Editor’s Note: This is the second installment of a five-part series recapping Montana State’s 2016 season and previewing MSU off-season as Jeff Choate and his staff prepare for their second season together.
MISSOULA — With the clocking winding down and an upset to remember drawing near, Montana State first-year head coach Jeff Choate took a moment to think things over.
With his Bobcats facing a fourth down and one yard to go, Choate did not hesitate after pondering during a 30-second timeout. MSU offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham had a short-yardage play filled with deception up his sleeve, a play the Bobcats had saved since fall camp. The play: show a handoff to senior running back Chad Newell, fake a fumble by the quarterback, assume possession and throw over the top to the secondary tight end.
With MSU clinging to a 24-17 lead here against fierce rival Montana and in the midst of a drive that would end up lasting the entire final six minutes and 20 seconds of the game, Choate and Messingham concurred that the time for the play was upon them. The team hadn’t run it earlier in the year against Idaho and the Bobcats missed that upset bid, losing by three points in Moscow to open the Choate era.
But when Choate and Messingham relayed the gambling decision to MSU true freshman quarterback Chris Murray, the Bobcat signal caller hesitated.
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“He was apprehensive but coach (Choate) said, ‘Mess, what do you think?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, let’s roll it, Chris will make the play’” Messingham said during a press conference on November 21 in Bozeman. “I think that’s one of the things that you want (the player’s) input but you want them to understand, ‘Hey man, have confidence, believe in it. We are calling it for a good reason.’”
Montana State emerged from the timeout and lined up in a formation with two tight ends on the right, two running backs behind Murray and a wide receiver to the wide side of the field. Murray motioned senior tight end Austin Barth from the short side to the left side of the line. Murray took the handoff, faked to Newell as he dived behind first-team All-Big Sky offensive guard J.P. Flynn and then stumbled. Rather than faking the fumble, Murray lost his footing for a brief moment. But the confident, precocious freshman recovered, set his feet and lofted a perfect pass to wide-open tight end Connor Sullivan for a 26-yard gain down to the UM 3-yard line.
“That quarterback struggled throwing the ball all day and we just needed our guys to cover down,” said UM senior defensive end Ryan Johnson following a 15-tackle performance in his final game as a Griz. “Someone didn’t do their job, not sure who, but (Sullivan) was wide open. It’s a pretty easy throw to make when there is no one around. We do our job and it’s a dead play.”
With the first down, Montana State was able to kneel through the rest of the clock and leave Washington-Grizzly Stadium with an upset no one besides the Bobcats thought possible. Montana State completed just two passes including the final nail in Montana’s coffin. But Murray’s poise and athleticism helped the Bobcats rush for 368 yards and eat up 38 minutes, 10 seconds of clock in preserving the 24-17 victory. The last drive ate up 6:20, denying any comeback hope for Montana, snapping the Grizzlies’ three-game winning streak in the rivalry and keeping UM out of the playoffs for just the third time since 1993.
“You can’t put together a better drive that that, game on the line, rivalry game, tremendous atmosphere and we grind it out,” Choate said following his team’s fourth win, including its second in as many weeks to close the season. “I think that bodes well for future, the style we want to play and the level of intensity we want to bring to the table.”
“I was so proud of our offense because they felt we didn’t have a lot of bullets left in our gun on defense and they wanted to go do what they needed to do to win it and then did.”
Murray finished the game with 142 yards rushing and two touchdowns, including a seven-yard scamper punctuated by an acrobatic flip into the end-zone to tie the game at 7-7 and a 48-yard sprint on a draw play to give MSU a 14-7 lead going into halftime.
After half, with the Griz defense keying on the shifty rookie from Inglewood, California, Montana State gashed the hosts. MSU senior Gunnar Brekke ripped off a 61-yard run to set up a short Gabe Peppenger field goal. Junior Nick LaSane’s sprint and authoritative stiff arm covered 63 yards and set up the 32nd touchdown plunge of Newell’s decorated career. At that point, it was all Bobcats as the visitors led 24-7.
“We knew they were going to try to run the ball,” UM’s Johnson said. “They have a really good athlete at the quarterback position, really good backs and we knew we’d have to stuff it. We needed to make some more plays to contain those quarterback draws. Those are the ones that really killed us.”
The final performance of Murray’s first season put a crescendo on a spectacular but inconsistent freshman campaign. The 6-foot-2, 180-pounder was among the best athletes on the field every time he stepped between the white lines. But his indecisions and his inability to throw into windows were glaring deficiencies for a Bobcat team that lost its first six Big Sky Conference contests before rallying to beat UC Davis and UM to close 2016.
Still, Murray finished his rookie season as one of the most productive ball carriers in the league. His 860 rushing yards set a Bobcat freshmen record and led the team, ranking eighth in the Big Sky and leading all quarterbacks in the conference. His 6.2 yards per carry led the league and his 12 rushing touchdowns were the most by any quarterback in the country. Despite starting just five games, Murray earned Big Sky Conference Freshman of the Year honors, edging Northern Arizona running back Joe Logan (726 rushing yards, 5 TDs), Montana wide receiver Jerry Louie-McGee (73 catches, 651 yards, 3 TDs) and North Dakota cornerback Torrey Hunt (three interceptions, 10 pass breakups).
“I was impressed with Chris’ poise down the stretch,” Choate said in a press release announcing Murray’s award. “He grew to understand his role and the importance of valuing the football. He is one of the more explosive players in the conference regardless of class or position. I’m excited about his future here at Montana State, and I’m excited to watch his development.”
Murray’s strong debut was not part of the plan entering the 2016 season. Choate took over for fired Rob Ash the first week of December. All-American quarterback Dakota Prukop became an Oregon Duck before the end of the year.
