BUTTE — Spring football is officially over for Montana Tech, and while there are still a lot of unanswered questions, like who will start under center come fall, fans and players alike can definitely be confident in two things – offensive output for the Orediggers and strength of the secondary.
And the secondary showed on Saturday when redshirt freshman Naoki Harmer made a huge interception early in the scrimmage. But with the fairly old secondary for Montana Tech, head coach Chuck Morrell expects big plays in the backfield.
“I think the biggest thing that I’ve been surprised with is we do run a complex front and movements and some pressures, and I’ve been very pleased a lot of our young guys have been able to pick those things up pretty quickly,” he said. “We’ve been backing that up with a veteran secondary making a lot of plays which we expect them to.”
There still isn’t any clarity at quarterback but redshirt freshman Brandon Battle got his offense in the end zone for two touchdowns on Saturday.
“(Battle) as a freshman redshirted for us a year ago and both of those guys (Jet Campbell) are learning the offense and both of them throughout the course of spring ball have been able to execute, and I thought Brandon did a great job today,” Morrell said.
But the stars of the show were the running backs, specifically seniors Grant Kingston and Jed Fike. The two combined will give the Orediggers a ground-game advantage come fall.
“(Kingston) is a veteran returning running back who transferred in a year ago, and we’ve been really pushing on him to step up and make some plays,” Morrell added. “He showed us some flashes last year and played a lot of special teams, but once again running back is a spot where we feel like we have some depth going into next year.”
