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Bridger Orthopedic.John D. Campbell, M.D.Fellowship Trained in Sports Medicine, US Ski Team Physician

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LEVELED FIELD n Montana State, Davis face an FCS foe for the first time this season I 2

CH, CH, CH, CH n Changes ... much has happened since the last time Aggies visited Bozeman I 2

saturday, sept. 10vs. uc davisGamE

Day

FuLL PaPErInsIDE

InsIDE

TIGEr rEVEnGE? n Manhattan takes on Fairfield team that ended its season a year ago I paGe B1

suCCEssFuL HomE oPEnEr?n Beat writer Colter Nuanez breaks down today’s matchup I 6

n THE sKy’s LImIT Improved facilities, strong teams helping Big Sky to become premier league I 5

uC DaVIs aT monTana sTaTE, bobCaT sTaDIum, 1:05 P.m. — HomE oPEnEr

Printed on recycled PaPer

<AP> BKC BIG SKY CONF LOGOS: Logos for the Big Sky Conference; with related stories; WJC <AP>

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These logos are provided for use in an editorial news context. Other uses, including as a linking device on a Web site, or in an advertising or promotional piece, may violate this entity’s trademark or other intellectual property rights.

DIVISION 1 MEN’S BASKETBALL

Eastern Washington Idaho State Montana

Montana State

Sacramento State

Northern Colorado Northern Arizona

Weber StatePortland State

seaN sperry/cHrONicLe

the south end of Bobcat stadium has a whole new look to it, complete with the sonny Holland Zone, ready for today’s debut against uc davis.

EnD (WorK) ZonE

By COLTER NUANEZChronicle Sports Writer

As the hot summer Bozeman sun beat down, men with yellow hard hats built and built, seemingly reaching for the sky.

On the turf below, dozens of shirt-less young men worked tirelessly as well, honing their cumulative craft and bonding into a singular unit in prepa-ration of fulfilling great expectations.

From the Bobcat Stadium press box above, Montana State University ath-letic director Peter Fields gazed out the window. It was almost as if what played out in front of him was a premonition of the future. Before his eyes, Bobcat Stadium was being constructed and so was the MSU football team. Both were racing toward a common goal, a simi-lar date of debut. That day is today.

“I stood there and watched them, realizing they were both in construc-

tion,” Fields said Wednesday. “Now we get to unveil both pieces of work to this community.”

The MSU football team will make its home debut today against UC Da-vis and the home opener will be like no other in program history. Complete is a 7,200-seat renovation and addi-tion to the south end zone, giving the Bobcats a viable three-sided stadium with a multi-million dollar scoreboard to match. The capacity attendance of 17,778 is expected to be neared as an offseason filled with more optimism than any in recent memory culminates in today’s game.

“The home opener is always exciting regardless, but with the new house, it’s going to be so fun,” said MSU senior captain Clay Bignell, the team’s start-ing middle linebacker. “That place is going to be jam-packed. It’s going to be crazy.”

Bignell knows what opening days are like. He grew up a Bobcat in Hele-

na. His uncle, Joe Bignell, is a member of the MSU Hall of Fame and was a wide receiver on the MSU 1984 na-tional championship team. But Bignell and his teammates are trying to avoid the hoopla surrounding the unveiling of the stadium. Feed off the crowd, but don’t get captivated by the aura of the event; that’s what head coach Rob Ash is preaching to his players.

“We are excited about it, we are ap-preciative of it, we love the hype, the support, all that, but we are going to try to focus on the game on the field,” Ash said Tuesday.

“Honestly, the only thing that mat-ters is the game so that’s what we are going to focus on,” added senior wide receiver Elvis Akpla, who enters Satur-day with a streak of at least one catch in 23 straight games. “All the other stuff is great, but we don’t really expe-rience it. We don’t sit in the stands. We will obviously look at the scoreboard, but it’s not for us as much as it is for the fans. We have to worry about the game because if we don’t perform well and get a win, it doesn’t matter.”

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Stadium renovations, Bobcats making home debut today against UC Davis

‘New’ stadium bigger deal for Montana State fans than playersBy COLTER NUANEZChronicle Sports Writer

As the new and improved Bobcat Stadium officially unveils itself to the Bozeman community today, the Mon-tana State University football

players and coaching staff are trying to downplay the hype surrounding the game. After all, the team’s main fo-cus is a stout opponent in the visiting Aggies of UC Davis.

But Bobcat fans from around the Treasure State have been anticipating the

team retaking the turf for the first time since last fall’s season-ending 41-17 home playoff loss to North Dakota State. Today, 10 months of optimism and anticipation come to a head.

Hayden Ferguson, a for-mer professor at the School

of Agriculture at MSU, has purchased full-time foot-ball and basketball season tickets every year since 1958, save one year when he taught at the University of Wisconsin.

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bozeman daily chronicleG2 | Saturday, September 10, 2011

ou could literally see the excitement building. One slab of concrete, one dirt pile, one

towering crane at a time. For commuters along Kagy Boulevard, it all happened in front of your eyes.

Never has a construc-tion site been such a hype-builder.

As the new Bobcat Stadium seating rose skyward, the water cooler conversa-tion must have been lively for the area’s office employees. Oh, and the potential of this year’s team has a little something to do with the anticipation.

It’s a far cry from the last time UC Davis was here.

The Bobcats were coming off a stun-ning loss to Division II Chadron State — a week after defeating Colorado (the Buffs were in the Big 12 then) — when Davis visited Bozeman five years ago. Mike Kramer was the coach. Cory Carpenter the quarterback. The stadium floor consisted of grass.

