Game Day - Sacramento State

8/8/2019 Game Day - Sacramento State

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By WILL C. HOLDENhronicle Sports Writer

Montana State’s win over Eastern Wash-ngton last weekend was momentous.

It was the first Bobcat win over EWUn eight years. It vaulted MSU into theation’s top 10 during a regular season for

the third time in 26 years. It brought headoach Rob Ash his 199th career victory.

Believe it or not, a win Saturday ver Sacramento State, a team that has

finished in the top third of the Big Sky onference just once during its 14-yearembership, could mean even more.A milestone for Ash; MSU’s second 4-1

start since 1998; the Bobcats’ first road

victory of 2010.And a loss? That could mean a lot, too.It would be just the second time in 10

years the Bobcats have fallen to Sacra-ento State. It would spell the end of yet

nother short top 10 stay.How thin is the line between winning

nd losing when games start to mean thisuch? Ask three people who know.Travis Lulay was on a 2005 MSU team

that secured two out of the four top-10egular season rankings of the past 26

years for his school. Those stays lastedne week each.Dan Davies was a coach on an MSU

team that sandwiched a national champi-nship between 1-10 and 2-9 seasons in

the early 1980s.Ash was the last head coach to lead

MSU to a 4-1 start in 2007. And he wasthe sixth coach since the Sonny’s — Hol-land and Lubick — to fall short of 5-1.

All three represent a Montana Statefootball program that has frequently

tasted greatness but has never quite beenble to sustain it.

This 2010 team could be the first. Beat-ng Sacramento State would be the next

step toward that goal.

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GROUND GAME

Sac State not shyabout letting Hilliardcarry the ball 2

NO. 10 MONTANA STATE AT SACRAMENTO STATE, 2:05 P.M. HORNET STADIUM

SATURDAY, OCT. 2

AT SACRAMENTO ST.GAMEDAY

FULL PAPER

INSIDE

INSIDE

OPENINGSTATEMENT

State golf tourneys

alfway done PAGE B1

ROLL CONTINUES? The Chronicle’s

ill Holden handicaps

today’s matchup I 6

COME TOGETHER

Columnist saysBobcats are buying in

four years later 2

PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER

PLEASE RECYCLE

AGONY AND ECST SSacramento State win would mean as much as Eastern Washington win did

Montana State University players hang their heads in the closing seconds of a loss to Wash

ington State University ...



The words could have come

from the youngest freshman. Orthe 23-year-old senior. The headcoach even.

They’re not very exciting;hardly worth printing. But wehear them each week.

“We take one game at a time.”The whole Montana State

program speaks like this. Themedia ssking questions like,“how important would it be towin this week?” are pointless.They’re all important, is alwaysthe reply.

How about being rankedin the top 10; that’s a big deal,right?

Not if you don’t even know.“I haven’t heard anything,” saidMSU cornerback Arnold Briggssaid Tuesday, a full 24 hours afterthe rankings were announced.

Okay, let’s try and get some-thing useful out of quarterback Denarius McGhee. He’s a fresh-man, just four college gamesunder his belt. He’s bound to beexcited about carrying the bulls-eye that comes with being listedas the 10th-ranked team. In thecountry!

“We don’t really focus on that,sorry,” he said with a laugh.

We — the ones with the

notebooks and microphones —

should have known better.Say this much about the 2010Bobcats: they’re all on the samepage.

And it’s not just about recruit-ing or Xs and Os. It’s a mind-set, a confidence, a laid-back approach that comes from headcoach Rob Ash. The players arean extension of him.

All it took was four years toget to this point.

The players, seemingly, havebought into his philosophy.They never get too far aheadof themselves. They always say there’s something to improve on.

None are concerned with statsor personal accolades.Just like Ash.The native Midwesterner

keeps the keel even.

“I’ve always tried to do that,”

he said. “We talk to our teamabout playing with disciplineand playing with restraint andplaying with enthusiasm andemotion – and finding thathappy medium. And it’s gradu-ally starting to take over.”

There’s a long way to go thisseason, but it appears the team’sentry into the top 10 won’t be abrief one. It’s taken a while to getto this point, but it also driveshome how impressive that 7-5record was in Ash’s first seasonin Bozeman.

Have you noticed how com-petitive Sacramento State has

become? The team the Bobcatsplay today was once a Big Sky bottom feeder.

By WILL C. HOLDENChronicle Sports Writer

Jeff Fleming was thrown intothe Hornets’ nest. And he’s comeout smelling like roses.

A junior college transfer whoset foot on the Sacramento Statecampus for the first time just fivedays before this season started,Fleming was under center facingStanford 30 minutes into hisnew team’s first game.

He’s been the starter eversince.

