gameday - colorado mesa

8/22/2019 Gameday - Colorado Mesa

1/6

Saturday, Sept. 14

vS. Colorado MeSaGameDay

Full PaPer

InsIDe

InsIDe

PreDIctInG

a runawayAter a rustrating trip

to Dallas, the Chroniclesports sta believes

the Bobcats will

generate some positive

momentum with

another lopsided home

victoryI e5

uP For the

challenGeColorado Mesa readyto tackle seasons mostdifcult test I e2

weve Got youcovereD

For all o the latest

updates and analysis andto join the discussion

surrounding the Bobcats

second home game against

Colorado Mesa, visit

dailychronicle.com/live

at 1 p.m. this aternoon.

Also be sure and ollow

@jmaletz and

@kylesample_bdc

on Twitter

coloraDo mesa vs. no. 3 montana state, BoBcat staDIum, 1:05 P.m.

Cad

Msa

taback

Jak Cm

one play away...

ADriAn SAnChez-GonzAlez/ChroniCle

Dakta Pukp as yt t tak a sap f Mtaa Stat. Tat cud cag tday agast Cad Msa.

Despite the relative easewith which the Bobcats shouldhandle Mesa, this is a strangeweek. Rob Ash, the Bobcatshead coach of seven years,took time out of his scheduleto address rumors that hadbeen swirling around his

program since shortly after a31-30 loss to Southern Meth-odist in Dallas. QuarterbackDeNarius McGhee separatedhis throwing shoulder and willbe out indefinitely, Ash toldthe media members gatheredoutside of the south entrance

of Brick Breeden Fieldhouse.For the first time since No-

vember 2009, Montana Statewill have a quarterback notnamed McGhee operating theoffense. Perhaps that explainswhy three quarterbacks are sit-ting in the film room prepar-ing themselves for the comingweeks and their new positionson the depth chart.

It could also be that thesequarterbacks dont understandthe meaning of a day off.

The way current No. 2 quar-terback Dakota Prukop tellsit, this is nothing unusual forthe teams signal callers. If theteam is not practicing, playingor traveling, its a good bet atleast one of them can be foundwatching film.

When the mindset isthat youve got four startingquarterbacks and one getsto play Saturday because thecircumstances necessitate it,

everybody must be preparedas if they were the guy leadingthe offense.

Coach (Tim) Cramseyprepares all four quarterbacksevery day the same, Prukopsaid following Tuesdayspractice. We all prepare asstarters every day thats hisbig thing. I know he has dealtwith quarterback injuries inthe past so he definitely takesthat really seriously. I thinkanyone No. 1, 2, 3 or 4 couldstep in and do just fine.

McGhees injury has forcedJake Bleskin, a redshirt sopho-more from Great Falls, intothe starting role for todaysgame. Bleskin is anything butproven, throwing just eightpasses in his career, includinga 2-of-4 performance in thelatter stages of a season-opening win over Monmouth.

First-r offnsiv coorintor hs pln to prpr qurtrbcks

By Kyle SaMple ChroniCle SPorTS WriTer

Its Monday afternoon and the MontanaState football team has the day off.

The opponent this week is not a difficultone or at least its not supposed to be.

Colorado Mesa is a Division II programwith a limited number of scholarships and

a recent history of futility: The Mavericksare 22-32 over the past five years and haventwon a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conferencetitle in decade.

M Ready I e6


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E2 | Saturday, September 14, 2013 bozeman daily chronicle

Sideline Briefing

RecordsMontana State 1-1, Colorado Mesa 1-0

SeriesBobcats lead 2-1

Weather forecastScattered thunderstorms, 72 degrees

CrowdBobcat Stadium (17,777)

TVMax Media (Chris Beyer, Mike Callaghan, Je Eberle)

RadioKXLB-FM (100.7) (Tyler Wiltgen, Dan Davies)

Coaches

SchedulesCOLORADO MESA

Sp. 7 Menlo College W, 34-0

Sp. 14 @ M S 1:05 p.m.

