Andrew Rolin speaks of being fired up at his first Frontier Conference Media Day

GREAT FALLS - The Frontier Conference held its annual media day in Great Falls Tuesday and in addition to each of the eight head coaches speaking about the upcoming season, the league released its Frontier Preseason Coaches Poll, with defending conference champion Southern Oregon leading the way.

Southern Oregon put together a perfect record in the Frontier a season ago and a perfect regular season en route to the NAIA national semifinals in 2017. This season the Raiders will open as the favorite to repeat after receiving six of the eight first-place votes. Rocky Mountain College ended up second in the poll after receiving one first-place vote. College of Idaho and Montana tied for third in the rankings, followed by Carroll College in fifth. The Saints were the other team in addition to Rocky and Southern Oregon that got a first-place vote.

Montana State University-Northern, which is getting ready for its first season under the direction of new head coach Andrew Rolin, wound up eighth, just behind Eastern Oregon and Montana-Western, which finished sixth and seventh respectively.

"The Frontier Conference is the best in the NAIA year in and year out," Rolin said. "So it's an honor to be in this conference. We (the coaching staff) showed up in January and we hit the ground running. We set about changing the culture and turning it into a winning culture and that doesn't have anything to do with the X's and O's."

During his time at the podium, Rolin touched on a variety of topics, including some in-depth talk about the roster the Lights will field when fall camp opens this Sunday. He also talked about the philosophy he believes will eventually make the Lights competitive again within what is widely regarded as the toughest football conference in the NAIA.

"We are going to hold our guys to a high standard," Rolin said. "We are going to get after it and hold them to that standard day in and day out. That's really our mentality and what our philosophy is all about. If we take care of the process, eventually, the score will take care of itself. I don't know how long that is going to take, but that is definitely our philosophy in taking over this program."

Rolin said that the Lights had a strong summer and he reported a high number of players showing up for team workouts in June and July, even though they are voluntary.

"That's a big focus for us," Rolin said. "We want to build in the spring and the summer. That's when you build a strong program and I thought we had a really great June and July. I think we had more guys here in the summer than the program has had in the past, and we are looking to build on that momentum heading into fall camp."

One theme that was prevalent throughout Frontier Conference media days was all the head coaches talking about quarterback competitions. Six of the eight teams have question marks to answer at the position, including the Lights.

"It sounds like there are two guys (quarterbacks) that are coming back as starters," Rolin said. "So that opens a lot of doors. I think that makes for an interesting season. I think what we have is two quarterbacks in Bryce Missey and Tommy Wilson that do have experience as starters, but I am going to leave it open for the freshmen to come in and compete as well. I told that to every quarterback from day one. There is no doubt, every guy will get a chance to compete. No one has proven anything yet."

While the Lights are unsettled at quarterback, Rolin talked about the relative strengths of the offense, which includes running back Jett Robertson, as well as wide receivers Marvin Williams and Fotios Jordanoglou. He also said that the offensive line as a whole, might be the strongest group on the offense.

"I think as a whole the offensive line might be our biggest strength," Rolin said. "We are returning four starters and are also bringing in a transfer from Minot State, Darius Alexander-Jones and we have some other guys that should step up, so we are going to have six or seven guys that I feel great about."

On defense, Rolin said the Lights are going to be young but did mention Chinook's Jake Norby as one of the returning players the staff is excited about. The first-year head coach also talked highly of Caymus Thomas, a wide receiver last season, who switched to corner, along with incoming freshman Damien Nelson, who won the Class AA state championship in the 100-meter dash.

"Caymus was a productive receiver last season, but we moved him to corner and we think that's where he gives us the best chance to win," Rolin said. "We are also excited about Damien Nelson, the fastest guy in Montana. He ran a 10.55 and we are interested in seeing what he can do, not only as a return guy, but as a corner, too."

The Lights will open camp this Sunday and then in just a few weeks, MSU-N will open the 2018 season when it hosts Mayville State at Blue Pony Stadium Aug. 25.

"We are just fired up," Rolin said. "More than anything, we are just excited. We are excited about where we are at right now as a team. I wish we could fast forward to Saturday and the start of camp, but we are just honored to be part of this conference and ready to get the season started."

2018 Frontier Conference Preseason Coaches Poll

Southern Oregon (6) 48 points

Rocky Mountain (1) 39 points

College of Idaho 30 points

Montana Tech 30 points

Carroll College (1) 28 points

Eastern Oregon 27 points

Montana Western 15 points

MSU-Northern 7 points