For a team that’s never wonmore than six games in a seasonunder fourth-year head coachMarshall Sperbeck, helping

Sacramento State to a 2-2 start,with the only two losses comingon the road to a Heisman trophy candidate from Stanford andthe national runners up fromMontana, has been more thanappreciated.

“You can’t put a price tag onexperience and practice reps, butJeff ’s done a good job,” Sperbeck said. “I’m not sure we couldbe asking for much more fromhim.”

True, Fleming hasn’t exactly been lighting the Big Sky on fire.In three full games as a starter,he’s averaging 148.7 pass yards a

contest while completing about50 percent of his passes – bothmarks are among the worst inthe conference.

But when you consider allthe factors, it almost seems as if Fleming has saved SacramentoState from the flames.

He’s had to replace a fifth-yearsenior and hometown favorite inUCLA transfer McLeod Bethel-Thompson. He has hardly beengiven the opportunity to get intoa rhythm, having turned andhanded to running back BryanHilliard a league-high 89 timesthis season.

On the rare occasion Flemingdoes get to throw — he’s averag-ing a league-low 21.6 pass at-tempts a game — he drops back knowing Sacramento State iswithout two of its leading threepass catchers from a season ago,including preseason all-confer-ence receiver Brandyn Reed. He

and John Hendershott have bothbeen lost for the season.

And Fleming’s done it all de-spite admittedly having a graspof less than half of the Hornets’offense.

When put that way, the factthat Sacramento State isn’t on itsway back to the Big Sky cellar

seems like an accomplishmentin itself.As for Fleming, he’s just happy

he’s still throwing the footballat all.

Preparing for his juniorseason in Las Cruces, N.M. thispast summer, that’s exactly whathe was preparing to do at NewMexico State. His coaches hadother plans.

“They told me they wantedme to use as more of a wildcatquarterback,” Fleming said.“That’s just not what I wanted todo. My heart was set on being areal quarterback.”

Fleming, who had started nineof NMSU’s 13 games in 2009,felt unwanted. Sacramento Statequickly put a kibosh on thosethoughts.

And to the dismay of juniorcollege transfer quarterback Pete Murdaca, who had spent allspring with the team before leav-

ing the program when Flemingarrived, Fleming packed his bagsand headed home to Cali.

It’s been a little over a monthsince he made the decision andhe says he couldn’t be happier.

“It honestly wasn’t a toughdecision,” Fleming said. “AndI’m relived that so far it’s been

the right decision.”Strangely enough, though,for a quarterback that was deadset on throwing the ball, theSacramento State offense thatliberated Fleming is much morerun-oriented than any scheme inwhich the lanky signal caller hasplayed.

And, also strange, he wouldn’thave it any other way.

“It’s nice being able to handthe ball to Bryan and Sam (Mc-Cowan),” Fleming said. “I think it’s really helped in my develop-ment.”

It’s helped in Sacramento

State’s development, too. Behind124 yards last from Hilliard, whois back from injuries to bothshoulders that stole his 2009season, the Hornets actually hada four-point lead at Montanato begin the fourth quarter lastweek.

It was the kind of perfor-

mance gets grabs the attention of opposing coaches.

“They like the run game,”Montana State head coach RobAsh said. “That gives them bet-ter play-action too, because we’llhave to bring people up to stopthe run and they’ll get the on-on-ones and the safeties that are

vulnerable to play-action looks.”But with just over two minutesto play against UM, Sac Statefound itself down three with theball on its own 42-yard line. Allof a sudden play-action wasn’tfooling anyone anymore.

“We had to pass,” Flemingsaid. “We had really worked a lotinto that last drive, but we justcame up a little short.”

A little short meant a Fleminginterception.

So he’s not perfect. Butconsidering it was just his thirdinterception of the season incomparison to five touchdowns,

Fleming hasn’t been half badeither.And at the moment he can

live with that.“I’m probably not going to

go out and throw for 400 yardsanytime soon,” Fleming laughed.“Right now, I’m just hoping toget better everyday.”

SidelineBriefingRecordsMontana State 3-1,

Sacramento State 2-2

Series19th meeting, MSU leads 12-6

Weather forecastSunny, high 89

CrowdMore than 8,000 expected

TVABC 28 (Chris Byers, Mike

Callaghan, AJ Donatoni)

RadioKXLB-FM (100.7), Je Lasky, Dan

Davies, Tyler Wiltgen

Coaches

SchedulesSacramento State

17 @ Stanford 5231 W. Oregon 1725 @ Montana 2824 Weber St. 17Today Montana St. 2:05 p.m.10/9 No. Colorado 3:05 p.m.10/23 @ E. Washington 3:05 p.m.10/30 @ No. Arizona 3:05 p.m.11/6 Portland St. 3:05 p.m.11/13 @ Idaho St. 2:35 p.m.11/20 @ UC Davis 5:05 p.m.

