The numbers relating to Montana State’s defensive decline are striking. It cannot be easy to swallow for any Bobcat, not least Kane Ioane, a man who was the only four-time All-America in program history and now is Montana State’s defensive coordinator.
Through four games this season, including three against Big Sky Conference opponents, the Bobcat defense is allowing 36.5 points and 464 yards per game, including 44 points and 526.3 yards per game over the last three games. The Bobcats are giving up 287.3 rushing yards per game and 6.1 yards per rush. MSU is allowing opposing passers an efficiency rating of 212.5, last in the country out of 123 FCS schools. Of the 56 completions the pass defense has allowed, 15 of them (27 percent) are fore more than 29 yards. MSU has allowed 15 passing touchdowns on 81 passing attempts. MSU has surrendered 21 touchdown drives this season, all but six of less than five plays.
MSU defesive coordinator Kane Ioane addresses the defense during game at NAU
It all amounts to plenty of questions and not many concrete answers for a unit operating a new scheme under a first-year coordinator working in eight positions with new starting personnel. Last Saturday, Montana State allowed 506 yards of offense and 49 points in an eight-point loss at Northern Arizona. On Tuesday, Ioane sat in front of a dozen media members in the Bill Ogle Hall of Fame room and took full accountability for the performance of his unit with seven games remaining.
“We gave up 11 plays for 323 yards,” Ioane said. “That’s 15 percent of their plays for 323 yards. That’s what we have to get fixed, that’s on me as a coach that I’m not coaching well enough to get these guys to understand that we need to execute 100 percent of the time. It’s that 15 percent of the time that I have to work on to make sure that we get that handled. Executing 85 percent of the time is not good enough.
“In the run game, we are missing some gaps. In the pass game, we are one-inch away from knocking the ball out on a one-handed catch. We are one second away from making a play in the back of the end zone. We are giving up some big plays in the passing game when we are a foot away, a hand away, an inch away from knocking those balls down. There were a couple of plays where we cut some guys loose where we should not and that’s coaching more than anything. That’s not on the players. Same thing with the run fits up front. I have to do a better job of putting our players in position to stop the run and take advantage of our personnel in the right way and right now I’m not doing that. We will get it fixed.”
EWU quarterback Jordan West throws with MSU linebacker Grant Collins providing pressure
During the first seven years of the Rob Ash era at MSU, the Bobcats were at or near the top of the Big Sky in almost every defensive statistical category every season. MSU made a living pressuring quarterbacks mostly with four-man rushes thanks to a string of elite defensive linemen that included All-Americas like Dan Ogden, Zach Minter and Dane Fletcher and Buck Buchanan Award winners Caleb Schreibeis and Brad Daly. The last two seasons, the pass rush has largely disappeared because of a number of factors.
This season, Montana State has only six sacks, including three that came in a 45-14 win over Division II Fort Lewis. Montana State had one sack while giving up 410 passing yards in a 55-50 loss at Eastern Washington. On Saturday, MSU notched two sacks, both tackles for loss on quarterback scrambles more than one-on-one triumphs on the edge.
“The quarterbacks are very comfortable back there but that falls back on me. We have to do a better job of making sure the quarterbacks don’t feel comfortable with what they are looking at in the back end because when they are, it allows them to get the ball out a lot quicker,” Ioane said. “Therefore, it doesn’t allow our defensive front to have a chance to get pressure. When we did get them in third down situations last week, they were 3-of-11 so we have to win those first and second downs, get them in those third and long situations and allow our third down pressure package to actually take shape. We need to mix up what the quarterbacks are looking at on the back end, which in turn should help buy some time up front.”
Both EWU quarterback Jordan West and NAU quarterback Case Cookus — Cal Poly runs the triple option so the pass rush was basically an irrelevant aspect of the game — took shotgun snaps on multiple occasions and simply threw back-shoulder fades down the sidelines without having to read any sort of defense. Each held on to the ball for less than a handful of seconds more often than not, making a pass rush a moot point because of opponents’ ability to beat MSU’s man-to-man coverage on the outside. West and Cookus combined to throw for nearly 700 yards and more touchdowns (10) than incomplete passes (nine).
