Northern football puts on the pads for first fall scrimmage

Through the first week and a half of fall camp, the Montana State University-Northern football team had mostly kept their preparation for this season to only drills in their shoulder pads. But they finally got fully padded on Saturday at Lights Stadium with their first scrimmage of fall camp where the Lights offense and defense went head-to-head in game-like action.

The most important evaluation MSU-N head coach Andrew Rolin has had to make during camp are his quarterbacks, as he is yet to name a starter for their season opener against College of Idaho on Aug. 28. If Saturday's scrimmage was any indication, Rolin is leaning towards starting transfer Kaymen Cureton at quarterback this season.

The transfer from Eastern Kentucky got the starting nod on Saturday's scrimmage, but his first time in full pads for the Lights got off to a rough start. In his first series with the starting offense, his second pass of the day was batted down and intercepted by a diving defensive lineman. Rolin blamed the batted ball on an offensive miscommunication, but believes the turnover was still avoidable.

"We got to be on the same page offensively. There's a lot within our system and there was miscommunication on the quarterback," Rolin said. "When stuff like that happens, you just can't force the ball, so he needs to tuck it and get back to the line of scrimmage."

In his next two series, Cureton continued to struggle leading the offense down the field. It was not until his fourth series of the day did he begin to get the offense moving. He ended the fourth series with back-to-back completions, including a red zone touchdown pass to Levi Keltner in between two defenders. In another series later in the day, Cureton threw another red zone touchdown pass to his receiver running down the right sideline of the end zone.

"It took him a series or two to get comfortable and once he got comfortable, he was executing at a high level," Rolin said. "Kaymen just needs to start faster next time."

Devonte Armstrong played as the no. 2 quarterback on Saturday as he also tries to win the starting spot for the Lights this fall. Even though he did not start the scrimmage, he made some plays, such as a touchdown pass to Keltner in his first drive of the day.

Heading into Saturday's scrimmage, Rolin was close to choosing his starting quarterback. While he is leaning towards one player and is close to announcing his decision, he wants to review the film from the scrimmage before making his final decision.

"It's tough out here when you're calling plays and you got to go back and watch the film and evaluate and see who gives us the best chance to win but I feel pretty confident where I'm at right now," Rolin said.

One way that both quarterbacks can contribute to the offense this season is with their legs. Throughout the scrimmage, both players used their speed to escape pressure and run for yards. The Lights running backs also ran the ball well during their scrimmage. One player that stood out running the ball was Jesse Lee, who will be making his debut for the Lights this fall.

"It took them a series or two to really get comfortable in what we're doing. Sticking their foot in the ground and just getting vertical," Rolin said. "(The quarterbacks) bring an element to our offense with their feet which is fun to watch, so I think, towards the latter half of the scrimmage, I thought we ran the ball pretty well."

However, there were some issues with the running game. On a speed option play near the goal line, Cureton fumbled the ball as he tried to pitch it to his running back. The offense recovered the ball but Rolin knows they will need to fix that in camp.

"What's ironic is we've done a nice job all camp with our speed option game. We had balls on the ground which cannot happen. We recovered it offensively but that cannot happen," Rolin said. "We'll clean it up. We got two weeks to do it and it's a part of our offense so we got to execute that at a higher level."

Rolin's offense had to scrimmage against the Lights defense coached by first-year defensive coordinator Mike Van Diest. Throughout the day, Rolin believed his defense held up and played well in their first live action of the fall.

"They did a nice job. I thought we tackled well. We got a lot of reps," Rolin said. "Defensive line did a nice job and our linebackers rallied to the ball and communicated well and our defensive backs made some plays too as well so I'm excited about our defense."

But while he saw a lot of promise on both sides of the ball on Saturday, Rolin needs to see better play from his team before their season opener rolls around. With just under two weeks till then, he will focus on getting more consistent play from his players.

"We got to be more consistent in our execution. I think when we're really good, we're really good but then we have lapses so we need to eliminate those lapses and be more consistent," Rolin said.