Montana State59 Fort Lewis 1022 @ Wash. St. 2348 Drake 2130 E. Wash. 7

Today @ Sacrament o St. 2:05 p.m.10/9 Portland St. 1:35 p.m.10/16 @ N. Arizona 4:05 p.m.10/23 N. Colo. 1:05 p.m.10/30 @ Idaho St. 1:35 p.m.11/6 Weber St. 12:05 p.m.11/20 @ Montana 12:05 p.m.

Players to watch SACRAMENTO STATE: RB Bryan

Hilliard has eclipsed the 100-yard

mark in each of the past three games

and has 11 for his career. MONTANA STATE: LB Clay

Bignell. Stopping Sac’s running

game will be important.

Injury reportMONTANA STATE

OUT: DE Brad Smith (shoulder),

OL Conrad Burbank (knee), Ben

auanuu (leg), LB Dustin O’Connell

(collar bone).

SACRAMENTO STATE

OUT: WR Brandyn Reed (knee).

Quotable“They’re definitely more com-

mitted to the run this year. If I had aguy like (Bryan) Hilliard I’d give him

the ball a lot, too.”

— MSU head coach Rob Ash

Fleming helping run-happy Hornets get by

Four years later, Bobcats all on same page

More DUMAS I5

COURTESY OFSACRAMENTO STATE UNIVERSITY

Bryan Hilliard is back from a pair of shoulder injuries to once again become Sac’s go-to rusher .

TIM

DUMAS

ChronicleSports Editor

ROBASHMSU, 4th year

31st year overall3-15 at MSU

199-114-5 overall

MARSHALLSPERBECKSac, 4th year

4th year overall16-22 at Sac16-22 overall

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By CHRONICLE STAFF

No matter what happenstoday, one of the Big Sky Confer-ence’s usual front-runners willalready have two conferencelosses.

No. 17 Eastern Washingtonplays at Weber State at 1:35 p.m.in a match-up of talented of-

fenses.Weber quarterback Cameron

Higgins needs 244 yards to passformer Montana quarterback Dave Dickenson and move intofourth place on the Big Sky’s all-time passing yardage list. Hig-gins threw for 235 yards and twotouchdowns in last year’s meet-ing in Cheney, Wash., to lead theWildcats to a 31-13 victory.

Eastern had just 35 rushingyards.

EWU won in Ogdentwo years ago 33-26,spoiling Weber’s hopesof winning its first out-right conference title.

Eastern (2-2, 1-1 BigSky Conference) is inthe middle of a toughstretch, coming off a30-7 loss to MontanaState, a school pickedto finish third in theleague standings. Nowthe Eagles play a We-ber State team pickedto finish fourth, followed by ahome game against the No. 5

pick, Northern Arizona. Easternwas picked to finish second be-hind Montana, a team the Eaglesknocked off 36-27 on Sept. 18.

And getting off to a better startis paramount for EWU, a teamthat has been out-scored 57-21in the first quarter.

“I expect us to respond like ateam that is mad that they justgot their butts kicked — we allshould feel that way,” Easterncoach Beau Baldwin said in

EWU’s weekly pressnotes. “Hopefully we will respond tothat salty taste in ourmouths, similar to theway we felt after theNevada game (a 49-24loss). This is differentbecause it was a leaguegame we lost and animportant game.”

Weber (2-2, 1-1) issecond in the league intotal offense at 430.7yards per game. EWU

is eighth in total defense at 434.8yards per game.

EWU’s Taiwan Jones is averag-ing 238.8 all-purpose yards pergame.

MONTANA AT NORTHERNCOLORADO: UNC hasn’t de-feated Montana since the teamsfirst met in 1976, a 27-19 victory in Greeley, Colo.

The Grizzlies have outscoredthe Bears 184-58 since NorthernColorado joined the Big Sky in2006.

UM (2-2) won’t have to worry about a quarterback controversy any longer now that AndrewSelle is out for the season witha broke arm. Justin Roper hasthrown for 523 yards, seventouchdowns and two intercep-tions this season.

The Griz lead the league inscoring offenseat 40.3 points pergame and Northern Colorado(2-2) averages 35.8 points pergame.

UNC’s Andre Harris has 36points, tied for most in the BigSky.

Last season, Chase Reynolds

rushed for 153 yards and threetouchdowns to lead Montana toa 38-10 victory in Missoula. TheGrizzlies held Northern Colo-rado to 54 rushing yards.

