Northern football ready for fall scrimmage

After a week of fall camp, it's time for the Montana State University-Northern football team to finally get their full pads on for their first scrimmage of camp this Saturday at Lights Stadium. As the Lights play live football for the first time since their shortened spring season, MSU-N head coach Andrew Rolin will use the scrimmage to evaluate his players and see who gives the team the best chance to win this fall.

"It's the first time we'll be live and I think it's going to come down to who can execute when it counts. Be at your best when your best is needed and who's going to show up when it counts," Rolin said. "That's what we're going to evaluate. That's what it's all about."

Going into the scrimmage, Rolin plans to split the playing time evenly between all his players. He expects the starters and the second-stringers to each get around 50 percent of the snaps while he will get his third-stringers some plays.

With the Lights' quarterback competition still officially open, Rolin will not announce who will start the scrimmage between Kaymen Cureton, Brenden Medina and Devonte Armstrong. While he is close to naming his starting quarterback for the season opener against College of Idaho on Aug. 28, Rolin is open to the possibility that this Saturday's scrimmage could make his decision more difficult.

"I tell these guys there's always an evaluation. You're always being judged and so if it's obvious and it's consistent one way or another then things can change," Rolin said."No one's ever really comfortable around here but I think we have an idea who our starter and who our two is right now but there's still some time in camp so things can change."

Before they play their scrimmage on Saturday, the Lights have been practicing throughout the week. On their Tuesday practice this week, Rolin felt like his team's progress had plateaued and he made sure to let his team know it. However, he felt like they got back on track with Thursday's practice.

"That's one of our most competitive practices of the year. We executed on both sides of the ball," Rolin said. "After that plateau, we kind of called them out and they showed up. They responded so it's pretty cool to watch."

At Thursday's practice, the Lights ran seven-on-seven drills in the red zone for the first time this camp. Throughout the drills, both the offense and defense made plays. Cornerback Aidan Hoyt picked off a pass from Cureton that would have been returned for a touchdown. However, the offense bounced back with a couple of touchdown passes.

"It's a battle right now. It's just back and forth which is what you want to see as a head coach," Rolin said. "It's fun to see the competitiveness back and forth right now so that's a sign I think of a good competitive team."

With the season fast approaching, the intensity has risen in practice. While passion is a necessary part of the game, it can backfire sometimes such as during Thursday's practice where a couple of scuffles and shoving matches occurred between a couple of players. While Rolin likes that his players are bringing intensity to practice, he also knows they will need to keep their emotions in check when games roll around.

"They're getting to the point in camp where they're tired of hitting each other but I appreciate the enthusiasm," Rolin said. "It's a fine line that you tow. You don't want to take their stinger away but we also have to play smart too."

The MSU-N football will continue getting ready for their season as they scrimmage at Lights Stadium Saturday at 11:15 a.m.