Sp. 21 @ Ch S n

Sp. 28 BlaCk HillS State 1 p.m.

oc. 5 @ nw Mc Hhs 1 p.m.

oc. 12 WeStern neW MexiCo 1 p.m.

oc. 19 @ F lws 1 p.m.

oc. 26 Colorado SCHool oF MineS 1 p.m.

n. 2 @ CSU-Pub 6 p.m.

n. 9 @ Ws S C 1 p.m.

n. 16 adaMS State n

MOnTAnA STATE

au. 29 MonMoUtH W, 42-24

Sp. 7 @ Suh Mhs l, 31-30

Sp. 14 Colorado MeSa 1:05 p.m.Sp. 21 @ Sph F. aus 5 p.m.

Sp. 28 @ nh d 1:35 p.m.

oc. 5 nortHern arizona 2 p.m.

oc. 19 @ Wb S 3:35 p.m.

oc. 26 UC daviS 2 p.m.

n. 2 @ nh C 1:35 p.m.

n. 9 @ es Wsh 1 p.m.

n. 16 SoUtHern UtaH 4 p.m.

n. 23 Montana n

Players to watchColorado Mesa: RB Jake Cimolino, The junior rom Fort Bragg,

Cali., rushed or 120 yards on 15 carries and scored two o the

teams three touchdowns in the Mavericks season opener.

Cimolino has rushed or 2,459 yards at Mesa and needs just 376to move into third place on the programs all-time list.

Motaa State: QB Jake Bleskin, The redshirt sophomore, who

has attempted just eight passes in six appearances the past

two seasons, will make his frst start with the Bobcats today.

Teammates and coaches alike say the oense will not skip a beat

with the strong-armed, cerebral Great Falls native under center.

Injury reportColorado Mesa: Undisclosed

Motaa State: QB DeNarius McGhee (shoulder), Craig

Ashworth (ankle), DE Preston Gale (knee), LB Naa Moeakiola

(shoulder), WR Kurt Davis (knee), LS Rocky Hogue (shoulder),

C Christian Williams (eye), DL Zach Hutchins (undisclosed), LB

Rhett Young (undisclosed), DB Trace Timmer (undisclosed), OL

Charles Lee (undisclosed)

Quick hitsnMontana State won its sixth straight home opener against

Monmouth but has dropped six o its last seven road openers.

BOBCATS GAME DAY

Colorado Mesa vs. No. 3 Montana State

1:05 p.m., Bobcat Stadium

ROB ASH

MSU, 7th year

34th year overall

51-23 at MSU

227-122-5 overall

RuSS MARTIn

CMU, 2nd year

6th year overall

5-7 at CMU

17-33 overall

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Come see our new larger location andcheck out our selection of Bobcat fangear for your dog including hoodies,

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CHRiS TOMLiNSON/GRAND JUNCTiON SENTiNEL

Colorado Mesa wll be wthout startng quarterback Arc Kaser, rght, who left Sept. 7s game wth an njured left knee after beng

tackled by Menlos Gabrel Deol.

Colorado Mesa eager to square off aganst second Bg Sky team n as many seasons

Mavericks up for the challenge

By JON MALETZ

Chroncle Sports Edtor

Russ Martin admits the circum-stances are hardly ideal.

The second-year Colorado Mesafootball coach was led to believe hissquad had an agreement to play DixieState in one of the 2013 seasons firsttwo games. The matchup did not ma-terialize, however, which left Martinand the Mavericks scrambling.

When the program couldnt procureany contests against fellow Division

II foes, Mesa started looking bothup and down. The unenviable result:a home opener against Division IIIMenlo College followed by a bus tripto Bozeman to take on one of theFootball Championship Subdivisionstop teams.

Squaring off with the high-poweredBobcats (1-1), ranked third in the lat-est FCS poll, is a daunting proposition,Martin admitted Tuesday. His squadrelishes the opportunity, however.

Its exciting. They are a phenom-enal football team, Martin said.I told my players theres no doubtMSU will be the most talented teamwe play with the most depth of

anybody. If the good lord blessesa team with more talent and ability,so be it. It doesnt mean we have tohave blown assignments or mentalmistakes.