Reynolds has 49 career rush-ing touchdowns, one shy of LexHilliard’s school record. Reyn-olds also has 52 total touch-downs, also one shy of Hilliard’smark. Northern Colorado is 2-0at home this season. UM is 0-2on the road.

Now they are one of the toughest teams tobeat on their home turf.

It’s no coincidence that Sac’s head coach,like Ash, is in his fourth season.

Marshall Sperbeck has helped that pro-gram not only improve its record, but itsacademic standing as well. He’s done well torecruit in-state and his teams rarely decline

from one year to the next.Sound familiar?“We’re on very similar paths,” Ash said.The opposite scenario appears to be taking

place in Missoula, where the University of Montana has already lost two games this sea-son. Not an alarming number, but it took theGrizzlies 26 games over the past two seasonsto lose that many.

That team has many of its top players back,but is breaking in a new head coach — Robin

Pflugrad — this year.It’s amazing how the Griz don’t look so

invincible right now.Coaching longevity doesn’t guarantee

success. Plenty are sent packing in less timethan Ash or Sperbeck have been around theircurrent teams.

But when a team begins to buy into acoach’s philosophy, that’s when things canbegin to click.

One game at a time.

THE CARDIAC ’CATSThe first step came with theteam’s first conference win lastweek.

Lulay, currently a CanadianFootball League quarterback,was so confident Montana Statewould notch its historic 30-7 winover Eastern Washington that heput some money down — a $50wager with his B.C. Lions team-mate Ryan Phillips, an EWUgrad.

“It was the biggest bet I’ve evermade,” Lulay laughed.

While he may not know hisway around a gambling hall,

Lulay does know about big gamehangovers. His Bobcats felt theheadaches from a lot of them.

After emotional wins overontana to culminate the 2002

and 2003 seasons, the first forSU in 16 years, the Bobcats

made first round playoff exits inLulay’s only two playoff appear-ances.

After winning five consecu-tive games in 2004, including anovertime game against Port-land State and a contest againstnationally-ranked South DakotaState, MSU lost three games toend the season: one to a poorSac State team; one in overtimeagainst Eastern Washington;and the finale against nationally-ranked Montana.

And then there was that 2005season. Lulay sighs before talk-ing about it.

“It was almost like guys saidto themselves, ‘Now everyoneknows we’re good, so we betterplay good,’” he said. “We prob-ably put a little too much pres-sure on ourselves.”

It began by playing OklahomaState down to the wire in a 15-10 loss and throttling a decentStephen F. Austin team 42-6. The

obcats climbed to No. 10 in onenational poll.

Then they went to California,where a team littered with Caliboys was pounded 38-10 by CalPoly. During Lulay’s tenure, MSUwas 1-3 in the Golden State.

“Man, that I can’t explain,” Lu-lay said of the West Coast blues.“That was just weird.”

It didn’t do them in, though.After three straight wins, MSUwas right back in the top 10again. At that point, the team’s

split personality came into play.The Cardiac ’Cats, who wonor lost 11 games by seven pointsor less over the 2004 and 2005seasons, slipped 44-41 againstPortland State the following week.

That blip caused the real Bob-cats to come out, or at least theBobcats Lulay remembers.

“We always played better whenour backs were against the wall,”Lulay said. “It was almost like wesaid, ‘All right, now we’ve got towin.’ And we usually did.”

MSU reeled off three out of four wins to finish the ’05 sea-son, including another againstthe Grizzlies. Unfortunately, itwasn’t enough to get Lulay back to the playoffs in his senior year.

It was bittersweet, which isexactly how Davies describesMSU’s 1984 and 1985 seasons.

FROM TOP TO BOTTOMHaving reached the mountain-

top during a national cham-pionship 1984 season, Davies’Bobcats tripped and stumbled toa 2-9 record the following year -a season marked by defections,injuries and one lousy goal linestand.

Losing an All-American of-fensive lineman because he wastired of playing football and a

starting defensive lineman topoor grades didn’t help.

Neither did losing quarterback Kelly Bradley, who had come outof obscurity as a sophomore inleading MSU to 10 straight winsa season prior, to an injury.

As for not being able to punchthe ball into the end zone frominside the four-yard line againstEastern Washington in the thirdgame of the season, that pretty much did the Bobcats in.

One first and goal from thethree, MSU ran a dive to the goalline. On second down, MSUhurried up to the line and tried aquarterback sneak.

“We thought we were in,”Davies said. “But the refs dug inand we got nothing.”

On third down, Davies saidthe coaches looked and eachother and said, “We can do this.”They ran another quarterback sneak.

“There was a huge pile,”Davies said. “The refs dug anddug and dug and Kelly Bradley stands up in the end zone withthe ball and hands it to them.But they say, ‘Nope, he didn’t getin.’”

