SOU, Tech favored by Frontier coaches

GREAT FALLS — After an 0-11 season, and a year of rebuilding, it probably didn’t surprise anyone that the Montana State University-Northern Lights were picked to finish last this coming season by coaches in the Frontier Conference.

However, Northern second-year head coach Aaron Christenson sees his team much differently, as the Lights are just 24 days out from their season-opening game against Rocky Mountain College Aug. 27 at Blue Pony Stadium.

“We’re in much better shape than we were at this time last year,” Christenson said at Tuesday’s Frontier Conference Football Media Day in Great Falls. “We’re still a young team overall, but, this year, we have 17 seniors. Last year, we had four seniors on the entire football team. So, I just feel we’re in a lot better shape and this program is going in the direction we want it to go.”

Certainly, the Lights, despite having perhaps two of the best football players in the league in seniors Zach McKinley and Tyler Craig, who, along with Pete Morales and Garet Fowler, have been named captains for the 2016, are looking up at a very good Frontier Conference, no matter the improvements Christenson sees.

Southern Oregon, which won the 2014 NAIA national championship, and played for the title again last fall, was picked to win the 2016 league title as the Frontier Preseason Coaches Poll was announced Tuesday. Montana Tech, which won the league title a year ago, was picked to finish second, and both teams will be ranked in the Top 10 when the NAIA Preseason Coaches Poll comes out next Monday.

Nevertheless, Christenson said his team has made big strides, and he doesn’t see any resemblance to that of a young team struggling to find its way a year ago.

“Last season didn’t go the way we hoped it would,” Christenson said. “But I know this, from the first game to the last game last year, we got better. I thought we got a lot better. And from the last game to this year’s spring game, we got better. So, we’re going in the right direction.”

The Lights, who open fall camp Monday, will find out just how much better they’ve gotten when they open the season and league play against the Battlin’ Bears, who were picked to finish just ahead of Northern, in 7th place. The rest of the coaches poll includes Carroll College (3rd), Eastern Oregon (4th), College of Idaho (5th) and UM-Western (6th).

Northern will play all of those teams and, a few of them twice this season during its 10-game, Frontier-only schedule. But, for now, Christenson is focused on the two things he’s been preaching to his young team since he took over the MSU-N program back in December of 2014.

And he strongly reiterated those two points Tuesday.

“We talk a lot about our goals,” Christenson said. “And one of our biggest goals is that we want to be 1-0. We just want to win the next game we play. So that’s our next goal, to win our next game. We also want to make sure we improve every day, that we keep getting better, and this team has been doing that. I feel like this program is going in the right direction, and we’re going to keep working hard to make sure it keeps going in that direction.”

Northern will hold its first practice of the 2016 season Sunday morning at the MSU-Northern practice fields. For much more on the Lights’ football season, stay tuned to the Havre Daily News sports section.

2016 Frontier Preseason Coaches Poll

Southern Oregon (6) 48 points

Montana Tech (1) 42 points

Carroll College (1) 38 points

Eastern Oregon 27 points

College of Idaho 25 points

Montana Western 20 points

Rocky Mountain 17 points

MSU-Northern 7 points