And fans looked to the south for replays.

It was the third game of the season — and the third stunner. The Bobcats lost 45-0, the program’s worst home defeat in 91 years. The crowd left early.

Kramer forbade his players from talking to the media. What began

as a promising season was hanging in the balance.

Only two assistant coaches and no players remain from that game. It’s hardly worth mentioning.

Unless you’re looking for a little per-spective.

Those were the times aplenty. The recession had yet to set in. In the this-could-never-happen-today department, the Bobcats were put up in a Livingston hotel for home games that season in order to mimic the atmosphere that only a road game can provide. (Just last week, the ’Cats traveled to Salt Lake City via bus).

By COLTER NUANEZChronicle Sports Writer

Although the school year is just a few weeks old, the football teams from Montana State University and UC Davis have a tough test today.

For MSU, the team plays in newly reno-vated Bobcat Stadium for the first time. The Bobcats are 4-0 in home openers under head coach Rob Ash, but today’s matchup with the Aggies is decidedly different. It’s the first time under Ash that MSU has played a non-Division II opponent in its Bozeman debut. It’s the first time MSU has taken the field since last season’s season-ending 41-17 home playoff loss to North Dakota State. And it’s the first time Montana State will play in front of nearly 16,000 fans in a stadium that’s grown into a three-quarters bowl with a multi-million dollar scoreboard.

For UC Davis, it’s the last shot the team has to prove itself against a Big Sky Confer-ence opponent before joining the league on a permanent basis next fall. The matchup is also presumably one of the toughest on the Aggies’ schedule this fall as MSU enters the game ranked No. 6 in the nation. Davis’ season-finale against No. 12 Sacramento State is the only other game against a current nationally-ranked team on the Aggies sched-ule. Davis was 1-2 against Big Sky teams last season.

“I think it’s a test more so for them; I think UC Davis would love to play well against a future conference member,” Ash said Tuesday. “They are anxious to come in and they are going to be a good, quality addition to our conference. But I’m not too worried about next year and our conference next year. This is a crucial game for us because we have playoff aspirations and we have to win every game we possibly can.”

While Montana State will be the favorite today, the Aggies are no slouch. UC Davis fell victim to early momentum in its opener at Arizona State last Thursday, allowing 41 unanswered points to begin the game. But Davis never quit, scoring two touchdowns before the end of the evening in the 48-14 loss to the Sun Devils, a trendy pick to be a dark horse in the Pac-12 this season.

“We are looking forward to playing an FCS opponent because it’s more apples to apples instead of apples to oranges,” said UC Davis head coach Bob Biggs. “Both of us went in and competed with FBS teams. I was impressed with my team and Montana State, fighting to the bitter end regardless of being down 24-0 or 41-0 in our case. Now, it’s two FCS teams. I fully expect a very competitive game.”

UC Davis comes to Bozeman for the first time since 2006 (the Aggies won 45-0) with striking similarities to the Bobcats. Davis likes to maintain balance on offense between the run and the pass. The Aggies run a base 4-3 defense and have linebackers, led by senior captain Jordan Glass, that fly to the football. A sophomore quarterback who had a breakout freshman season leads the of-fense and by all accounts, Randy Wright has improved immensely.

The Aggies employ an offense that relies on an off-tackle running attack, a plethora of screen passes and a heavy reliance on play-actions. The team will use multiple running backs, with senior Josh Reese serving as a team captain. Wright is mobile in the pocket, but sometimes holds on to the football too long. For UC Davis’ offense to click on all

cylinders, the screen game, the run game and the play-action attack must play off each other.

Reese said an improved offensive line that features all upperclassmen should help the running attack be more potent than the unit that averaged 80 yards a game in 2010. UCD ran for 88 yards against Arizona State last week.

“If anything, our run game has gotten a lot better this year,” said Reese, a 6-foot 196-pound Davis, Calif., native who is averaging 4.7 yards per carry in his career. “Our offensive line is more aggressive so we are going to be even more balanced than we have been in the past.”

“They have a good run game, they like to shift and motion guys around to try to take advantage of the defense if they don’t adjust properly,” said MSU senior middle lineback-er Clay Bignell, the captain of the defense. “Other than that, they are just a solid team.”

Montana State thrived last season partly because of the emergence of phenom quar-terback DeNarius McGhee, who was named Big Sky Conference co-Offensive Player of the Year as a freshman. Wright didn’t break out quite as loudly, but the UCD signal caller

still earned Great West Conference Rookie of the Year honors after throw-ing for 2,432 yards and 17 touchdowns in his debut campaign.

“(Wright) is much like DeNarius in that there is

no subsitute for live reps,” Biggs said. “You can talk till you’re blue in the face about what you’re going to see and the speed of the game and decision making, but until you get underneath the center and you’re facing live bullets, you just can’t subsitute for that. Randy improved throughout the course of the season. He has continued to build on his experience from last year, really become a student of the game.”

Reese said he and his teammates have been impressed with the MSU defense’s pursuit of the football while watching film this week. But the captain added the transi-tion from playing a Pac-12 team to a Big Sky squad will be a welcome one.

“They have good, athletic players so you can’t underestimate anybody, but coming down from ASU, their linebackers were a lot bigger and faster,” Reece said. “Their middle linebacker (Vontaze Burfinct)…we won’t play anybody like him again. He is nuts.”

