MSU at Texas Tech: 4 Things I’m Watching For
Football is back and it couldn’t have gotten here soon enough! After Montana State’s third straight win over Montana and their ensuing mini-playoff run (yeah, that was a playoff run), Bobcat fans’ expectations are high. With the beginning of the FCS season also comes the FBS v FCS payment games and MSU will be taking on the Big 12 Conference’s Texas Tech on Saturday in Lubbock. While I enjoy watching these games and attending them when possible, it’s tough to get a good feel for your team when they’re playing a team like the Red Raiders in week one of the season.
While I’d love to see the Cats pull off an FCS over FBS upset, I’m obviously not going into Saturday expecting it. A loss to Texas Tech means nothing in the grand scheme of things and the MSU football program will be $500,000 richer in their athletic department bank account (which is nothing compared to what some teams are getting paid… Idaho).
A win would be amazing, but I am really looking forward to seeing these 4 things:
1. Troy Andersen at linebacker
You can’t talk about or write about anything Montana State without mentioning Troy. His positional travels are well documented with a true freshman campaign at running back and a sophomore year as the FCS’s version of Tim Tebow. Andersen will now begin the 2019 season at outside linebacker. I can’t wait to see this guy play defense. He must be special on that side of the ball for the coaching staff to move a kid that ran for over 1,500 yards in 2018 to defense. We’ve seen him take a few snaps on D in his career but we haven’t seen him focus this much at linebacker. I can’t wait to see how he looks when he gets to hit people instead of taking the hits.
2. Casey Bauman’s first real snaps
With Troy’s move to defense, Montana State fans get the opportunity to watch their 4th straight season opener with a new QB behind center. Casey Bauman (pronounced like bombin’) will be getting his first college start against Texas Tech and all eyes will be on him after he earned the nod over Tucker Rovig. We might not see much in terms of his skills and growth (thinking back to when MSU played Washington State in 2017 and Chris Murray basically just handed the ball off each play) but we’re going to get our first look at, hopefully, some stability at the QB position. Greg Rachac did a nice piece on Casey Bauman and the nerves that will come with this start.
3. How much will MSU open their playbook?
As mentioned, a loss to Texas Tech means nothing to Montana State when it comes to a conference championship or playoff bid. A loss to an FCS school in the upcoming weeks makes a lot bigger difference. With that in mind, it’ll be interesting to see how much MSU opens their playbook against Texas Tech. I assume that Head Coach Jeff Choate will be keeping most of the new look offense under wraps as not to get too much of it on tape for upcoming opponents. He’s protecting a relatively unknown scheme, a QB making his first start, and the health of his players – I’m expecting a pretty vanilla offense on Saturday.
4. How healthy do the Cats leave Lubbock?
The most important thing about this game is leaving Texas with a healthy football team. Money games are nice… for the money. Lose a player due to an injury in a glorified exhibition game and a season can change quickly. I’ll be watching and hoping MSU can cover the 25-point spread but will not care much about the score if we can get out of this “play up” game with no major injuries.
About the Author
Hot Take Nate Hot Take Nate now resides in Northern California but still calls Montana his home. It'll always be home.
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