Northern defense getting agressive

The Montana State University-Northern football team has plenty of things it needs to improve upon if it’s going to find the win column in 2016 and one of those areas is defense.

While the defense wasn’t the only unit to blame for the team’s 0-11 record a season ago, it certainly played its part, allowing more yards to opponents (479.8) than any other team in the Frontier Conference.

The Lights allowed the second-most rushing yards and the second-most passing yards last season. Those numbers are also a reflection of an offense that struggled to keep and move the ball, but still, they hammer home the point that for the Lights to improve in 2016, the defense simply has to be better.

And during the first week of fall training camp, which continued Wednesday with two more practice sessions, one in the afternoon, one at night, that has been one of the focuses.

One way the Lights are hoping to improve in 2016 is to take a pass rush that was respectable last season with 25 sacks and turn into one of the most feared in the Frontier.

One thing that will help Northern do just that is a veteran-laden defensive line that could turn out to be one of the Frontier’s best, thanks to the play of Tyler Craig, Tyler Brusio and Pat Barnett.

Over the past few seasons, Craig, Brusio and Barnett have been stalwarts on the defensive front as evidenced by their 38.5 combined sacks from 2014 to 2015. Yet, as good as those three players have been for Northern, the Lights are hoping to get even more out of them this season, which is why the coaching staff has installed multiple looks up front to help better showcase their pass-rush skills.

“It’s all about trying to find matchups and exploit them,” Northern defensive coordinator Jake Eldridge said. “All three of those guys are experienced and have been around and play all across the line, so it’s not going to be much of an adjustment for them. They have done it all.”

Craig, who notched nine sacks last season and has a career total of 23, to go along with 36 tackles for loss and 168 stops total, is one player whom you may see lined up at different spots in 2016 and in his mind, it will be for the better.

“It will be a little different,” Craig said. “But I played three-technique (defensive tackle) in high school and we worked in some different things in the spring, so I feel pretty comfortable playing wherever.”

While Craig, who has traditionally been a defensive end, will be in the role again for the Lights this season, the senior will also see snaps as an interior defensive lineman, both lined up over the guard and the tackle.

“I think part of the idea is to get a faster guy inside on a guard that might have a harder time blocking him,” Craig said. “I think whether it’s on the outside or the inside, it’s pretty much the same. We are just trying to find good matchups and we are going to move around a little bit to create those.”

While Barnett may not see his role change much, he may see more opportunities to make plays in the backfield, with the Lights looking to force the issue on defense more this season and part of that means simply being more aggressive.

It also means freeing up Brusio, who has spent his entire career playing defensive end, to have a chance to play linebacker and in some cases, rushing the passer out of a two-point, stand-up position, instead of with his hand always in the ground.

“That’s something that (Brusio) has wanted to do for a couple years now,” Eldridge said. “So he’s going to get a chance to do that this season. We might see (Tyler Craig) do a bit of that, too, ’cause he definitely has the ability to, but again, it’s all going to come down to who has the best matchup.”

No matter how the Lights go about it, there is no question that the Northern defense needs to make more big plays in 2016 and putting three of its best players in a better position to do that, seems like a good place to start.

“I like it,” Craig said. “I like moving around and being able to rush from inside and outside. I think that it’s going to play to our strengths and get our best guys in a position where we can win that one-on-one battle.”

The Lights will have two more practices today, and two Friday, before wrapping up the first week of camp with a scrimmage Saturday at 9 a.m.