In the end, the Bobcats finished as winners again.
Fort he 13th consecutive season, Montana State posted a winning record. The 8-5 Bobcats made the playoffs for the fourth time in five seasons. MSU’s regular-season finale with the Montana Grizzlies was again for a share of the Big Sky Conference crown.
A season after graduating a class that included two-time Big Sky MVP DeNarius McGhee and Buck Buchanan-winning defensive end Brad Daly, the Bobcats reloaded, as young stars like Dakota Prukop, Chad Newell, Gunnar Brekke, JP Flynn and a trio of freshmen wide receivers emerged as part of the most prolific offense in school history. The offensive line shifted from weakness to strength. Stud tight end Tiai Salanoa finally had a healthy campaign during his senior season. The diversity of playmakers at the disposal of second-year offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey seemed to never end.
But a porous defense once again ravaged by injuries proved to be Montana State’s demise. In a 47-40 first-round playoff loss to South Dakota State, MSU gave up 562 yards of offense, including 354 to Zach Zenner alone. The star SDSU running back rushed for 252 yards and four touchdowns and caught two passes for 77 yards, including a 69-yard score.
It was a telling stamp on an otherwise successful season. With the exception of a 34-7 loss at Montana in which the Bobcats turned the ball over seven times, the offense performed well in the three other FCS losses. Montana State averaged 40 points per game in losses to Eastern Washington (52-51), Cal Poly (35-27) and SDSU.
Montana State landed 19 players on the Big Sky’s all-conference teams, including five on the first, second or third-team defenses despite the struggles. Senior cornerback Deonte Flowers was a first-team All-Big Sky pick and senior safety Rob Marshall earned third-team honors despite the fact that MSU was 119th out of 121 in pass defense. Senior linebacker Alex Singleton earned first-team honors, junior defensive tackle Taylor Sheridan was a second-team pick and senior captain linebacker Cole Moore was a third-team selection at linebacker despite the fact that MSU gave up 34 points and nearly 500 yards a game defensively, the latter the 114th-best total in the FCS.
Flynn led an offensive front that put four players on the all-conference team, including senior captain Quinn Catalano earning second-team honors. Left tackle John Weidenaar and center Joel Horn, each fourth-year juniors, earned third-team honors. Salanoa was an all-league selection as was senior Shawn Johnson, who was recognized as a returner (second-team) and a running back (third-team).
Prukop’s star power showed from the beginning. The electric sophomore piled up 3,211 yards of total offense and 30 total touchdowns in 10 starts before suffering a sprained MCL. He missed two games, including the Griz debacle, but returned for the playoffs. His mobility was limited, but the third-team All-Big Sky selection still threw for 280 yards and showed the intangibles that made him one of four Big Sky players to garner Big Sky MVP votes.
Montana State graduates 17 seniors, including five linebackers, two of which were captains. The secondary loses five players and the defensive line must replace one. The offense loses a pair of receivers who lost their seasons before conference play began in Brian Flotkoetter and David Dash along with two tight ends including Lee Perkins. Catalano is the lone linemen and Johnson the lone running back that must be replaced.
On Tuesday, Montana State eighth-year head coach Rob Ash sat down with members of the local Bozeman media to discuss the season that was. Here’s the transcript. For full audio, click here
Ted Dawson, KBZK (CBS): Rob, how would you assess the season?
Ash: “Well, we made the playoffs. I think that was a success. I wish we could have won one more game along the line and tied for the championship in the Big Sky Conference. That would have given us a little different draw in the playoffs.
“But getting eight wins and getting to the playoffs is one of our goals. So I’m happy with that.”
Dawson: Did the team under-perform or over-perform in your estimation?
Ash: “I think we over-performed. We lost a lot of great guys. It was a very questionable situation going into the season when you lose Cody Kirk and DeNarius McGhee and Tanner Bleskin and the Buck Buchanan Award winner on defense. Where are we going to land? And we came out of the blocks firing. We had a great start to the season. We were in contention, in first place in the league all year long. It was a disappointing regular-season final game, but a very gutsy performance in the playoffs so I was happy with the way they performed.”
