BOZEMAN — As Jeff Choate emerged from the Montana State locker room following a deflating loss, he took a moment to compose himself, bent over, his hands on his knees taking a few deep breaths before recapping the thrashing his team had just taken at the hands of the No. 3 team in the FCS.
One would forgive Choate if he was feeling sick after MSU’s 45-14 loss at South Dakota State on Saturday evening in Brookings, South Dakota. The Bobcats mustered just one first down in the first half and just six overall. Montana State, the top rushing team in the Big Sky Conference last season, gained just 29 yards on the ground.
With quarterback Troy Andersen on a limited snap count at other positions because of surgery on an injured left hand, MSU struggled with communication and operation offensively, leading to its defense having to play nearly 40 minutes of football. The fatigue from that many snaps caused for misalignments and fundament errors to pile up as the Bobcats suffered one of their most lopsided losses in Choate’s three seasons at the helm.
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It turned out that Choate’s ill feelings were not just because of the disappointment of a game that got away from the visitors. In fact, Choate was diagnosed with appendicitis by MSU’s training staff and medical team after giving his post-game press conference. The logistical decision was made to get back to Bozeman as quickly as possible. Once home, Choate underwent emergency appendectomy surgery, a physical setback that accompanied feelings of frustration and disappointment from coming out on the wrong side of a non-conference showdown with one of the best teams in the country.
“That’s in our rearview mirror right now but there’s still some things that I think are important to take away from that,” Choate said, addressing the media a few days after his typically scheduled time because of the recovery required from the operation. “Clearly, that was not a performance that we are proud of. That was not a performance that we think is indicative of what this team is about.
“We spent a fair amount of time addressing it on Sunday. The one thing about it is you have to learn from those things. You can’t pretend that it doesn’t happen. You can’t have the lack of preparation we showed, the lack of intensity we showed, the lack of focus we showed, the basic fundamental defensive alignment problems we had, offensive execution…those things can’t happen.
“That falls on my squarely on my shoulders as a head coach in terms of making sure we inspect what we expect. We clean up our operation and that’s been a major emphasis for us this week. I think that will have a large impact on our ability to move forward in a positive way.”
Moving forward begins Saturday with a matchup at Bobcat Stadium against Wagner of the Northeast Conference. Despite his health scare, Choate returned to practice on Tuesday and expects to be available on Saturday as well.
“I feel pretty good,” Choate said. “It was a weird situation. I knew there was something wrong with me on Saturday and didn’t really know what it was. You take some Tums, kind of think you have a sour stomach or whatever but as the game went on, after halftime specifically, I knew I wasn’t quite there. After the game, the adrenaline kind of ran out. I spoke to you (the media) after I collected my thoughts and I went in and said, ‘I probably need somebody to check me out.’”
When reviewing the film from the most recent loss, Choate observed a fourth-year starting quarterback in SDSU All-American Taryn Christion who dictated the game by placing the ball wherever he wanted. He also so a swarming South Dakota State defense that intently put eight and sometimes nine defenders in the box to hold the MSU rushing attack to 1.3 yards per carry.
Choate and his staff also observed a Bobcat team plagued by uncharacteristic mental errors and hindered by missed opportunities. MSU wide receivers dropped five passes collectively in the first half, not helping redshirt freshman quarterback Tucker Rovig ease in during his first start. With Montana State operating an up-tempo offense, MSU’s six 3-and-outs not only gave SDSU the ball back but hardly milked the clock as the Jackrabbits built a 24-0 halftime lead.
“You realize that they are not doing to us. This is a really good football team and you have to give them credit certainly, I’m not taking anything away from South Dakota State bedcause we were outplayed in every phase,” Choate said. “But the reality is we weren’t that bad of a football team. We just needed to settle down and make a player or two and that’s really what it amounted to.”
Defensively, as fatigue set in, communication faltered and MSU’s normally sound alignment suffered. The Bobcats allowed Christion to complete 21-of-27 passes for 319 yards and four touchdowns, all to Cade Johnson, a player Choate identified as a potential breakout star for the Jacks entering the game. SDSU also rushed for 193 yards. And Christion’s mobility caused for defensive coordinator Ty Gregorak to implement a pass rush strategy to contain and keep him in the pocket, somewhat negating the advantage senior Tyrone Fa’anono and junior Bryce Sterk give the Bobcats coming off the edge.
“Saturday is what it is. None of us wanted this,” Gregorak said on Wednesday. “No one wanted to go coach poorly, play poorly and come out of there licking our wounds. But we did. Now we have to move forward. And that’s what we have done.”
Gregorak told Choate following Tuesday’s practice, the first full go for the week for the Bobcats, that he felt the effort and initiative to improve “was as good as any Tuesday practice in our three seasons here.” Choate observed similar action from his team this week.
“Some guys were angry and I said that was ok,” Choate said. “I expect that. We were able to get some of that out of our system. You don’t do a lot of hitting on Sunday, you stew on it on Monday and they came out on Tuesday and played with the appropriate level of intensity and focus that I think gives us a chance to be successful.”
MSU opens Big Sky Conference play on September 22 at Portland State. But first, the Seahawks from Staten Island, New York give Montana State a chance to get back on track and finish the non-conference portion of its schedule with a 2-1 record.
“It’s never as bad or as good as you think it is,” Choate said. “You go in and look at what it is. Clearly, that was not a good experience Saturday for anybody wearing our color of blue and gold. That was an opportunity for us to come in and get a little bit of a reality check. Now we are where we are. We are 1-1and we have a non-conference opponent coming to our place before we get into Big Sky Conference play. We are excited to move forward.”
[/restrict]Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
