The poster is old enough and filled with enough famed faces to now be considered iconic.
Many of the old-school Griz football posters from yesteryear are relics, souvenirs. One in particular picture from the past is not only a throwback, but symbolic of the old ways of Montana football.
The photo of reference is one of UM offensive line coach Chad Germer surrounded by the Griz offensive line during the 2001 season. The starters included a dominant, nasty group featuring future NFL offensive guard Thatcher Szalay, future NFL draft pick offensive tackle Dylan McFarland, towering 6-foot-7 bookend tackle John Skinner, salty and savvy center Brian Pelc and athletic, physical guard Derek Decker.
The common thread for the hulking unit: they all hailed from Montana. McFarland hailed from Kalispell while Skinner grew up in Dillon. Szalay came from Whitefish while Pelc is from Helena. Decker was the small-town guy in the small-town crew, hailing from Ballantine. Germer is also from the Treasure State, hailing from Three Forks.
That unit of Montana-made beef was a pivotal part of Montana’s last national championship run more than 20 years ago. The Griz rode the leadership and toughness of that offensive line to the 2001 national championship, marking the last time UM captured small school college football’s ultimate crown.
For years, Montana had a defined formula of how to build its offensive front. For a multitude of reasons — Montana high schools moving away from the ground and pound style that defined the second half of the 20th century, reduced population in the Eastern part of the state because of the influence of technology on agriculture and in turn the small farm town, simply not as many big kids existing and/or playing football among them — that tried and true formula is no longer nearly as sure fire.
The conversation has reemerged as the Griz make their way to the national title game for the first time since 2009. As Montana prepares to take on South Dakota State, each team has veteran, cohesive offensive lines. But the way each was assembled is totally different.
This Griz team has been good to great on the offensive front so far this season. Part of that comes from Germer’s intense leadership — yes, the Griz alum and former All-American is at Montana, although it’s not still at Montana. The Veteran offensive line coach had his first full-time coaching job at his alma mater in the late 1990s and early 2000s before following Joe Glenn to Wyoming.
Germer has returned to his alma mater twice since then. His unit this season has been formed in a completely different fashion. Sure, sophomore Journey Grimsrud is a quintessential Montana story, developing from Class B state track and field throwing champion to Division I defensive lineman to starting offensive guard for the Big Sky Conference champions.
But the rest of Montana’s line has much different origins. Senior center A.J. Forbes, a three-year starter, is a former transfer from Nebraska. Chris Walker, a starter the last two seasons at left tackle for the Griz, also started his career playing for the Cornhuskers, where he was a defensive lineman.
Brandon Casey is in his third year as a starter at right tackle and earned first-team All-Big Sky honors as a junior. He hails from Sandpoint, Idaho and the Griz had to beat several FBS programs, including Oregon State, for his services coming out fo high school. Utility man Cannon Panfiloff has been essential after All-Big Sky senior captain Hunter Mayguiness (a Washington State transfer) has been unavailable and sophomore Liam Brown has been banged up.
On the South Dakota State side, you could say that the big boys up front for the Jackrabbits have been molded in a similar fashion to the way the Griz used to build their offensive lines.
SDSU’s group’s known as the “605 Hogs” has been touted for the better part of two years as the top offensive line in the nation. That’s lofty praise considering that distinction has gone to the North Dakota State Bison, SDSU’s bitter rival, for the better part of the last decade.
NDSU has used a formula of recruiting from in-state and in the neighboring region, getting raw yet potential-filled offensive linemen from rural backgrounds and then letting legendary strength and conditioning coach Jim Kramer mold them into behemoths.
It’s resulted in players like Cordell Volson, Cody Mauch and Dillon Radunz not only getting drafted into the NFL but starting for NFL teams. Volson starts for the Cincinnati Bengals, Mauch starts for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Radunz is the starting right tackle for the Tennessee Titans. Carolina Panthers guard Nash Jensen and New York Jets offensive tackle Billy Turner have also been NFL starters.
South Dakota State has a prodigious reputation that proceeds them. On a roster that features NFL prospects like running back Isaiah Davis and tight end Zach Heins, the SDSU hogs have gotten as much publicity as any non-Bison front in recent memory. And deservedly so, considering the entire starting unit from last year’s national championship run returned last year, bolstered by a left side that is likely going to play on Sundays.
“They are extremely selfless,” SDSU first-year head coach Jimmy Rogers said of the unit. “They work really, really hard at their craft. They devote a lot of time to it and this group has been together for two full seasons. Continuity is a big thing in college football and to have your whole starting offensive line come back after winning the national championship the year prior, that’s a recipe for success.””
When it comes to how South Dakota State built this particular unit, the Jacks have a formula all their own. Although it’s reminiscent of what Montana did decades ago and of what North Dakota State has done the last decade, it has it’s own spin.
And the front has helped the Jackrabbits forge a unit that’s been both the foundation and the tone setter for a team that carries a 28-game winning streak into Sunday’s national championship team against the second-ranked Griz in Frisco, Texas.
“No. 1, once we know guys have the size profile and the athletic profile that we are looking for, we want them to have the characteristics from a personality standpoint that allow them to grow within our program,” South Dakota State third-year offensive line coach Ryan Olson nine days before the title game. “Some of those things that are important intelligence, a level of toughness and a love for the game. Those are the three biggest things we are looking for. Once you figure out if they have that stuff, and you can get them in to your program, it’s really just that slow, grinding process.
“We want to bring guys in as freshmen. We want them to have to take their lumps. Playing on the scout team, grinding against the No. 1 defense, I don’t think they would describe that as ‘Fun’ (laughs).