Kane O’Neil, NBC Montana: Coming into camp, you knew Dakota could be a weapon if you picked him. Can you just kind of talk about his season? Did you think he would perform as well as he did this year?
Ash: “He was a great, pleasant surprise obviously. We knew he was a good player, but you never know about quarterback until you take the red jersey off from practice and put him out there on the field in real games. That’s what we had to find out about him. Obviously, he exceeded our expectations. He did a fantastic job. Going forward, I think he can become one of the top quarterbacks in the entire nation with the resume that he’s already built and put together and another year of experience under his belt. We are very, very excited about the future with him.”
Bobcat Beat: It seems like the whole rest of the team plays with more confidence when he is out there. What can you say about his leadership?
Ash: “He’s turned out to be a great game-day leader. That’s another thing you don’t know about quarterbacks until they actually play. He thrives under the pressure of the game. He manages the game well. He protects the ball extremely well. For a young guy, I thought he had a minimum number of turnovers. And he completes drives. He’s a good point producer as a quarterback. Obviously, the balance he gives the team with the ability to run and also the ability to throw and distribute the ball to a bunch of different players, he’s got the complete package, so that does help the offense roll better when he’s out there.”
O’Neil: A lot of young receivers thrust into roles because of injuries. Can you kind of talk about the receiving corps moving forward?
Ash: “I just found out this morning from (MSU media relations director) Bill Lamberty that those freshmen (Justin Paige, Mitch Herbert, Jayshawn Gates) had three of the top seven receiving years in the history of the program. That’s pretty remarkable. That really helped us. We had no idea they’d all be playing. The lineup was decimated with Dash and Flotkoetter and (junior Manny) Kalfell all going down. For those freshmen to come on and do what they did was just stunning.
“I thought Mitch Herbert in particular had a phenomenal performance in the playoff game under those conditions. He really, he made crucial plays. All of them did. Gates and Paige also had big plays in that game. They finished the season well and the future is bright.”
Rob Jesselson, ABC/Fox: Knowing that most of that offense is going to be returning next year, how much energy do you focus on the defense in the off-season?
Ash: “It’s a huge priority for us, there’s no question about it. We didn’t perform as well on defense as we need to here. I talked to the defensive staff about that. We have to find some ways to get better. We have to. It’s absolutely essential for this program. One of the ways you get better is to have good players playing for your team. That’s what we are going to focus on right now is personnel on defense.
“We will look at the transfer market to a certain extent, although you know I don’t like to do that lock, stock and barrel. But we will do some of that. We have a lot of scholarships available because we graduated a lot of guys. We will be able to recruiting high school players, we will be able to recruit some transfers and we will be able to save some money to look for some possible drop-downs later in the spring. This is not going to be a quick solution. It will be a long six-month process of re-drafting and getting people in and developing the guys we have in the program now, a lot of whom are very young to be guys who can play defense on this football team.”
Bobcat Beat: What do you attribute the dip in talent personnel wise to on that side of the ball?
Ash: “Umm…you know, the defensive line, we just finally ran out of Buck Buchanan winners. That’s a, it was pretty remarkable. I think a little bit of what we had going there was just a run of very, very outstanding talent. When you look at the 2012 lineup that had Caleb Schreibeis and Brad Daly both on the two ends and they are Buck Buchanan Award winners and you have Zach Minter, who’s a borderline NFL guy, all playing at the same time, I mean that was pretty impressive lineup. It’s hard to sustain that type of talent.
“The guys we have are good, hard-working guys and some of them will get better. But I think we got a little spoiled to be honest with you.”
Bobcat Beat: Schreibeis a walk-on, Daly a legacy player. Do you have confidence you can recruit that sort of player without those sort of connections or circumstances?
