All gas, no brakes: it’s Montana State offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey’s motto. On Saturday, the Bobcat offense proved they could execute the motto even without Dakota Prukop.
The MSU offense marched 73 yards in nine plays in what seemed like the blink of an eye to open Saturday’s scrimmage in front of a few hundred at Bobcat Stadium. With Prukop, MSU’s starting junior signal caller at the helm for his only drive of the day, the Bobcats looked like the team that scored nearly 500 points in 2014. After the nine-play first drive, Prukop, senior guard Kyle Godecke, senior tight end Beau Sandland and junior running back Chad Newell, a captain who capped the first drive with a four-yard touchdown, all took the rest of the day off.
Even with the arsenal watching from the sidelines, the Bobcat defense had no chance to slow down Cramsey’s attack.
The Bobcat offense scored 41 points in 87 plays behind an efficient day throwing the football. Senior Jake Bleskin completed his first eight passes for almost 200 yards and two touchdowns, Jordan Hoy completed his first 10 passes and Brady McChesney hit all three of his attempts as MSU’s quarterbacks combined to go 26-of-34 for 328 yards. Four of the eight incompletions came with fifth-string QB Ben Folsom under center.
“We went nine plays right down the field, then we went right down the field the first four drives with the 1s and really when the 1s were in the game, we were not stopped,” Cramsey said. “We were 4-for-4 with the 1s today. Unrealistically, that’s our expectations. We execute, we do our thing, we have the playmakers that can do it and no one will stop us.”
Following Prukop’s one and only drive, Bleskin took over for the first-team offense. The Great Falls CMR product completed his first eight passes, including first-down throws to senior captain Mitch Griebel and senior Tanner Roderick. Those chain-movers set up a 50-yard catch-and-run touchdown on an inside screen by junior Gunnar Brekke.
Bleskin’s second drive included a 17-yard toss to Brekke and a 38-yard bomb to Herbert to set up a one-yard Brekke scoring run. The third Bleskin drive lasted for two plays: he found a streaking Jayshawn Gates for a 45-yard gain, then hit Gates in the flat and the speedy sophomore did the rest. Gates juked two defenders out of their shoes before diving in for a 10-yard touchdown.
“We didn’t miss a beat with Jake in the game,” MSU ninth-year head coach Rob Ash said. “That’s what we wanted to find out today. We needed to put Jake in the game, how would we do? I was really happy with how it looked.”
Bleskin, who is 2-2 in his career as a starter, completed 9-of-11 passes for 197 yards and two touchdowns.
“He’s just savvy,” Brekke said. “Jake is maybe not the most athletic person in the world as far as with his feet but with his arm, he can make any throw on the field. He can sit in the pocket and rip that thing. I have all the confidence in Jake. He knows the offense like the back of his hand.”
By the time the rest of the starting offense — guys like Brekke, Griebel, Herbert and offensive linemen John Weidenaar, J.P. Flynn and Joel Horn — took a seat, the Bobcats had 28 points on 20 plays and the quarterbacks had 10 consecutive completions for 224 yards.
“The tempo was important,” Ash said. “We ran a lot of speed words, ran up and caught the defense quickly. We caught the defense on a substitution one time when we were going on a quick word. That’s going to cause some people some trouble when we play them.
“I thought the offense looked exceptionally sharp running and passing. It was really a good dress rehearsal for the offense.”
On the flip side, a defense that responded in MSU’s first scrimmage looked out of sorts for most of Saturday’s action. Despite facing an offense led by freshmen quarterbacks Hoy, McChesney or Folsom for the final 57 plays of action, the defense gave up 411 yards, including 9.6 yards per passing attempt 12.7 yards per completion.
“We started slow and I’m not happy about that,” first-year defensive coordinator Kane Ioane said. “We have to start fast. We can’t spot any team four quick touchdowns. We can’t do that. We talked about that right afterwards. We picked it up as the scrimmage progressed but overall, we have to get better. We will get better. We are going to be great. But we can’t have days where we can expect to just come out and go through the motions and get the job done. We have to come out with that same passion and fire every single day and it didn’t feel like we did that today.”
Senior outside linebacker Robert Walsh and junior middle linebacker Fletcher Collins each had a pair of tackles for loss against the second offense. Sophomore safety West Wilson tripped up redshirt freshman John D’Agostino for a loss. Redshirt freshman Toti Moeakiola and Collins combined for a tackle for loss on a fourth down. Moeakiola would later leave the scrimmage after being knocked unconscious tackling redshirt freshman tight end Curtis Amos.
Senior defensive tackle Nate Bignell, sophomore defensive end Tyrone Fa’anono and redshirt freshman linebacker Grant Collins — all players projected to get starter reps — notched touch sacks against the second offense. Redshirt freshman end Marcus Ferriter, senior linebacker Joey Michael, true freshman Riley Griffiths and junior end Shiloh LaBoy all had touch sacks against the third offense.
The defense made several plays in passing situations — sophomore safety Bryson McCabe, freshman safety Brayden Konkol, freshman corner Chris Harris and sophomore corner Bryce Alley all broke up passes and freshman linebacker Josh Hill had an interception — but the Bobcats still showed a weakness for surrendering big plays. A season ago, MSU gave up almost 34 points per game and had the worst statistical pass defense in the Big Sky Conference. On Saturday, the defense gave up five plays of more than 30 yards and 10 of more than 19 yards.