Burfinct is widely considered the best middle linebacker in college football and is

projected as a Top-10 pick in the NFL draft whenever he elects to enter. The Sporting News named him the “meanest man in col-lege football” last season.

Bignell is no Burfinct, but he leads a MSU defense that played an impressive second half last week in Salt Lake City. Bignell and weakside junior linebacker Jody Owens combined to make 22 tackles as the Bobcat defense held the Utes under 300 yards of total offense. Utah running back John White IV avoided the ‘Cats swarming, run-fitting attack by using explosive jump cuts in the hole. Bignell said after watching film that while his running mates on defense were taking care of their responsibilities, White was simply making plays.

Bignell said the philosophy remains the same this week: every Bobcat defender takes care of their responsibility and their respon-sibility alone.

“We have to stick to what works and everyone just has to do their jobs,” Bignell said. “We were in the holes (against Utah). (White) just made moves and made a few plays. He is a good football player. But that doesn’t change what we are trying to do. We just have to stick to our assignments, fill our gaps and if we do that, we will be successful.”

“We are a confident group regardless. We came into Utah with confidence, we will come in to this game with confidence just like every other game for the rest of the season.”

The defense will be without sophomore Aleksei Grosulak for at least one more week. The strongside linebacker, MSU’s leading tackler last season, remains sidelined while recovering from torn knee ligaments suf-fered in the spring. He hopes to return by Week 3.

As the team prepares to join what is quickly becoming one of the premier leagues in the FCS, UC Davis would like nothing more than to spring an upset today. Mon-tana State debuts its new venue, but Ash said he wants his players to concentrate on the action on the turf, not the excitement in all that surrounds it.

“We are excited but we are trying not to think about it too much,” Ash said. “We are trying to concentrate on what goes on down on that field, which is the same field we’ve had. I’m concerned, I’m wary of them getting too hyped up. I don’t want my guys watching the highlights on that new score-board or gawking at the end zone. We have to concentrate on the game.”

Colter Nuanez can be reached at cnuanez@dailychronicle.com and 582-2690.

Tim DUmAsChronicle Sports Editor

SidelineBriefingRecords Montana State 0-1 UC Davis 0-1

series 2nd meeting, UC Davis leads 1-0

Weather forecast Sunny, high 84

Crowd Nearly 16,000 expected

TV ABC (Chris Byers, Mike Callaghan, AJ Donatoni)

Radio KXLB-FM (100.7), Jeff Lasky, Dan Davies, Tyler Wiltgen

Coaches

schedulesUC Davis

14 Arizona st. 48 Today @ montana state 1:05 p.m.9/17 San Diego 7 p.m.9/24 @ Hawaii 10 p.m.10/8 Humboldt St. 7 p.m.10/15 Texas-San Antonio 3 p.m.10/22 @ South Dakota 3 p.m. 10/29 @ Southern Utah 1 p.m.11/5 Cal Poly 3 p.m.11/12 North Dakota 3 p.m.11/19 @ Sacramento St. 3:05 p.m.

montana state10 at Utah 27 Today UC Davis 1:05 p.m.9/17 Minot St. 1:35 p.m.9/24 @ Eastern Washington 4:05 p.m.10/1 Sacramento St. 1:35 p.m.10/8 @ Portland St. 2:05 p.m.10/15 Northern Arizona 1:05 p.m.10/22 @ Northern Colorado 1:35 p.m.10/29 Idaho St. 12:05 p.m.11/5 @ Weber St. 1:35 p.m.11/19 Montana 12:05 p.m.

Players to watch UC daviS: KR Alex Hines has the

ability to set Aggies up with good

field position every time.

MONTaNa STaTE: WR Elvis Akpla

was held to just one reception last

week; look for him to be in the mix.

injury reportMONTaNa STaTE dOUBTFUL: LB Aleksei Grosulak

(knee). UC daviS None.

Aggies, ‘Cats face first FCS foe today

AP

UC Davis quarterback Randy Wright, right, tries to escape the rush of Arizona State linebacker Vontaze Burfict as he closes in for a sack last week in Tempe, Ariz.

ROB aSHMSU, 5th year32nd year overall29-18 at MSU 205-117-5 overall

BOB BiggS UC Davis, 19th year 19th year overall 136-72-1 at UC Davis 136-72-1 overall

UC Davis will join Big Sky Conference in ‘11

Y

“i fully expect a very competitive game.”

— Bob Biggs, UC Davis coach

BOBCAT GAME DAYUC Davis at Montana State

1:05 p.m. Bobcat Stadium

586-58502744 W. Main St.

Across from Gallatin Valley Mallwww.mountainhottub.comDelivering fun and relaxation since 1979

GOCATS!

GET HOT CATS!Much has changed since Davis’ last visit to Bozeman in 2006

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#25 // Running Back

Cody Kirk

2011 MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY

Photo by Sean Sperry

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BOBCAT GAME DAYUC Davis at Montana State

1:05 p.m. Bobcat Stadium

Big SkY CONFERENCE

Standings

Team Conf. AllSac St. 0-0 1-0Portland St. 0-0 1-0MSU 0-0 0-1E. Wash. 0-0 0-1 Montana 0-0 0-1 Weber St. 0-0 0-1N. Ariz. 0-0 0-1 Idaho St. 0-0 0-1N. Colo. 0-0 0-1

Today’s gamesNo. Colo at Colo. St., 12:05 p.m.UC Davis at MSU, 1:05 p.m.Cal Poly at Montana, 1:05 p.m. Sac. St. at So. Utah, 1:05 p.m.E. Wash. at So. Dakota, 3:05 p.m.Ft. Lewis at No. Ariz. 4:05 p.m. Western St. at Idaho St., 4:05 p.m. Weber St. at Utah St., 6:05 p.m.