The Mavericks breezed throughSept. 7s opener against the Oaks.The junior tailback tandem of JakeCimolino and Ricky Trinidad rushedfor more than 200 yards, averaged 8per carry and scored two touchdowns.The CMU defense, meanwhile, sur-rendered just 204 yards of total offensein the 34-0 blowout.

The one downside to the rout: TheMavericks lost starting quarterbackArick Kaiser, who was relegated to the

sideline at the conclusion of his squadssecond offensive series with a left kneeinjury.

Kyle Duran, a fellow redshirt fresh-man from Chandler, Ariz., stepped

into his first college game and com-pleted 16-of-29 passes for 142 yardsand added a scoring scamper.

Duran will be under center againtoday when CMU squares off against aBig Sky team for the second time in asmany seasons.

The Mavericks were locked in atight contest in the third quarter whenthey headed across the state to takeon Northern Colorado in September2012. In a matter of minutes, however,CMU went from being one play awayfrom squaring the contest to trailingby more than three touchdowns.

It went on to lose 40-3, its secondof three consecutive defeats to openMartins tenure in Grand Junction.

We had a chance to tie but messedup a protection, which led to a sack,Martin lamented. In the span of afew minutes, we gave up (16 points) that totally turned the gamearound. We played well for mostof that game, but Im not a bigbeliever in moral victories. If you dothings on a consistent basis and buildfor success, eventually you will havesuccess. We dont measure success somuch based on winning or losing; we

base it on whether were getting betteras a football team and how close weare to playing as well as we possiblycan.

Just like their game last week, our

season wont be based on this onegame. Well take whatever weve got,come up there and give it a whirl.

The Mavericks bring Martins ver-sion of a fast-paced spread offense,one hes honed over 26 years in theprofession including a successfuleight-year stint as offensive coor-dinator and quarterbacks coach atNebraska-Kearney prior to taking the

job at Mesa. The system, based onthe double and triple option, includeszone-read elements and prominentlyfeatures Cimolino, one of the most ac-complished backs in program history.

CMUs high-intensity defense ispredicated on bringing seeminglyconstant pressure from a variety of dif-ferent positions. Its a scheme Martinhopes will unsettle Jake Bleskin, whowill be stepping in for the injuredDeNarius McGhee today and for theforeseeable future.

Its unfortunate for them to losetheir quarterback and unfortunatefor our fans to not get the chance tosee a young man who is one of the topplayers in the country perform buttheyre not going to change what theydo. We arent either, Martin said.They build their system around abunch of players, not just one guy.

They have a quality backup whohas the cannon and the ability to be agreat quarterback.

Added MSU head coach Rob Ash,(Bleskin) wont have the red jersey on;hell be a living target, which will bea little anxiety producing initially maybe until that first hit, the first timehe gets rattled in the pocket. Like anyplayer, it will go away and hell settleinto the game. I think Jake will betremendous.

Martin harbors no illusions aboutpulling off an upset. Rather, he hopeshis kids savor the challenge, the envi-ronment and the moment.

You dont get very many chances

to play the top teams in the nation,let alone the top teams in the divisionabove you, Martin said. This is aphenomenal opportunity for our kidsand our program.

i told my players theres no

doubt MSU wll be the most

talented team we play wth

the most depth of anybody.

if the good lord blesses a

team wth more talent and

ablty, so be t. it doesnt

mean we have to have blown

assgnments or mental

mstakes.

Russ Martin, Colorado Mesa

football coach


3/6

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Saturday, September 14 , 2013 | E5bozeman daily chronicleBOBCATS GAME DAY



