The Bobcats enter their first rest day of camp on Thursday and the break seems to be much needed.
“It was a little sloppy today, honestly,” Montana State head coach Rob Ash said following Wednesday morning’s session. “The ball was on the ground a few times, a coupe of interceptions, a couple of fumbles, and with the lower units, there as some snap issues. I’d like to think after three or four days, that stuff would go away but maybe I’m being optimistic.
“But it’s four days in a row here and I think that started to factor in on some of that sloppiness. We never go more than three days in a row during a typical schedule but since we started on Sunday, we had four days in a row and that’s a long haul when you are going full tempo every single day. (Thursday) will be a well-deserved day off and we should be on point on Friday.”
Wednesday included further diversification and trial of personnel by the Montana State defense. During the final team period, senior Desman Carter tried his hand at strong safety and nickel back. He had an interception late on a ball thrown by senior backup quarterback Jake Bleskin. Sophomore Mac Bignell had the other play of the day when he stripped Tavon Dodd on a run play.
LaSane
Ash said installation for both offense and defensive schemes are way ahead of schedule. He said one factor for the defense’s dominance the last few days is the fact that the Bobcats are running a brand new scheme, one the offense has only seen in spring drills and four days of fall camp.
“There’s a lot of moving parts out there,” Ash said. “We have a lot of moving parts out there on offense and tnen you add the moving parts on defense and you overlay all those possibilities. Having said that, there was some beautiful plays today on both sides. I thought Des Carter’s interception was really nicely done. He floated back there in the secondary and made a really good play. I thought Dakota Prukop on the other hand had some very good throws down the field, a beautiful ball to Justin Paige. He had a couple of good seem routes. He had some nicely executed short plays. I thought Tavon Dodd and Nick LaSane both had some nice runs, getting some good opportunities with (Chad) Newell and (Gunnar) Brekke being out.”
Junior Fletcher Collins (middle linebacker), sophomore Marcus Tappan (Will linebacker), senior Nate Bignell (defensive tackle) and sophomore Khari Garcia (both safety spots) all saw their most first-team repetitions on Wednesday. Collins is battling redshirt freshman Grant Collins (no relation), Tappan is battling sophomore Blake Braun, Bignell is vying for time in a rotation that also includes senior Taylor Sheridan, senior Conner Thomas and junior Joe Naotala and Garcia is fighting for a spot either in front of Carter or next to him with redshirt freshman DeMonte King as his main competition.
On Saturday, Montana State will hold its first full-contact session with about 50 live plays at Bobcat Stadium. That’s when Ash will first begin to evaluate his depth chart battles. He said no final decisions will be made until the big fall scrimmage on August 22.
“It’s too early because we haven’t tackled yet,” Ash said. “We haven’t gone live yet. We will have a good idea after Saturday morning.”
