BOZEMAN – Freddie Banks is only about 5-foot-9. On Montana State’s sideline full of giant offensive linemen and linebackers, the former North Dakota State cornerback can be hard to pick out – except when he wants to make a point. When Banks erupts, he might as well be standing on a 10-foot pedestal.
His voice projects, heads turn, and everybody Banks wants to listen to him damn well gets the message.
Midway through the second quarter of the Bobcats’ FCS semifinal game against South Dakota State on Saturday, the first-year defensive coordinator ripped his unit a new one.
We’re missing too many tackles, he screamed, with a few f-bombs thrown in for emphasis.
At that point, the Jackrabbits had scored touchdowns on two out of three drives to start the game – and gotten inside the MSU 10, only to fail a fourth-and-1 attempt, on the other. SDSU did not punt in the first half.
Missed tackles weren’t the only problem. SDSU’s offensive line was dominating, getting a push for All-American running back Pierre Strong Jr. and keeping the Bobcats’ pass rush nowhere close quarterback Chris Oladokun.
The Jackrabbits gained 79, 56 and 75 yards on their first three drives, which included big plays like Strong’s 44-yard touchdown rush and throws of 25 and 38 yards to hulking 6-foot-5 tight end Tucker Kraft. Jadon Janke caught three first down receptions in the first quarter and scored SDSU’s second (and last) touchdown in the second quarter.
The missed tackles were shockingly uncharacteristic for a Montana State defense that finished the season second in the country in scoring defense (13.2 points per game), allowing 20 or more points in just two games. So, even though they were just one symptom of the larger problem, that’s what Banks focused on.
We’re not missing any more tackles, he yelled – not desperately, but with the infuriated confidence of a coach who knows his unit isn’t playing up to its standards.
On South Dakota State’s next drive, safety Jeffrey Manning Jr. came up to make an open-field tackle after a pass to the flat, holding the Jackrabbits to just a field goal to end the first half.
Those were the final points SDSU scored.
For a full 30 minutes in the third and fourth quarters, the Montana State defense swarmed the Jackrabbits, pitching a second-half shutout that gave MSU’s offense, led by freshman sensation quarterback Tommy Mellott, enough of a runway to score two touchdowns and lead the Bobcats to a 31-17 win. Their January 8 showdown with North Dakota State in Frisco, Texas, will be the ‘Cats’ first national-title-game appearance since 1984.
South Dakota State, which had 261 yards on just four drives in the first half, had 173 on six possessions after halftime.
“We just quit missing tackles,” linebacker Troy Andersen said with a chuckle in the postgame press conference. “We would be in the right spot but we gave them a few more yards or the long touchdowns. Tackling, leverage, doing your job – it’s pretty simple.”
It was a night-and-day difference from the first half. Montana State contained Oladokun and bottled up Strong, who returned from an injury that kept him out the week before against Villanova. The All-American senior, who came in leading the country in rushing and is expected to be a mid-round NFL Draft pick, had 79 of his 94 yards before halftime, including 44 to score SDSU’s first touchdown.
The Bobcats created turnovers – first on an interception by true freshman Simeon Woodard, his second pick in as many weeks, that led to MSU’s insurance touchdown in the fourth quarter, and then on a fumble that senior Daniel Hardy recovered on a late, desperate hook-and-ladder play.
Montana State made adjustments, too. South Dakota State gashed MSU on a tight end screen to Kraft in the first half. On a crucial third down in the third quarter, Andersen and Rylan Ortt, making his first start in place of the injured Ty Okada, sniffed out a similar play to force a punt.
“(South Dakota State) runs a lot of stuff up front, a lot of gap scheme stuff, different pullers, a lot of different looks,” senior defensive end Amandre Williams said. “It was just the way we were fitting, reading some of our keys. It was just cleaning some things up. Small adjustments, things that are boring to talk about.”
Andersen, the Buck Buchanan Award finalist from Dillon, finished with 10 tackles to lead the Bobcats.
As the momentum built, starting with a couple forced punts and continuing through Williams’ sack of Oladokun early in the fourth quarter – the first of the game for MSU’s vaunted pass rush – along with Woodard’s pick, Montana State’s defense started to feed off the energy of the crowd and the sideline.
On one play which ended with Montana State’s D-line chasing down Oladokun and forcing an incompletion, backup quarterback Tucker Rovig sprinted down the sideline as everybody else gave Hardy and Williams helmet slaps, pointing excitedly at sophomore cornerback Eric Zambrano after Zambrano ran step-for-step with SDSU’s receiver on a double move.
“I think a big turning point for our defense was Big Three (Williams) over here, his sack,” Hardy said. “At that point, we were kind of struggling to get things going. I was standing right next to it, (WIlliams) smacked the mess out of him. That was huge for our defense. It got some momentum going, got our defense rolling, we all started building off that momentum.”
Hardy, nearly invisible in the first half, closed the game out like prime Mariano Rivera, sacking Oladokun on fourth down with just over six minutes left and MSU leading by two touchdowns. The breakout star and first-team All-American has 16 sacks and 22.5 tackles for loss this season.
On the next SDSU drive, Hardy strip-sacked Oladokun on third down. Although the Jackrabbits jumped back on the ball, they couldn’t convert the ensuing fourth-and-21 despite having a total of nine (including penalties and timeouts) tries.
After that, as they prepared to go back out for one final series that ended with Hardy jumping on SDSU’s doomed hook-and-ladder pitch to officially seal things, Manning and Zambrano stood on the sidelines and let things sink in.
We’re going to Frisco, they said to each other.
We’re going to Frisco, sir, Zambrano said to a passing photographer.
Thanks in part to a shocking defensive turnaround, that’s exactly where the Bobcats will be in three weeks.
“That’s an awesome defense, man,” SDSU offensive lineman Wes Genant said. “They play really physical. Football’s a fickle game, you know, one wrong thing every play kind of amounts to what happened to the second half for us there. They’re a great defense, they play really hard, and I’m excited to see what they do down in Frisco.”
Photos by Blake Hempstead and Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