Depthcharts

Montana State

OffenseLEFT TACKLE

55 John Weidenaar 6-7/280 So

76 Marshall Womack 6-5/280 Fr

LEFT GUARD

63 Kyle Godecke 6-5/315 So

75 JP Flynn 6-5/304 Fr

CENTER

74 Matthew Devereaux 6-3/300 So

70 Joel Horn 6-4/295 So

RIGHT GUARD

79 Quinn Catalano 6-4/300 Jr

70 Joel Horn 6-4/295 So

RIGHT TACKLE

71 Alex Eekhoff 6-6/288 So

64 Andy Austin 6-3/285 Sr

QUARTERBACK

2 Jake Bleskin 6-1/195 So

5 Dakota Prukop 6-2/195 Fr

RUNNING BACK

25 Cody Kirk 5-10/213 Sr

33 Shawn Johnson 5-9/175 Jr

X RECEIVER

86 Tanner Bleskin 6-3/218 Sr

83 Manny Kalfell 6-3/193 So

Z RECEIVER

84 Brian Flotkoetter 6-2/211 Jr

85 Will Krolick 6-0/192 Fr

F/Y RECEIVER

4 Jon Ellis 5-10/175 Sr

12 David Dash 5-7/174 Jr

TIGHT END

80 Tiai Salanoa 6-3/257 Sr

93 Lee Perkins 6-2/240 Jr

KICKER

18 Rory Perez 6-3/185 Sr

DefenseEND

10 Odin Coe 6-3/250 So

48 Connor Verlanic 6-4/245 Jr

TACKLE

47 Taylor Dees 6-2/273 Jr

97 Connor Thomas 6-3/270 Fr

NOSE TACKLE

90 Taylor Sheridan 6-3/280 So

92 Nate Bignell 6-2/273 So

BANDIT

41 Brad Daly 6-1/240 Sr

46 Hayden Vick 6-3/236 Jr

SAM LINEBACKER

16 Cole Moore 6-2/220 Jr

34 Blake Braun 6-1/225 Fr

MIKE LINEBACKER

51 Michael Foster 6-1/228 So

59 Fletcher Collins 6-2/230 FrWILL LINEBACKER

43 Alex Singleton 6-2/240 Jr

29 Feao Vunipola 5-10/222 Fr

BOUNDARY CORNER

37 Deonte Flowers 5-11/183 Jr

8 Ijumaa Armstrong 6-0/190 Jr

ROVER

22 Eryon Barnett 6-2/200 Sr

5 Robert Marshall 6-0/200 Jr

FREE SAFETY

1 Steven Bethley 5-11/210 Sr

26 James Nelson 5-11/199 Jr

FIELD CORNER

3 Sean Gords 5-10/193 Sr36 Brad Nordahl 5-11/172 So

PUNTER

18 Rory Perez 6-3/185 Sr

Colorado Mesa

DefenseEND90 Will Harvey 6-3/225 Sr

82 Taylor Schultz 6-3/210 Fr

TACKLE

54 Ryan Sivetts 6-2/220 Jr

55 Jake Thomas 6-1/265 Fr

TACKLE

96 Zach Beach 6-1/255 Jr

99 William Milo 5-10/290 Fr

END

91 Mitch Irwin 6-0/220 So

40 Eric Nimtz 6-2/285 So

OUTSIDE LINEBACKER

42 Andrew Hurley 6-3/220 Jr

51 Marc Palacios 6-0/225 Jr

MIDDLE LINEBACKER

33 Jake Edmiston 6-2/195 Sr

31 Luke Knapton 6-1/215 Jr

OUTSIDE LINEBACKER

48 Zach Hamm 6-0/210 Fr

35 Zach Schiegg 6-0/195 Fr

CORNERBACK

22 Jordan Price 5-8/180 Jr

24 Tyler Winder 5-8/185 So

SAFETY

27 Travis McRae 5-11/175 Jr

28 Olie Olson 5-11/180 Fr

SAFETY

2 Michael Brady 5-11/200 Sr

36 Isaac Koch 5-10/185 So

CORNERBACK

7 Ryan Lendrum 5-9/190 Sr

15 Nick Yeros 5-10/175 So

PUNTER

2 Michael Brady 5-11/200 Sr

OffenseLEFT TACKLE

71 Teddy Silano 6-8/285 Jr

65 Eric Sander 6-4/255 So

LEFT GUARD

64 Mitch Wehrli 6-4/275 Fr

77 Jeff Berghorn 6-4/300 So

CENTER

58 Brett Boyer 6-3/255 Sr

69 Colter Bentley 6-2/260 Fr

RIGHT GUARD

57 Nick Leonard 6-2/250 So

70 Austin Beswick 6-4/280 Fr

RIGHT TACKLE

78 Zeth Ramsey 6-6/235 So

74 Aaron Simons 6-3/260 Fr

QUARTERBACK

12 Kyle Duran 6-0/205 Fr

10 Jason Haferman 5-11/195 Sr

RUNNING BACK

32 Jake Cimolino 5-11/200 Jr

1 Ricky Trinidad 5-9/170 Jr

RECEIVER X

84 Daniel Perse 6-5/200 Fr

11 Steven Lindquist 6-5/200 Jr

RECEIVER H

8 Ian Juede 5-9/185 Jr

21 DJ Hubbard 5-8/160 So

RECEIVER Z

83 Nate Neville 6-3/200 Sr

14 Austin Rodriguez 5-10/165 Sr

TIGHT END

45 Drew Holder 6-4/235 Sr88 Dalton Horan 6-3/215 So

KICKER

39 Tanner Donahue 6-2/185 Fr

THE EDGEcoloraDo Mesavs. Montana state

While it was little more than two weeks

ago, Montana State players, coaches and ans

