Lights grind toward DSU

Eight days. Just eight days stand between the Montana State University-Northern Lights and a season-opening Frontier Conference clash with the Dickinson State Blue Hawks.

And while that Aug. 29 opener seems close at hand, the Lights aren’t presently focused on the Blue Hawks just yet. No, Northern is focused on continuing to improve, and most importantly, grinding through training camp.

The Lights are into their second week of two-a-day practices, and that’s exactly what it is right now according to head coach Mark Samson … a grind.

“I’m really very happy with where we’re at right now, and what we’ve gotten accomplished so far,” Samson said ahead of the Lights’ final preseason scrimmage Thursday night at the Havre Middle School. “Things are continuing to fall in place, and we’re getting there little by little. But we also know we have a ways to go, and we’re going to grind through this second week of two-a-days. We understand we have work to do and that’s what the rest of this week is about.”

For any college football team, there’s always work to do. Things can always get better, and though Samson likes a lot of what he’s seen since MSU-N opened training camp nearly two weeks ago, he is also focused on improvement as Northern inches closer to game week, and the Blue Hawks.

“I’m pretty happy with what we’ve done so far,” Samson said. “We have a lot of our schemes in, and we’re working on polishing things up, and execution right now. I feel like we have a lot of kids playing really well right now. Our veteran guys for the most part, are doing everything we’ve expected of them. And we’ve got some new guys and younger players who are stepping up and filling roles. We’ve got some kids who’ve stepped on both lines, our receivers and running backs, those two areas are pretty good right now, and our quarterbacks have done a really nice job so far.

“But we want to continue to get better,” he added. “We want to continue creating a faster tempo in everything we do. We’re constantly working on learning to play the game faster, so that when we get into a game, it’s second nature for these guys to just react and do it. And I think we need to continue to get better on special teams. Those are areas we need to really work hard at this week and spend a significant amount of time on.”

And the Lights will use Thursday night’s scrimmage as a way to do just that. Samson said he isn’t sure yet how many plays the scrimmage will entail yet, or how much full contact the Lights will go but, he added, the scrimmage — the Lights’ last of the preseason — will certainly be another step in the process.

“We have work to do, there’s no question about that,” Samson said. “We have some things we need to fine tune, and we want to continue to improve on all that we’ve worked on and the progress we’ve made so far.

“But for the most part, I’m very happy with how things have gone to this point,” he continued. “The kids have worked really hard and done a nice job so far. And as we get close, we’ll start really zeroing in on preparing to go down to Dickinson and get a win. Then we can really know where we’re at as a football team.”

Northern will scrimmage at 6:30 p.m. at the Havre Middle School football field. The Lights’ season opener is slated for Aug. 29 in Dickinson, N.D.