Kari Gibb/MDN: The Minot State University (MSU) offense, in full gear, runs planned plays against the MSU defense in team meetings on the first day of fall camp on Saturday, August 10. The season opener against Valley City State on Thursday, August 29 is 17 days away.
The Minot State University (MSU) football team began practice in full gear on Saturday, August 10, and there were some important takeaways. In football, you don’t know anything until you put the gear on and actually hit the ball.
MSU has talent on defense again with linebackers and defensive backs. The Beavers had the best pass defense and sixth-best overall defense in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) last season. MSU was 11th in rushing defense and will need a stronger defensive line group to continue to move up the ranks.
The Beavers also have solid players on offense again. MSU was fourth in rushing offense last season, but last in passing offense and ranked last in scoring and total offense for the year. With 515 rushing attempts, the most in the NSIC, opposing teams could pack the box with eight or even nine players to thwart the running attack.
MSU runs a version of the spread option attack. The benefit of this strategy is that it forces defensive backs to make decisions to control the fullback, quarterback and pitchback on every running play. The time it takes to evaluate and make a decision gives the offense time to move forward on the attack.
Once the defense has settled on how it will stop the run game, the play-action passing attack can pose a serious threat to the opponent because they have committed to stopping the run attack first. The key to this explosive play-action passing attack is twofold: wide receivers blocking run plays to make the pass routes look like run blocks, and quarterbacks recognizing what the opposing defense is doing to stop the run.
Finding wide receivers who can cover passing routes while blocking isn’t always easy. Finding quarterbacks who can recognize which defenders are running first and who can read and pass the ball correctly in play-action isn’t much easier.
As the countdown continues, days 17 through 7 will be critical to watch trends and put the right players on the field. Finding depth and solid performance on the defensive line, wide receivers who can hide their routes in the blocking scheme, and quarterbacks who can read and execute the run as well as the play-action pass in pads with live hits will be critical this week.
The final seven days of practice will be about refining the attack plans against Valley City State and improving team chemistry through repeated actions in team drills. By the end of the week, the coaches will have a better idea of what they actually have in terms of equipment.
