George Ferguson Column: These guys are some really good football players

College football is fun to watch. If you’re a fan of the game, it shouldn’t matter what level of college football you watch, it’s just fun, and it’s exciting.

And Saturday’s game between the Montana State University-Northern Lights and Eastern Oregon Mountaineers proved that in spades. It also proved something else — something many of us already knew, but need reminding of from time to time — really good football players somehow find their way to the NAIA, and in particular, the Frontier Conference.

I have been covering MSU-Northern, Frontier and NAIA football for more than a decade now, and every season, I see at least one or two games where I think to myself, why is he playing at this level?

Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean any disrespect to NAIA football, and I happen to believe that some of the very best football in the NAIA is played every Saturday in the Frontier. But, once in a while, you see a player, or, in Saturday’s case, players who could have and probably should have been playing at bigger schools, and it becomes so obvious that those schools missed the boat on some outstanding talent.

And Saturday’s game was a great example of that.

MSU-Northern certainly has a few of those type of guys. There’s no doubt in my mind that Zach McKinley, Jake Messerly and Tyler Craig could do damage at places like Montana State or the University of Montana, or any number of NCAA Division II schools. You watch what they do every week and you just know, those guys are football players, and while the game may be at a different level the more rungs you go up those three guys have it what it takes, no doubt.

All three put those talents on display against the Mounties Saturday afternoon — all three making more than one incredible play. I watch those three week-in and week-out and wonder how other coaches at higher levels of football could have misjudged them, but I also think, we are very lucky those coaches did, and we are very lucky they’re all at Northern.

The same can be said for what I saw from EOU Saturday. Watching Calvin Connors and Jace Billingsley run with the ball, there’s no doubt in my mind those two could have gone to place like Central Washington, Eastern Washington, or in Connor’s case, being from Nevada, FBS program’s like UNLV or the University of Nevada.

Now, I may not be a scout, or a coach, but I know speed when I see it, and those guys have it, and there are tread marks all over Blue Pony Stadium to prove it. Of course, just like we all are so happy we have McKinley, Messerly and Craig here in Havre, I’m sure EOU head coach Tim Camp is darn glad to have them at EOU and not somewhere else.

And I think every coach in the Frontier probably has a few players, if not more, who they believe could succeed at higher levels of collegiate football. Yes, that’s what makes the Frontier great. We have stars who other coaches, at higher levels, didn’t think were good enough to play for them. They didn’t think they were fast enough, or strong enough or tall enough or whatever.

And, in the case of at least five players I watched Saturday in Havre, those coaches were wrong. And, for those of us who love the Frontier, and the NAIA, we are glad they were.