Lights enjoying the first week of spring ball

It’s been a long time since the Montana State University-Northern football team has been on the field for a game or for practice or for anything.

So it was no surprise that the Lights had to deal with some rust Tuesday when they hit the practice field on campus for the first time this spring, kicking off the second year of spring football under head coach Andrew Rolin.

“We have to knock off the rust a little,” Rolin said after practice. “There is no question about that. But I really liked the effort that we saw out there today. I think we saw a lot of good things, there is still a lot we need to work on and we will look to take a big step forward Thursday, but it was good first step.”

While spring practices always provide an opportunity for young players to shine, one youngster that will have a lot of eyes on him this spring is redshirt freshman quarterback Brenden Medina, who is going to take the majority of the reps this spring and could go a long way towards establishing himself as the starter with a strong few weeks.

In his first practice as the top quarterback, Medina held up relatively well. There were only a couple of full team periods, as well as a couple of sessions of 7-on-7 and throughout the day, Medina made some eye-popping throws.

“He has a really good arm,” Rolin said of Medina. “Now it’s just a matter or learning and growing every day but I have to give him credit because he is prepared and he knows what we’re doing.”

One thing that will help Medina grow into his role is having one of the top wideouts in the Frontier Conference back from a season ago in Bryce Bumgardner and one the first day of spring ball, the senior wide receiver hauled in a couple of passes down the field, looking every bit as good as he did at the end of last season.

Two incoming receivers also made some exciting plays as Tim Robinson caught a deep touchdown pass down the left sideline. Cal Holgate and Keagan Stroop also notched some big plays in the passing game.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Lights have been banking on some development along the front seven and on the first day of practice, the defensive line appeared to be a strength. The practice was not fully padded, players wore shorts, helmets and shoulder pads, so it wasn’t full contact but Jay Vance flashed as a pass rusher, getting to Medina on a few different occasions.

The defense also was stout against the run, although Samuel Braboy did manage to score a rushing touchdown on the final drill of practice in an offense vs defense scenario.

“It’s all part of the process,” Rolin said. “But we saw some good things today. I thought our defense was really tough and they were flying around and I thought there was a lot of intensity. Obviously, we still have a lot of things that we need to tune up but that will come. We just want to keep focusing on that continuous improvement and continuing to see that development from all these young guys who are coming out here and haven’t played football in about a year.”