handed. Choate confirmed that junior defensive tackle Tucker Yates (shoulder, knee), senior safety Khari Garcia (shoulder), junior cornerback Naijiel Hale (knee), senior right guard Monte Folsom (shoulder), sophomore right tackle Mitch Brott (unknown), redshirt freshman guard Taylor Tuiasosopo (shoulder), and redshirt freshman Conner Floden (knee) had off-season surgeries that will keep them out for part or all of spring drills.
Sophomore cornerback Chris Harris also was limited in practice on Wednesday.
Other roster moves including walk-on offensive lineman Lane Knows His Gun moving to the defensive line, redshirt freshman running back Sean Opland moving to middle linebacker and redshirt freshman safety Jacob Hadley moving to outside linebacker.
When Choate was first hired in December of 2015, he said a culture change would take between 18 and 24 months. Following last season, he said his program was ahead of schedule. On Wednesday, he said he noticed a significant difference from his first spring ball in terms of communication, tempo and the way the players reacted to the coaching staff. But Choate does not want to settle for the progress that has already been made.
“I don’t want to come out here and act like we won the Super Bowl on practice one of spring ball and get to practice 5 and forget we love playing football,” Choate said. “We are building toward something here. The ultimate goal is September 2 and this is just the first of many opportunities to get better.”
[/restrict]Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
