THE LIGHTS ARE ON

If you heard a lot of yelling, clapping and cheering coming from the Montana State University-Northern campus Sunday evening, then, you heard the sound of a new era beginning.

That new era is the start of the Andrew Rolin era as the Northern football team took to the practice field for the first time in 2018. The nearly 3-hour practice was the first of fall camp ahead of Northern's Aug. 25 season-opener against Mayville State at Blue Pony Stadium.

And from the beginning, the excitement was palpable.

"First and foremost, the effort and the energy level was great," Rolin said. "The guys were fired up and they kept up that energy level throughout practice. And we're going to ask for that from them every single day."

"It's exciting to get back out here with the team," quarterback Tommy Wilson said. "It was exciting to get out here and play football again. We haven't been on the field together since spring, so it was great to be back out here getting live reps in. I think everybody was really excited for this week to get here."

The first day of fall camp also had plenty of exciting moments, too, including the end of the first practice, in which three offensive and three defensive players squared off in a field goal kicking competition, with the losing side earning 15 pushups. The defense won the contest, and the entire MSU-N defense roared with excitement.

During practice however, Rolin said, as expected, there was some rust, but overall, he was pleased with how things went.

"Executionwise, we did some good things offensively, but I thought we tailed off towards the end of practice," Rolin said. "I thought the defense did a real nice job today. They were out here playing fast.

"The first few days, you know you're going to have some rust," he continued. "But as long as we continue to focus and play fast, play hard and keep that energy level up, the execution will get better."

Highlights from the practice offensively included Wilson throwing touchdown passes to Seth Roemmele, Fotios Jordangolou and Jake Horner, while Roemmele caught a TD from Bryce Missey. Jett Robertson also ripped off several long runs.

"I thought all three quarterbacks played well at times," Rolin said. "It's so exciting to see how much Tommy and Bryce have progressed from spring until now. Those guys are both going to be really good players for us."

Defensively, Northern forced a couple of sacks, though the Lights weren't in pads yet, while one of the big highlights came on an interception by sophomore Wylie Novak in the final team period.

Two things also were evident from Sunday's first practice: The coaching staff keeps things up-tempo, and the message delivered was clear that no matter what the Lights were doing, the point of practice was to get better.

"That's been our philosophy from day one," Rolin said. "We just want to get better every day. Take care of today. be better than we were the day before. If we do that, if we take those steps forward every day, we are going to get better."

Another theme moving forward is for the Lights to build team chemistry, for everyone to get on the same page. Wilson, who started at quarterback for the Lights last season, said that responsibility doesn't just fall on the new coaching staff, but also on himself and other veteran leaders, like linebacker Alec Wagner, who was vocal on the defensive side throughout the first practice.

"The vets that have been here since last winter and spring with coach Rolin and the staff, it's on us to help all the young guys and the transfers and the new guys that are here, help them get up to speed on everything, and how we do things," Wilson said. "We have to help the coaches coach right now. We have a great group of veteran leaders, and I thought everybody was doing that today."

And with high energy, enthusiasm and effort, the Lights, and the Andrew Rolin era are off and running. It's an exciting time for Northern football as the Lights prepare for their season and home open, which is just 19 days away. The Lights will be on the practice field at 4 p.m. all this week and will hold their first scrimmage this Saturday.

"It's exciting to finally get this thing going," Rolin said. "It's fun to be out here knowing that the season is a few weeks away now. We've got a lot of work to do, a lot of things we have to get better at. But again, as long as the effort and energy level and the attitude of this team stays where we want it to be, we'll get there, we'll get better every single day."