“But it’s necessary. As I always say, when you are a young guy, you get dragged through the mud sometimes. You get dragged through the mud and there’s value in that. That helps make you tough.”
There’s no doubt the “605 Hogs” are tough. There’s also no doubt that they have exceptional chemistry as a unit. That comes naturally when you return your entire starting offensive line after winning the first national championship in school history.
It also comes from the shared struggles, the hard times, the getting dragged through the mud together.
“They care about each other and you always hear ‘you have to play for the guy next to you’ and I think this group really does that,” Olson said. “There’s an old saying in football and I’ve heard it a lot – you don’t have to like each other, you just have to respect each other. I don’t think that’s true. I think that’s bulls***. I think with the amount of time these kids spend together, whether it’s in the weight room, in practice, most of them do like and love each other. There has to be some real authentic care for each other.”
It also helps to have prodigious talent. And Olson’s group certainly has that. The left side of SDSU’s offensive line might just both hear their names called in next spring’s NFL Draft. And they have significant experience to go along with their natural gifts of size, strength and athleticism.
Mason McCormick is one of the great maulers in college football. The astute, mature and aggressive senior is a team captain. At 6-foot-5, 315 pounds, he fits the perfect prototype for an NFL offensive guard. And he has the pedigree; he’s started 57 straight games and is a three-time first-team All-American.
The man book ending him might have even greater pro prospects. Garrett Greenfield is a 6-foot-7, 320-pound left tackle who has started 55 straight games on the blindside. He has been a consensus All-American each of the last three seasons, including the spring season in 2021 where SDSU finished as the national runner-up to Sam Houston.
“We always take pride in our work,” McCormick said. “I think that’s the nature of the position. It’s not the glory and glamour but there’s merit and fun in seeing our other teammates succeed. We want to be able to put them in the best possible situation and ultimately, we try to go out there and make a statement every week. I don’t think that changes in any way.”
McCormick and Greenfield are two examples of the way South Dakota State has been committed to development, particularly when it comes to players from in state and from the surrounding region.
McCormick hails from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which is less than an hour south of Brookings, where SDSU’s campus makes its home.
Greenfield is from Rock Valley, Iowa, which is 102 miles from Brookings, less than a 90-minute drive depending on which highway you take.
Junior center Gus Miller (6-foot-3, 295) grew up in Brookings, South Dakota and attended Brookings High School. Senior right guard Evan Beernsten (6-4, 300) hails from De Pere, Wisconsin, which is about a seven-hour drive from Brookings.
Senior right tackle John O’Brian (6-foot-5, 300 pounds) is from farther away; he grew up in Eaton Rapids, Michigan. And he stared his career at FBS Bowling Green before transferring to SDSU ahead of last season. But O’Brian still fits Olson and head coach Jimmy Rogers’ bill of a kid from the northern Midwest with rural roots and huge upside coming out of high school.
“The ceilings are just as high as players from other places, but you look at high school football in the Northern part of the country, Montana and South Dakota and our neighboring states included,” Olson said. “The seasons are so much shorter. In South Dakota, they wrap up the high school playoffs before Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, Texas doesn’t the playoffs until right before Christmas.
“Recruits are coming out a little less refined, especially the linemen, but a lot of times, with hard work and sticking with it, their ceilings are as high as anyone. That’s the exact story of some of our best players.”
Olson, who coached at Bemiji State for three seasons before joining SDSU ahead of the 2021 campaign, also believes in the element of wanting to be a part of something bigger than yourself, both when it comes to on an offensive line unit and within the fabric of a team and a football program. Olson first learned that during his time as an all-conference right tackle while winning three straight national titles between 2009 and 2011 while playing at Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Olson and Rogers both share the opinion that recruiting locally and from the immediate region, particularly for the grunt positions like the offensive front, caters to the development of elite play in the trenches.
“When you look at the programs that have the best offensive lines at our level — North Dakota State, us, Montana, Montana State, I know there’s six or eight others I could name if I kept going — but most of them, their rosters are filled with kids who are from not very far away,” Olson said. ““And you talk about who those kids are, I bet they share some similar characteristics in their backgrounds, interests, what they are all about, what this all means to them and what their programs mean to them.
“That’s huge. At our place, they care about this place and there’s an innate passion for playing at our school, playing in our league, playing in this area that makes them not want to go somewhere else and makes them not want to bail when things get hard, because inevitably they will get hard.”
Which leads us to one of the most pivotal matchups in Sunday’s FCS title game. SDSU’s offensive line has gotten plenty of praise. And Montana is well aware of that hype. But the Griz can answer with an aggressive unit anchored by one of the best nose guards in college football.
“You return every starter on your offensive line from a team that just won a national championship, that’s a pretty good start and the makings for a pretty good unit,” Montana head coach Bobby Hauck said.
Hauck’s Griz have full intention of countering SDSU’s powerful front with a swarming, high motor defensive front of their own. Montana senior defensive tackle Alex Gubner (6-3, 285 pounds) is an NFL prospect himself and his stock was certainly accentuated by earning Big Sky Conference Defensive Player of the Year honors by anchoring one of the best defensive units in the country.
He’s the lynch pin and the trigger point for a unit, and a front, that pursues ball carriers, gang tackles and plays with as high a motor as any defense in college football.
“They are very multiple with their box and how they align and they play super hard,” McCormick said. “That’s one of the most impressive things. Week to week, you think teams play hard but these guys play EXTREMELY hard. You can tell that it’s definitely coached. They take pride in what they do, they fly around and they play physical ball.
“We are excited for the task and to prove ourselves again.”