The Sky has no limit

By COLTER NUANEZChronicle Sports Writer

Flash back just two seasons. Now take this hypothetical: There are four teams from the Big Sky Conference that are among the top 15 Football Championship Subdivision teams in America. The lowest ranking of those four football programs belongs to the Montana Grizzlies. As recently as 2009, such a statement would have rendered you plenty of side-ways looks.

Two years later, say it and you’ve hit the nail right on the head. In the most recent Sports Network Top 25 poll, Eastern Washington (No. 1), Montana State (No. 6), Sacramento State (No. 12) and Montana are ranked. UM is the team with the No. 15 ranking next to its name. Parity has become a reality in the Big Sky and the top-to-bottom strength of the league has helped it rise to the top of the FCS heap

The strength of the Big Sky was on full display last weekend. Sacramento State went to Oregon State and emerged with a 29-28 overtime win. Wyoming needed a touchdown with 22 seconds left to defeat Weber State 35-32. Mon-tana State outscored Utah 10-3 over the final 33 minutes of MSU’s 27-10 loss. Defending national champ EWU gave the University of Washington all it could handle before falling 30-27.

How did a league seemingly on the brink of mediocrity less than two decades ago rise to have a place in the argument of the best conferences in the FCS? It has a lot to do with those Grizzlies, according to sources around the conference.

In 1994, the Big Sky Conference faced a crossroads. Boise State, Idaho and Nevada-Reno decided to move up to the Football Bowl Subdivision, then known as Division I-A. The Big Sky was in desperate need of a flagship program to lead the conference into the future. Montana became that program. The Griz qualified for seven FCS national champion-ship games (winning in 1995 and 2001), won the league 14 of the next 15 seasons, and made the playoffs every sea-son between 1992 and 2009. The rise to prominence for UM peaked in one of the most dominant decades in modern college football history at the turn of the century. The Grizzlies won 119 games and lost just 22 between 2000 and 2009, the most wins and the highest win percentage (.844) of the decade among any team in America including the likes of Florida, Oklahoma, USC and Alabama.

While UM’s success put the school on a national stage each fall — UM has played live night games on ESPN seven times since 2000 — it also gave the Big Sky’s other eight members a blueprint to follow.

“What the University of Mon-tana did for the Big Sky Confer-ence following the loss of Nevada, Boise State and Idaho is inesti-mable. It’s inestimable,” said Idaho State head coach Mike Kramer a day before his team opened fall camp in August. “You cannot put a value on the rise the University of Montana football program has had on the Big Sky. Can any of us ever catch the tradition and swagger associated with UM? No.

But we will all continue to try and that’s the entire point.”

This fall, it seems the pursuit of mimicking Montana is becom-ing a reality for Big Sky teams. And for the ones who aren’t quite there, the chase continues.

Idaho State — winners of just five games in the past five seasons — installed new turf at Holt Are-na in Pocatello. Portland State will play in a newly renovated PGE Park in downtown Portland this fall. EWU installed blood-red turf last fall to the cheers of some, the jeers of others. Northern Arizona just completed a $26 million over-haul on the J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome in Flagstaff. Today, MSU

unveils the new Bobcat Stadium, complete with a 7,200-seat south end zone and a multi-million dol-lar scoreboard.

“Everybody is making prog-ress,” said MSU head coach Rob Ash. “I think our new stadium is one of the premier steps anybody has taken, but it’s what we needed to do just to keep up. If you stay the same, you fall behind. That’s the way it should be. College foot-ball’s heightened popularity right now is just astounding. I think people have discovered that the Big Sky Conference is a place with some exciting football.”

Big Sky Conference commis-sioner Doug Fullerton agrees with Ash about the heightened popu-larity of the league. He agrees with Kramer as well, but says UM was more than a blueprint for the Big Sky. It showed FCS teams across the country what they could become.

“There’s no question Montana led the way and it’s not just the Big Sky, they’ve done it for the

entire nation,” Fullterton said. “If you look around at their game day experience, what they did with their football program during the past 20 years, they have been tre-mendously important to the FCS. I don’t know if there are programs that have gotten better than the University of Montana yet. But there are programs that have used that template to close the gap with the University of Montana.”

Fullerton said the rise of the Big Sky can be traced to a commit-ment from university presidents across the league.

“It starts with the presidents; the presidents are really commit-ted to the future of athletics in the

Big Sky,” Fullterton said. “Football is something they’ve all decided is going to be the way we are going to brand ourselves. The brand is good enough now, we are really getting a better kind of athlete.”

In Cheney, Wash., Eastern Washington has been solid since the league’s transition in the mid-1990s. But the team made the leap from consistent playoff con-tender to national champion last season. Although the team’s main contributors — namely Buck Bu-chanan Award winner linebacker J.C. Sherritt and lightning-fast running back Taiwan Jones — didn’t choose Cheney because of the red turf, EWU head coach Beau Baldwin said its installation gave the team a rallying cry.

“One of the biggest things is, (the red turf) gave our kids, our student-athletes, was something to really grab on to that was theirs,” Baldwin said. “Other schools came in and didn’t like playing there or thought it was weird to them or whatever. You

can even go as far as ‘hey, I hate your red turf.’ Our guys loved it. It gave us that home field, some-thing to protect, something to grab on to.”

