MISSOULA — If anyone knew the backstory of Drew Deck, the patience it took to get to that moment, they must’ve wondered “how is it possible the player who just made one greatest catches I’ve ever seen is just now is becoming a household name?”
And if you didn’t know the backstory, you probably thought “Deuce” was one of the latest in a long line of Griz receivers. And in Deck’s case, he’s the latest in a long line of Griz receivers who has waited his turn to make sure to go out with a bang.
In Montana’s 50-29 runaway from South Dakota State, the Griz were in the middle of a 30-point barrage** that saw the hosts turn a 14-6 deficit into a 36-14 advantage.
Before this season, Deck had never caught or scored a touchdown during his five years and four seasons playing for the Grizzlies. Over the last three weeks, he’s scored three of his five career touchdowns and engendered himself as a fan favorite amongst the UM faithful.
The Kalispell native had a catch that will be remembered among the greatest in the history of the stadium among those touchdown grabs, particularly if it’s evaluated on degree of difficulty as much as impact on a game.
UM fell behind 14-6 thanks to SDSU quarterback Chase Mason’s electric arm and thanks to an inability ot capitalize. But UM was able to close the first half up 22-14.
When Keali’i Ah Yat vaulted a flawlessly thrown pass to Deck in the Southwest corner of the end-zone, Deck went full extension and snared an absurd 29-yard touchdown pass. UM’s lead leapt to 29-14 and when the Griz tacked on another TD to push the lead to 22, the game was essentially over.
“Great ball, it’s fun to play with Ah Yat and it was fun on that Saturday,” Deck said. “It’s so fun to see Keali’i out there balling like that. When he’s in the zone, we all feed off of him. Heck of a day out of him (360 yards, 4 TDs). The whole offense had a lot of fun.
“It was something we worked on all week. When we lined up, we knew we had it, so we took a shot. Good ball and I laid out to make a play that came to me.”
Jimmy Ferris’s catch in the Northeast corner of the North End-zone to defeat Appalachian State to go to the 2000 national championship game is iconic. Jabin Sambrano’s 25-yard touchdown catch with 90 seconds left to secure a 24-17 victory over App State in the 2009 semifinals is also unforgettable.
Deck’s catch against South Dakota State, which put Montana up 29-14 with six minutes to go in the third quarter of the win, had nowhere near the ramifications in terms of the overall result. But the pure highlight reel nature of the grab puts it next to Korbin Hendrix’s one-hand snare against EWU for “Catch of the Year”. And both grabs were so good, they will live on in Griz lore regardless of the impact.
“What a great catch by Drew,” Montana head coach Bobby Hauck said. “We have been balanced and had a lot of guys contributed on offense. One of the keys to our success is guys making plays like Drew made.”
The highlight reel-score was the first of an impressive touchdown spree by Deck. He capped Montana’s impressive opening drive against South Dakota with a one-yard TD score after the Griz ate up more than seven minutes of the first quarter clock in a game that would see UM lead 24-0 before the visiting Yotes even registered a first down.
Perhaps the greatest highlight of Deck’s career, though, helped the Griz turn a comfortable margin into a runaway. Deck took a punt in the third quarter 93 yards to the house, marking the longest PR for a touchdown in the history of the FCS Playoffs. The return was also a yard short of Montana’s all-time longest punt return touchdown, ranking behind only Tuff Harris’s 94-yard return against Eastern Washington in 2006 and Marc Mariani’s 94-yard return against Idaho State in 2008.
“It was well blocked and obviously Drew did a great job,” Hauck said. “You can’t block everybody, and he did a good job of getting that to the end zone.”
To see Deck making plays after waiting his turn behind Junior Bergen, one of the most popular and product players in Griz history, has certainly been one of the best stories of a 2025 football season that has seen Montana win 13 of its 14 games.
The faces of Deck’s fellow Griz light up when asked about the 5-foot-9, 185-pounder out of Glacier High School.
