HELENA, Mont. -- As the opening game of the Troy Purcell era creeps near, the Fighting Saints will take the field Friday to show just how far they've come. 

The football team will hold its fall scrimmage on Friday at 4 p.m. in Nelson Stadium. The public is invited to attend as the Saints inch toward an exciting 2019 season.  

"Getting to Day 1 was huge and now we're 14 practices in," Purcell said. "I think the coaching staff has done a great job of preparing these players. The kids are hungry. They're having fun out there. They're absorbing everything we're feeding them. It's an exciting time."

Purcell will get his top guys on the field for a limited set of plays before the lion's share of the snaps will be doled out to the second and third tier guys. This scrimmage will be used to evaluate much of the depth chart and figure out where guys belong. 

"We want to get them in situations where we can watch them play, but we want to give the twos and threes a chance to get up there and shine and give them more reps," Purcell said. "You're going to see the ones versus ones on defense and offense. We'll try to get different situations and game-time experiences where we can excel at and succeed in." 

 All throughout the scrimmage, the coaching staff will sprinkle special teams situations into the fray, hoping to simulate some game-like scenarios. 

"We'll run our base stuff and be pretty similar to what most people do in football right now," Purcell said. "I want to see kids play fast, block and tackle. Great effort, play fast, block and tackle. We'll see where we're at." 

The goal before the opener against Montana Western on Sept. 7, of course, is to establish a two-deep roster full of players set to play Purcell's brand of football. 

Aside from player evaluation, the scrimmage will serve as an operational simulation for the coaches, too. The scrimmage will also bring in officials to ensure players are lining up and moving correctly presnap. 

"We want to get into the game mode," Purcell said. "We get the headsets. We get n the box and start to know what we're looking for. It's operational for us. We bring refs in and then we can see if there's anything we're doing wrong in the presnap. Refs will spot the ball and make it as close to game-like as we can."