BobCat "D" a Family Affair

[GOKATS]

From MSU-

BOZEMAN, Mont. -- Some might call Montana State's defensive
evolution from a 4-3 alignment to a 3-4 trickle-down football. Bobcat
linebacker coach Rob Christoff has a simpler explanation for the
nuts-and-bolts of the process.
"We brought my old man in," MSU's sixth-year assistant coach
says in his understate style. "He helped us."
Christoff's 'old man' is A.J. Christoff, a long-time college
coach, the co-defensive coordinator at Stanford last year, who currently
coaches San Francisco 49er linebackers. The elder Christoff coaches with
one of professional football's chief proponents and practitioners of the
3-4 alignment, Mike Nolan, and as such helps smooth the Bobcats'
transition away from the program's trademark 4-3.
The transition, says senior linebacker Nick Marudas, has been
mostly smooth. "Learning the new defense has taken a while," he said,
"but it hasn't been all that hard. Learning (pass) coverage takes more
time than the run fits. You have to learn where each player fits
together in the zone."
In essence, Montana State's new defense will allow the Bobcats
to rely more heavily on zone pass coverage while simultaneously
disguising and simplifying the fronts better, Christoff said. "This
(defense) gives us a lot of flexibility," Christoff said. "We don't have
to give players five different adjustments off of each personnel
package. It eliminates a lot of the thinking and allows players to just
concentrate on making plays."
The elder Christoff has helped facilitate Montana State's
transition to the 3-4. "We talk to him about once a week" about the
intricacies of the new defensive scheme, Rob Christoff said. "It was
more often in the spring. I'd say about one-third to one-half the teams
in the NFL are running this scheme now."
According to Bobcat head coach Mike Kramer, this top-down flow
of information is typical. "Coaches at smaller colleges watch what the
bigger schools are doing, coaches at the bigger schools watch what the
NFL is doing, that's the food chain in this sport."
The Bobcats laid the foundation for this fall's transition to
the 3-4 with a solid work of spring, according to MSU defensive
coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski. "We got a lot of the work done in the
spring, the basic stuff, and we put everything we had worked on in the
spring in the first day (of fall camp)," Kwiatkowski said.


* * * *

SCRIMMAGE #2: Montana State stages its second and final scrimmage of the
fall on Thursday at 3 pm in Bobcat Stadium. Bobcat head coach Mike
Kramer's wish list for the session is simple. "I'm looking for
crispness. I'm looking for better execution by the offense and better
tackling by the defense."
While Kramer acknowledges the defense's progress this month, he
says the focus of the time between now and MSU's season opener at
Oklahoma State on September 3. "I want to see us evolve into a defense
that is forcing second-and-long and third-and-long situations. You can't
play this kind of coverage effectively in short-yardage situations."
Kramer indicated the scrimmage would run approximately 60 plays
evenly split between the first, second and third units.

CATCHIN'... Mike Kramer has tentatively settled on a rotation for his
return specialists. Michael Bass is penciled in as the punt returner,
with Tramaine Murray slated to return kickoffs. "We have some really
good candidates," Kramer said. "All those guys have good speed and
pretty good vision. Michael Bass seems to do a nice job tracking the
ball in the wind, and Tramaine has good speed."

..AND KICKIN': While Kramer gains certainty on his returners, he has
made no such progress on his kickers. "Right now the kick-scoring is
between Jeff (Hastings) and Tyler (Bolton)," Kramer said, indicating
that Eric Fisher of Billings is likely to redshirt this fall. "We have a
long way to go before making that decision, maybe Friday or Saturday (of
game week). The same is true of the kickoff situation."

MATAKIS TAKING YEAR OFF: A day after announcing the retirement of
defensive lineman Ryan Cogley and center Zack Wolf, both of whom will
remain in the program and complete their educations at MSU, Kramer said
injured nose tackle Andy Matakis is likely lost for the season. Matakis
is believed to have injured his surgically repaired left knee this week.
"Andy is lost for the season and headed for another surgery," Kramer
said.
All three players -- Matakis, Wolf and Cogley -- suffered or, in
Cogley's case aggravated, the injury during spring drills. "It makes me
want to play two-handed touch in the spring."

-msu-

Hate to lose Matakis for a year, but hopefully we'll have him back next year in good shape.

[MSUcantouchus]

Srimmage at 3:00? Some of us have to work Kramer. Please, work around me and the rest of us fan's scheduals for your practices and srimmages. Just another case of the man keeping me down!