Dakota Prukop tried to project an aura of cool confidence before Montana State’s season opener on Thursday night. On the inside, Montana State junior quarterback was reeling.
[restrict paid=”true”]“I’m a pretty calm guy but on the inside, I was wound up,” Prukop said following his team’s 45-14 win over Division II Fort Lewis. “I had adrenaline pumping through my veins.”
Prukop’s early nerves coincided with Montana State’s shaky offensive start against a team most believed the Bobcats would dispatch of early. Prukop overthrew a streaking Jayshawn Gates on two different deep balls that would’ve resulted in touchdowns. He overthrew Justin Paige on another sure touchdown.
The result was a 0-0 game with four minutes to play in the first half. Montana State was also a victim of five penalties, including holding penalties that thwarted drives. MSU’s first touchdown drive, Prukop ripped off a 58-yard touchdown run that was called back because of holding. MSU scored nine plays later to take a 7-0 lead with 4:23 left in the first half.
On the ensuing Fort Lewis possession, the Skyhawks advanced the ball into MSU territory. On third down from the MSU 42, Bobcat senior captain defensive tackle Taylor Sheridan notched his first sack of the season as he reached Fort Lewis quarterback Jordan Doyle. With a fourth down and six yards to go from the MSU 44, FLC head coach John L. Smith elected to go for it. Senior cornerback Bryson Keeton broke up Doyle’s deep heave and MSU took over with 1:34 before halftime.
Prukop hit junior running back Gunnar Brekke for 11 yards and senior tight end Beau Sandland for 12 yards. He then hit senior captain Mitch Griebel for a 22-yard gain out of the slot down to the 5. Three plays later, Prukop faked a jet sweep to the right, cut back left and scored his first rushing touchdown of 2015 to give MSU a 14-0 lead at halftime.
“In the first half, we played well,” said Smith, a well-traveled coach who experienced his first success as the head coach at Idaho in the late 1980s and early 1990s. “I look back and we never should’ve gone for it on that fourth down but I had a lot of confidence that we were playing well and I had confidence in our defense that we could hold them. It didn’t work out that way.”
In the second half, Prukop hit Paige twice, each for more than 47 yards to set up MSU touchdowns as the Bobcats won going away.
Thursday marked Kane Ioane’s first calling a game defensively. The new MSU defensive coordinator, dressed in a red shirt and red hat, dialed up a blitz on the first down of the game and continued to bring pressure throughout.
“He started with a blitz and all the bullets were flying throughout the game,” Ash said. “He’s always cool and calm. He’s aggressive but he never gets rattled. I talked to him afterwards and we both agreed: we have things to clean up but I liked how aggressive we played tonight.”
Sheridan had a sack and shared another with Shiloh LaBoy to lead the MSU defensive line. Junior Zach Hutchins notched MSU’s first sack of the season early in the second quarter and he stripped Doyle in the process. Fort Lewis recovered. Later on, senior Desman Carter, a safety transfer from UAB, stripped Fort Lewis running back PJ Hall and senior Trace Timmer recovered. Sophomore Bryce Alley notched his first career interception to set up MSU’s final touchdown. Sophomore Mac Bignell led the charge with eight tackles, including two for loss and a bone crushing hit of Hall that went viral on Friday throughout the college football world.
“I like the way our defense played,” Ash said. “We have some work to do, we have some things to clean up. We allowed too many escape acts out the side door, opened up the middle sometimes. We have to finish better but we put relentless pressure on that quarterback and that really helped us. That’s what we were looking for in this game.”
Montana State worked in a collection of new faces on Thursday. Bignell, junior Fletcher Collins and redshirt freshman Grant Collins all made their first starts as Bobcats. Timmer was also a first-time starter alongside redshirt freshman DeMonte King. Grant Collins finished with five tackles, Fletcher Collins notched three tackles, Timmer had two stops and the fumble recovery and King notched three tackles.
MSU senior offensive linemen Kyle Godecke and Alex Eekhoff missed significant time during spring drills and fall camp. Each started on Thursday but sophomore Dylan Mahoney rotated in heavily for Godecke at right guard and Eekhoff at right tackle.
“He deserved every rep he got today,” MSU junior guard J.P. Flynn said. “That kid worked his tail off all off-season the last two years. He really worked hard this fall camp. He really deserved to get on the field and he played a very good game.”
Sophomore defensive tackle Matt Brownlow, a walk-on who tried out and made the team three years ago, played his first snaps as a Bobcat, notching a pair of tackles, including one for loss. Offensively, redshirt freshman wide receiver Connor Sullivan, an Ennis product, caught his first two passes of his career. Sophomore Nick LaSane notched his first touchdown catch. Redshirt freshman Tavon Dodd got his first two carries (for -1 yard) and notched his first catch, for a two-yard gain. Redshirt freshman Johnny D’Agostino, a walk-on from Bozeman High, caught his first career pass. True freshman Logan Jones, a walk-on from Kalispell Glacier, notched two special teams tackles in his first college action.
In his Bobcat debut, former Iowa Western JC safety transfer Bryson McCabe notched five solo tackles and broke up two passes. Carter finished with a tackle and a forced fumble in limited duty. LaBoy, a transfer from College of the Redwoods, had three tackles and shared a sack with Sheridan, the first of his career. Highly touted defensive end Jessie Clark has only been in Bozeman for nine days after transferring from Los Angeles Harbor CC. He showed good explosion, drawing two holding penalties and notching a tackle in his first action. Marcus Tappan, a linebacker transfer from Cincinatti, had two tackles in limited action late. Palomar JC transfer tackle Joe Naotala played sparingly late and assisted on a tackle.
The most memorable first came in the form of Koni Dole earning his first collegiate snaps. The redshirt freshman walk-on from Huntley Project suffered a devastating leg injury as a high school junior that ultimately cost him the bottom half of his right leg. He earned Class B All-State honors as a senior despite playing on a cheetah blade prosthetic leg. He walked on to MSU and spent last season on the scout team. In the fourth quarter, he got into a game for the first time.
“We weren’t sure quite how that was going to roll but it wasn’t a favor or a token,” Ash said. “We looked at our lineup and we had a few guys who had played in the game a lot and we wanted to get them out. It was exciting to get him out there. The team loved it.”
Montana State will take more than two weeks off before playing again. The Bobcats have their bye week this week. MSU next plays on September 19 in Cheney, Washington against three-time reigning Big Sky Conference champion No. 6 Eastern Washington.
“I’ve said for 40 years is the biggest improvement a team makes is between Game 1 and Game 2 because you finally have yourselves on tape once you’ve played that first game,” Ash said. “We have to fix the things that are broken and correct the things that didn’t work and also wee the good things and trying to recreate them. We have plenty of time to do this since we have two Saturdays and 16 days before we play again.”
[/restrict]Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
