Huskies football ready for home opener against Mustangs
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HOUGHTON -- The Michigan Tech Huskies football team emerged from their battle with the Bemidji State Beavers last Thursday with a 31-29 victory on the road. It was, by no means, an easy win, and the Huskies nearly gave it away in the end, but, at the end of the day, a win is a win.
"There was a ton of good," said Huskies coach Dan Mettlach. "I felt like we played really good football for three quarters, complimentary football in the second quarter and third quarter, but just not Tech football in the fourth quarter. Felt like we had a chance to put them away, even after they get the field goal, and we’re up by two scores, getting it in chunks, before we put it on the ground.
"But, those are things that we’ve got to get better at in terms of the maturity on our football team, of understanding how to finish football games, playing for four full quarters, regardless of what the scoreboard says. You have a chance to put somebody away like we did and then let them back in it, and the game completely flips at that point."
At the same time, it was just the first game of the season, and Mettlach knows his group is capable of improving if they put the time and effort in.
"We’ve got plenty that we need to work on still," he said. "Way too many discipline issues with bad penalties, and eyes in the back end. A couple of choices that we made offensively Thursday in terms of getting in and out of plays, and changing what we had called. Just understanding how to manage the football game from a young 'Q' (quarterback) standpoint, needs to get better.
"But, overall, I thought we played really well. Opening game, not knowing what we had, to go on the road and beat that team at their place, we’ll take that regardless of what the final ended up."
In terms of young quarterback, Mettlach was referring to sophomore Elliott Larner, who made the start with junior Alex Bueno nursing an injury. Larner was 14-of-22 through the air for 153 yards and a touchdown, and he ran 14 times for 75 yards and two touchdowns.
"I thought, again, for a young quarterback to go on the road to get his first college start at that place against that team, right up until the ball got put on the ground at the end, every other mistake that we saw when we watched the film are minor mistakes at that point," Mettlach said. "So, I thought, overall, he played a really good game, bought into the (fact that) you don’t just have to be a guy making plays all the time. He managed the game well, got the football where it needed to go."
Mettlach, a former college quarterback himself, knows what he wants out of Larner moving forward.
"Everything that he did from an operating standpoint, if there was anything that were going to nitpick on when we got back, it was going to be just the timing of some of the throws, when we got guys out in space," said Mettlach, "getting the football out of his hand, rather than wait until things are really in the clear. The anticipation part of playing that position comes with reps, and he’ll get better at that.
"Putting the ball on the ground at the end of the game, he and I have talked about that enough in the last couple days. He knows better, and we’ll get better from that. Thankfully, we survived that issue on Thursday night."
One thing that will help Larner will be the play of junior wide receivers Nic Nora and Bryce Kurncz. Nora had four catches Thursday for 97 yards and a touchdown. Kurncz had three catches for 24 yards.
"We’ve said this for two years now, Nic has got to be a differencemaker for us in what he does, whether he’s carrying the football, throwing it, catching it," Mettlach said. "He made a huge play on the second touchdown, ran a completely different coverage than we were expecting, and he saw the rotation and was able to get across the field a little bit faster than what the original play had called for to get to the grass, so he made a ton of plays on Thursday night.
"Then Kurnczy’s Mr. Consistent. He’s always where he needs to be and makes catches at crucial times in traffic or out in space. So, I thought our skill guys for the most part played a very good game."
Scouting the Mustangs
The Midwestern State Mustangs come into Saturday 1-0 on the season after defeating Missouri Southern last Saturday at home, 30-23.
The Mustangs were led offensively by redshirt junior quarterback Kaden Brown, who was 32-of-38 for 390 yards and two touchdowns. However, he also threw an interception. On the ground, he ran 14 times for 39 yards and a touchdown.
Sophomore wide receiver Tyler Brown had just two catches, but he managed 85 yards and a touchdown out of that. Junior Dominic Cox was Kaden Brown's favorite target, making 10 catches for 81 yards.
Game time
The Huskies and Mustangs are set to for opening kickoff Saturday at 12 p.m. at Kearly Stadium in Houghton.