might have a hard time remembering Aug. 29s

Gold Rush rout particularly ater last weeks

deating loss in Dallas. The smiles will return

today, however.

The Bobcats are an overwhelming avorite

against Colorado Mesa, no matter

who is lining up under center. That

job now alls to redshirt sophomore

Jake Bleskin, who will become the

rst person other than DeNariusMcGhee to start since Cody Kempt in

2009s Brawl o the Wild.

Teammates and coaches have

been efusive in their praise o the

talented quarterback, who has

thrown just eight passes in his college career.

By all accounts, Bleskin has mastered Tim

Cramseys zone-read attack, which should lead

to a productive day on the Bobcat Stadium tur.

Is Bleskin ready to match wits with the Big

Skys top deenses? Not yet. But against a

Division II opponent, we surmise the Great

Falls native will thrive much like he did during

preseason camp, when he routinely picked

apart the second-string deense. He completed72 percent o his passes and tossed three

touchdowns on consecutive possessions in

Augusts nal scrimmage. Today, hell have

more talented weapons at his disposal.

It wont take Bleskin long to get comortable.

Hell be joined in the backeld by a pair o

veterans: senior workhorse Cody Kirk, who has

rushed or two scores in each o the rst two

games, and speedy junior Shawn

Johnson, who burned Monmouth or

an early 90-yard touchdown run.

When he drops back, Bleskin is sure

to nd a host o open receivers andavorable matchups: 6-oot-2 Brian

Flotkoetter and Bleskins brother, 6-3

Tanner, should wreak havoc against

the Mavericks corners, which stand

5-8 and 5-9. Speedy senior Jon Ellis

and tight end Tiai Salanoa have proven to have

big-play capability, as well.

Mesa will bring the blitz oten and rom

a host o diferent positions, but it will have

trouble generating much pressure against the

Bobcats rapidly improving, stout ofensive

ront that has allowed just two sacks.

Will we learn much watching Bleskin shine

against a clearly overmatched oe? Its doubtul,

but it should be a un aternoon or everyonebut Russ Martin and his squad.

WHEN MONTANA STATE HAS THE BALL

By any measure, Colorado Mesas opener was

a success.

Juniors Jake Cimolino and Ricky Trinidad ran

wild last week, piling up more than 200 yards

on the ground while averaging 8 yards a carry.

Backup quarterback Kyle Duran, pressed

into duty ater just two series when

starter Aric Kaiser went down with

an MCL injury, acquitted himsel

quite well. The redshirt reshmancompleted 16-o-29 passes or 142

yards and aided the cause with a

rushing score. Couple their oensive

eiciency with a stout deense, and

the Mavericks were never tested in

a 34-0 rout their irst win in an

opener since 2007.

All told, they compiled 409 yards o total

oense.

This is a dierent week, however, and Mesas

opponent is not Menlo College.

With all due respect to the Oaks, the Maver-

icks leap rom opening with a Division III oe to

squaring o with one o the Football Cham-

pionship Subdivisions best will prove to be

diicult; even head coach Russ Martin admitted

the irst two games on the schedule are less

than ideal.

In order to stay in this game past the irst

quarter, Mesa will have to match scores with

the Bobcats. That will be a most diicult propo-

sition at best.

