Despite record, Lights made strides

Records don’t always tell the the tale. And while The Montana State University-Northern Lights posted a 1-10 record this past season, MSU-N head coach Andrew Rolin believes the Lights showed improvement over the season.

“We had a lot of success during the season. There was some growth, it just didn’t carry over into the win-loss column like we wanted to,” Rolin said. “At times during the season, our team drastically improved and got a lot better and I’m extremely proud of them but in the end, we need to do more to reach the goals that we want to reach and to be competitive in this conference.”

In the first game, the Lights demonstrated that improvement in their season opener against College of Idaho. The Lights only trailed, 21-14, heading into the fourth quarter but some late turnovers allowed CofI to pull away to win, 42-14. The Lights followed that up with a 42-7 loss to Southern Oregon University.

Over the next few weeks, the Lights improved on offense. After falling behind early, the Lights comeback fell short in a 42-28 loss to Montana Western. In the next game against Rocky Mountain College, the Lights again scored 28 points and held a late lead. However, the Bears scored a late touchdown to win 31-28.

During that stretch of the season, the MSU-N running game got going to lead the offense to success. After a slow start to the season, Izayah Boss ran for over a hundred yards and at least one score in three straight games to give the MSU-N offense a spark the first seven games of the season.

“When we were healthy, I thought we ran the ball really well this year,” Rolin said. “We were running the ball really well and we were aggressive on offense.”

The MSU-N defense also began to round into form. While the Lights allowed 42 points against Western, the defense recorded three takeaways to help the Lights get back in the game. Against RMC and Montana Tech in the next two games, the Lights grabbed another four turnovers to keep the Lights in both of those games.

“We improved drastically defensively throughout the season,” Rolin said. “We started slow and I think, towards the end of the latter half of the season, I thought our defense was a lot more stout in stopping the run game.”

The MSU-N defense was led by new defensive coordinator Mike Van Diest. He is not your average assistant coach in the Frontier Conference as he was a six-time national championship head coach for Carroll College from 2002 to 2010. Not only did Van Diest bring his experience to coaching the defense, but he also brought it to the locker room.

“Just like any good coach, there’s some accountability and some tough love,” Rolin said. “It was nice to have somebody with that wealth of knowledge and experience that (I was) able to learn from and be able to depend on and lean on during the season. It was a huge blessing to have him and I enjoyed coaching with him.”

But the Lights hit a wall at the halfway point of the season. In their game against Tech, Rolin made a quarterback change to Devonte Armstrong, who took over to lead the offense but he could not provide a spark in their losses against Carroll College and NCAA Division II school Simon Fraser University.

Kaymen Cureton returned at quarterback for the Lights and helped them defeat Easter Oregon University, 22-20, in five overtimes for their first win in the Frontier Conference in five years. However, the Lights could not turn that win into momentum as they lost to UMW, RMC and Tech to end the season.

In his first year in the program, Cureton finished the year completing 42.6 percent of his passes for 940 yards, three touchdowns and 11 interceptions. He also ran for 147 yards and three scores on 3.1 yards a carry. While Cureton did not lead the Lights to a winning record, Rolin was proud of his transfer quarterback’s efforts.

“Kaymen played really tough,” Rolin said. “There’s some things he needs to improve on but he’s a competitor. He’s tough, he’s a great leader and there’s some things that he did that I was really proud of.”

The MSU-N offense struggled late in the year as Boss suffered an injury that caused him to miss the last four games. He finished the year with 593 yards and four touchdowns on 4.7 yards a carry.

Rolin also commended the performances of several MSU-N defenders through the year. In his senior season, defensive end Joe Fehr recorded 7.5 sacks, 11 tackles for loss, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery. Linebacker Dylan Wampler had a strong year with 115 total tackles, two interceptions and three fumble recoveries. Safety Hunter Riley also played well with 89 total tackles and three interceptions, while Isaiah Paul led the league with seven picks.

With the season behind them, the Lights now look ahead to the offseason. Over the next eight months, Rolin will mainly be focusing on recruiting and conditioning for his team. Along with those goals, Rolin hopes that his players can grow together during the offseason.

“We want to get better, stronger and faster as a team,” Rolin said. “From a team standpoint, we got to come together and trust each other, trust our coaches and move forward and play as a team. Play for each other, learn how to be together and play together.”

While the Lights will lose seniors such as Fehr and defensive lineman Justin Pfeiffer, Wampler and Riley will return to lead the Lights on defense. Rolin also expects offensive lineman Tristin Willis to continue leading the team on offense. As they look ahead to next season, Rolin knows that his team will need to maximize their time this offseason if they are going to make a jump as a program in 2022.

“It’s all about the offseason. I’ve always believed that the offseason is where championships are won,” Rolin said. “Not in August, it’s the preparation leading up to the season.”