It's Here: Lights take the field for the first time

At last week's Frontier Conference Football Media Day in Great Falls, Montana State University-Northern head coach Aaron Christenson said his team had improved from the start of last season until the end, and again, from the end of the season until the end of spring ball in April.

But on Sunday morning, Christenson got to see how his team looked for the first time in more than three months.

The Lights opened their 2016 fall camp with a helmet's only practice Sunday morning at the MSU-Northern practice fields, and, when the first workout was over, Christenson told his squad how much he liked their energy and the way they were hustling all over the field.

Sunday was the start of the continuation of Christenson's quest to rebuild the Northern program, and, in the process, put to rest last year's 0-11 rebuilding season. And right away, observers could see just how well the rebuilding process is going, as Northern's team, through a massive winter and spring recruiting blitz, has grown in numbers, and, that alone, should help the Lights be much more competitive in the Frontier Conference.

And while the Lights will have plenty of new faces this season, some who red-shirted last year, some who are brand new, there are holdovers who will give the Lights plenty of talent and veteran leadership. Included in that group are 17 seniors, including stars Zach McKinley, Tyler Craig and Jake Messerly. The Lights will also lean on the likes of veterans like Mario Gobbatto and Pete Morales, especially as they how through the grind of the next few weeks of training camp.

The first week of Northern's fall camp will be a grind too, as Christenson is running two-a-day practices through Friday. The Lights will practice at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. today through Friday, and they'll hold their first live scrimmage of the fall on Saturday morning at 9 a.m.

That schedule will complete the first week of preparations for Northern's season-opener, which is set for Aug. 27 against Rocky Mountain College inside Blue Pony Stadium.

And, that game is the only game the Lights have on their mind, as Christenson pointed out last week.

"We talk a lot about our goals," Christenson said. "And one of our biggest goals is that we want to be 1-0. We just want to win the next game we play. So that's our next goal, to win our next game. We also want to make sure we improve every day, that we keep getting better, and this team has been doing that. I feel like this program is going in the right direction, and we're going to keep working hard to make sure it keeps going in that direction."