Lights feeling more normal as spring season continues

The Montana State University-Northern football team finally got back on the field after 15 months away from competition.Then came a bye week, though.

After opening the spring season against the College of Idaho on March 13, the Lights had a week off before this week's game against Carroll College.

"You could look at it on both sides of there being pros and cons of having a bye in your second weekend so all we can focus on is what's the task at hand and getting better this week," Northern head coach Andrew Rolin said.

With the bye week, players such as starting quarterback Brenden Medina will get extra reps that will hopefully prove beneficial when they next play.

"Practice has been fun. This is the most normal we get everyday," Medina said. "This is just the best part of our day and we just got to get better."

Rolin is focused on getting all his players extra reps in the bye week, including backups. With the extra reps, he just wants his players to get better at the fundamentals of the game. As they get closer to their next game this Saturday at Carroll College, then he will begin coaching his players the game plan.

"Just play football and get better at the things that we need to get better at, the fundamentals of the game," Rolin said. said.

MSU-N lost to the College of Idaho, 26-12, to open the season. Rollin hopes that his team will use the bye week to get better at keeping the ball, which was something he did not believe they did well against the Yotes.

"You can't turn the ball over four times in a game and expect to win, especially against the number five team in the country," Rolin said. "It could have been a win for us if we had take, care of the football."

Medina acknowledged that not playing football in over a year had an effect on the Lights.

"It took a while to knock the cobwebs off," Medina said. "Everybody was rusty. Offense, defense, all around."

Despite the loss at C of I, coaches and players were happy to get back to playing football.

"It felt awesome just getting back on the football field," Medina said. "We didn't get the result we wanted, but just playing football again brought a sense of normalcy back to us and was something we needed. Everybody loves football and that's what we need."

With over a year between games, the anticipation had built for the Lights.

"It was an exciting experience for us to be out there and be together to face another team," Rolin said. "The anticipation was high and we were excited to be out there."

While MSU-N will need to adjust to COVID-19 regulations such as not having any fans in the stands, the game still feels the same.

"Once the ball was snapped, everyone was just back to normal," Rolin said. "Once you roll the ball out, it's just 11-on-11. It's guys playing between the lines and trying to compete to win, so in that aspect there's not much difference."

MSU-N will look to get their first win of the season as they play Carroll College this Saturday at 1 p.m. in Helena.