Picking up where they left off

iaafan · Post by **iaafan** » Fri Mar 24, 2017 7:19 am

MSU walked out of the 2016 season riding high with wins in their last home game and last regular season game a resounding win in Missoula. Is that the team that will ride into spring ball and carry over into the 2017 season? Or will they morph back into the team that couldn't finish off close games early in the year and then appeared to go into frustration mode before bouncing back strong in the final two games?

I have a hard time thinking they're going to regress. I think if the team that won those last two games had been on the field from the beginning of the year, you would've seen a much different season. I've been told my several players that this team is way ahead of where it was at this time last year in several areas.

iaafan · Post by **iaafan** » Fri Mar 24, 2017 7:25 am

http://msubobcats.com/news/2017/3/23/fo ... rills.aspx

There are age-old memes about what familiarity breeds in relationships, but for Montana State's second-year head football coach Jeff Choate it's all positive.

"It's amazing what a difference a year makes in terms of these kids' familiarity with us," Choate said after his team's first practice of the spring. A year ago questions abounded, none more significant than at quarterback. Junior college transfer Tyler Bruggman took control of the position during the spring, but freshman Chris Murray forged competition immediately in fall camp with his big-play ability, eventually winning starting honors midway through the season.

With Murray returning as the presumptive starter and Bruggman back – not until next week, as he is attending to a family matter this week – Choate said the structural changes this spring stand to be minor rather than wholesale. "We have a couple of new tweaks. One of the things we charged the offense with was simplifying the offense and making it simpler for the kids to communicate, allowing some of our tempo to be more crisp. I could see that right away."

Murray's freshman campaign netted him Big Sky Freshman of the Year and Freshman All-America honors, and Choate said his presence Wednesday featured more command. "Just confidence," Choate said of his evolution over the last six months. But Murray has also spent the last couple of months in the tutelage of quarterbacks coach DeNarius McGhee, a former Bobcat All-America himself.

Choate said that staff change has already paid dividends. "(Murray) has DeNarius there to be in his ear all the time. It's tough when you are a coordinator and you have to have the other 10 guys knowing what they are doing and hopefully you get to work on that quarterback in meetings. Here, (Murray) has somebody who has eyes on him every single rep, can correct him, correct his footwork, his read progression, all those things. He's more comfortable with what we are trying to do."

McGhee's arrival narrowly preceded the departure of offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham for a similar position at North Dakota State, but his presence allowed Choate to seamlessly promote offensive line coach Brian Armstrong to that position. On that side of the ball, MSU's 15 spring practices focus on simplifying the scheme and aligning terminology to that end.

Armstrong said the change in roles brought consequences expected and unexpected. "I couldn't sleep (Tuesday) night," he said, "and I was up at 5 a.m. this morning. This is always so fun."

MSU's offensive line coach a year ago who spent several years as the offensive coordinator and head coach at Rocky Mountain College, Armstrong liked what he saw from Murray. "His command on the field was much better," he said. "We still have a long way to go. But something as simple as the snap count, we could all hear him. That's improvement. I've been really impressed this whole off-season with his football IQ. He's a pretty savvy guy."

Choate said his offense is in good hands. "Brian is a good football coach," Choate said. "In my mind, things went very smoothly today. I like where we are at. We have 14 more opportunities to get better."

The next opportunity arrives Friday, when the Cats practice at 7 am. Saturday's practice begins at 11 am.

PHAT CAT · Post by **PHAT CAT** » Fri Mar 24, 2017 4:52 pm

The players that thought this was country club football, were asked to leave. Come to play or pack your bags.

wbtfg · Post by **wbtfg** » Fri Mar 24, 2017 4:55 pm

Choate wants football players. Guys who play for the love of the game rather than the "celebrity" fringe benefits.

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imacat · Post by **imacat** » Fri Mar 24, 2017 9:14 pm

From my perspective - we were far from walking out of last season riding high. We were a bad team who beat two other bad teams in our last two games. Teams who finished 2-6 and 3-5 in the conference; to finish our season with a 2-6 conference record. Winning the final two games was a function of how the schedule fell. We have a long ways to go to become relevant. Hopefully we can make some major progress in 2017. GO CATS!!!

