BOZEMAN, Mont.—If the debut of Montana State’s freshmen was any indicator, the team’s future will likely be a bright one.
Redshirt freshman Denarius McGhee passed for 178 yards and two touchdowns, freshman running back Cody Kirk ran for two scores, and freshmen had a hand in five of MSU’s eight touchdowns as the Bobcats overwhelmed Fort Lewis 59-10 on Saturday.
Kirk scored MSU’s first two touchdowns on runs of 1 and 3 yards, and McGhee hit freshman wide receiver Tanner Bleskin on a 32-yard scoring toss with 5:47 remaining in the first quarter to give the Bobcats a 21-0 lead.
McGhee also threw a 51-yard TD pass to junior wide receiver Elvis Akpla early in the second half for a 42-3 lead and freshman wide receiver Gianni Carter hauled in a 27-yard scoring pass from senior quarterback Cody Kempt for a 52-3 lead late in the third quarter.
Freshman linebacker Aleksei Grosulak was MSU’s leading tackler with six. In all, 12 freshmen played significant roles for the Bobcats.
“That just shows where this program has come,” senior strong safety Jordan Craney said. “And it shows the great direction this program is going.”
Even more gratifying for fourth-year coach Rob Ash was the way MSU played against Fort Lewis, an NCAA Division II program from Durango, Colo.
The Bobcats rolled up 532 total yards, had no turnovers and committed just two penalties for 10 yards. MSU ran for 287 yards, passed for 245 and allowed only 77 to Fort Lewis players not named Justin Johnson; the senior wide receiver caught 10 passes for 161 yards as the lone bright spot for the Skyhawks, who have only had two winning seasons in the past 26 years.
“It’ll be a lot tougher in the future, but there’s nothing more I could ask for today,” Ash said. “We were efficient and we were methodical.”
The efficiency started with McGhee, whose last game came in front of 50,000 fans in a Texas high school state championship in 2008.
He was 11-for-17 passing with no interceptions and no sacks. McGhee also ran for 15 yards on two carries.
Was he nervous before his opener? Not a bit.
“It’s been a thing since I was younger,” McGhee said. “I’ve never gotten nervous before a football game. It was so much fun. I told the guys before the game, ‘Let’s just go out and have fun and leave everything on the field.’ I just knew I had the guys around me that would do their jobs.”
Kempt also did well backing up McGhee. He was 6-for-7 passing for 67 yards and two TDs, including a 4-yard scoring toss to Akpla in the second quarter before adding his 27-yarder to Carter in the fourth.
Four running backs carried at least 10 times for MSU and individually topped Fort Lewis’ team total, led by junior Orenzo Davis with 85 yards on 16 carries and a 10-yard TD run with 5:13 to play to close the scoring. Junior C.J. Palmer had 67 yards on 13 carries and Kirk and freshman Kerry Sloan each had 53 yards. The Skyhawks had 29 total rushing yards on 12 carries.
MSU led 21-3 after one quarter, 35-3 at halftime and 52-3 entering the final quarter. The Skyhawks scored their only touchdown on a 1-yard run by converted wide receiver Justin Peters with 11:33 to play after going 80 yards on seven plays, with Johnson accounting for 47 yards on pass receptions.
While praising the freshmen afterward, Ash also cautioned against looking too far ahead. McGhee seemed to understand and talked only about next week’s game, a much stiffer challenge at Washington State.
“We have to focus on now,” McGhee said. “We have to focus on Washington State—not the next four years.”
