Lights grinding toward game week

When head coach Andrew Rolin took over the football program at Montana State University-Northern, he set out to create a winning culture. And while it might be too early to judge if he has been successful or not, if his first fall camp is any indication, the Lights are headed in the right direction.

Northern officially opened camp about 10 days ago and since then, the team has been practicing hard, essentially going without a day off. Even with a scrimmage last Saturday, the Lights are still in camp mode this week as they prepare for the Aug. 25 season-opener against Mayville State.

"Camp is going great right now," Northern linebacker Jaren Maki said after practice Wednesday. "Coaches are keeping us on a tight schedule and that's what we need. Everybody is working together as a team, we are trying to do our one-eleventh on the defense and just trying to get continuous improvement and continuous effort out of the whole team."

Maki, a sophomore, has worked into his way among the top linebackers, which is one of the deeper positions on the Lights roster. Wednesday, the Belt native made his presence felt in one of the competitive team periods Rolin holds every day. This particular drill is situational practice for second downs. The offense got the ball in a few different starting positions, such as 2nd-and-short, 2nd-and-long and the objective was to get a first down. If the offense got a first down, it won the rep and if the defense stopped them short, it won.

Both sides battled to a 3-3 tie with one rep remaining. The offense started with 2nd-and-10, when Maki knifed into the backfield and drilled Jett Robertson for a five-yard loss, setting up a 3rd-and-15 that the offense was unable to convert.

"Situational drills are really nice," Maki said. "It partakes in a game every time or every series you do. You have to know what the situation is and our coaches do a great job of constructing that. We are always competing in every drill we do, trying to win a spot. We just have to keep working and getting better."

The defense won that drill but at the end of practice, in another test of situational football, the offense came out on top. In this situation, the offense was backed up near its own goal and on the first play, the ball was spotted at the Lights one-yard line. Well, not only did Robertson, the running back on the play, get a first down, but he broke through the middle and scampered 99 yards for a touchdown.

"It was all the offensive line," Robertson said. "I just tried to run as hard as I could, and I was just hoping that coach wouldn't blow the whistle."

The rest of the drill was about a wash between the offense and defense but, overall, it wrapped up what was another very competitive practice, in what's been a busy couple weeks for the Lights.

"We got film, we got lifting, we got meetings," Robertson said. "Then you have your breakfast, lunch and dinner but you maybe get an hour break, then it's back to football. We do a lot of studying and a lot of visual learning. We try to study what we are doing wrong and correct those mistakes."

Yet, even though camp has been difficult, the players know it's all part of the building process.

"The coaches have challenged us and really push our limits," Robertson said. "We have had to battle and compete and get after each other. This fall camp has definitely been one for the books."