Ash: “You just have to hope there’s another one coming up somewhere. Maybe there is another Montana guy like Brad or Caleb or Zack Wagenmann, those are all Montana guys and all great players. Kroy Biermann before them. There has been some great defensive ends that have come out of this state. We will keep scouring until we find the next one.”
Jon Maletz, Bozeman Daily Chronicle: You’ve proven you can be one of the most consistent programs in the country, get to this level, eight, nine, 10 wins. What’s it going to take to take it to that next level, be a national championship contender?
Ash: “I think that’s a great question, Jon? It’s obviously our goal to try to take another step up. I think you have to have national-level playmakers on your team. You look at the model that North Dakota State has put together. They have national level guys on their defense. You look at Eastern Washington. They have national-level guys on their offense. Some teams have a little of both.
“We are getting there. We have to have guys who can be nationally competitive. When we won 10 and 11 games and we got to the quarterfinals two years in a row, we had national-level guys on our football team. We had Buck Buchanan winners. We had a quarterback who was amazing. You just have to get those guys and then put a strong supporting cast with them.
“The other key is to stay healthy. In 2012, when we played Stony Brook in the playoffs, I remember looking out there and we had 21 of our 22 starters that we had penciled in at the beginning of the season playing in that game. Tiai Salanoa playing at tight end was the only one who wasn’t playing in that game. You have to be a little fortunate too to make that jump.
“The 1984 (national championship) team, talking to those guys here that won the national championship, they stayed healthy the entire year. In football, that’s a key too.”
Bobcat Beat: You mentioned some of the question marks coming into the season. I know you guys had some apprehension about what you would do going forward losing that headliner class. Now that you were able to perform at such a high level the year after they left, will the expectation going forward be to always be a Big Sky title contender and always be at this level or higher?
Ash: Absolutely. I think that’s…we’ve turned the corner with the program now to say it wasn’t just an anomaly, that we had these good players who were sort of a flash in the pan run for a couple of championships. We’ve retooled. We’ve redesigned. We’ve recruited a second wave of players into the program. We were right there until the final game in contention for the title so I believe we can continue to do that every year. That should be the expectation here every year with the support, the facilities, the program we have. We should be a contender every year.”
Dawson: Rob, what’s it do, after all you’ve done for this program, to see the chat rooms that want you fired?
Ash: “I haven’t heard that or seen it because I don’t go there, so it doesn’t bother me one bit.”
Bobcat Beat: Can you talk about recruiting? You mentioned getting some guys on defense, but what will be some of the position groups you prioritize?
Ash: All levels of the defense. We’ve talked about it. We’d like to get two or three safeties, two or three linebackers, two or three defensive linemen, probably more ends than tackles.
“I feel like our inside guys are going to be pretty solid. We still have Taylor Sheridan back, who’s one of the best inside players in the conference. We have Nate Bignell, Conner Thomas, Tucker Yates is coming up through the ranks in the program. We are ok inside. We need a couple of dynamic pass rusher guys, maybe a couple of bigger guys on the outside, a couple of good linebackers and really, safeties. I think we will be ok at corner with our young guys. We have Bryce Alley, DeMonte King, Braelen Evans, Jaylen Price and we still have Bryson Keeton coming back. I’d say safety, inside ‘backer and defensive end.”
Bobcat Beat: You mentioned the defensive ends. With Odin Coe leaving, who falls down to the bandit spot? I know Devin Jeffries is the backup there, but will you think about moving Zach Hutchins there?
Ash: “I haven’t gotten that far yet as far as who moves there. Tyrone Fa’anono probably moves out to end full-time. He’s a guy who can play inside or outside, so I know that’s one thing we will talk about a lot. We have Robert Wilcox coming back. He’s a good player who’s battled injuries. I think if he can stay healthy, he’s a good one too.
“Jeffries is sitting there, Hutchins. Hutchins might also be able to play standing up too. That’s another option with him. He’s 225 pounds instead of 255 playing that defensive end. We have to find out exactly what his role is going to be. And it depends on who we end up getting in, what kind of players we get into the program. We will take the best players we can find and we will adjust the lineup accordingly.”
