If an off-season full of change can come to fruition, the Montana State Bobcats look primed to capture at the Big Sky title they are favored for. The ultimate expectation is a run at national championship that’s eluded them for more than three decades.
Change was not a defining factor for a Bobcat offense that returns fully loaded after setting a school record for points in a season in 2014. But the Bobcat couldn’t capitalize despite the fact that Dakota Prukop and his arsenal of weapons were lighting up scoreboards across the West. A season ago, Montana State scored more than 40 points on seven different occasions. The Bobcats lost two of those games, both at home, both against key opponents.
Dakota Prukop vs. SDSU
The first loss was a 52-51 loss to eventual league champion Eastern Washington in a non-conference contest. The final loss was a heartbreaking 47-41 loss to South Dakota State in a driving Bozeman snowstorm in the first round of the FCS playoffs last December. The defeat was a turning point.
In the off-season, head coach Rob Ash put longtime assistant Kane Ioane in charge. The Bobcat Hall of Fame player has coached linebackers for a decade. Now he’ll call the plays as MSU’s defensive coordinator. Former standout players Michael Rider (cornerbacks) and Jody Owens (linebackers) joined the defensive coaching staff as well.
On the field, the Bobcats brought in seven transfers to bolster a unit searching for nine new starters. The group has worked in with a slew of young returners as they try to master Ioane’s multi-faceted, aggressive scheme. Last season, Montana State gave up 33.5 points and almost 500 yards per game, including a Big Sky-worst 297 passing yards per outing.
Despite the off-season of change, the arsenal of weapons on the other side of the ball has the bar set high. The Big Sky Conference coaches tabbed MSU as the favorite to win the league. The Bobcats were just one vote away from being the favorite in the media poll.
“I don’t know what everyone else thinks, but we expect to not lose a game and go all the way,” MSU senior captain defensive tackle Taylor Sheridan said. “That adds pressure but at the same time, I think we have the team to do it and that takes the pressure away.”
Sheridan will be an anchor on a defensive line that also includes senior defensive tackles Connor Thomas and Nate Bignell. The linebacker unit will have to replace five seniors, including All-America Alex Singleton now of the Seattle Seahawks. But Grant Collins, a redshirt freshman from Bozeman, and Mac Bignell, Nate’s sophomore brother, look primed to fill into elevated roles. On the back end, senior cornerbacks Bryson Keeton and Trace Timmer will look to fill the void left by the graduation of first-team All-Big Sky pick Deonte Flowers. At safety, Alabama-Birmingham transfer Des Carter seems to have emerged as a leader.
“We definitely didn’t finish where we wanted to on defense and most people know that so we are trying to put that behind us and learn what we have to learn and not think about the past,” said Thomas, a Kalispell Flathead native who had two tackles for loss in a reserve role last season. “We will get it fixed.”
Much of the optimism stems from Prukop, an electric dual-threat quarterback who was a Walter Payton Award semifinalist in his first year under center last fall. Despite suffering a knee injury 10 games into the season, Prukop still totaled 3,525 yards of total offense and accounted for 31 total touchdowns, including 13 rushing scores to go with almost 1,000 yards on the ground.
Dakota Prukop leads offense onto field including Mitch Griebel, Justin Paige, Beau Sandland, & Chad Newell
Prukop is bolstered by the return of seven players who caught at least 10 passes last season, including senior captain slot receiver Mitch Griebel. Mitch Herbert, Justin Paige and Jayshawn Gates combined to catch 10 touchdowns during breakout freshmen seasons. The pass game adds 6-foot-6 tight end Beau Sandland, a Miami transfer, and speed wide receiver Brandon Brown, a Baylor transfer who played high school ball with Prukop in Austin, Texas. In the backfield, junior captain Chad Newell and junior big-play threat Gunnar Brekke will be the main weapons in MSU’s spread option offensive attack.
“Our goals are to win the Big Sky, beat the Griz, and win the national championship,” Griebel said. “The thing that has been missing is our swagger. We lost that for a couple of years. We kind of got complacent in where we were. The guys a couple of years ago, we obviously were a good team but we got complacent and we thought it didn’t take as much hard work as it did to win the Big Sky. I think we are back on track.”
MSU returns players that caught 15 of its 21 receiving touchdowns last season. Anthony Knight, who scored 12 rushing touchdowns last season, was dismissed from the team in the off-season but the rest of MSU’s ball carriers return from an attack that averaged 245 yards per game on the ground. The key factor to MSU’s offensive dominance may lie in the trenches.
The Bobcats return five offensive linemen with starting experience, including four who have worked as a unit on and off since their freshmen seasons in 2012. Left tackle John Weidenaar, a third-team All-Big Sky selection in 2014, is the cornerstone, entering his final season with a streak of 38 straight starts. Junior All-America left guard J.P. Flynn is working on a streak of 21 straight starts and is arguably the most dominant lineman in the Big Sky. Senior center Joel Horn adjusted to his new role throughout last season, ending on a high note as a third-team All-Big Sky selection. Senior guard Kyle Godecke has started on both sides since his freshman year, totaling 22 starts, but he missed most of last season, spring drills and fall camp with a fracture in his foot. He’s expected to be at full strength by Montana State’s trip to Eastern Washington on September 19. The same goes for right tackle Alex Eekhoff, a starter on and off since 2012 who started all 13 games last season. Eekhoff had off-season shoulder surgery and is expected to be full strength by the EWU trip as well. With Godecke and Eekhoff on the shelf this off-season, MSU developed sophomores Caleb Gillis and Dylan Mahoney into capable players who could start as well.
Rhett Young after SDSU playoff loss
Montana State established itself as the Big Sky’s power program during the beginning of this decade. Between 2010 and 2012, MSU won or shared three straight Big Sky titles, advanced to the FCS playoffs each season and won playoff games in 2011 and 2012. The last two seasons, banners and championship rings have eluded the Bobcats. Three straight losses, including a 28-14 home loss to rival Montana, ended MSU’s 2013 season in heart-breaking fashion as the most successful group of seniors in school history missed the playoffs for the first time. Last fall, MSU jolted out to an 8-3 start but ended the season with two straight losses, including a 34-7 dismantling at the hands of the Grizzlies in Missoula and the home playoff loss in front of a less than half-full Bobcat Stadium.
Between 2010 and 2012, MSU posted a 30-7 record that included two straight wins in Missoula, two playoff wins and a 21-3 mark against Big Sky Conference competition. Since program record-setters like quarterback DeNarius McGhee, running back Cody Kirk and defensive end Brad Daly graduated, the Bobcats are just 15-10 overall, including 11-5 against the rest of the Big Sky. MSU is 0-1 in the playoffs over the last two seasons. It’s a trend the Bobcats hope to buck this fall.
“It always seems like we taper off at the end of the year,” Weidenaar said. “That’s a sign to me of average. We have to not be average. Good teams always get better. They don’t decline. Good teams incline versus falling off the map like we have. We have to continue to strive to get better. Good isn’t good enough. We have a choice to be great if we want to be.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