Jerome Souers is entering his 14th season as the head coach at Northern Arizona. He has been an assistant or a head coach in the league since 1985. He said there’s no question, the league has never been stronger.

“I really believe it is the stron-gest it ever has been,” Souers said. “So many positive things are happening at a lot of the universi-ties, it really truly is. It’s cliché, ev-erybody says it, everybody hears it, but all you have to do is look at the facts. Look at the personnel, look at the coaching staffs that are occupying each of the programs and it’s obvious.”

“You look around and there’s so much parity in this league,” added UM head coach Robin Pflugrad. “I think it’s the best league at our level in the country. (The Big Sky) has played for the national championship each of the last three years (UM in 2008 and 2009, EWU in 2010). To me, that’s saying quite a bit.”

NAU refused to fall behind as the Big Sky continued to improve in personnel, coaching staffs, facilities and prestige. The Lum-berjacks’ dedication to improve-ment surpassed the rest of the league with the renovation to the Skydome.

“They’ve put $26 million into new locker room spaces, new seating for the fans, new training rooms, new weight room, new equipment rooms, an entire new office suites,” Souers said. “The press boxes are different; they have corporate suites and meeting areas. It’s been an unbelievable undertaking to happen between seasons like it has.”

Baldwin said improvement in facilities has been and will con-tinue to be the Big Sky’s ticket to a successful future.

“Without question, you start improving facilities to a very high level in the FCS compared to other leagues around the country, first off, you can start winning in the recruiting battle,”

Baldwin said. “Ultimately, that improves the strength of the league. Overall, the strength of our league has definitely been influenced by the fact that places are committed to making im-provements. Places in our league are committed to

taking their programs to another level.”

After last weekend’s slate filled with solid performance and Sac State’s upset, Ash said the road for his team to repeat as Big Sky champs alongside EWU will be a rough one. But everyone must navigate the same gauntlet en route to the playoffs.

“(The strength of the league) is a little scary to be honest,” Ash said with a laugh. “But I love it, it’s great. The great thing about it is we are still playing a round-robin schedule in the Big Sky. Every-body has to play everybody else. Sac State has a great football team, but everybody has to play them, not just us. Eastern is good. Mon-tana played very capably against Tennessee (42-16 loss). Weber, everybody played well. It’s going to be a very tough battle, but be-cause everybody plays everybody, it will all shake out in the end and I think it will be a tremendously exciting race.”

Following Montana’s lead, Big Sky becoming one of the top conferences in the FCS

COURTESY OF SACRAMENTO STATE SPORTS INFORMATION

After leading Sacramento State to a victory over Oregon State last weekend, Hornet QB Jeff Fleming was named Big Sky and national player of the week.

“I really believe it is the strongest it ever has been. So many positive things are happening at a lot of the universities.”

— Jerome Souers, Northern Arizona head coach

The opening of the newly renovated stadium is just one piston that propelled the hype engine surrounding this Bobcat team in the offseason. In 2010, MSU went 9-3 — the most wins by a Bobcat team in 26 years. The team shared the Big Sky Confer-ence championship with eventual national cham-pion Eastern Washington. MSU destroyed the Eagles 30-7, one of just two losses EWU suffered last season.

But the dream season came to a nightmarish end. The last time the ’Cats took

their home field, the team lost 41-17 to North Da-kota State in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.

Watching the stadium reach for the sky right before their eyes this sum-mer did nothing but fuel the Bobcats’ collective fire in wanting 2011 to end differently.

“It was crazy to think about, just how excited I got this summer with no one in the stands,” said sophomore wide receiver Tanner Bleskin, who caught MSU’s lone touchdown this season last week at the University of Utah. “To look around the

stadium and see people, it’s going to be really exciting.”

“Seeing the stadium go up says a lot about our pro-gram increasing its strength and size,” said sophomore quarterback DeNarius McGhee, one of the cap-tains of the offense. “It put a smile on my face watching that stadium go up. It gives me pride and I have a lot of pride about being a Bobcat. I think that goes for our whole team and for all of Bobcat Nation around the United States.”

While the MSU players and coaching staff are try-ing to downplay the sure-to-be raucous atmosphere, the Aggies can’t wait to

play in front of a packed, hostile house.

“When you get into an environment like that and people are heckling you down, that’s when you go balls to the wall and get ready to go into battle,” said UCD senior running back Josh Reese, the captain of the Aggie offense. “All we have is each other. I person-ally enjoy it. Atmospheres like that leads to great play-ers making great plays.”

“It was loud and raucous in Arizona, too, with 48,000 people,” added UC Davis head coach Bob Biggs, referring to his team’s trip to Tempe to play Arizona State last

week. “We’ve played in those environments quite a bit.”

UC Davis played at Cal last season and at Boise State in 2009.

MSU offensive guard Casey Dennehy grew up in Butte, just an hour drive from Bozeman. But the fifth-year senior didn’t come east much as a youngster because his uncle, Mick Dennehy, coached at the University of Montana throughout the 1990s, including a stint as the head man from 1996-1999. But when it came time to choose a place to continue his foot-ball career, Casey chose

MSU. Five years later, he says it’s been a marvel to watch the program’s growth.

“It’s a pretty neat feeling to come here and be a part of something that when you leave, it’s better off than when you arrived,” said the elementary educa-tion major. “It’s great to see the Bobcats on the rise. This facility we have now is definitely one of the best in the FCS all across the country so it will help the ’Cats compete at a high level for years to come.”

