Editor’s Note: This is the first installment in Skyline Sports’ ELEVATED EXPECTATIONS series, 2022 edition profiling Bobcat football players and position groups likely to see elevated roles this season for Montana State.
BOZEMAN, Montana — Jeff Choate needed several looks. But once he got to the second half of the prep school film, he was sold.
Choate wanted to like what he saw in Brody Grebe when the former Montana State head coach first saw the small-town cowboy playing football in Roundup, Montana as a high school senior in 2018. And the high ceiling prospect from tiny Melstone, Montana “is what Montana State is all about,” Choate remembered thinking.
“He’s a high academic kid, has a little cowboy in him, hard working kid, blue collar. So I went back and watched the second half of his prep school season. And I realized there was no doubt this guy had turned into a full scholarship kid.”
Fast forward 32 months since Grebe first signed with Montana State and the notion that the 6-foot-2, 245-pound defensive end was ever being analyzed as first a walk-on coming out of high school, then a partial scholarship player following his first season playing at (coincidentally) Choate Rosemary Prep School seems ludicrous.
Despite never starting a game entering his sophomore season of eligibility and his third year at Montana State, Grebe landed on the Big Sky’s pre-season all-conference squad. He is expected to be a leader and impact player for a Bobcat defense looking to replace one of the most talented senior classes in school history.
“I was pretty surprised,” Grebe said. “I didn’t think I was going to be on that by any means. It doesn’t mean a whole lot to me. Daniel Hardy wasn’t preseason anything last season. I know it’s just about going out and proving it.”
Hardy went from skinny junior college transfer to Troy Andersen’s backup at outside linebacker in 2019 to the best pure pass rusher West of the Mississippi in the FCS last fall. Hardy was on nobody’s radar entering last season. After finishing his senior season with 16 sacks, 24 tackles for loss and consensus All-American honors, Hardy was selected in the 7th round of the NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Rams last spring.
Grebe enters his sophomore year with a target on his back that Hardy never had. And the Bobcats have to replace multiple players who got drafted, a problem shared by less than 30 other college football programs in the entire country.
Andersen, Chase Benson, Amandre Williams, Tre Webb…all landed on postseason awards lists. Andersen and Webb landed with the Atlanta Falcons. Now Grebe will try to fulfill Elevated Expectations to help lead a Bobcat squad trying to carry the momentum of last season’s run to the national title game.
“We went into it with the same deal last season, everyone asking questions,” Grebe said with a confident, cool smile. “We lost Bryce Sterk, we lost Derek Marks, we lost some (Jason) Scrempos, we lost most of our starters. We had no preseason All-Big Sky guys. Last season, this time, no one knew who Daniel Hardy was.
“And he comes out and is a first-team All-American. So I’m not too worried about the narrative around our team. I’m more worried about how much better we got better this summer. I’ll tell you, we got a lot better and we are going to surprise a lot of people.”
Montana State head coach Brent Vigen has had no problem boosting up a pair of sophomore rising stars. Grebe and quarterback Tommy Mellott were the chose spokesman for the Bobcat defense and offense, respectively, following the Sonny Holland Spring Classic.
Each also landed on the preseason all-conference team. And Vigen said each worked with the drive of all-conference players during the off-season.
MSU’s second-year head coach is not worried about Grebe rising to the occasion after he had 5.5 sacks and 7.5 tackles for loss as a third down pass rush specialist a year ago.
“Right from the get go in January, he was on a mission,” Vigen said. “He has a lot of God-given gifts athletically. His size, his explosiveness, his speed. It’s been about adding and honing his craft.
“He was super raw in coming here. That rawness showed up last year in fall camp and that’s why we really specified his role. But now he’s ready to take on all that position needs.
“Whether he’s the next Daniel Hardy or whatever, he’s a much better version of Brody Grebe. That’s the way I see it. He’s a guy with all-conference capabilities. And we are hoping he gets to that.”
It’s low –hanging fruit to compare Grebe’s potential breakout to the blossoming of Hardy. Yet Grebe’s story is similar not just because of his noticeable physical improvement, but also his raw athleticism.
“Daniel had a super incredible season last year right? But it may surprise you, it may not, athleticism wise, Brody actually matches up with Daniel in terms of his vertical, explosiveness, weight lifting, everything,” MSU preseason All-American safety/nickel Ty Okada said at the Big Sky Kickoff in Spokane, Washington in July. “You see those same qualities and attributes Daniel possessed in Brody. He’s going to come out and have an incredible year and I’m really excited to see him have a full, established position.
“He might surprise some people, or maybe not, maybe people know what we know and have high expectations for him like we do. We know what he’s capable of.
Grebe grew up in a town of 125 people in dead central Montana in the Musselshell River Valley. He played his football at nearby Roundup, competing in 11-man football at the Class B level. He was also one of the top basketball players and track stars in the state, all classification, even if his domination came against the Class C level.
By the time he won three events and placed in five at the Class C state track meet, Grebe had received an array of interest from college football and basketball programs around Montana and around the country. The exceptional student fielded football offers from Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, UMass, Cornell and Army.
Grebe stood out in everything he participated in, whether it was playing quarterback or point guard, throwing a shot put or long jumping, wrestling a steer or roping a calf. That’s right, Grebe was one of Montana’s most decorated prep rodeo cowboys, too.
Instead of taking his talents somewhere close to home or committing to a college or sport for the upcoming years, Grebe decided to move across the country. He ended up at Choate Rosemary Hall, a private college prep school of about 850 in Wallingford, Connecticut, the alma mater of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
Grebe physically blossomed during his semester of prep school. He also figured out his love of football and decided to make it his future pursuit.
“We recruited him, hard,” Choate said at a press conference the day the new early signing period opened in December of 2019. “We had him at a bunch of camps, which helped in the recruiting process. His dad (Jason) was his high school basketball coach and there was a time when our basketball coaches were looking seriously at this young man. He had a lot of opportunities basketball-wise.
“What Brody needed to figure out was, ‘Do I love football, do I want to play it at the next level? And am I good enough to do that?”
It might have taken a cross-country experiment, a year of extra growth and an opportunity. Grebe has certainly proven he is plenty good enough.
Choate only coached Grebe in the fall of 2020 during a cancelled season. All of Grebe’s on-field action has come with Vigen as the head coach and Shawn Howe, who’s back for his second year, as the defensive line coach.
Willie Mack Garza, Montana State’s new defensive coordinator who has the unenviable task of taking over for Freddie Banks, said Grebe is “definitely one of the guys that we expect to be a play maker.”
“In fact, Brody has to become a play maker.”
Grebe is one of the collections of players living in a college football time warp, yet his is even more accentuated. He last competed in high school sports in the spring of 2019, more than three years ago, yet he still has three full seasons of eligibility remaining. That gives him a certainly level of maturity, physically and mentally, compared to a normal “true sophomore” player.
This season, Grebe will see if he can put the advantage that comes from extra time work and fulfill Elevated Expectations.
“I’ve been putting the work in this summer and try to be as much better as I can get, bigger, faster, stronger so when it comes this fall, I can be my best, show out, and do what I know I can do,” Grebe said.
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
