Big Sky notes: A few words about Mr. Andersen
Saturday’s game in Bozeman will feature all the current Big Sky Conference players of the week: Idaho running back Roshaun Johnson, Montana State linebacker Troy Andersen and MSU punter Bryce Leighton.
All Andersen, a 6-foot-4 senior linebacker, did last Saturday was make 15 stops and almost score his 35th career touchdown in Montana State’s 23-20 win over Eastern Washington. The Dillon product just missed picking off an Eric Barriere pass with a lot of red in front of him — this is Roos Field, after all — in the third quarter.
Leighton punted five times with four going inside EWU’s 20-yard line, the final one getting down at the 3. It was a boot that MSU coach Brent Vigen said, “You could make a case that was the play of the game for us.”
About that game: MSU led 16-13 at halftime, and that was after two forays inside the Eagles’ 15 netted no points. The Bobcats’ Matthew McKay misfired on a fourth-down pass from the 4 on the latter, but the Cats picked up a safety when Eastern was quickly called for holding in the zone.
Other than Leighton’s punts, then, the key moments were of course early in the fourth quarter. First a 29-yard pass from Barriere to Andrew Boston was undone by Boston’s offensive pass interference in the end zone; then Barriere was sacked and Eastern punted.
MSU’s next snap was McKay’s 52-yard pass to Lance McCutcheon, which set up a 43-yard TD run by Isaiah Ifanse for a 23-13 lead.
“We found a way to win against a program we hadn’t had a lot of success against,” Vigen said during his Monday press conference.
Andersen spent the 2018 season as MSU’s (first-team All-Big Sky) quarterback, when he scored a school-record 21 rushing TDs. He’s also played running back, outside linebacker (All-America in 2019) and now middle linebacker.
He had a pick-6 earlier this season, against San Diego; his efforts Saturday helped MSU hold Eastern to a 3-for-13 performance on third down.
Incredibly, this is Andersen’s player of the week award at any position.
“Speaking of Troy, I think it’s evident he’s one of the best players in our conference,” Vigen said. “He’s continued to show up every Saturday with those types of performances. So whether this is the first time he deserved it or not, I don’t know. But he got it.
“Without his play, his leadership, just the way he goes about his day-to-day business, we wouldn’t be the team we are.”
Record Vandal
Idaho’s Johnson came into Saturday’s game against Southern Utah with 201 yards and four touchdowns rushing for the Vandals. He left the Kibbie Dome turf with 375 yards and 10 scores, after a school-record six-touchdown day in a 40-24 win over Southern Utah.
The Vandals rushed for 275 yards and gained 492 overall while keeping Southern Utah winless in the Big Sky. Johnson, who ran for 174 yards, had a record-tying four TDs by halftime.
Afterward he said he was going to buy his linemen donuts; according to the website govandals.com he delivered three dozen to the O-line room for Sunday’s position meetings.
His efforts helped Idaho snap a three-game losing streak.
“Idaho is not having the season they hoped for,” Vigen noted of MSU’s Senior Day opponent. “But we feel from a talent perspective they have the type of team that can come in here and give us a challenge.”
Road Warriors
The Montana Grizzlies continued a trend of playing their best football on the road with their 35-0 shutout of Northern Colorado last week.
A hodge-podge offensive line — right tackle Dylan Cook was out, among others — allowed five sacks but also cleared enough room for 197 yards worth of rushing.
“We were down a ton of guys, and lots of guys were far from 100 percent,” Grizzlies’ coach Bobby Hauck said. “And they just went out there and got the win.”
Cam Humphrey, who had surgery after his ankle injury against Eastern Washington on Oct. 2, played excellently. Justin Ford getting an interception for a seventh straight game set up Humphrey’s 20-yard scoring run for a 14-0 lead.
But while Humphrey is back and Isaiah Childs got a TD, running back Nick Ostmo was a no-show after playing five snaps the week before.
“For six or seven weeks now we've been playing a different lineup every week,” said Hauck, who is loath to answer questions about injuries, but still brings them up from time to time. “That’s difficult. It’s hard to have every continuity, it's hard to have consistency. And there’s probably more of that this week.”
Rotating QBs
Northern Arizona played four quarterbacks in its 40-24 home loss to No. 7 UC Davis last week. RJ Martinez started and threw for one TD and ran for another to stake NAU to leads of 7-0 and 14-8. Then he and Jeff Widener were hurt in the second quarter, Widener at the end of a drive to a field goal and a 17-11 lead.
UC Davis went up 20-17 at half, then pushed the gap to 37-17 while Keondre Wudlee, who started during the 2021 spring season, was leading four straight 3-and-outs for the Lumberjacks.
Freshman Niko Haen eventually came on and led a 96-yard drive. So who knows who will play at QB Saturday. For his part Hauck said of the Jacks: “The running back (Kevin Daniels) is the guy that jumped off the film initially yesterday.”
Quotable
“I always point the finger at myself first and try to figure out how I can get better and put our guys in a position to have success. Football, as a sport, is really a bunch of one-on-one individual battles across the field. We won some of them but certainly not enough of them. Give Montana credit. They won most of those battles, and the scoreboard reflected that.”
-Northern Colorado coach Ed McCaffrey
QUICK KICKS: Asked about College GameDay coming to UM for the 120th Cat-Griz game, Hauck was succinct: “I think it’d be great for the University of Montana and great for Missoula. So that would be awesome.” … This from the Missoulian’s Frank Gogola: The Griz are 3-1 on the road against teams with a combined record of 17-20, and 4-1 at home against a combined record of 11-36. … Others nominated for player of the week were MSU’s Ifanse, UM’s Humphrey and Ford and Griz punter Brian Buschini. … Eureka’s Garrett Graves, a safety, is fifth on UM in tackles, with 36. … Glacier product Patrick O’Connell’s 77 tackles are second only to Robby hauck’s 87, and his 16.5 tackles for loss and 10.5 sacks sit third and tied for first in the Big Sky … Third-year NAU coach Chris Ball has former Griz coach Robin Pflugrad coaching tight ends; Pflugrad’s son Aaron is offensive coordinator.