Choate hit the transfer wire, signing Tyler Bruggman out of Scottsdale Community College before the New Year. Choate helped in Bruggman’s recruiting from Brophy Prep in Phoenix to Washington State. But Bruggman fell behind Luke Falk on Mike Leach’s depth chart and transferred to Louisville, where he sat out the 2014 season due to NCAA transfer rules. When it became apparent he wouldn’t see the field for Bobby Petrino either, Bruggman transferred to Scottsdale CC because it was close to home. He came to MSU as a mid-year transfer expected to take over as the starter.
Midway through spring drills, redshirt freshman Jordan Hoy abruptly left the Montana State program. He is in the midst of a standout season at Fullerton (California) College. That left the depth chart behind Bruggman leaving spring ball with just walk-on redshirt freshmen Ben Folsom (Dillon) and Brady McChesney (Kalispell Glacier). Murray was the only prep quarterback the Bobcats signed in Choate’s first recruiting class.
Bruggman took the bulk of the first-team reps in spring drills and all the first-team snaps during fall camp. The 6-foot-1, 190-pounder has a rocket arm and he showed flashes of potential during the narrow loss at Idaho and wins over Bryant and Western Oregon. In a 17-15 loss to North Dakota, Bruggman threw three interceptions, including two in the final nine minutes of the game. His interception with under two minutes sent him and the Bobcat offense into a tailspin of unpredictability that lasted for nearly two months.
Bruggman completed one of his first eight passes against Sacramento State before getting the hook. Murray came off the bench to rush for 187 yards and three touchdowns. The performance was an example of his breathtaking playmaking ability but the way the final quarter played out after Murray and LaSane fumbled a zone-read handoff inside the Sac 10-yard line, sparking a 20-point Hornet rally in a 41-38 MSU loss, also foreshadowing the inconsistencies on the horizon.
Bruggman again struggled against NAU and fell behind 20-0. Murray rallied MSU almost all the way back, bringing the Bobcats within 20-14 early in the fourth quarter. But Murray suffered a sack on the final possession of the game as MSU marched down the field, one that NAU recovered to secure the win and push MSU’s conference mark to 0-3.
From there, Choate and Messingham decided to hand the reigns of the offense over to Murray. With it came ups — Murray rushed for more than 100 yards Weber State, Southern Utah, and Montana — and downs. The Bobcats turned the ball over 23 times during the six-game losing skid. Murray threw eight interceptions in just 105 pass attempts and had a hand in almost every single one of MSU’s 11 fumbles as he struggled to find chemistry with the running backs on his zone-read meshes.
“When you go through a transition like we did at quarterback around week four or five, you say, ‘We are going to put this in and we are going to call it this’ and now we can go, ‘Ok, this is part of our package and these are our plays and how we build on it and our communication and everything we do,” Choate said during a press conference on November 21. “We had to do something completely different with Chris in there and it took awhile to find our identity.
Choate said the Bobcats had a “heavy drop back package” for its offense to capitalize on Bruggman’s strong arm. When Murray became the guy, MSU struggled with turnovers and a lack of identity. Once Messingham locked in a package almost solely predicated on Murray’s ability to operate a rushing offense, the Bobcats thrived. MSU rushed for 263 yards in the 27-13 win over Davis and did not turn the ball over. The Griz win was a stamp on a newfound style and on Murray’s ability to improve.
“Identifying those route combinations he can just throw 1,000 times with those guys in Shroyer Gym or in the stadium if we are lucky enough to not have too much snow, that’s what we need,” Choate said. “It’s not just him. There’s some football 101 we have to do with our entire team because we are a very young roster. We became younger Saturday young roster when all those seniors finished their careers on Saturday.
“We need to do some one on ones, we need to do some quarterback school, we need to do some speed school, we need to do some pass rush school and that’s all got to be a part of their development in the off-season.”
Murray is dedicated to honing his abilities and becoming a true dual-threat quarterback, Choate said. Montana State’s head coach thinks Murray’s delivery, mechanics and fundamentals could use work but are not so flawed they are beyond repair.
“He has a decent motion. It’s not like he has this funky, weird motion. It’s a little long, he needs to compact that a little bit but the biggest thing for him will be that weight room and him being able to put some mass on his body and drive the ball at his targets,” Choate said. “I think that will increase his accuracy and his confidence. I think that’s the next step for him.”
Messingham, Montana State’s primary quarterbacks mentor, agrees with Choate. Folsom has since moved to safety in an effort to see the field faster. The Bobcats will return Bruggman for his senior year along with Murray and McChesney as sophomores. MSU has a verbal commitment from Boise-area quarterback Tucker Rovig, a three-star 6-foot-5 recruit apparent upside. But for now, Messingham is worried about honing Murray’s special abilities with eyes on a more consistent 2017.
“I think he can make a ton of progress,” Messingham said. “I truly believe fundamentally, his ability to throw the football physically, he’s got good fundamentals. He’s got a good release. He’s got pretty good footwork for being an 18-year-old freshman. The biggest thing he has to get to now is ok, I’m a run threat, I’m a guy who’s getting hit, a guy who is maybe tired at times, am I able to sit back and process what’s going on when we call a pass play?
“One thing that I thing I think happens to a quarterback who is a run threat is he needs to play hard every single snap. That being said then, your adrenaline, your ability to calm back down and relax, think about what my options are from a passing game standpoint isn’t as easy and part of it is because he’s not dropping back and just handing off. He’s dropping back and faking a handoff and needs to carry out a fake so he’s always moving. He’s never in that settled down state where he sees a play come in, his adrenaline is back in check, he’s able to really process everything. As he gets older and gets more used to it, he will do a better job of that.”
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