Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
OGDEN — Montana State football is the Utah of the Big Sky Conference.
The Bobcats always contend. The Bobcats always are competitive. However, they aren’t always viewed as one of the elite programs in the Big Sky, like an Eastern Washington or Montana.
But the way the Bobcats have played recently, the program is deserving of respect with a top-10 ranking and one of the nation’s best players, quarterback Dakota Prukop.
The ninth-ranked Bobcats host the Weber State Wildcats Saturday, a winless team focused on improvement. However, Montana State coach Rob Ash understands the challenges Weber provides and said his team won’t be overlooking the game.
“What a tough schedule (Weber) has played,” he said. “They’ve battled hard in all their games, and been very close in many of them. Very impressed watching them on tape — they’re strong, well-coached and have really good football players.”
The Bobcats are 5-2 overall, with three conference victories. To this point, their losses are to FBS Arkansas State and a 52-51 non-conference loss to Eastern Washington.
"Very impressed watching (Weber) on tape- they're strong, well-coached and have really good football players," Montana State coach Rob Ash said.
In three conference wins, Montana State is averaging 55 points a game, including a 77-37 victory over UC-Davis last week.
Ash said the offense is performing above and beyond expectations over the last three games.
“It was a tough two-game swing for us in California,” he said. “Offense obviously had a great day Saturday at UC-Davis. Everything just hit; we were hitting on all cylinders. It just turned out right for us.”
The scoring output against UC-Davis prompted national media to congratulate Montana State on the performance, but Ash said his team isn’t focused on the accolades.
“They’re lots of positive things happening on the national level for our team, but we’re not very hung up here on statistics,” he said. “The only thing that we really pay attention to is wins and losses, and that what’s we’ve got to be focused. We’re going to try not to let the hype get in the way.”
In the UC-Davis game, Prukop was the team’s leading rusher and passer. He rushed for 148 yards and two touchdowns, while throwing for 361 yards and four touchdowns. Prukop is also a finalist for the Walter Payton Award and is likely the conference’s best quarterback.
However, Ash said he’s concerned about getting running opportunities against the Wildcats, after Weber defended the run well against Cal Poly.
“I thought (Weber’s run defense) was very impressive,” he said. “They put a package together specifically to stop the option. I was impressed because they’re physical, and Weber was all over it. It took a couple of trick plays and a couple of big plays to get Cal Poly an opportunity to win the game.”
