By Danny Waldo
Last season, head coach Jeff Choate was still trying to familiarize himself with his new ball club when spring practices opened, making for a steep learning curve for both players and coaches, and resulting in a snail’s pace of implementing new schemes. With year one under his belt, Choate expects things to go much smoother this time around, beginning on the offensive side of the ball. With former offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham gone to North Dakota State and Brian Armstrong set to take the reins of the Bobcat attack, Choate is taking the opportunity this spring to fine tune MSU’s offensive game plan in hopes of balancing a unit that was very one-dimensional a season ago. “We have a couple of new tweaks. One of the things we charged the offense with was simplifying the offense and making it simpler for the kids to communicate, allowing some of our tempo to be more crisp. I could see that right away.”
While MSU lost some stalwarts off last season’s unit — guys like Chad Newell, Gunnar Brekke and JP Flynn — they have the luxury of returning their starting quarterback, reigning Big Sky Conference Freshman of the Year Chris Murray, and MSU expects to make the big improvements in the passing game. Not only does Murray have a season of experience under his belt, but the Bobcats also brought back former league MVP DeNarius McGhee to tutor him on the finer points of the passing game, an area where Murray struggled mightily last season. New Bobcat offensive coordinator Brian Armstrong has liked what he has seen, thus far, from his signal caller. “His command on the field was much better,” he said. “We still have a long way to go. But something as simple as the snap count, we could all hear him. That’s improvement. I’ve been really impressed this whole off-season with his football IQ. He’s a pretty savvy guy.” MSU will host practices beginning at 7:05 a.m. throughout the week into the month of April, culminating with the Sonny Holland Classic in Bozeman on April 22nd. The Bobcats will also host their annual Triangle Classic on Saturday, April 8th in Great Falls. The Triangle Classic scrimmage will be preceded by the Triangle Classic Banquet on April 7th, where NFL legend Rod Woodson will be the guest speaker. For more information on Montana State’s spring practices, log on to www.msubobcats.com.
Danny Waldo is a local freelance writer covering Bozeman Hawk and Montana State Bobcat athletics. •