Montana States ront seven, a

question mark during preseason

camp, has emerged as a truestrength. Odin Coe and Brad Daly

have had little trouble providing

edge pressure in the irst two games

against Monmouth and Southern

Methodist, and linebacker Alex

Singleton has emerged as a star. The

Bobcats will miss Craig Ashworth in the middle

o the line, sure, but it will not matter today.

Cimolino and Trinidad will have a hard time

moving the chains, and Duran will be orced

to take on a heavy workload. An opportunistic

MSU secondary will be waiting, and it likely will

break this game open early.

Simply put, the overmatched Mavericks will

not be able to keep pace.

WHEN COLORADO MESA HAS THE BALL

While Montana States players and coaches

insist the squad prepares the same or every

opponent, todays contest

with Colorado Mesa comes

at an opportune time.

It provides the ideal

chance to break in a new

quarterback and should

help the Bobcats generate

some positive momentumin the wake o last weeks

trip to Dallas, which cost the

squad much more than an unblemished record.

Colorado Mesa walked out o Bozeman with

a 41-7 victory in 1988. The

Mavericks will be lucky i they

score seven points this time

around in ront o a raucous

crowd that will be substantially

larger than the 5,312 that

showed up or CMUs opener

the schools largest in a

decade.For the second time in three

weeks, the Cats will be heading

to Texas ater a resounding victory.45 7

EDGE

EDGE

THE BOTTOM LINE


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E6 | Saturday, September 14, 2013 bozeman daily chronicleBOBCATS GAME DAY



Despite Bleskins glaring lack of game time,nobody within the program seems the slight-est bit concerned with what will transpirewith him at the helm.

Everything that Ive seen from Jakeleads that hes going to be fine on Saturday,Cramsey said at Tuesdays news conference.Hes shown it in practice, hes shown it inscrimmages, hes shown in the game when hegot in against Monmouth. All signs point topositive.

Added Ash, I think Jake will be tremen-dous. Hes very excited about it. Jake is veryconfident, and with good reason; hes atalented player. We brought him in here withthe idea of being our next quarterback. May-be it came a little sooner than we expected,but that day is now. Hes ready for it.

Much of the credit forBleskins preparedness hasbeen given to Cramsey.

Prukop said the first-yearoffensive coordinator ar-rived in Bozeman focusedon coaching each of thequarterbacks the same.Though there are differ-ences McGhee, and nowBleskin, take their practicereps running the first-teamoffense, while current No. 3Quinn McQueary runs thescout team Cramsey isconcentrated on equippingeach quarterback with theknowledge they need toplay.

Just to reiterate: We

really do take the backupquarterback preparingas the starter seriously. Iguarantee we all watch a lot of film, Prukopsaid. There wont be a change in the offensebecause weve all prepared like starters. Jakeis going to do a great job, Id do a great job if Istepped in and Quinn would do a great job ifhe had to step in.

Prukop estimated that he and the otherquarterbacks watch film five times a week You can easily rack up 10 to 15 hours, hesaid sometimes with Cramsey, sometimeswith teammates and other times alone.

Film study has been as important as anytool in Prukops maturation, the redshirtfreshman from Austin, Texas, said.

But for as many hours as he and the otherquarterbacks watch film, it has been Cram-seys guidance on how to watch film that hasfacilitated Prukops understanding of what istranspiring around him.

Cramseys instruction has been so success-ful that Ash said he is less worried about thetransition between McGhee and Bleskin thanhe is in preparing Prukop to be the No. 2 andMcQueary the No. 3.

The No. 3 guy doesnt get many reps, so(Prukop) hasnt had a lot yet and hes a year

younger, Ash said. So now the burden fallson him and he is one play away from beingthe starter. Thats a real focus for us this weekis to get Dakota ready.

What were going to do with Quinn isnow he will have to travel. He will be our No.3. We will absolutely try to keep his redshirt;were not going to play him if we dont haveto. But he has to be ready to be the No. 3.