Colter Nuanez can be reached at cnuanez@dailychronicle.com and 582-2690.

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He and his wife missed the Bobcats’ season-opening 27-10 loss to Utah in Salt Lake City, the first road opener they haven’t witnessed that Ferguson could remem-ber. But they had a good excuse. The couple just returned from a trip to Germany. Now, Ferguson gets to see the ‘Cats in a home opener for the 53rd time.

“I’ve stopped and looked at the stadium during the building pro-cess many, many times,” Ferguson said. “I think it’s great. It’s a great addition to not only athletics, but to the whole community and the university. I sat through many a game in those old wooden bleachers in what used to be Gatton Field for many, many years, so Saturday will be exciting.”

Scott Lennemann, who now works at the Mis-soula Country Club, will share four seats in the new south end zone with his three siblings today. His father has had the same seats since 1983. Lennemann, an MSU graduate from the class of 1994, estimates at least one Lennemann has been at every MSU home game since the late 1960s.

“I have watched the program’s low and high tides since I was a tod-dler in the early 1970s,” Lennemann wrote in an email. “Every year, our commitment to all things MSU has grown, win or lose. We’d watch if (the game) was played in the parking lot between the Fieldhouse and the current stadium. The fact that we are privileged enough to watch in the great new facility, we are SO FREAKING EXCITED we can’t hardly stand it.”

Dave Creamer, MSU Class of 2001, lives in Kal-ispell. He has had season tickets for three years after living out of state follow-ing the earning of his degree. Although Kalispell is a trek across the state, Creamer said it’s the high-light of his week.

“I live in Kalispell, which has always been Griz country. I’ve taken a beat-ing for years for being a Bobcat fan — inferior team, inferior stadium,” Creamer wrote via email. “This year, with a team that should contend and a stadium we can be proud of, I’m prouder than ever to be a Bobcat. I can’t think of anything I’d rather do on a fall Sat-urday than make the 300-mile drive to Bozeman to cheer for the ‘Cats.”

bozeman daily chronicleG6 | Saturday, September 10, 2011

Both MSU and UCD fell victim to special teams breakdowns last week. MSU gave up what head coach Rob Ash estimated to be seven big plays in the kicking game, including a Utah fake punt and a blocked punt. UCD was no better, allowing ASU a 54-yard kick return average, including a 98-yard touchdown return.

On the plus side, MSU punter Rory Perez aver-aged nearly 45 yards per punt. UCD punter Col-ton Schmidt was named the Great West Special Teams Player of the Week after averaging 45.7

yards per boot. But he had nine punts, something no team can do if it hopes to have success.

In the return game, Alex Hines is UCD’s burner deep. He had a 41-yard kick return against ASU and averaged just under 30 yards on four returns.For MSU, Gilbert had a 30-yard return against

Utah, but was held to an 18-yard average on two tries.

Akpla had a 14-yard punt return. EDGE: Even

Depth chartsMontana State

OffenseLEFT TACKLE

68 Conrad Burbank 6-4/297 Sr79 Quinn Catalano 6-5/276 Fr

LEFT GUARD57 Casey Dennehy 6-1/280 Sr62 Ben Tauanuu 6-4/300 Jr

CENTER56 Shaun Sampson 6-0/277 Jr61 Alex Terrien 6-4/283 Sr

RIGHT GUARD61 Alex Terrien 6-4/283 Sr74 Matt Devereux 6-3/280 Fr

RIGHT TACKLE50 Leo Davis 6-4/300 Sr75 Andrew Verlanic 6-4/279 Jr

QUARTERBACK9 DeNarius McGhee 6-0/213 So5 Grayson Galloway 6-4/207 Jr

RUNNING BACK25 Cody Kirk 5-10/214 So7 Tray Robinson 6-1/221 Jr

X RECEIVER1 Elvis Akpla 6-1/190 Sr 4 John Ellis 5-10/180 So

Z RECEIVER86 Tanner Bleskin 6-3/215 So84 Brian Flotkoetter 6-2/205 Fr

W RECEIVER14 Everett Gilbert 5-9/195 Jr10 Kruiz Siewing 5-11/189 Jr

TIGHT END88 Shane Robison 6-5/260 Sr89 Steven Foster 6-5/260 Jr

KICKER15 Jason Cunningham 6-1/180 Sr

DefenseEND

11 John Laidet 6-5/255 Sr 34 Preston Gale 6-3/252 Fr

TACKLE96 Zach Minter 6-1/285 Jr99 Brian Bignell 6-2/255 Jr

NOSE TACKLE98 Christian Keli’i 6-0/305 Jr97 Zach Logan 6-4/295 Fr

BANDIT49 Caleb Schreibeis 6-3/253 Jr41 Brad Daly 6-1/232 So

SAM LINEBACKER9 Roger Trammell 6-0/215 Sr58 Rhett Young 6-0/220 Fr

MIKE LINEBACKER42 Clay Bignell 6-2/240 Sr51 Michael Foster 6-1/232 Fr

WILL LINEBACKER23 Jody Owens 6-1/221 Jr2 Na’a Moeakiola 5-11/220 So

BOUNDARY CORNER13 Darius Jones 5-10/179 Jr35 Jarmarcus Darden 5-9/170 Fr

ROVER5 Joel Fuller 6-0/200 Jr31 Robert Marshall 6-0/202 Fr

FREE SAFETY28 Steven Bethley 5-11/210 So6 Heath Howard 5-10/190 Jr

FIELD CORNER17 Sean Gords 5-10/188 So37 Deonte Flowers 5-11/168 Fr

PUNTER

18 Rory Perez 6-3/179 So

UC DavisDefense

LEFT END51 Victor Lee 6-0/235 Sr56 Tommy Grillo 6-1/245 Sr

LEFT TACKLE44 Jacob Maxon 6-2/280 Sr91 Brock Galvin 6-3/260 Jr

RIGHT TACKLE34 Andrew Benjamin 6-1/270 Jr18 Nick King 6-3/245 So RIGHT END42 Bobby Erskine 6-3/245 Jr94 Marques Barron 6-2/248 Fr

