An injury-thinned defensive front kept Montana State coach Rob Ash from evaluating his team’s ground game at full speed Wednesday morning, but not from putting his squad through game-like situations in a 45-play scrimmage played at ‘thud’ tempo in Bobcat Stadium.
“We wanted to have an evaluation of our run game today,” Ash said, “and we were unable to do that because we couldn’t go full (speed) due to the depth situation. I thought we got some good work on the goal line both ways, some good stops and some good runs by the offense. I thought our seven-on-seven (drills) in the pass game, we got some good evaluations there.”
The absence of MSU’s top four interior linemen on defense – Jason D’Alba, Christian Keli’i, Dan Ogden and Zach Minter have missed time lately with minor ailments – prompted the coaching staff to downgrade from a live scrimmage to ‘thud’ tempo, hitting without tackling to the ground. “We were very thin inside defensively with our defensive tackles and nose guards,” Ash said. “We had to back off on our tempo and we had to reduce the number of reps.”
Still, Ash saw bright spots. “I thought the offensive execution was very good overall,” said MSU’s fourth-year head coach. “I thought our quarterbacks threw the ball well and the receivers caught the ball well, we looked sharp in the passing game. We couldn’t really evaluate the run game, but did just enough to get the flow of the game. But that’s what we need. We need to get plays off, get the play in and out on time, get in the right formation, and have a chance to have a good play every time. Even though we weren’t able to finish plays because of the tempo we were able to do all that.”
Cody Kempt finished the day 8-for-14 passing for 70 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions. Denarius McGhee was 3-for-4 for 24 yards, while Grayson Galloway was 3-for-4 for 45 yards. Jason Cunningham was again the scrimmage’s steadiest performer, converting both his field goal attempts, including a 57-yarder.
Ash said evaluation of the ground game remains a high priority for his team’s final scrimmage of the fall, Saturday in Bobcat Stadium at 2;30 pm. “We didn’t really separate the field at running back, and that’s an urgent priority for us. We’ll just have to try to do that more on Saturday. The big thing is assignments, if they’re picking up the blitzes, which I think they did a pretty good job of today, hanging onto the ball, which we did not do as well. We had a turnover in our half-line drill today and David Dash put it on the ground once in another drill.
“Right now I’ve got to get them into the tough yardage situations,” Ash continued, “and really see who can grind out the yards. I thought Orenzo Davis made some good moves. He got blown dead one time and I’m not sure anyone was really very close. I’d like to see him in a live situation. Saturday will be an important day for him.”