Prukop wont see much change in his Sat-urday routine. Hell still be on the sidelines ina red hat, standing next to Cramsey signalingplays to Bleskin. Prukop will, however, faceone minor adjustment: Instead of learning

from the more experi-enced quarterbacks at hisdisposal, he will help in

McQuearys learning curve.While he and Bleskinworked under McGhee,Prukop said Bleskin taughthim to take mental repsas the play was unfolding.Hed signal the play in, lookat the defenses alignmentand deduce where McGheewould go with the ball.

Sometimes Jake and Iwill talk and be like, Oh,this is going to be open, itsgoing to be open, Prukopsaid. Or well kind of jokearound and be like, Hey, Ibet this is going to be open,

and then DeNarius willdrop back and fire off.Prukops daily prepa-

ration allowed him to understand whatMcGhee was trying to do, and before long,he said he was seeing things happen mo-ments before they took place.

And with Cramsey in charge of the of-fense, Prukop and the other quarterbacksfeel they are as prepared as they could be fortheir new roles.

If my job was to step in there and play,thered be no problem, Prukop said. If my

job is to do signals, theres going to be noproblem doing that. So whatever I can dobest to serve the team, thats my job andCramsey has prepared me to do that. Thatsa great thing about coach Cramsey and whathe brought to this program.

Kyle Sample can be reached at [email protected] or 582-2690. Follow himon Twitter @kylesample_bdc.

Ready/from E1

I think Jake will be

tremendous. Hes very

excited about it. Jake

is very confident, and

with good reason; hes

a talented player. We

brought him in here with

the idea of being our next

quarterback. Maybe it

came a little sooner than

we expected, but that day

is now. Hes ready for it.

Rob Ash, MSU head coachon new starter Jake Bleskin

AP

Jaxon Bailey paints the midfield logo at Kyle Field on Thursday in College Station, Texas.

Tide, Aggies a summer blockbusterHOUSTON (AP)

The last blockbuster of thesummer is set in Texas.

No. 1 Alabama vs. No.6 Texas A&M. JohnnyFootball trying to derailthe Crimson Tide dynasty.Who is the hero and whois the villain dependsupon your perspective.

And its a sequel.The Tide (1-0) and Ag-

gies (2-0) meet today inthe most anticipated game

of the season.Obviously this is anexciting game for ourteam, the players in ourprogram, Tide coachNick Saban said.

OK, so Saban isntmuch for hype, but theresno doubt this is huge.Looking online for alast-minute ticket to KyleField? Be prepared to shellout $700, give or take ahundred. A hotel room intown? Better have a planB. Most of the space wasbooked not long after theAggies upset Alabama29-24 last November inTuscaloosa. Texas A&Mwas expecting a crowdof around 50,000 at the

stadium for midnight yellpractice Friday night, theAggies unique version ofa pep rally.

Last years victory pro-pelled A&M quarterbackJohnny Manziel to theHeisman Trophy. For theTide, the loss was a detouron the way to a secondstraight national cham-pionship. Sabans team istrying to become the firstto win three straight titles.

The Aggies have champi-onship aspirations, too.In a couple of tuneup

games leading into Sat-urdays Southeastern Con-ference opener for bothteams, Manziel has lookedbetter than ever (six TDpasses and 520 yards),showing no signs that anoffseason in the spotlighthas had any adverse ef-fects on his game.

Here are a few things toknow about todays game:

HOLD THE LINE:Alabamas rebuilt of-fensive line was one ofthe few areas of concernfor the Tide coming intothe season. The Virginia

Tech game did nothing tosoothe the worry warts.The Tide didnt crack100 yards rushing againstHokies.

After Virginia Techeverybody is talkingabout being disappointedin us, guard AnthonySteen said, and weve gota chip on our shoulder ...and were ready to provesomething.

THE OTHER QB: AJMcCarron is no JohnnyFootball, but Alabamafans arent complain-ing. The senior has twonational championshiprings and is one of thebest quarterbacks in thecountry. One of his fewmistakes last season wasan interception nearA&Ms goal line late in thefourth quarter. The best-laid plans for Alabamaprobably dont involvegetting into a high-scoring game with A&Mssuper charged, up-tempooffense. But if it goes thatroute, McCarron and theTides myriad playmakersshould be up to the task.

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