SAM LINEBACKER50 Reese Ludwig 6-1/230 Jr15 Ryan O’Holleran 6-3/230 So

MIKE LINEBACKER41 Jordan Glass 6-2/240 Sr30 Ryan Dimino 6-0/220 So

WILL LINEBACKER21 Byron Gruendl 6-2/200 Jr29 Neil Pierce 6-0/205 Sr

LEFT CORNERBACK11 Jonathan Perkins 5-11/177 So43 Jabari Howard 6-1/175 Fr

FREE SAFETY26 Kevyn Lewis 5-11/200 Jr27 Earnest Sayles III 6-2/203 So

STRONG SAFETY1 Patrick Shelton 6-1/210 Sr12 Charles Boyett 6-1/190 Fr

RIGHT CORNERBACK3 Jonathan Calhoun 5-11/185 Jr2 Andre Allen 5-10/185 So

PUNTER90 Colton Schmidt 5-11/210 Jr

OffenseLEFT TACKLE

77 Ian Joseph 6-6/300 Fr73 Aaron Colldeweigh 6-6/280 So

LEFT GUARD68 Sean Davies 6-4/290 Sr63 Tim Ketaily 6-2/282 Jr

CENTER74 Ray Wilburn 6-2/280 Jr76 Ivan Perez 6-3/285 Sr

RIGHT GUARD79 Jimmy Kunkel 6-3/300 So53 Al Doiron 6-3/295 So

RIGHT TACKLE65 Robert Ayotte 6-5/295 Sr73 Aaron Colldeweigh 6-6/280 So

QUARTERBACK17 Randy Wright 6-3/195 So13 Austin Heyworth 6-3/205 Jr RUNNING BACK22 Josh Reese 6-0/196 Sr20 Colton Silveria 5-10/210 Fr

WIDE RECEIVER82 Corey Galindo 6-4/205 Fr19 Dwight Smith 6-3/200 Sr

WIDE RECEIVER81 Anthony Soto 5-10/185 Jr9 Alex Cannon 6-1/180 Fr

WIDE RECEIVER5 Tom Hemmingsen 5-10/175 So80 T.J. King 6-2/200 Fr

TIGHT END83 Michael Cody 6-4/245 Sr86 Taylor Sloat 6-4/235 So

KICKER4 Sean Kelly 5-8/215 Sr

THE EDGEUc Davis at Montana state

Passing: MSU sophomore quarterback DeNarius McGhee was the first to admit he didn’t play up par in his team’s opener against Utah last week. McGhee was 16-for-29 for 182 yards — not bad numbers against a Pac-12 secondary with oodles of speed — but the quarterback threw two interceptions that gave Utah short fields. This week, count on McGhee and the Bobcat receiving corps to be amped beyond belief, both because of the team’s debut in Bobcat Stadium and because of a hunger to perform. But the MSU offense, an attack that averaged 276 passing yards per game in McGhee’s freshman campaign, will have to execute against a UC Davis defense with ball-hawking linebackers and a slick secondary. UCD cornerbacks Drew Allen and Jonathan Perkins and free safety Charles Boyett are just sophomores, but are already being hailed by Aggie faithful as among the most talented sets of defensive backs the team has seen since its transition to the Football Championship Subdivision in 2005. Senior Patrick Shelton leads the group and had seven tackles last week in UCD’s 48-14 loss to Arizona State. The secondary is the strength of UCD’s defense, but it will be tested early and often by the MSU passing attack. Look for McGhee to have more time in the pocket than against the Utes. Despite the fact the Utes had just two sacks, McGhee was hurried the

majority of the time he dropped back. He was only able to look downfield and find a streaking Elvis Akpla once. Today, McGhee’s ability to spread the ball to Akpla, Everett Gilbert, Tanner Bleskin and John Ellis will be key. If all four wideouts can take pressure off one another, McGhee will spread the

ball around and it will look like déjà vu. Rushing: If Montana State wasn’t in full comeback mode against Utah, sophomore Cody Kirk’s rushing numbers may have been more impressive than they already were. MSU played speedy sophomore Kerry Sloan during most of the third quarter in search of hitting a home run because of the team’s 24-7 deficit. Kirk got no third-quarter carries, yet still finished with 58 yards on nine carries, or 5.3 yards per tote. Look for MSU to try to establish the run game early in an effort to open up the passing attack. Kirk should receive twice the number of carries he did last week and could knock on the door of the first 100-yard game of his young career. Expect MSU to be in more short-yardage situations as well, meaning C.J. Palmer will get a few touches after not having a carry in Utah. The Montana State offensive line had a standout performance against a Utah defensive front that featured at least one future NFL draft pick in Star Lotulelei. Last week’s showing should help the Bobcat front enter today’s matchup with confidence and swagger. EDGE: Montana State.

