BOZEMAN, Montana — Tyler Bruggman made his first start at quarterback for Montana State in the Kibbie Dome against an Idaho team trying to capitalize on its third bowl win in program history.
Chris Murray made his first start under center for MSU at Martin Stadium against a Washington State team ranked No. 24 in the FBS.
Troy Andersen made his first start at a position few expected him to play at the college level under the lights in front of a sold out crowd at Bobcat Stadium.
On Saturday, Casey Bauman will make his first career start in the smoldering heat of Lubbock, Texas as the Bobcats take on Texas Tech on Saturday afternoon. Bauman will be the fourth opening-day starting quarterback as head coach Jeff Choate enters his fourth season.
Bruggman looked solid in MSU’s 20-17 loss to the Vandals in its first game under Choate. Murray and the Bobcat offense couldn’t find any footing in a 31-0 loss to the Cougars. Andersen sputtered in the first half only to put the Montana State offense on his back in the second half of a 26-23 win over Western Illinois. Andersen rushed for 145 yards and two touchdowns in the season-opening victory that proved crucial to MSU advancing to the playoffs for the first time since 2014.
In Lubbock, Montana State will face a Texas Tech team with a new head coach in Matt Wells, who spent the last six seasons at Utah State. The Red Raiders are likely to have superior athletes on the perimeter and in the trenches to the Bobcats. And Bauman is likely to have some nerves. Choate expects it.
“I think poise is what I want to see but the reality is he’s going to be nervous,” Choate said with an understanding smile at his weekly press conference on Monday. “And he should be. For me to stand up here and say, ‘Oh, this guy is going to be calm, cool, collected, ice water in his veins’, come on now. That’s human nature.
“We will get him hit a couple of times and he has to shake it off and go play. The worst time for him is going to be when we come off the field for warm ups until he takes his first snap. That seems like an eternity. But that’s part of growing up.”
Bauman himself seemed calm in his first press conference after being named the starter. Deliberate and short with his answers, the 6-foot-7, 235-pound redshirt freshman seems ready to embrace the challenge of his debut start against a Big XII opponent.
“It is a little different because they have different athletes and they have 22 more scholarships and Texas football is a little different,” Bauman said. “But everybody is looking forward to it. It should be fun.”
Bauman is the first quarterback of the Choate era who does not feel like a stop gap under center. Choate recruited Bruggman from Scottsdale Community College by way of Washington State and Louisville to replace Dakota Prukop after the All-American graduate transferred to Oregon weeks after Choate’s hiring.
Bruggman was serviceable until he threw three second-half interceptions in a 17-15 home loss to North Dakota in the first Big Sky Conference game of Choate’s tenure. The following week, Murray came off the bench to rush for 180 yards in a 41-38 loss at Sacramento State. That began a quarterback carousel that lasted the rest of the 2016 season.
Murray beat out Bruggman the following spring. But the overall confidence within the program for the electric yet sporadic true sophomore fluctuated throughout a 5-6 season filled with missed opportunities.
Last spring, Murray got himself into hot water academically, eventually missing all of last season. Andersen, the Big Sky Freshman of the Year in 2017 as a running back and linebacker, entered the quarterback competition last summer, eventually beating out redshirt freshman Tucker Rovig.
Choate confirmed earlier this month that the plan was to start Rovig at quarterback and move Andersen back to his do-everything-else role coming out of MSU’s bye week. But Rovig suffered a season-ending foot injury in practice during the bye week, meaning the unorthodox Andersen experiment lasted throughout the season.
Bauman and Rovig battled during an abbreviated set of spring practices hindered by severe Bozeman weather and through this fall camp. On the first day of camp, Choate said he would like to name a starter following MSU’s first scrimmage. The staff held to that timeline, anointing Bauman as the signal caller on August 12.
“We have to be more diverse on offense and we have to take advantage of teams that want to stack the box,” Choate said. “I think we have guys who can win those one-on-ones. It’s kind of a double edge sword. As good as (Mitch Herbert) was and Kevin (Kassis) early in his career, we just didn’t have a guy who would win a one-on-one in terms of the vertical speed part of it. I think Kevin has really developed as an athlete and has better speed than he had certainly as a freshman. Travis Jonsen is one of the better athletes in the league and he has elite speed.
“I think that gives us the opportunity to win those one-on-ones. And the decision to move forward with a pro-style quarterback is a nod to the fact we need to be more diverse on offense.”
Bauman appeared in the final minute of the first half of Montana State’s 49-42 win over Cal Poly last season in Bozeman. He played six snaps, maintaining his redshirt while also tasting game action.
Saturday in the Texas heat, the stakes will be much higher. Bauman grew up in Everson, Washington, a town of about 2,000 in Northwest Washington. He played at the Washington 1A high school level at Nooksack Valley High, equivalent to Class B in Montana. His recruitment was almost non-existent until he and his father hit the road for a camp circuit that ended up netting him offers from Montana State and Idaho.
Bauman said he learned a great deal of “the mental aspects of the game, understanding the game” while serving as Andersen’s backup the second half of last season. When he takes the field at Texas Tech, he will affirming a goal he set when he first arrived at Montana State.
“Coming here last fall camp from a place much smaller than this, learning, listening to people, watching Troy, you have to sit down and take every day like it’s a new day and come at it with the same mindset every day,” Bauman said. “I think that’s really helped me.
“Coming out of high school, I didn’t know what to expect. I’m a competitor so I’m always going to come compete, give it my all. It’s always been a dream for me to become the starter. Now I have that chance.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