“I love Drew,” Montana senior defensive end Kellen Detrick said. “He’s a great guy and I’m blessed to get to know him. I could talk about it forever about how great it is to be his friend and be in the locker room every day. He’s made great strides as a football player. That catch last weekend was unbelievable. And I’m super proud that he as a part of this team.”
Montana’s wide receiver group graduated Bergen, CFL-Bound Keelan White and speedy Arron Fontes. Sawyer Racanelli transferred to Wake Forest. And Ryan Simpson also exhausted his eligibility.
Deck has risen to become the leader of the room that features fellow seniors Michael Wortham, a transfer from Eastern Washington who turned into an All-American, and Blake Bohanon, a transfer from Kennesaw State. The group had a new position coach in Bobby Kennedy entering the year after the abrupt departure of former WR coach Bryce Erickson. And the group lost the vast majority of its production.
“Drew is definitely the leader in the receiver group in terms of his knowledge of our offense and at every spot he’s played,” UM fourth-year junior wide receiver Ian Finch said. “He knows the standard that we have to play at and he holds us to it. And in terms of what he brings statistically, and his on-field play, he’s really awesome to watch.”
Even Hauck, who is normally stoic and hard to get to gush about his players, at least until their careers are over, lights up when asked about the kid from Kalispell.
“Drew is a special guy to everybody in that locker room, everybody upstairs in the coaches’ offices, and he’s an easy guy to cheer for,” Hauck said following the South Dakota win. “He’s a special guy.”
Patience does pay off, at least if you’re Deck. The Glacier product waited his turn behind Bergen as both Montana’s primary slot receiver and starting punt returner.
He had just 15 catches for 141 yards *** and never scored a touchdown from scrimmage between his redshirt years in 2020 and 2021 and his next three seasons of trying to make his way onto the field.
He did average 10.5 yards ** per punt return any time he filled in with Bergen. And it was clear the former track standout — Deck’s father, Aaron *, was the head track coach at Glacier High in Kalispell ** -** — was explosive and fast. He just needed an opportunity.
This season, Deck has 30 catches for 404 yards and is averaging nearly 16 yards per punt return. He was a second-team All-Big Sky punt returner behind Montana State junior Taco Dowler.
“We always knew he could do it,” Finch said. “He has shown what he was capable of that playing against him in high school. And that catch last weekend, that’s what dreams were made of.”
Deck has always believed in himself. But the toiling wore on his. After last season, a collection of the Griz who came in with Deck’s recruiting class decided to hang it up since they had already graduated and most had battled injuries.
This weekend, when Montana State hosts Montana, the Bobcats will boast 44 players from the state of Montana, including 12 starters and seven more players on its two deep. UM has 32 Montanans on its roster, including four starters and four others who will play plenty of snaps.
At least part of the gap comes from the fact that players like safety Jace Klucewich, offensive lineman Journey Grimsrud, defensive linemen Hank Nuce, Dylan Smith and Sloan McPherson, safeties Padraig Lang and Gabe Longin and wide receiver Brady Lang all elected to not take their last year of eligibility.
Deck is thick as thieves with a collection of former Griz who exhausted their eligibly following last season, including Bergen, one of his best buddies. Deck had a plan to ask his girlfriend Kinlee Mihelish, the daughter of Helena Capital head football coach Kyle Mihelish, to marry him.
With a degree in hand and his future laid out, Deck thought he might take the same path as some of his classmates in calling it a career after the 2024 season. The campaign was a disappointing one compared to when UM went 13-2 and advanced to the national championship game in 2023.
The deciding factor came when Hauck told Deck he’d be a pivotal part of UM’s leadership hierarchy, and when he got a chance to host incoming recruits on their visits, he was sold on coming back for his final season.
Plus, Deck knew he had to try to maximize his opportunities.
“Finished up school last year, wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do, but was ready to be done with school,” Deck said. “But a lot of it goes back to the coaching staff we have here and the relationships we have here. And the locker room. We had a great group of guys last year too and that rolled over to this year despite the guys we graduated. The new guys came in and meshed well and it’s been so much fun. I’m lucky to have a coaching staff around me that really talked me into coming back. Because it’s been a ton of fun.”
