A season ago in Bozeman, the University of North Dakota hung with the Montana State Bobcats for the first time since joining the league.
UND fell behind 26-7 at halftime before a brief rally resulted in a 29-18 Bobcat victory. North Dakota held MSU to 1.7 yards per carry and 329 yards of total offense. The previous two times the teams had played, Montana State posted 55-10 and 63-20 victories. The weeks following MSU’s win over UND, the Bobcats went a tear through California that saw them pile up nearly 1,400 yards of total offense combined in a 59-56 win over Sacramento State and a 77-37 win over UC Davis.
MSU quarterback Dakota Prukop evades the pocket against UND in 2014
Following last year’s game, Montana State head coach Rob Ash praised North Dakota’s revamped defense under new head coach Bubba Schweigert. As No. 19 Montana State prepares to play UND in Grand Forks, North Dakota now has an explosive element to add to its ball control offense. Last season, UND averaged just 15.9 points per game yet still won five games. This season, North Dakota is 4-4 and in the midst of a three-game losing streak but the offense has produced, scoring a shade over 26 points per game against Big Sky opponents.
The added big-play element North Dakota comes in the form of true freshman John Santiago. The 5-foot-9, 170-pounder leads the league with 932 yards rushing and has scored three touchdowns of more than 50 yards.
“They can create big plays now with simple calls like inside zone or counter or a screen pass,” Ash said. “He’s a threat to take it all the way any time he touches it and that adds a whole new dimension.”
“He has a little bit of everything. He has good patience, good quicks and speed to hit the home run,” added MSU first-year defensive coordinator Kane Ioane said. “He is elusive. For being 5-9 and listed at 170 pounds, he will also throw a nasty stiff arm in there that we’ve shown our guys a couple of times already. It’s impressive, a freshman at his size to be doing what he’s doing.”
Montana State is giving up 275 yards rushing per game to Division I opponents, 296.4 yards per game to Big Sky opponents and 324.6 rushing yards per game on the road this season. Saturday’s matchup with Montana State holds huge repercussions for both sides. A loss will almost certainly eliminate Montana State from playoff contention. UND will certainly have to win out and receive some help if the playoffs are remotely possible. North Dakota’s revamped offense will be the key if UND is to stay alive.
“It is a must-win,” said Santiago, a native of St. Francis, Minnesota who had no other Division I offers coming out of high school. “We have to come out and treat this game like it is our last. We have to treat every game like it’s our last from here on out. This is one of the most important. Maybe if we get this win this weekend and we win out, we can carry on past Thanksgiving. We are taking this one really seriously and we aren’t taking them lightly.”
UND running back John Santiago scores a TD against Idaho State/by Tyler Ingham
North Dakota’s defense helped set the pace for a 4-1 start that included a 24-13 win over FBS Wyoming. The lone loss came at the hands of four-time defending national champion North Dakota State. But a spat of injuries means just five starters from the Wyoming win are still healthy. The key losses include junior inside linebacker Taj Rich and junior safety Zach Arnell going down with season-ending injuries.
Since the plague of injuries, UND is 0-3 and is giving up points in bunches because of a weakened unit that is vulnerable to passes down the field. Idaho State quarterback Michael Sanders threw for 427 yards and four touchdowns as the Bengals overcame a 31-15 deficit in a 37-31 win. Weber State junior Jadrian Clark threw for 273 yards and tossed two touchdowns in the last eight minutes to lift the Wildcats to a 25-24 win. Last week, Montana third-string quarterback Makena Simis tied a UM school record by throwing for six touchdowns in his first career start.
“We feel we can control the tempo a little better than we did and we just can’t allow people to throw over the top of us,” Schweigert said. “That has to be a point of emphasis in our camp. We are working at that.
“This week, it doesn’t get any easier. We have the highest scoring offense in the league, most yards gained coming in. Their quarterback, (Dakota) Prukop, is a Payton Award candidate and deservedly so. He makes a lot of things happen. He really makes their offense go.”
Prukop leads the Big Sky and the FCS by averaging 374 yards of total offense per game. He is throwing for 295 yards per game and has tossed 18 touchdowns. He is rushing for 80 yards per game and has scored eight times on the ground.
