Bye Week Over: Lights look forward to the second half of the Frontier season

The bye week is over. And now it's back to the gridiron for the young Montana State University-Northern Lights.

Northern starts the second half of head coach Andrew Rolin's first season at the helm Saturday night when the Lights host Eastern Oregon in a night game at Blue Pony Stadium.

While the Mounties will be a tough opponent, and Northern has lost four straight Frontier Conference games, Rolin has seen plenty of improvements in his young squad.

"Throughout the year, I think we've been getting better and better at learning how to compete," Rolin said. "Slowly but surely, our guys are figuring out what it takes to compete at this level, and win at this level. I know we're not where we want to be, but I've seen this team take huge strides throughout the season."

Those strides should pay off in the future, considering the fact that the Lights have just six seniors, and are playing twice as many freshmen and sophomores as they are upperclassmen. With the leadership of those seniors, Rolin has also seen his young roster grow by leaps and bounds.

"We've asked a lot of young guys to step up this year," Rolin said. "And those guys are getting better and better every week, and because of that, I think our team is getting better every week. It's a process, and it's going to play off."

A process no doubt, and the progress, at least in terms of the scoreboard and the stats, may be somewhat slow. So far this season, the Lights are averaging just 16 points per game, but they do rank higher up in the front in total yards and passing, offensively. Tommy Wilson has started every game for the Lights, throwing for 1,083 yards and four touchdowns. He's also only thrown four interceptions thus far, while rushing for two scores. Wilson's top receiver so far has been sophomore Bryce Bumgardner, who has 23 catches for 327 yards. On the ground, Jett Robertson has been slowed some as of late, but he's still having a big season. Robertson averages 82 yards a game, which is third in the Frontier.

Defensively, Northern is even younger than it is on offense, and at times, it's shown. The Lights allow a Frontier-worst 42 points per contest. The Lights have also struggled against the run, allowing 242 yards per game, and MSU-N has also only come up with four sacks so far in 2018, and five turnovers. Chase Gilbert leads the Northern defense with 36 tackles and two INTs, while Caymus Thomas has 35 tackles and Jaren Maki has 32.

"I think the two biggest areas we need to improve in are, one, we have to stop the run better," Rolin said. "We've got to improve on playing gap-sound football. We've got to do a better job of stopping the run. And two, we have to be better in the redzone offensively. We've had opportunities to put points on the board the last couple of games, and we haven't done it. We have to put the ball in the endzone more."

And while the Lights certainly have things to do, clean up and get better at as the season goes on, Rolin also sees the progress his young team is making and he believes that progress is going to pay dividends.

"We're getting better," Rolin said. "I see it in our guys. We're not satisfied. We're not happy with where we're at. But our guys have improved so much. This team has gotten so much better, and with the great attitude they have, they're going to keep getting better, and it's eventually going to show up on the scoreboard."

Injuries

One thing Northern has had to endure this season is some critical injuries, including two big season-enders.

The Lights lost red-shirt freshman wide receiver Jake Horner, who was projected to be a starter, early in fall camp. Horner had a breakout spring for the Lights, and his season-ending injury thinned out a young Northern WR group.

And to compound that, three games into the season, Northern lost senior WR Fotios Jordanoglou to a season-ending foot injury. Through three games, Jordanoglou had already caught 10 balls and scored a touchdown, and was not only Northern's most experienced WR, but easily its most explosive playmaker in the passing game.

Defensively, Northern senior linebacker Andrew Morgan has also missed several games, but he's expected to return at some point this season.

Looking Ahead

The Lights have six games left this season, starting with EOU Saturday night. The Mounties come to Havre having won two straight and are the No. 1 passing team in the Frontier Conference.

Following Saturday night's game, Northern starts the second half of the schedule with a rematch with Rocky Mountain College. The Lights lost to the Battlin' Bears 51-7 at Blue Pony Stadium. The trip to RMC is the first of three straight rematches for the Lights, who host UM-Western Oct. 20. Northern lost in Dillon 55-3 last month. On Oct. 27, the Lights travel to Helena to take on Carroll College. Carroll beat the Lights 32-14 last month in Havre.

The Carroll game is the first of Northern's only back-to-back road trip of the season. On Nov. 3, Northern heads to Southern Oregon for a showdown with the first-place Raiders, before coming home to wrap up the regular season against College of Idaho Nov. 10. This season marks the fourth straight time the Lights and Yotes have finished the season against each other.

And one final note on Northern's second-half schedule, the Lights will play four of their final six games against teams currently ranked in the NAIA Coaches Poll. That means, that of Northern's 11 games this season, the Lights will have played seven games against nationally ranked teams by the time the season is over.