Chronicle
Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2004 11:49 am
Here is yet another article that says Figs is not coming back.
Back in blue: MSU football looks to atone in '05
By TIM DUMAS Chronicle Sports Writer
The pulse of the season read like an irregular heartbeat.
The blips beeped rapidly during those cardiac moments mid-season, then slowed to a near lifeless halt at the end.
There were more twists and turns than the I-90 ride over the Continental Divide.
Yet in a matter of eight days came the climb to the tallest peak followed by a free fall.
Montana State was the lone unbeaten Big Sky Conference team after scoring 60 points in its most thorough outing of the season Oct. 30 at Northern Arizona. The following Saturday, the Bobcats were sent crashing back to earth in a disheartening loss to Sacramento State, which won just two other games.
"Nobody would have expected that to happen," quarterback Travis Lulay said Tuesday. "We were in the spot we wanted to be and things went sour in Sacramento."
MSU responded by taking a 21-point lead in its home finale against Eastern Washington, but was outscored 79-35 from there and ended the season on a three-game losing streak.
"I think I speak for the whole team; we're disappointed because we had set the bar so high for ourselves," added Lulay, who is 2,883 yards short of becoming MSU's first 10,000-yard passer.
"That's a huge motivating factor for us this offseason."
Another will be to get healthy in the face of a difficult non-conference schedule next year.
For 2004, head coach Mike Kramer pointed to a single aspect which led to his team's unimpressive finish.
"Injuries," he said. "They decapitated and decimated a very solid football team."
Not only was the secondary left reeling, but the kick return unit as well. With Brandon Roosevelt and Michael Williams missing much of the season, MSU, which took back 10 kicks/punts for touchdowns last year, had none this season and ended up in a tie for last place in kickoff return yardage in the Big Sky.
That led to poor field position. And with the defense struggling over the last third of the season, "the onus fell only to the offense," Kramer said. "We were always looking at a long, long field."
The offense did remain in good health and provided three straight weeks of final-drive victories. There were school-record performances on several occasions, but that alone did not lead to victories.
Defensively, MSU's patchwork lineup allowed the Bobcats to stay in games during the early portion of the conference schedule. Without that aspect, the numerous come-from-behind wins would not have been possible.
"What the defense was able to accomplish through the end of October was phenomenal," Kramer said.
Imagine what kind of season it would have been if all the fourth-quarter resurrections were taken away.
"We really did come a long way as a team," said Lulay, who was recently added to the Walter Payton Award list, the honor that goes to Division I-AA's most outstanding offensive player. "We started out with all kinds of question marks. We started out slow, but looking back, we did a lot of good things."
The next the time Bobcats play, it will be in Stillwater, Okla., on Sept. 3 of next year against Oklahoma State. The Cowboys are currently ranked 23rd in Division I-A.
After playing OSU for the first time, Montana State hosts Stephen F. Austin, which like the Bobcats is coming off a 6-5 season. SFA fired head coach Mike Santiago last Sunday after a six-year tenure.
MSU then travels to Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo and hosts North Dakota State, teams which combined for a 17-5 record this year, before heading into Big Sky play.
"It's a pretty big pie," Kramer said. "We'll take it one slice at a time."
Kramer is counting on the healthy returns of cornerbacks Eddie Smith and Kahiam Hunter, linebackers Marudas and Clayton Curley and return men Roosevelt and Williams, both just sophomores, for next year.
There's also a number of freshmen, who were held out this year to allow them an extra year of eligibilty.
Louis Saucedo, a 6-foot-4, 290-pound lineman, will help fill the void left by Lawrence Figueroa. Evin Groves, a 1,600-yard rusher from Sweetwater (Calif.) High who "played in one of the toughest leagues in the country," joins the tailback corps.
The Bobcats lose only Eddie Sullivan from a talented receiver group, but should gain Michael Brown, who was the offensive scout team's player of the year.
Tailback Terrence King and cornerback Ryan Kelly are expected to contribute next season as well.
"If we stay healthy, we're going to be a darn good football team next year," Kramer said. "The league is going to be extremely tough. There's a lot of top players coming back, but I consider us the best team in the Big Sky going into preseason camp."