Montana State has struggled mightily on the road this season and dating back to last fall. MSU has lost five straight away from Bozeman. The Bobcats are giving up 54.3 points per game on the road this season and have lost all three times. Against Eastern Washington (a 55-50 loss) and Northern Arizona (a 49-41 loss), the Bobcat defense struggled with downfield passes as well as between the tackles runs.
MSU running back Chad Newell looks for space against EWU
EWU quarterback Jordan West threw twice as many touchdowns (six) as he registered incompletions in throwing for 410 yards. Junior Jabari Wilson quadrupled his previous career high with 188 yards on the ground.
Northern Arizona true freshman quarterback Case Cookus hit sophomore Emmanuel Butler for a 33-yard gain to set up a touchdown on NAU’s drive, then Cookus hit Dejzon Walker for a 28-yard touchdown on the Lumberjacks’ second possession. MSU adjusted, providing safety help over the top which opened up the middle as NAU senior Casey Jahn rushed for a career-high 175 yards.
In a 59-42 loss to Portland State, the Vikings needed to throw the ball only 14 times because of a school-record 465 yards rushing. Following the PSU loss, Ash said the Montana State coaching staff had a meeting to address what needed to be fixed if a fifth playoff berth since 2010 was to remain a realistic goal.
“We had a long, drawn out discussion on Sunday the day after the Portland State game that was pretty intense, very forthcoming,” Ash said. “It was the defensive staff and myself, six guys in a room for a few hours just trying to find some things to make some changes that would help us get better. The changes that we made were the result of that conversation that we had on that Sunday.”
In a 63-7 blasting of FCS independent East Tennessee State last weekend — the Buccaneers have not had football since 2003 and feature a roster with more than 80 freshmen — Montana State employed a different defensive scheme than in the first six weeks of the season. MSU scrapped the 3-4 installed by Ioane and the defensive staff during the off-season in favor of a more traditional 4-3 lineup. Seniors Taylor Sheridan, Connor Thomas and Nate Bignell and redshirt freshman Tucker Yates remained the primary players in the middle and redshirt freshman Grant Collins remained at Mike linebacker. Former Bandit end junior Zach Hutchins moved to Will linebacker and rotated with sophomore Blake Braun. The Bandit position put its hand down on the ground as junior Jessie Clark and junior Shiloh LaBoy took all of the snaps. The other end position was a rotation between sophomore Tyrone Fa’anono and junior Robert Wilcox. Sophomore Mac Bignell remains the starter at Sam linebacker.
“That was one of the objectives of making a few changes was trying to not only fit the scheme to the personnel but also get different personnel, move personnel to get some guys on the field at the same time to get back in the positions they were playing before,” Ash said. “We wanted to get some more guys some more reps so they can have a better chance to be successful.”
MSU defense awaits ETSU offense
The reworked MSU defense will be faced with stopping one of the more one-dimensional offenses in the league. UND runs the ball nearly 70 percent of the time and that could increase given the health of sophomore quarterback Keaton Studsrud. The starter suffered an injury in UND’s loss to ISU and has not returned. Junior Ryan Bartels has been less than stellar in two starts. Last week, he threw for 113 yards in a 42-16 loss at Montana.
“We hope to have Keaton back,” Schweigert said. “He’s practiced a bit but not a whole lot yet. It will probably be a Saturday decision.”
Studsrud is a dual threat that rushed for 213 yards, including 107 in a 19-16 win over Portland State, before suffering the injury. Bartels is a 6-foot-3, 220-pounder that lacks mobility and has a long throwing motion. In his career, he is completing 56 percent of his passes for 152 yards per game and has thrown 12 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
“They don’t change a whole lot regardless of who is playing at quarterback,” Ioane said. “They are still going to do what they are trying to do and run the football and have success on first and second downs and see if they can’t hit the big one with Santiago. No matter who is in there, we have to stop the run first and foremost.”
The playoffs essentially start around the Big Sky on Saturday. Montana, Montana State, North Dakota, Weber State, Northern Arizona and Northern Colorado all are in must-win situations to stay afloat on the playoff bubble. The sense of urgency is not lost on the two teams that will square off in Grand Forks on Saturday.
“We have to bounce back from last week,” UND sophomore safety Cole Reyes said. “We have a lot of seniors on this team that we don’t want to send out in a bad fashion. We know they will come ready to fight.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
