BOZEMAN — Chris Murray marched the Bobcat offense down the field in surgical fashion, converting on crucial downs and moving Montana State into the red-zone on its first offensive possession of the season on its home turf.
Inside the 20-yard line, Montana State’s sophomore quarterback rifled two throws to senior Mitch Herbert, both of which sailed high and fell incomplete. No harm. MSU brought out normally reliable field goal kicker Luke Daly, but the senior shanked a 33-yard attempt that would’ve given the hosts an early lead against No. 4 South Dakota State two weeks ago.
Following that opening drive, the Bobcat offense morphed back into the anemic unit that struggled to move the ball for most of Big Sky Conference play. MSU’s next two possessions against SDSU resulted in punts. The Bobcats mounted an eight-play drive that again reached the red-zone in the second quarter. Again, the drive ended in a flashback as Murray underthrew a ball to Herbert that was intercepted in the end-zone on what should’ve been a sure touchdown pass.
Then, all of a sudden like when the lid comes off the hoop in a basketball game, Montana State’s offense exploded.
Montana State senior Mitch Herbert leaps for an errant touchdown pass in the first quarter against South Dakota State in MSU’s home opener September 9/ by Brooks Nuanez
Murray threw a beautiful back-shoulder ball to junior Jabarri Johnson for the first touchdown of the 6-foot-4 physical specimen’s career as a Bobcat to cut the SDSU lead to 17-7 just before halftime. In the second half, Murray threw for 253 of his career-high 311 yards. He threw three touchdowns in the second half and four overall, also a career high. And he continued to produce with his legs, ripping off 107 yards on the ground.
“If you ask him, he’s Joe Montana now,” MSU second-year head coach Jeff Choate joked on Monday. “It is impressive to watch him. He’s got confidence now. The big part of that is the guys around him. I think he didn’t have an off-season to work with Kevin Kassis or Mitch Herbert when he came in. He was thrown into the fire last year.
“I wasn’t surprised. I knew if we could get him on the edge and he had time, he was going to be able to throw the ball really well.”
Although Murray seemed to blossom in an instant, Montana State lost its home opener 31-27, missing a chance what Choate deemed a potential program-defining win. And instead of being able to ride that momentum into a third non-conference affair, MSU took its bye last week on the verge of Big Sky play.
“Everyone walked off the field thinking we should have won that game,” MSU offensive coordinator Brian Armstrong said in mid-September.
While the second-half outburst by Murray, Johnson (8 catches, 116 yards, 2 TDs), Herbert (9 catches, 111 yards, 2 TDs) and the rest of MSU’s offense sparked optimism in Bozeman, it still served as just two quarters of efficient play in the passing game. Yet Murray’s 23 completions served as more than half of the total number of passes he completed during his true freshman season a year ago, a campaign that ended with him leading the Bobcats to a 24-17 victory over Montana in Missoula to seal league Freshman of the Year honors.
Montana State quarterbacks coach DeNarius McGhee coaches from the sideline
In the off-season, Choate hired former Big Sky MVP and all-time great Bobcat DeNarius McGhee to return as MSU’s quarterbacks coach. Thus far, the work the 2010 and 2012 league Offensive Player of the Year has put in with Murray is paying dividends.
“He can relate to Chris,” Armstrong said. “It wasn’t that long ago that he was walking exactly in Chris’ shoes and was very successful in those shoes. I don’t know if Chris can go anywhere in Bozeman and not hear about Coach McGhee and his time here. It’s an easy translation and DeNarius is doing a great job.”
“Chris hadn’t been coached at an elite level as a quarterback when he was in high school,” Choate added. “For him to have somebody come in and just focus on him and his maturation on and off the field, his development as a leader, his development in terms of his mechanics, having DeNarius be able to hone in on just that has been unbelievable.”
Murray has long been able to beat any defensive player to the edge and in the open field. That did not change whatsoever when transitioning from Lawndale High in Inglewood, California to Division I competition. He still ran wild, piling up 860 rushing yards and 12 rushing touchdowns despite only starting five games during MSU’s 4-7 campaign.
Entering his senior year of high school, Murray said he “never really thought I’d be a drop-back passer.” But as he started to look around the Division I ranks and even the NFL, he realized every athlete playing quarterback has to develop as a passer if elite status is to be achieved.
Montana State sophomore quarterback Chris Murray breaks a tackle against SDSU
“Running’s cool and all that, but if you want to take the next step you’ve got to be able to pass, and that’s the bottom line. Everyone knows it’s a passer’s (game) now, and that’s the bottom line. If you can have some athleticism at the quarterback position as well, that’s a plus too, but the bottom line is passing.
“You look around, all the Heisman winners in college, Cam Newton, DeShaun Watson, they are dual-threat. Once you make it to the league, it’s a passing league. There are very few dual-threats in the NFL. Russell Wilson, guys like that, who only run when they need to, when they have to.”
Saturday, Murray will get another stiff test from North Dakota’s high-pressure yet injury-ravaged defensive unit. UND is without All-American cornerback Deion Harris (torn Achilles) and inside linebackers Connor O’Brien (retired because of head injuries), Donnell Rodgers (broken leg) and Cam Hunt (unknown). The Fighting Hawks are trying to bounce back from a 45-7 loss at South Dakota last week but carry an 11-game winning streak in conference games into the conference opener in Grand Forks.
Montana State head coach Jeff Choate
“I don’t know if I’ve ever played a team that blitzes as much as these guys between true five-man pressure, what we call bogus pressure where we play the illusion of that and they are really only bringing four,” Choate said. “At some point in time, I’d love to talk to this defensive coordinator and ask him, ‘How do you tell the defensive line to line up?’ Do you just tell them to go here and finish here? There’s so many different variations of what they do. It presents a ton of challenges.”
“If you are going to splatter all that stuff at the line of scrimmage, once the ball breaks, now what are you going to do?” Choate said. “I think that’s where the key to the game is how are they going to defend Chris? If it’s do what they have done with bringing a lot of pressure, we are going to have to handle that. If they back off and play zone with zone eyes so they can contain him when he does get out of the pocket, now we have to have answers. That will be a real key to the game.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