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FTG06' · Post by **FTG06'** » Fri Mar 24, 2017 9:35 pm

imacat wrote:From my perspective - we were far from walking out of last season riding high. We were a bad team who beat two other bad teams in our last two games. Teams who finished 2-6 and 3-5 in the conference; to finish our season with a 2-6 conference record. Winning the final two games was a function of how the schedule fell. We have a long ways to go to become relevant. Hopefully we can make some major progress in 2017. GO CATS!!!

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I disagree. A freshman QB and a first year head coach finding a way to win in Missoula isn't as easy as you are indirectly suggesting.

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91catAlum · Post by **91catAlum** » Fri Mar 24, 2017 9:43 pm

FTG06' wrote:
imacat wrote:From my perspective - we were far from walking out of last season riding high. We were a bad team who beat two other bad teams in our last two games. Teams who finished 2-6 and 3-5 in the conference; to finish our season with a 2-6 conference record. Winning the final two games was a function of how the schedule fell. We have a long ways to go to become relevant. Hopefully we can make some major progress in 2017. GO CATS!!!

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I disagree. A freshman QB and a first year head coach finding a way to win in Missoula isn't as easy as you are indirectly suggesting.

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Right. Had the griz won that game, they would've had 7 wins and been in the playoffs. It was a quality win.

catscat · Post by **catscat** » Sat Mar 25, 2017 8:43 am

I am encouraged that the offense will be tailored to the skills, abilities, and attributes of the players. I don't think that happened last year. The players were supposed to be molded into an offense that didn't utilize their strengths - individually and as a team. Seemed like the whole season was searching for some sort of offense that worked and it started to finally gel the last two games. I also felt that play calling was suspect last year and will be better this year. Having DMac work with QB's should be huge.

JDoub · Post by **JDoub** » Sat Mar 25, 2017 8:54 am

imacat wrote:From my perspective - we were far from walking out of last season riding high. We were a bad team who beat two other bad teams in our last two games. Teams who finished 2-6 and 3-5 in the conference; to finish our season with a 2-6 conference record. Winning the final two games was a function of how the schedule fell. We have a long ways to go to become relevant. Hopefully we can make some major progress in 2017. GO CATS!!!

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I like coach telling it straight after beating the griz - "we're a 4-7 ball club"

However, we lost two games minimum solely due to a new HC inexperience. It's obvious to me that Choate learns from his experience. We were one play from beating the conference champions, and two dropped passes away from beating an FBS team that won a bowl game. We were the only team to win in Wa-griz. The Mess of an offense we had is gone. With a serviceable QB we easily could've been a 7 or 8 win team.

The adage holds true - you're never as great as you think you are, and never as bad as you think you are. We were a good 4-7 team last year, and there's not much of a gap between flipping that this year, IMO.

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imacat · Post by **imacat** » Sat Mar 25, 2017 11:21 am

catscat wrote:I am encouraged that the offense will be tailored to the skills, abilities, and attributes of the players. I don't think that happened last year. The players were supposed to be molded into an offense that didn't utilize their strengths - individually and as a team. Seemed like the whole season was searching for some sort of offense that worked and it started to finally gel the last two games. I also felt that play calling was suspect last year and will be better this year. Having DMac work with QB's should be huge.

I agree that the DMac hire has the potential to be a game changer for the QBs and by extension the entire offense.

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Bobcatsinmso · Post by **Bobcatsinmso** » Sat Mar 25, 2017 12:37 pm

The unknown here is how good of a coach will D Mac be for us going forward? Lots of upside potential, and we all know about his work and personal ethic standard. It could translate into a long and highly successful coaching career. We will all get to see how this is going to transpire, I hope his only limitation is the sky above. It is going to be great seeing him on the sideline on Saturdays again.

imacat · Post by **imacat** » Sun Mar 26, 2017 7:10 pm

I found it interesting that Courtney Messingham is not coaching QBs at NDSU. He is listed as OC and RB coach.

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iaafan · Post by **iaafan** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 8:11 am

Even if you think UM and UC Davis are bad teams, the way MSU beat them was impressive.