Bobcat Beat: At this level, what does it do to your program as a whole when you invest so much time in Odin and then he leaves on the brink of his senior year?
Ash: “I’ve got no problem with Odin Coe. He’s going to graduate from Montana State in May. He gave us four good years. He’s got a super opportunity ahead of him in his life. It’s something I totally get. He needs to do that and he’s going to move on.
“The hard part is he is a full scholarship guy but he was only going to be here one semester, so that guy only costs you half a scholarship. Now, to replace him, it will take a full scholarship because it will be a younger guy who is going to be here. So we will retool. If we get a young, good player who is a good player, we might have him a year earlier than we would have otherwise. It’s just going to cost us a little more money.”
Bobcat Beat: Just knowing Odin, that seems like the perfect fit for him.
Ash: “Doesn’t it though? I’m glad he’s out there protecting the country. I feel safer already.”
Maletz: A lot of optimism on offense, obviously. Any issues you’d like to address on that side of the ball with this recruiting class?
Ash: “What we need to do with our recruiting class on offense is prepare for the terrible year a year from now when all those linemen graduate. We’ve been so used to having those guys here — Weidenaar, Alex Eekhoff, Kyle Godecke, Joel Horn — they are all in the same class, they have gone through it together. They all played as sophomores, played as juniors, will play as seniors and then the bottom falls out. We’ve got to build. I think we are doing well. We have a couple of good young guys in this class. We have our sites set on some really good players in this coming recruiting class. Those guys will all be here for year and then they’ll move up and they’ve got to be able to surround JP Flynn and give us a line the next year. That’s really the biggest wish list.
“We also need a quarterback for the future. Now’s the time to recruit one to come in with the same kind of timetable as Dakota, where a guy could redshirt one year, be a backup, understudy for a year and then potentially have three years to play. Of course, he’s have to beat out (redshirt freshman) Quinn (McQueary) and Quinn is a good player too. But you have to always have another guy coming up in the ranks.
“Always like to get speed at receiver. We do have a couple of scholarships available with Flotkoetter and Dash moving on. We will look at finding a couple of guys there too.”
Bobcat Beat: Running back, you lose just Shawn Johnson. I know you are really high on Tavon Dodd.
Ash: “We are going to stand pat on running back. We are going to stand pat at running back because I think Tavon Dodd can play. Brandon Davis will be back, too. Those guys were not available. Anthony Knight has another year. Newell and Brekke have two more years. We are pretty solid there.”
Bobcat Beat: Do you worry about hanging on to the quarterbacks who aren’t Dakota?
Ash: You always worry about quarterback. It’s a tough situation for guys. There is nothing more valuable than a backup who is loyal and willing to stay. We are going to try to keep our hand exactly how it’s currently dealt to us but it’s always tough at quarterback.
Bobcat Beat: You mention personnel on defense. Any look into scheme changes or coaching techniques?
Ash: “No. Well, yes. Nothing dramatic. We are not going to go to a 3-4. We are not going to go to a whole new idea. Our guys are good. We have proven we can play good defense here. I just think upgrading our personnel is the biggest thing.
“The other thing we need to do is we need to probably need to try to make things a little simpler with our players so it’s not too complicated. We have a smart staff, a good staff and we do a lot of complicated, good chalkboard types of things. But when it comes right down to it, we have to execute and we have to have guys who play fast. We used to do that more. That was more of emphasis before. I think we got away from that a little bit. So now it’s going to be a point of emphasis to keep it simple and let guys play fast.”
Bobcat Beat: Jamie’s scheme is so predicated on the four-man rush, getting pressure on the quarterback. You guys have 35-plus sacks three years in a row, just 19 sacks this year. If you don’t get that headliner pass rusher, will you look at a scheme change?
Ash: “We have to get a pass rusher. We have to. There isn’t any question, any doubt or substitute for that.”