Montana’s wide receiver crew has seen a huge boost in production this season under Kennedy, who coached with Hauck at Washington in 2002 before Hauck took over at Montana the next season. Bergen is on the practice squad for the San Francisco 49ers after getting his name called in the 7th round of the NFL Draft. White was a standout in his first CFL season. Racanelli caught 17 passes for 290 yards and a touchdown at Wake Forest.
Last season, those three plus Fontes combined for 176 catches, 1,986 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2024. This season, Wortham has 77 catches for 1,139 yards and 10 touchdowns himself. Redshirt freshman had 52 catches for 680 yards and five more scores. Bohanon has 33 grabes for 453 yards and a score. And Deck has chipped in 30 catches, 404 yards and four scores, bringing the top four’s totals to 192 catches for 2,676 yards and 20 touchdowns.
Ah Yat was named first-team All-Big Sky, becoming the first Griz quarterback to land on the all-conference first team in 21 years.
“Great group of guys in that locker room, close, we trust each other, and that leads to success,” Deck said. “Over time, you figure out how to trust your game plan and your quarterback. I tip my hat to (offensive coordinator) coach (Brent) Pease, for sure. He’s rolling, he’s kicking butt and we feed off of that. We have the most trust in him and he puts us in those positions, so we just have to go out and have fun with it.”
Leading up to last week, South Dakota head coach Travis Johanson knew that Deck would be a player his team needed to identify, particularly in the kick game. That played out to be exactly true, although to the detriment of the Yotes. Deck’s PR touchdown was the first special teams touchdown of the season for the Griz and the first allowed this season by the Coyotes.
“No. 2 is a really talented, crafty player,” Johansen said. “You can tell he has a lot of poise and has great vision. I really like his game a lot, a player that will get aggressive with it but not irresponsible. Those are the guys who I think are the most dangerous.”
“Offensively, he continues to grow and impact that offense at a higher level every week.”
Arron Deck was a standout hockey player for the Billings Redwings growing up and thought he might be a college hockey player. He also had an opportunity to play college football for former Griz head coach Mick Delaney when Delaney was the head coach at Montana Western.
Instead, he enrolled at the University of Montana in 1992. By 1995, he was helping longtime Missoula Big Sky head coach Gary Ekegren. And by 1997, he was working for Hall of Famer Pat Dolan as an assistant at Billings Senior.
By 2005, the Decks moved to Kalispell where Arron was a teach and a coach. He then got the head track coaching job at Glacier when the school opened in 2007. He taught physical education while coaching football and track until he retired in 2022.
“We grew up in a football family, a football household because he was coaching ball ever since I can remember,” Deck said. “Growing up, being around football, it was easy to love it. And getting a chance to play for him in high school was very special. And running track for him, I’m very blessed to grow up like that and learn so much from him.”
Deck said he learned “a competitive spirit and a work ethic” from growing up a coach’s kid. That’s what drove him even during the days where playing time seemed like an unattainable goal.
“You have to always stay ready,” Deck said. “The competition drives me. And it’s so much fun playing ball. I love the game.”
That love of the game has helped Deck reach this point. He’s in the middle of a storybook ending. He’s scoring touchdowns and the Griz are humming on offense. Montana has another shot at Montana State, the only team to beat them this season. And the winner will then head to Nashville with a shot to win the national championship, which would be the first at Montana since 2001.
Montana is certainly happy Deck decided to run it back for one last season. And Deck surely happy he stuck it out.
“Football and Griz football has taught me a lot,” Deck said. “It prepares you for life outside of ball. Coach Hauck does a really good job — it feels like forever ago and it feels like yesterday when I was a little freshman walking in and I didn’t have a clue in the world. He made sure we knew.
“The main thing that it’s taught me is that the things that we value in this program, you can use the rest of your life. And that’s something I’ll take with me forever.”
