During the debut of a new coaching staff on the heels of a season wrought with disappointment facing off against an FBS foe on the road behind a quarterback making his first Division I start, Montana State battled for 60 minutes.
All things considered, the Bobcats’ debut under first-year head coach Jeff Choate and new starting quarterback Tyler Bruggman against the University of Idaho held a collection of positives. Choate will be the first to acknowledge there is plenty for MSU to build on after Thursday’s 20-17 loss at the Kibbie Dome. But Choate refuses to accept any praise for his career beginning 0-1.
[restrict paid=”true”]“I’ll tell you what I told the players the other day: don’t let anyone around town pat you on the back for losing a game,’” Choate said during Monday’s press conference with a dozen members of the Montana media. “I’ve felt that around here. We have to change that mentality. It’s not ok. Close doesn’t mean anything. That’s the edge we have to gain back. We are Montana State and if we lose a game, that’s unacceptable.”
For the last two years, Montana State’s mentally fragile defense has given up big plays in bunches. One explosive play seemed to always snowball into a barrage of long touchdowns as MSU wasted the most prolific offense in school history, posting just a 13-11 record despite scoring nearly 1,000 points in 2014 and 2015 combined.
The Bobcats took the first step to halting the trend in Moscow. On the first play of the game, UI quarterback Matt Linehan went right at beleaguered sophomore cornerback Tre’Von Strong. Deon Watson came down with a 36-yard reception. But Montana State’s defense stiffened to allow a field goal on a drive that lasted just five plays for 39 yards.
On the next possession, Linehan again attacked Strong, Watson again made an acrobatic catch and Idaho again found themselves in Bobcat territory after just one play. Andrew Duckworth ripped off a 43-yard touchdown run on the very next snap and Montana State appeared to be the Bobcats of the last two seasons. But MSU tapped into the mental toughness cultivated by 10 strenuous off-season months under Choate and his new staff. Montana State allowed another touchdown set up by an interception returned into the red-zone, but then the ‘Cats buckled down.
After the first quarter, Montana State surrendered just a field goal. The Bobcats forced five punts, Strong snared an interception in the end-zone as he ripped the ball away from Watson and the Bobcats came up with two fourth-down stops to earn possession back as MSU rallied from a 20-7 deficit.
“The confidence, the swagger we are trying to instill in these kids started to show up,” MSU linebackers coach Kane Ioane said. “They hit a big shot early on, a deep ball and right away, our guys responded and held them to a field goal. They hit another deep ball and scored on a long run and in past years, heads would’ve been down, guys on the sidelines would’ve been questioning themselves, confidence would’ve been shaken and the ball would’ve kept rolling down the hill. Thursday, you saw the drastic improvement as far as out mental toughness was concerned where we were able to bounce back and face adversity and use adversity to our advantage.
“But it’s still an L when it’s all said and done and we are still 0-1,” Ioane said. “We feel like we should’ve won that game.”
Since taking over in December, Choate has made it a strong point of emphasis to cultivate toughness and attitude at every turn. Montana State’s fall camp in August was filled with live contact and the coach challenging his players to rise to the occasion. Post-practice sprint sessions occurred almost daily.
“Everything we did, we had a purpose behind it,” Ioane said. “Every time we ran extra after practice, every time we did extra conditioning after weight training, any extra component we added to practice just to give our guys adversity all the time. You have to practice that. You have to practice being in tough situations.”
After halftime, Montana State dominated the point of attack as running back Chad Newell bulldozed his way to 105 tough yards and MSU’s defense came up with seven consecutive stops for the first time in an eon.
“I think our conditioning showed up, our guys were in shape,” Choate said. “Our demanding camp, as much as those guys were wondering what the heck we were doing, I think midway through the third quarter, they were feeling pretty good.”
Strong’s ability to regroup was a perfect example of the ability to overcome adversity Choate is striving for. The Billings Skyview product was thrown to the wolves last season as a true freshman, starting eight games and getting picked on constantly by opposing quarterbacks. His start on Thursday seemed like he was in for more of the same. But in the third quarter, he broke up a third down pass and his confidence blossomed, setting up his fourth-quarter interception, the first of his career.
“I have a lot of confidence in myself,” Strong said. “Those two deep passes, two good pitches, two good catches. You just tap your hat off to them and move on to the next play. I had to keep my cool and have the confidence in myself to move on to the next play because anything can happen. In the second half, I made two plays and that’s how you have to play out at corner. You have to keep competing, keep competing, keep competing.”
Montana State espoused confidence in the week leading up to the Idaho trip. Captain linebacker Mac Bignell emphasized that MSU traveled to Moscow in search of nothing less than a win. On Thursday, the Bobcats showed it.
“We played with a chip on our shoulder this game,” Strong said. “The defense this game had something to prove. Playing Idaho, an FBS team that is about to come down to our league, we wanted to make a statement that ‘you ain’t going to come into our league and run over us.”
[/restrict]Photos by Colter Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