At that point, Davies said, theBobcats got “stubborn.”

“We did it again,” Davies said.“And we got stuffed.”

MSU fell 28-23 in that gameand won just one more contestover the remaining eight games.

Somewhat akin to that 1985season, MSU is currently missingkey players along the offensiveand defensive lines. In completecontrast to season 25 years ago,the 2010 Bobcats still have theirKelly Bradley.

And while Denarius McGhee

isn’t on pace to break eitherBradley or Lulay’s single-seasonpassing records from 1984 or

2004, he is on pace to average9.48 yards a completion this year— a number neither Bradley norLulay can sniff.

Davies put it simply.“Special players make special

seasons,” Davies said. “And rightnow, Denarius looks like a pretty special player.”

FOCUSED ON THE FUTUREThe comparisons of Ash’s Bob-

cats to teams from the program’sschizophrenic past don’t endthere.

In 2008 and 2009, Ash’s Bob-cats seemed to be following the

lead of Lulay’s Bobcats, makingcountless “backs to the wall”references after losses to EasternWashington.

So how does the rest of thisseason look after a win overEWU? Different. And MSUwould like to keep it that way.

“We have good leadership onthis team,” Ash said. “We havea lot of guys who are able to putaway the previous play, whetherit was good or bad, and put away the previous game, whether itwas good or bad, and move on tothe next game and think aboutthat game.”

That next game is Saturday against Sacramento State.

And while MSU cornerback Arnold Briggs, a member of thatfateful 2005 team, knows fullwell the kind of letdowns associ-ated with the Bobcats’ history,he walked into Tuesday’s pressconference with only one thingin mind: the future.

“The past is the past,” Briggssaid. “We’re in the here and now.Let the good times roll.”

As of this morning, they are. But check back again thisevening.

Will Holden can be reached at [email protected] and 582-2690.

THE HANGOVER: Eastern

Washington became the lat-est victim of “The MontanaHangover,” losing to MontanaState 30-7 last week. EasternWashington was coming off a 36-27 win over then-No. 6Montana. Since 1999, Mon-tana has lost just nine confer-ence games. More often thannot, the team that defeatedUM has lost its next game.

PSU beat Montana in 1999and lost to Sacramento Statein its next game. EasternWashington beat UM to closeout the 2002 season and lostits 2003 opener. Montana

State beat Montana in 2002and lost the next week in theplayoffs. Idaho State beatMontana in 2003 and fell toWeber State in its next game.In 2004, Portland State brokethe curse with a win overIdaho State a week after beat-ing Montana. In 2005, MSUbeat Montana to close out theregular season, and UM lost afirst-round playoff game thefollowing week. Weber Stateavoided the hangover in 2008,topping Montana State a weeafter topping the Grizzlies.

DREW IS DONE: PortlandState senior quarterback DrewHubel will redshirt this afterhaving surgery on his rightshoulder last week. Hubel hadminor repairs to clean out andtighten the shoulder capsulelast Thursday. He had suffereda dislocated right shoulder inthe 10th game of last sea-son that ended his year. Thesurgery came after he expe-rienced shoulder discomfortearlier this season.

In the off-season, Hubelalso had knee surgery to repaia subluxation of the knee capthat occured in game six of

last year. Hubel has a redshirtseason available to him andwill be able to return in 2011.

Hubel is the most expe-rienced Viking quarterback on the roster with 24 gamesplayed and 20 starts. He hasnot played yet this year. Hubelhas thrown for 6,358 yards and42 touchdowns in his career.

Portland State visits Mon-tana State next Saturday.

CROWDED HOUSE: LastSaturday was a good day attendance-wise around theBig Sky. Montana’s home-

coming crowd of 25,965was a Washington-Grizzly Stadium record.

Montana State drew 14,207to its showdown againstEastern Washington, the larg-est crowd at a game wherethe opponent wasn’t Mon-tana since 14,447 attendeda 2008 loss to Weber State.Weber State drew 10,221 toits homecoming victory overUC Davis. It was the firsttime Weber State cracked the10,000-mark since 17,593attended Ron McBride’s firstgame as coach in 2005.

Ecstasy/from 1

Dumas/from 1

BIG SKY CONFERENCE

N O T E SEastern’s tough stretch continues at WeberEagles need betterstart if they want toslow down Higgins

“Special players make special seasons. And rightnow, Denarius (McGhee) looks like a prettyspecial player.”

