Montana State named six senior captains in late August, as voted on by the Bobcat football team and announced by head coach Brent Vigen.
Five of the six captains are Montana natives and three — quarterback Tommy Mellott of Butte, defensive end Brody Grebe of Melstone and Danny Uluilakepa of Puyallup, Washington — are captains for the second time.
The other three include safety Rylan Ortt of Missoula, offensive lineman Marcus Wehr of Billings and center Justus Perkins out of Bozeman.
“The five guys that are from Montana, they grew up wanting to come to Montana State. That’s how it works if you’re from Montana,” Mellott said. “So, obviously having an opportunity to not only come here, but be a captain here, it means a ton.”
Montana State defeated New Mexico 35-31 in its Week 0 opener last weekend.
Coming into this year, Mellott’s 2,474 career rushing yards ranks seventh in MSU history and his 29 career rushing touchdowns is tied for third. The Butte native has totaled 3,241 career passing yards in his time with the Bobcats thus far, and has had eleven career 100-yard rushing games.
The “Melstone Cowboy” is from the smallest town of any Big Sky Conference player. Yet he’s made a huge impact at Montana State. Grebe has earned first-team All-Big Sky honors each of the past two seasons, including earning All-American honors last fall. He is wearing MSU’s legacy No. 41 jersey this season/ by Brooks Nuanez
The former walk-on out of Missoula Sentinel was a quarterback and a state champion javelin thrower in high school. Ortt has turned into one of the savviest and most fearless safeties in the Big Sky entering his senior year/ by Brooks Nuanez
Danny Uluilakepa is the only out of state player who’s a captain for this year’s ‘Cats. He’s a two-year starter, a two-year captain and one of the most gregarious players on the team/ by Jason Bacaj
