Frontier Notebook: Few survived a rough Frontier season

And just like that, it's over. Last Saturday marked the end of a strange and unusual Frontier Conference football season - one in which the league champion didn't lose a single game, and the last-place team didn't win a single conference game.

It's been a while since those two things happened in the same season, but it typifies what a strange trip it's been this year.

First, what a year for Southern Oregon. The Raiders rebounded, not only from the struggles of last season, but also from the sudden death of their beloved head coach, Craig Howard, during the offseason.

Obviously fueled by both, Southern Oregon went 10-0, won its third Frontier championship, and is headed to the NAIA playoffs, where it will host Dickinson State this Saturday in Ashland.

And speaking of the playoffs, no one could have seen Montana Tech not making it to the postseason. While the Frontier usually beats up on each other and makes it next two impossible to get three teams to the postseason, there's no question that, back in even early October, it looked as though both the Raiders and Orediggers were headed to the playoffs.

However, injuries and a much more inexperienced Tech defense eventually caught up with the Diggers, and they slumped to three straight losses and a 6-4 finish.

One of the teams to beat Tech during that slide was College of Idaho. The Yotes and head coach Mike Moroski won three straight games to reach 6-4 in Frontier Conference play and tie Tech and Rocky Mountain College for second place. That is a big accomplishment for a program that has only been playing NAIA football for four years, and while the Yotes are senior heavy at key positions, it also could signal a shift in where the balance of power lies within in the Frontier.

For much of the rest of the league, 2017 was a roller coaster ride. While MSU-Northern just couldn't find a way to get a league win this season, at different times, Rocky Mountain College and UM-Western looked like true Frontier title and playoff berth contenders. But both were just drastically inconsistent. For Rocky's huge wins over the likes of Tech and Carroll, the Bears also scored just three points in a loss to Carroll. Still, RMC was able to finish at 6-4 and finish in a three-way tie for second place in Jared Petrino's second year. Fittingly, the roller coaster ended with Rocky and Western facing off in a shootout. The Bulldogs lost to the Bears and dropped to 4-6 and a three-way tie for fifth place.

The other two teams tied with Western were Carroll and Eastern Oregon, who waged an overtime thriller of their own on the final day of the season. The Mounties won and in the process handed Carroll its third straight losing season. But in general, both teams got off to a horrendous start this season but were both certainly trending in the right direction toward the end of the fall.

And while the league showed its true parity once again, something else may have been glaring about this season. With SOU running the table, and four teams finishing below the .500 mark, the Frontier may have suffered a little bit of a season in which graduation in 2016 really hit the league hard. Many teams were much younger and more inexperienced this season, and with a lot of high-scoring games, it seemed as though defense was probably a little more hampered by the youth in the league than offenses were.

Regardless, the league showed it is still as tough as ever, though. It's absolutely brutal to win enough games to stay in the NAIA Top 25, let alone win a league title and reach the postseason. And at the end of the day, and at the end of what was a bloody and brutal Frontier season, only Southern Oregon managed to make it through unscathed.

Final Numbers

With conference play over, it's time to take a look at the final league leaders for 2017. MSU-Northern's Garet Fowler led the Frontier in tackles with 115 for an average of 11 per game. Fowler is the fourth Northern linebacker in the last 11 seasons to lead the league in tackles. Northern LB Steven Fernandez finished fifth in the league with 83 stops.

Offensively, SOU's Tanner Trosin finished as the top passer in the Frontier and fourth nationally with 347 yards per game. Trosin also tossed 29 touchdowns and rushed for 224 yards to lead the Frontier in total offense as well. Montana Tech's Dion Williams was the Frontier's top receiver. He averaged seven catches and 104 yards per game, while grabbing nine touchdowns. Williams was also the only receiver in the league to go over 1,000 yards.

The highly-coveted rushing title went to Montana Tech's Jed Fike, keeping it in Butte for the third straight year. Even though Fike missed two games with an injury, he rushed for 1,252 yards and 15 touchdowns, averaging 140 yards per game. Fike and C of I quarterback Darius-James Peterson were the league's only 1,000-yard rushers, while Carroll's Major Ali and Western's Hunter Thomsen were the only two backs to top 900 yards. Northern's Trey Blanchard finished ninth in the league with 540 yards.

On the defensive side of the ball, Tech's Connor Wines led the Frontier with 10 sacks, finishing just ahead of SOU's Sean Rogers and RMC's Ryder Rice, who each had 9.5. Wines also led the Frontier with 15 tackles for loss. RMC's Keenan Fagan had a league-high seven interceptions, two more than teammates Kendell Jefferson and Terrance Williams.

Frontier Honors

RMC's Lucas Overton was named the final Frontier Conference Offensive Player of the Week.

In Rocky's season ending 48-42 overtime win over Montana Western. Overton caught 15 passes for 222 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed for three yards on two carries. On special teams, Overton had six kick returns for 214 yards including a 82-yard return for a touchdown.

EOU defensive back Justin Hughes was named Defensive Player of the Week.

In Eastern Oregon's 41-34 overtime win over Carroll College, Hughes recorded eight solo tackles, nine assisted tackles and one pass breakup. Hughes had the game-ending tackle in overtime, stuffing the Carroll running back by himself on 4th and 1 to secure EOU's season-ending victory.

EOU kicker Nathan Harden was named Special Teams Player of the Week. In Eastern Oregon's 41-34 overtime win over Carroll College, he was 4 for 4 in PATs and his 41-yard field goal tied the game as regulation time ended. In punting, he had seven punts, one of which was downed on Carroll's one-yard line which led to an EOU safety.

Way Too Early

So the Frontier season is officially over, but best of luck to SOU in the playoffs. The last time the Raiders were in they went all the way to the national title game, and a year before that they won it all. So don't be surprised if SOU is playing well into December yet again.

For the rest of the Frontier, we'll have to wait until August to get going again. But it's never too far away to start looking ahead.

So for the final Frontier Conference Notebook of the 2017 season football season, I'll leave Frontier fans with my 2018 Frontier Conference George Ferguson Preseason Poll. I don't have time to explain why I'm picking who I'm picking and where, but I'm throwing it out there anyway.

In 2018, I'm going to go with a surprise right out of the gates and pick Rocky to win the Frontier title. In second place in my poll, I've got Carroll College, and in third I'll go with Eastern Oregon. I just really like how all three of those young teams were trending at the end of the season. Montana Tech will need to reload at key positions, so I'm picking the Diggers fourth, followed by SOU, which graduates a ton of talent on both sides of the ball. I've got College of Idaho behind SOU, only because the Yotes, too, graduate some great players. Then, I've got UM-Western and Northern. By the time I write my first Frontier Notebook of the 2018 season, Northern will have a brand new coach, so we'll see how that all unfolds.

So there you have it, my way-too-early look at 2018. Now though, it's time to turn to basketball, so the Frontier Notebook will be back in mid-December as conference play gets underway.