— Dan Davies

S , O , 5

BIG SKYCONFERENCE

Standings

Team Conf. All

MSU 1-0 3-1

N. Ariz. 1-0 2-1

E. Wash. 1-1 2-2

Sac. St. 1-1 2-2

N. Colo. 1-1 2-2

Weber St. 1-1 2-2

Montana 1-1 2-2

Portland St. 0-0 1-2

Idaho St. 0-2 1-3

Today’s Games

NAU at S. Utah, 1:05 p.m.

E. Wash. at Weber, 1:35 p.m.

Montana at N. Colo., 1:35 p.m.

MSU at Sac St., 2:05 p.m.

Idaho St. at Port. St., 6:05 p.m.

|

BALDWINHopes to respond



Kicking & punting: If you think Jason Cunningham’s numbers areimpressive this season — and theyare — take a look at Chris Diniz’s. WhileCunningham might be the league leaderin made eld goals with 10, Diniz has madeall seven of his eld goal attempts, and he’s

the only kicker in the conference to havemade two of 50 yards or longer. Diniz madefour eld goals against UM, just one shy of Cunningham’s ve against Drake two weeks ago.And like Cunningham, who hit a 55-yarder in thatDrake game, Diniz also logged a couple long onesof 50 and 42 yards against UM. The biggest ques-tion is can MSU block for Cunningham? He’s had

several point-after tries blocked this yearand MSU has since changed its blockingscheme because of it.

Returns & coverage: Sac State’s KyleMonson is a good returner. But the fact is thatfew returners have gotten a chance to prac-tice their craft against MSU’s Rory Perez. The

Bobcat freshman has such ridiculous hang timeon his punts that MSU has given up just threereturns for two yards this year. The biggest

thing to look for here is fakes. MSU faked a kick lastweek and have been practicing all week like they’reexpecting to see a fake punt or an onside kick fromthe Hornets. Be on the look out for some trickery.