“I gotta look at the film and see. If we are there and in position and not making plays, that’s one issue. If we are not there, we are turning guys loose and we are not sound, that’s a different issue,” Ash said. “That’s what I have to look at and see. My first reaction is we have a lot of defense in and we have an offense that is very multiple and we just had too many overlays. It’s hard for it to matchup right now.”
“It’s hard for me as a head coach because I like the elusiveness of some of the offensive guys so maybe it’s a strength on offense as opposed to a weakness on defense. I know our defensive staff would say they need to be better at tackling.”
Brekke’s return to action served as a bright spot of the morning. The junior from Helena Capital got a light load during spring drills as a precaution. He sat out most of fall camp thus far with tightness in his legs. His return to action saw him pile up 85 yards from scrimmage on six touches and score two touchdowns.
“He got tackled 25 or 30 plays in the spring and he missed most of camp so today was a big day to get him tackled,” Cramsey said. “Newell got tackled good the last two scrimmage. They got back into football shape, football ready.”
Brekke, an honorable mention All-Big Sky selection last year after totaling 637 yards from scrimmage and scoring six touchdowns, felt good his first time back in live action this fall.
“There’s nothing like coming out here and getting the bullets flying,” Brekke said. “We do all that team during the week and it’s full tempo, thud tempo or whatever you want to call it and it’s thud and all but there ain’t nothing like guys trying to take your head off and you trying to take the other dude’s head off. It feels great to be back out here.”
MSU rushed the ball 37 times for 143 yards, including scrimmage highs of 14 carries and 69 yards by Noah James. The redshirt freshman from Kalispell Glacier scored a five-yard touchdown with the third offense, a score set up by four other carries for more than 35 yards by James on the same drive.
“The big thing we do when we do that — so it doesn’t get out there that we are giving our 1s the day off — is we are building depth,” Cramsey said. “For this offense to be successful, we need eight receivers to play, maybe a third tight end, five running backs and seven offensive linemen who can play for us. That’s what we are building in these types of situations.’
Fourteen different players caught passes, including six catches from D’Agostino. Roderick also provided a surprise in the pass game. The senior has been running with the 2s and 3s all camp but found himself with the 1s on the first two series. He had a 32-yard reception on the first play of the day and a third-down catch in which he ripped the ball away from the defender.
“I’ll say this because I’m honest with Tanner: Tanner has to do it every day,” Cramsey said. “Some days he shows up, some days he doesn’t. We have to see what he’s doing when the ball is not in his hands. We’ve seen some times when the ball is in his hands, he can be very good. The question with Tanner is what is he doing when the ball is not in his hands. But I did like what he did today.”
Although Saturday marks the official end of fall camp — Montana State begins classes on Monday — the Bobcats still have 12 days before its opener against Fort Lewis.Position battles for the starting spots at Mike linebacker (Fletcher and Grant Collins), Will linebacker (sophomores Blake Braun and Marcus Tappan) and field corner (Alley and senior Trace Timmer) continue to rage on. Ash said he’d have to evaluate the film to see if anyone made any progress but he said time still remained to evaluate.
“We need to figure out who the leaders are going to be on our defense,” Ash said. “We have a lot of guys who are new, a lot of guys who haven’t played a lot. (Senior captain defensive tackle) Taylor Sheridan is a captain and he’s shown a lot of that. But we need to find out who the other leaders are going to be? Who are the inspirational guys on that defense? Linebackers are typically some of those guys but they are still battling for positions. We just don’t have it all settled. That’s kind of where we have to go next to develop the leadership core.”
Scoring
Chad Newell 4-yard TD run
Gunnar Brekke 50-yard TD reception from Jake Bleskin
Gunnar Brekke 2-yard TD run
Jayshawn Gates 10-yard TD reception from Jake Bleskin
Luke Daly 47-yard field goal
Noah James 5-yard TD run
Luke Daly 47-yard field goal
Rushing (37-143) — Chad Newell 4-17; Gunnar Brekke 4-18 TD; Tavon Dodd 5-13; Jordan Hoy 6-15; Noah James 14-69 TD; Logan Jones 5-6 Fumble; Brady McChesney 1-7
Receiving — Mitchell Herbert 2-47; Tanner Roderick 2-44; Mitch Griebel 1-12; Wilson Brott 1-5; Gunnar Brekke 2-67 TD; Conner Sullivan 1-7; John D’Agostino 6-36; Jayshawn Gates 2-54; Logan Jones 1-10; Curtis Amos 2-12; Noah James 2-18; Will Krolick 1-5; Brandon Brown 1-4; Woody Brandom 2-22.
Passing — Dakota Prukop 2-2-0-0 40; Jake Bleskin 9-11-2-0 197; Jordan Hoy 10-12-0-0 70; Brady McChesney 3-3-0-0 14; Ben Folsom 2-6-0-0 17.
Tackles for loss — Robert Walsh 2, Fletcher Collins 2, Toti Moeakiola, West Wilson,
Sacks — Marcus Ferriter, Nate Bignell, Joey Michael, Grant Collins, Tyrone Fa’anono, Riley Griffiths, Shiloh LaBoy.
Pass breakups — Bryson McCabe, Brayden Konkol, Chris Harris, Bryce Alley.
Interceptions — Josh Hill
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.