Both teams can learn from Orediggers 97-0 football victory

The Montana Tech Orediggers have found themselves in quite a situation.  Yes, they won their game last week.  By a lot.  97-0 over Simpson University.  As you can probably tell, the Diggers had the game firmly in hand from the moment the opening kickoff was run back for a touchdown by Levi Torgerson.  He was one of many Orediggers who found their way into the end zone that day.

Montana Tech is facing criticism for the wide margin of victory that looks like something you'd find on a video game.  People are saying that the Orediggers ran up the score.  While the final result would certainly indicate that, it is just not the case.  Montana Tech Head Coach Kyle Samson pulled the first string after the first quarter with the game firmly in hand.  Samson went as deep into his roster as any head coach has ever gone using the sixth string by the time the dust was settling.  Kids who don't get a lot, if any, time on the playing field were getting big minutes.  Even though the game was out of hand, these players are still fighting for position on the depth charts and you will not find a coach in America who will tell his players to give anything less than their all.

Simpson University is a first-year program who is an associate member of the Frontier Conference this year and will come in as a full-fledged member next year.  The Frontier is one of the premiere conferences in the NAIA and this is a taste of what life is like from week to week.  Sure, growing and learning is never easy, especially when you're facing a ranked team like Montana Tech on the road.  But Simpson absorbed the blows and will take many things away from this lopsided game.  They will grow, they will improve and they will establish rivalries within the conference.  This may have been a tough pill to swallow but Simpson will be a better team in the long run because of it.  And you can bet that they will use this as motivation when the teams square off again.