Edge: Even

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DEPTH CHARTS

Montana StateOffenseLEFT TACKLE

72 Mike Person 6-5/295 Sr

70 Killian Fitzpatrick 6-8/270 Fr

LEFT GUARD

57 Casey Dennehy 6-1/270 So

71 Jesse Hoffmann 6-4/286 Sr

CENTER

56 Shaun Sampson 6-0/249 So

61 Alex Terrien 6-4/285 Jr

RIGHT GUARD

61 Alex Terrien 6-4/285 Jr

71 Jesse Hoffmann 6-4/286 Sr

RIGHT TACKLE

50 Leo Davis 6-4/271 Jr

70 Killian Fitzpatrick 6-8/270 Fr

QUARTERBACK

9 Denarius McGhee 6-0/197 Fr

12 Cody Kempt 6-2/211 Sr

RUNNING BACK

8 Orenzo Davis 5-9/185 Jr

20 C.J. Palmer 6-0/210 Jr

W RECEIVER

14 Everett Gilbert 5-9/180 So

27 DeSean Thomas 6-1/180 Jr

X RECEIVER

1 Elvis Akpla 6-1/187 Jr

86 Tanner Bleskin 6-3/210 FrZ RECEIVER

82 Julius Lloyd 6-0/184 Sr

10 Kruiz Siewing 5-11/182 So

TIGHT END

81 Kyle Begger 6-2/245 Jr

88 Shane Robison 6-5/250 Jr

KICKER

15 Jason Cunningham 6-1/162 Jr

DefenseBANDIT

90 Dan Ogden 6-0/270 Sr

34 Preston Gale 6-2/239 Fr

TACKLE

96 Zach Minter 6-2/277 So

63 Zach Logan 6-3/295 Fr

NOSE TACKLE

45 Jason D’Alba 6-2/277 Sr

98 Christian Keli’i 6-0/282 So

END

11 John Laidet 6-5/250 Jr

49 Caleb Schreibeis 6-3/245 So

SAM LINEBACKER

44 Aleksei Grosulak 5-10/250 Fr

9 Roger Trammell 6-1/230 Jr

MIKE LINEBACKER

42 Clay Bignel l 6-2/236 Jr

44 Aleksei Grosulak 5-10/250 Fr

WILL LINEBACKER

23 Jody Owens 6-1/214 So

59 Tanner Ripley 6-1/214 Sr

BOUNDARY CORNER

26 Arnold Briggs 5-10/185 Sr

17 Sean Gords 5-10/185 Fr

FREE SAFETY

22 Michael Rider 5-11/196 Sr

32 A. Cosme-Peko 5-11/209 Sr

ROVER

5 Joel Fuller 6-0/200 So

31 Steven Bethley 5-11/220 Fr

FIELD CORNER

13 Darius Jones 5-10/167 So

24 James Andrews 6-1/187 Jr

PUNTER

18 Rory Perez 6-2/180 Fr

Sacramento StateDefense

DEFENSIVE END

10 David Coleman 6-2/20 Jr

91 Todd Davis 6-1/225 Fr

NOSE TACKLE

95 Matt Agaiava 6-0/285 Jr

62 Matt Lawrence 5-11/260 So

DEFENSIVE TACKLE

96 Christian Clark 6-2/270 Sr

99 Alesana Laban 6-1/295 So

DEFENSIVE END

98 Zack Nash 6-3/250 Jr

94 Trent Eskew 6-3/255 Fr

WILL LINEBACKER

40 Peter Buck 6-0/225 Sr

42 Cody Allen 6-0/235 Fr

MIDDLE LINEBACKER

44 Jeff Badger 5-11/230 So

48 Henry Fernandez 5-11/205 Fr

CORNERBACK

7 Kyle Monson 5-6/170 Jr

33 Nate Jones 5-9/185 Sr

CORNERBACK

32 Osagie Odiase 5-11/170 Fr

37 Marquese Smith 5-9/185 Jr

NICKELBACK

2 Evander Wilkins 5-7/175 Jr

31 Markell Williams 5-9/195 FrSTRONG SAFETY

4 Zach Schrader 6-1/195 Sr

39 Joe Larche 6-0/205 Jr

FREE SAFETY

28 Dana Willis 6-0/180 Sr

39 Joe Larche 6-0/205 Jr

PUNTER

38 Cameron Zuber 6-0/180 Sr

OffenseLEFT TACKLE

50 John Taylor 6-3/285 Jr

65 Vince Weaver 6-5/280 So

LEFT GUARD

75 Clay Depauw 6-3/280 So

69 Maika Maumau 6-2/280 Jr

CENTER

67 Jaren Harrell 6-3/285 Sr

60 Matt Shinn 6-3/285 Fr

RIGHT GUARD

73 Tyler Worthley 6-3/320 Fr

64 Aaron Gasper 6-1/285 So

RIGHT TACKLE

77 Nate Doverspike 6-5/275 Jr

75 Clay DePauw 6-3/280 So

QUARTERBACK

18 Jeff Fleming 6-4/175 Jr

12 Garrett Safron 6-1/190 Fr

RUNNING BACK

34 Bryan Hilliard 5-11/205 Jr

24 Sam McCowan 5-7/170 So

TIGHT END

86 Matt Carter 6-2/220 Sr

82 Brian McKeon 6-4/235 So

RECEIVER

14 Brett Willis 6-3/215 Sr

15 Ron Richardson 5-10/210 Sr

RECEIVER

13 Morris Norrise 6-0/170 Fr

87 Dylan Lane 6-2/195 Sr

RECEIVER

81 Chase Deadder 6-4/220 Jr

16 Matt Larson 6-2/200 Sr

KICKER

46 Chris Diniz 5-9/195 Sr

THE EDGEMONTANA STATE AT SACRAMENTO STATE

Passing: When it comes to pass defense,Sacramento State is kind of like a snake inthe bushes. Sure, the Hornets are giving upmore than 275 yards passing to opponentsthis year, the 108th mark in the FCS, butthey can hurt you when you least expectit. Just ask Montana. The 274 yards andthree touchdowns the Grizzlies passed forallowed them to steal a 28-25 win over the Hornets,but the two interceptions, two pass game-associatedfumbles and three sacks the Griz gave up cost them

dearly. To be more specic, it cost them their startingquarterback for the season and almost the game.

he Sacramento State defense uses a variety of schemes and shifts to free up All-American defensivetackle Christian Clark and his sidekick, two-time all-conference junior defensive end Zack Nash. Andwhen opposing quarterbacks are able to get the ballaway, preseason all-conference safety Zach Schraderand his crew are waiting. While he hasn’t picked o apass or caused a fumble yet this season, Schrader ledthe Hornets with four apiece last season. This season,his experienced mates in the secondary have pickedup the slack for him, picking o four passes andforcing one fumble.

That’s why taking care of the football will be thebiggest task for Denarius McGhee and Co. today. The

Hornets were only in the game against Montana lastweek because they forced ve turnovers. If McGheecan avoid big hits and throwing into the other

team’s hands, MSU has more than enoughrepower to tear up the Hornets throughthe air.

Rushing: Sacramento State was able totopple Weber State 24-17 two weeks agobecause the Wildcats couldn’t run thefootball. Say what you will about WSU’sstruggles with the ground game, Sac State

can defend it. The proof was in the Montana game,as the Hornets held Walter Payton candidate ChaseReynolds to 42 yards on 21 carries. This is troubling

for a Montana State team that did not run the footballparticularly well against Eastern Washington. That said, MSU’s banged up o ensive line workedmiracles against a front seven from Eastern that isstout in its own right. And the Bobcats get startingright tackle Leo Davis back this week. The questionwill be Montana State’s running backs. Orenzo Davisand C.J. Palmer took a slight step back last week,missing some holes they had been hitting earlier inthe year.