MSU defense vs. Cal Poly option
“We have to get more pressure on quarterbacks in passing situations and there’s a lot of ways to do that,” said Ash, who fell to 3-4 against NAU in his career at Montana State. “Does that mean more blitzes? Does it mean winning one-on-one matchups? Does it mean different personnel? We have to look at lots of different ways to do that but it’s something first and foremost we have to do.
“You have to create some indecision in the quarterback’s mind as far as what the coverage is going to be. We have to cause some confusion so he can’t just take it and rip it out there. We have to create some indecision.”
Montana State saw its streak of five straight years with a defensive lineman All-America selection end last season. During Ash and defensive line coach Bo Beck’s first eight seasons at MSU, the Bobcats averaged 33 sacks per season. Last fall, that number dropped to 19. This season, MSU is averaging just one sack per game against Division I opponents with Sacramento State coming to Bozeman on Saturday.
Much of the past success can be attributed to personnel. Players like Fletcher, Minter, Daly and Schreibeis were NFL talents who piled up sacks and pressures in bunches because of their ability to dominate one-on-one matchups. Each also benefited from an experienced and physically superior secondary than the current Bobcats. With the exception of Minter, the other three would have been Bobcats regardless of who recruited them. Fletcher is a Bozeman native. Daly is a second-generation Bobcat who’s brother, Bobby was also an MSU All-America. Schreibeis’ older brother, Joe, was a Bobcat tight end when Caleb decided to walk on.
MSU defensive end Jessie Clark rushes the passer against EWU
Beck had high hopes that Odin Coe could be the next great one. As a junior last fall, Coe notched six sacks, just one less than Schreibeis had as a junior. But Coe elected to forgo his senior season and join the Navy. Four-star recruit Garrett Marino didn’t make it to November in his only season. Robert Wilcox tore two ligaments in his knee on two different occasions and has yet to play a game.
Instead, the Bobcats are left developing a front seven that features no upperclassmen linebackers and just one upperclassmen end (Zach Hutchins) that is was not added as a transfer in the off-season. MSU added five transfers to its front seven — Jessie Clark, Joe Naotala, and Shiloh LaBoy on the line, Marcus Tappan and Zach Stern to the linebackers (Stern has moved to cornerback) — and each has played sparingly.
“It takes time,” Ioane said. “We have been blessed, don’t get me wrong — Brad Daly, Caleb Schreibeis, Zach Minter, Dane Fletcher but at the same time, those guys didn’t start off as Buck Buchanan guys right off the jump. It takes time to develop in those guys as player and I trust and believe that Coach Beck and the rest of our coaching staff will find ways to inspire, motivate and put guys in the right positions to develop a pass rusher and develop the pass rush we need to be successful.
“We need to do a great job in the front seven and really the front nine on first and second down to allow ourselves to be aggressive on third downs because it’s a third and long situation, we know they have to drop back and pass and they can pin their ears back and go get them.”
Players like redshirt freshman nose tackle Tucker Yates, redshirt freshman middle linebacker Grant Collins, sophomore strong-side linebacker Mac Bignell and true freshman cornerback Tre’Von Strong have been a part of a unit that has taken its lumps early, each in their first month filling elevated roles.
MSU safety Desman Carter misses a tackled against Eastern Washington
The Bobcat defense also features a strong safety in Desman Carter who is on his fourth school in five seasons after UAB abruptly cut its football program. Sophomore safety Khari Garcia had off-season shoulder surgery. Doctors discovered much more significant damage than initially expected during the procedure.
The cornerback position opposite senior Bryson Keeton has been a revolving door between Strong, senior Trace Timmer and sophomore Bryce Alley, all players who played sparingly or not at all before this season. Junior Fletcher Collins, a former walk-on who’s future in the program looked bleak until the calendar turned in 2015, flanks Grant Collins and Mac Bignell.
The group as a whole is inexperienced and green, Ioane said. He added that maintaining confidence among his young group will be a key to the season.
“That’s one thing we will stress and emphasize: we will not lose our focus on the process, our focus on us and how we get better,” Ioane said. “Regardless of what the previous performance was, we are going to use it as an opportunity to get better. That’s not going to affect our confidence level at all. We are going to to strive to maintain confidence.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
