Lights getting there with second fall scrimmage

Two-a-day football practice during fall camp can be a grind. Whether it's high school, college or the NFL, fall camp gets long, it gets hot and it gets tedious. But, during that grind, teams get better, and Montana State University-Northern head football coach Aaron Christensen sees his Lights doing just that.

On Wednesday morning, Northern held its second scrimmage of the fall, and, for all intents and purposes, its last before taking on Rocky Mountain College in the Frontier Conference opener for both teams Aug. 27.

And, while Northern scrimmaged just last Saturday, Christensen saw consistency and improvements again Wednesday morning.

"It went good, on both sides of the ball I thought we played pretty well," Christensen said. "Our number one defense played really well, and offensively, we had a lot of different guys step up and make plays. So it was balanced, and that was good to see."

Defensively, the Lights playing well is a continuation of what they did in last Saturday's drum, where they shut out the Northern offense. So, there's certainly consistency there, led by MSU-N's senior defensive front, with the likes of Tyler Craig, Pat Barnett, Jordan Brusio and Lane Ulrick.

On the other side of the ball, Northern also continues to get better, especially in the area of wide receiver, and along the offensive line. While running back is a known commodity at MSU-N, and is perhaps Northern's deepest position on the entire team, led by All-American candidate Zach McKinley, the last two MSU-N scrimmages have shown the Lights have gotten much better on the line, protecting starting QB Jess Krahn, as well as out wide.

While returning stalwarts like Jake Messerly and tight end Kagen Khamaneh were expected to shine in fall camp, may other WR's have been making a name for themselves along the way, including Ethan Snow and Seth Rommelle.

And while Wednesday's scrimmage showed improvements both offensively and defensively, as well as marking the end of two-a-day's for the Lights, Christensen said that his team got to work on another area where he felt improvement was definitely needed.

"We worked more on special teams today," Christensen said. "We had some good punts, made some field goals, and I think we got better there."

Special teams will also be an area the Lights continue to work on going forward. Today's practice will be a live special teams scrimmage where the Lights will work on kickoffs, kickoff cover, punt return, punt cover, as well as field goal kicking and more.

Northern will also start to game plan for Rocky, practicing once Friday, before taking Saturday and Sunday off, then, on Monday, the Lights will go into full game-week mode.

And while game week is just a few days off, and the Lights have been grinding through fall camp now since Aug. 7, the work they've been doing has been paying off, and isn't lost on their second-year head coach.

"We've got a lot on film, a lot we can coach off of during this camp," Christensen said. "But we're definitely heading in the right direction. I feel like we're getting better every day, and I think, in certain areas we got better from our first scrimmage to this one we had today. So we're getting there."

And Northern is almost there. The Lights will open their season at Blue Pony Stadium at 1 p.m. on Aug. 27 against the Battlin' Bears before having a bye in the second week of the season. Northern's first road game comes Sept. 10 at defending Frontier champion Montana Tech. MSU-N also host Carroll College Sept. 17 and ends the first month of the season with a trip to UM-Western Sept. 24.

Editor's Note: For complete coverage of Northern's upcoming season, see next week's HDN. On Tuesday, there will be a preview of the MSU-N defense and special teams, followed by the offense on Wednesday. Look for a full 2016 Frontier Conference Preview next Thursday, and full pre-game coverage of the Lights' season-opener next Friday, as well as in the first Northern Game Day issue, which will also run next Friday.