Davis finished the year averaging 28 points 393 yards per game and 5.8 yards per play. MSU held them to 13, 312 and 5.0. UM finished the year averaging 39.5 points, 482 yards and 6.2 per play. MSU held them to 17 points, 305 and 5.2.

The MSU run game had 258 yards (5.4 per carry) against UC Davis, which allowed 199 and 4.7 for the season. MSU had 368 (5.9) vs. UM, which allowed 150 (3.9) for the year.

MSU averaged 313 rushing in those two games after rushing for about 180 per game coming into the Davis game. MSU averaged giving up about 308 yards in those two games after allowing about 400 per game coming into the Davis game.

I'd call that riding high.

iaafan · Post by **iaafan** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 10:40 am

The only game we really got smacked in was vs. Weber State. This was partly due to Walker missing the first half. Against EWU we were only down 24-17 at halftime and we were tied with SUU at halftime. The other four losses were by 3, 2, 3, and 6 points.

The main things we need to improve on is the passing game and bonehead plays like dropped TD passes and red zone turnovers.

TomCat88 · Post by **TomCat88** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 3:50 pm

There was definitely a marked improvement over the last two games. I think Choate learned a ton last year. The SAC and UND games were some "baptism by fire" games. I'm guessing it's gonna be a wild ride in 2017.

BLACKnBLUEnGOLD · Post by **BLACKnBLUEnGOLD** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 8:46 pm

JDoub wrote:The adage holds true - you're never as great as you think you are, and never as bad as you think you are. We were a good 4-7 team last year, and there's not much of a gap between flipping that this year, IMO.

There's also an adage that you're only as good as your record, which would mean they deserved to be 4-7.

Of course, scientific study of sports has succeeded in upending much of conventional wisdom, and when you only have an 11-game sample to work with, it's actually more accurate to say that you're only as good as your point differential. The Cats actually outscored their opponents last year, 282-276. Based on that, the Cats should have gone 6-5.

There's also some merit to the notion that play-down games are a poor measure of a team's ability, in which case the Cats were outscored by their "real" opponents 227-276, with one "gimme" game. Based on that, the Cats should have gone 5-6.

TomCat88 · Post by **TomCat88** » Tue Mar 28, 2017 2:50 am

BLACKnBLUEnGOLD wrote:
JDoub wrote:The adage holds true - you're never as great as you think you are, and never as bad as you think you are. We were a good 4-7 team last year, and there's not much of a gap between flipping that this year, IMO.
There's also an adage that you're only as good as your record, which would mean they deserved to be 4-7.

Of course, scientific study of sports has succeeded in upending much of conventional wisdom, and when you only have an 11-game sample to work with, it's actually more accurate to say that you're only as good as your point differential. The Cats actually outscored their opponents last year, 282-276. Based on that, the Cats should have gone 6-5.

There's also some merit to the notion that play-down games are a poor measure of a team's ability, in which case the Cats were outscored by their "real" opponents 227-276, with one "gimme" game. Based on that, the Cats should have gone 5-6.

Don't forget, "you're only as good as your last game." In that case MSU would be at least 7-4.

iaafan · Post by **iaafan** » Tue Mar 28, 2017 7:13 am

Only as good as your last game. I like that. I think that's the adage I'd like to use.

MSU also beat UM statistically worse than EWU. EWU got outgained 540-455 by UM. MSU outgained UM 405-305. So if you're only as good as your last game, then we're the best team in the BSC.

Cataholic · Post by **Cataholic** » Tue Mar 28, 2017 9:09 am

We lost four games last year by a combined average of 3.5 points. One loss was to FBS Idaho and another was a 2 point loss to conference champion UND. Our offense was also developmentally behind the defense all year last season. I think we are very close to having a breakthrough season in 2017 with a playoff date in reach!

iaafan · Post by **iaafan** » Wed Mar 29, 2017 6:58 am

I forgot about what Stitt said after Cat-Griz. Something about UM being a 9-2/8-3 team, not a 6-5 team. So, if you're only as good as your last game, then in Stitt's world we're a 10-1/9-2 team. Thanks Bob!! I'm starting to like that guy.