WHEN MONTANA STATE HAS THE BALL

EDGE

Passing: UC Davis is similar to Mon-tana State on offense in that the team wishes to stay balanced and a sopho-more signal caller leads the team.

Randy Wright had a standout fresh-man campaign, leading the Aggies to a 6-5 record by throwing for 2,432 yards and 17 touchdowns. UCD of-fensive captain Josh Reese said Wright has improved tremendously since last season, a good sign for the Aggies’ offense.

But Wright’s primary security blankets from a season ago, wide receivers Sean Creadick (66 catches, 928 yards, 8 TDs) and Dean Rog-ers (30 catches, 404 yards, 3 TDs) are gone to graduation. Reese, a senior running back, was the team’s fourth-leading pass catcher in 2010 with 28 grabs. But if UCD hopes to have suc-cess through the air, junior Anthony Soto (five catches, 45 yards against Arizona State) and sophomore Tom Hemmingsen (four catches, 58 yards against ASU) need to step up.

UC Davis relies heavily on play-action and quarterback bootlegs in its passing attack. Wright is deceivingly elusive in the pocket, but has a propensity to hang on to the football too long. For Wright and his troops to have a suc-cessful day, Reese and the running attack will

have to find consistency and Wright will have to be quick in delivering the ball.

Rushing: Because the running game is so integral to the passing attack in UCD’s offense, the team struggled to find consistency last season. The Ag-gies rushed for just 80 yards per game, causing their offense to total just 302 total yards per contest.

Reese said a veteran offensive line has im-proved its technique and physicality, opening things up in the run game a bit. UCD had 88 yards rushing against Arizona State last week.

The Bobcat defense was able to limit the Utah offense to under 300 yards of total offense last week, but a majority of the Utes’ big plays came on the ground. Despite what most Bobcat faith-ful deemed as an impressive defensive perfor-mance by MSU last week, look for the Montana State defense to attack with unbridled aggres-sion today.

If MSU can limit UC Davis’ run game, it will render the Aggies’ play-action and bootleg schemes much less effective. Without those two factors, Wright could be in for a long day be-cause no play-action means a heightened level of success for the MSU pass rush. EDGE: Montana State

WHEN UC DAVIS THE BALL

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overall Montana State is eager to prove all the offseason hype has some substance. The unveiling of an improved Bobcat Stadium will mean a home-field advantage like this group has yet to experience. If the team can look beyond the glitz and glamour of its new venue and focus on defeating a solid FCS opponent, the ‘Cats should roll. UC Davis is solid, but if Montana State’s playoff and national title aspirations are real, the march begins today.

It’s pretty simple: the unparalleled amount of hype and optimism in the Gallatin Valley and around the state concerning Bobcat football this season comes to a head today. The team debuts itself at home for the first time since the most successful campaign in almost three decades ended in disappointment in Bozeman last season. Montana State hasn’t forgotten the last time

it played at home (a 41-17 loss to North Dakota State) and now the ‘Cats retake their home turf in a stadium that got a serious facelift in the offseason. Bobcat Stadium is expected to have a record crowd on hand to check out the team’s new digs and to see the No.

6 team in America for the first time. If Montana State can’t get jacked for this game, there’s a serious problem. EDGE: Montana State

INTaNGIBleS

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Analysis by COLTER NUANEZ of the Chronicle

SpecIal TeamS

EDGE

EDGE

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BOBCAT GAME DAYUC Davis at Montana State

1:05 p.m. Bobcat Stadium

And there was talk of sta-dium expansion. Suites were planned for the east side and capacity was expected to be added incrementally. When the 1984 national champion-ship team in 2008 donated nearly $1 million for the turf the ’Cats now play on, the ball appeared to be rolling.

Then … nothing. The fi-nancial crisis hit the nation — not Bobcat Nation, however.

It took some time and some rallying from MSU’s new president Waded Cruzado and a lot of cash from local do-nors, but … don’t listen to me. Go check it out for yourself; kick the stadium’s new tires; be a part of the first crowd to top 16,000.

Start with a drive to the top of the hill on Kagy near the Highland Boulevard intersec-tion and look down on what has risen. It’s not a one-sided stadium any longer. The facil-ity looks enormous — even from a distance.

Enter the grounds to the thumping of the new sound system. Look up for skydivers and, while keeping your gaze there when wondering if there was indeed pass interference on the play, spin your head to the north for the replay.

While taking it all in, re-member this: no home games were missed. Thanks to the

efforts of Martel Construc-tion, among others, work was completed in less than nine months, despite the usual miserable spring weather and the enormity of the project. It isn’t mentioned much, but the ’Cats indeed play on Martel Field.

This isn’t the same house you somberly walked out of last December.

“It looks good. I wish them well,” former Bobcat Dane Fletcher told me Friday morn-ing from Foxborough, Mass., before taking the practice field with the New England Patri-ots. “I’m happy for those guys getting a new stadium.”

He’s not the only one.Another fact to keep in

mind: The last time Montana State underwent such a dra-matic venue change, the Bob-cats played their entire home slate at Bozeman High in 1972 while Reno H. Sales Stadium (now Bobcat Stadium) was being erected.

And MSU’s most lopsided loss at the venue was that forgettable 2006 loss to UC Davis. Why bring it up? For the silver lining.

The Bobcats advanced to the national quarterfinals that year.

Check Monday’s Chronicle for more on Fletcher’s sea-son debut on Monday Night Football. Tim Dumas can be reached at tdumas@daily-chronicle.com and 582-2651.

Dumas/from G2