Lights football getting ready for fall camp

In just a few short weeks, the Montana State University-Northern football team will embark on another season. But before hitting the field for any games, the Lights must first get through fall camp, which starts Monday.

While two-a-day practices are becoming less and less frequent in college football, the Lights will be sticking with their approach and will hit the practice field twice a day, once in the morning, starting at 9 a.m. and again in the afternoon at 4 p.m. MSU-N will practice twice each day throughout the week, with workouts being held at the practice field on campus.

"The 9 a.m. practice is going to be more a full practice," Northern head coach Aaron Christensen said. "The 4 p.m. practice is going to be a little more of a walkthrough. We are excited. We have a lot of guys coming back from spring and we are excited about a lot of the guys coming in as freshmen."

Christensen brought in another large class of recruits. He said he thinks this incoming freshman class is particularly strong on the defensive line. This class also includes a pair of quarterback transfers in Bryce Missey and Tommy Wilson, who will each be part of a four-way battle to be the Lights' starting quarterback.

"It's hard to say at this point who will come in and contribute," Christensen said. "We just need to get them in here and see what they can do. But they will have an opportunity to compete. That's what we tell all our guys that are coming in, but we need to see what they can do on the field."

While it's always exciting to get a look at the talent of tomorrow, a more pressing matter for the Lights, will be finding their starting quarterback for the season-opening game Sept. 2 in Billings against Rocky Mountain College.

Joining Missey and Wilson in the quarterback competition are Holden Maki and Dylan Cook. Maki has been a backup the past few seasons, but he has just eight career pass attempts to his credit and one touchdown. Cook, is a redshirt freshman from Butte, who has plenty of potential as a 6-6, 250-pound signal caller, but still needs refinement.

One positive, however, for all the quarterbacks is that they were each able to take part in spring practice. Missey and Wilson transferred in early and the experience that each got, means they are starting on level footing.

"I think it will make all the difference in the world," Christensen said. "Just to have guys that know everything. Sometimes, you have guys on the first day that have trouble with snap counts and that's not something we are going to have to worry about with these guys."

Christensen said that all four quarterbacks will get equal reps throughout the competition and that the players will be evaluated on everything and a decision will not be made on a whim.

"We have told all the guys, it's not going to be decided on one day," Christensen said. "If a guy has a really good day or even a really bad day, that is not going to be how we make our decision. We are going to evaluate everything and try to split the reps as much as we can. Then we are going to take it all into account, from the spring up until now and try to make the best decision."

Certainly, quarterback is going to be the most watched position, but there will also be position battles across the board. The running back battle will feature Jett Robertson and Trey Blanchard, while there will also be battles for playing time just about everywhere else, especially along the defensive line where the Lights graduated some key players such as Tyler Craig, Pat Burnett and Jordan Brusio.

"We really tried to build up on our depth on the defensive line," Christensen said. "I think that's one strength of our recruiting class. We lost some key guys there, obviously, so that was a position we really wanted to address. We have a lot of linebackers coming in, too, which will work will with the 3-4 defense."

The Lights will hit the field for fall camp Monday. They will have three weeks of practice before taking on Rocky Sept. 2 in Billings.