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Jerome Souers begins to implement vision for the Lights

The past several years have had more than their fair share of adversity for the Montana State University-Northern football program. Even with new head coach Jerome Souers taking over the program, the Lights still have an uphill battle ahead.

But despite only having 37 players currently on the roster, Souers has already gotten things started with his team as they have been running winter conditioning drills the past five weeks. The drills have mostly just been conditioning, but Souers believes they will be important in the long run as they rebuild the program.

"We're working on executing our responsibilities on whatever drills we're doing and making sure that everybody's giving full effort and executing the movement as we've directed," Souers said. "So really they're learning to be coached by us."

The Lights plan on starting spring ball the first week of April. But they might not have enough players on the roster by then, so Souers and his staff will be recruiting hard over the next few weeks. While the Lights are late to the game when it comes to recruiting, Souers hopes to find players who can add to the culture.

"We're finding all the hidden gems that got left behind," Souers said to members of the Havre community Saturday. "That's what we're going to add to the team. Guys with heart, guys that don't understand the word quit and don't understand anything other than hard work and perseverance."

One area that Souers has made significant progress in already is assembling his coaching staff. Tim Davis will serve as the offensive line coach for the Lights, making Havre another stop on his lengthy resume. Through his career, Davis has coached at Division I programs such as Alabama, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Utah, Florida and Southern Methodist University. He also has experience coaching in the NFL as an assistant offensive line coach for the Miami Dolphins, 2005-07.

Steve Broussard will take over as the offensive coordinator for the Lights. Broussard is a former running back for Washington State and first round NFL Draft pick by the Atlanta Falcons. After a nine-year career in the league, Broussard has served as an assistant coach at multiple high schools and colleges. His most notable stints were as the running backs coach for Washington State, UCLA and SMU.

Marvin Williams Jr. will join the coaching staff as a graduate assistant after playing wide receiver for the Lights for the past several seasons. Joe O'Brien will serve as the Lights' defensive coordinator with previous experience serving as an assistant coach at Montana State University and the head coach at Simms High School. With this staff assembled, Souers believes he has the leadership to make the Lights competitive in the Frontier Conference.

"Any of these guys could be head coaches in this conference," Souers said.

As he has gotten the ball rolling on shaping the MSU-N football program to his image, Souers has also gotten adjusted to living in Havre. While the temperature on the Hi-Line has been freezing, Souers has felt welcomed by the warm community.

"I absolutely love the people and I couldn't be happier with the decision to be a part of this community," Souers said. "I knew that the people were warm and friendly but I had no idea. It's been absolutely phenomenal."

Turning around the Lights will be a tough ask, even for the all-time wins leaders in Northern Arizona history. But, even with a small roster and other challenges, Souers is confident he can get the Lights heading in the right direction. They will just need the help of local fans.

"Havre deserves a winning football program," Souers said. "We need all your help any way you possibly can because we're loaded up and we're ready to roll. We got the engine on idle, all we need is a little gas and we'll get things going."

 

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