If you’re looking for something that might set MSUapart from WSU and UM, neither the Wildcats nor theGrizzlies have a speedy back like Davis. That couldbe an ace in the hole for MSU, but if Davis doesn’tstep up his game against a defense that has been asaggressive as MSU’s o ense through the rst four

weeks of this season, the Bobcats might have reasonto worry. Edge: Montana State

WHEN MONTANA STATE HAS THE BALL

EDGE

Passing: Rosie O’Donnell has as gooda chance at squeezing into a size 0 asSacramento State has at gaining bigchunks of yards through the air againstMontana State today. Why? Because theHornets’ passing game has undergonemore turnover than an IHOP and theBobcats’ one pronounced weaknessagainst the pass —dump o s-turned-into-big plays by opposing speedsters — was

seemingly shored up when MSU held the BigSky Conference’s speediest player, Taiwan Jones,without a reception.

It’s not difficult to understand why the Hornetshave become a run-first offense. They’ve lost theirstarting quarterback and are now going with Jeff Fleming, a transfer who set foot on campus for thefirst time five days before the season started. Not onlydoes Fleming admittedly not have a grasp of theentire playbook, he’s without Sacramento State’s twobest receivers, Brandyn Reed and John Hendershott,both of whom have been lost for the season.

Meanwhile, the Bobcats have seen opponentsair it out a whopping 126 times only to gain ameasly 5.5 yards an attempt. Corners Arnold Briggsand Darius Jones are ranked rst and second in theconference in passes defended. True, MSU is with-out some key pass coverage personnel in safetyJordan Craney and linebacker Dustin O’Connell,who leads the team in quarterback hurries. But theBobcats have more than enough depth to replaceboth players, especially against a passing attack like the Hornets’.

Rushing: On the other hand, whenSacramento State turns and hands to theball to running backs Bryan Hilliard andSam McCowan, MSU will be happy it hasa full contingent of linebackers. Hilliardand McCowan can play and the Hornetshave a line that is surprisingly mobile fora group that averages 6-foot-4 and 290pounds. That said, Montana State owns

the sixth-best rushing defense in the nation, so

don’t think they’ll be frightened by the Hornets’ 3.8yards a carry average, which is sixth in the confer-ence.

Hilliard, when healthy, has been one of the moreconsistent and productive backs in this confer-ence. He ran for 823 yards as a true freshman and1,082 yards as a sophomore before missing all of 2009 due to issues with both shoulders. Bobcatfans will remember him racking up 96 yards with apair of touchdowns on 24 carries in 2008 during a31-20 MSU win that was closer than the nal scoreindicated. And McCowan is lightning to Hilliard’sthunder.

But teams that have run the ball against Mon-tana State trying to set up the pass have consis-tently failed this season. And as productive asHilliard and McCowan were against the Grizzlies,gaining a combined 142 yards, they’re no TaiwanJones, who ran wild for 221 yards against UM. MSUput the lid on Jones last week. There’s no reasonto expect they can’t do the same to Hilliard andMcCowan this week.

Edge: Montana State

WHEN SACRAMENTO STATE HAS THE BALL

16

OVERALL Sacramento State is an improving team, no doubt.But as the Hornets try to break into the upper echelonof the conference, Montana State is trying to break into the upper echelon of the nation. Now ranked inthe top 10 for one of the few times in the past threedecades, MSU is very focused on staying there. And itnally looks like this team has the talent to do it. TheHornets might force some miscues, but they likelywon’t have the repower to keep up in this one.

Rob Ash made a very interesting pointthis week: Despite the fact that this seemslike it could be a trap game for theBobcats, there are a lot of reasons whyit doesn’t look that way. For starters, theBobcats are eager to prove themselveson the road since they have not yetwon there. Second, MSU is without afew key contributors this week on theo ensive and defensive lines, along with one hard-hitting safety that most of the team feels was unjustly

suspended for this game. And nally, thisteam appears very intent on doing awaywith its reputation for letdowns. Sure,Sacramento State is coming back homeo an impressive performance in Missoula,but it’s obvious that the Grizzlies aren’tas dominant this year as they’ve been inthe past. And Sacramento State needed awhole lot of help from UM to even stay in

that game.Edge: Montana State

INTANGIBLES

28 Analysis by WILL C. HOLDEN of the Chronicle

SPECIAL TEAMS

EDGE

EDGE

EDGE

S , O , 6 |

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Documents

Game Day - Sacramento State