Handicapping Griz position battles heading into fall camp: Quarterback, Running Back, Cornerback

Fall camp starts this week for Montana. The Griz report Friday and hit the practice field on Monday, August 7. That means we have our first look at this year’s Griz team, along with all the storylines that come with it. This week at Skyline Sports, we’re handicapping a couple of the most intriguing position battles for the Griz heading into the season. Please do not pay too much attention to the specific percentages – this is not a deadly serious exercise or based on rigorous reporting. We’re just trying to learn a little about the players facing competition this fall and get a general sense of who’ll be on the field for Montana in the Sept. 2 opener against Butler. We’ll add a new position every day throughout the week.

QUARTERBACK

Sam Vidlak – 70%

This might be low for the former Oregon State and Boise State quarterback, who carries a couple of notable advantages into the start of fall camp. First, the coaching staff has plenty of familiarity with him, having recruited him out of Hidden Valley HS in Oregon and in fact secured his commitment before OSU poached him late. Second, he transferred in the winter, giving him a full spring ball session to get comfortable in Missoula, learn the offense and connect with the receivers. Vidlak was as advertised in the spring game, with a number of highlight throws. You could put him at 80% or even higher; I think that more or less conveys the same thing as what I’ve got, which is that Vidlak is a clear favorite to take the starting job and many of the cases where he’s not is because he’s not healthy going into the season.

Clifton McDowell – 27%

With that being said, the Griz did bring in experienced competition for Vidlak in McDowell, a grad transfer senior who’s played at Louisiana-Lafayette, Kilgore JC in Texas and Central Arkansas. He’s attempted just 82 passes in those four years, but Bobby Hauck spoke highly of the 6-4, 225-pound dual-threat at the Big Sky Kickoff.

“How fast he grasps things, being a late arrival, will determine how much he gets to play,” Hauck said. “We’re counting on him being a productive piece for us. … My perspective is that he’s really assimilated well with the team. Guys like him. He’s a good guy, he’s smart, competitive, tough-minded.”

That squares with what we saw from him when he visited the ESPN Missoula studio in late May, shortly after committing to the Griz. Indications are also that he’s worked hard this summer to make up the six-month head start Vidlak has in the QB race, working out with the receivers since he arrived in Missoula.

I don’t think it says anything negative about Vidlak that the Griz brought McDowell in – Hauck believes in competition almost to a fault – but I do think there’s a chance he beats Vidlak straight up, and if the Boise State transfer falters or gets hurt, McDowell would be the huge favorite for the starting job.

Kris Brown – 3%

Has the ship finally sailed on the Bozeman High product? Still just a redshirt junior, Brown has gone 3-2 in five starts over the past two seasons, and seen plenty of snaps off the bench as well.

It’s hard to imagine him going into the season as the starter after generally ineffective play last year – there’s a reason Montana brought in two new transfer quarterbacks – but the 6-4, 220-pounder still has the physical tools that make it hard to write him off altogether. As a third quarterback, Brown is hilariously over-qualified; as a backup, he’s still well above replacement level. That’s a great piece to have, but it’s still unlikely that he starts; the 3% I’ve got him marked down for here is a weird mix of edge cases that includes Brown finally putting it all together or some awful luck with injuries to the top two.

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RUNNING BACK

Nick Ostmo – 50%

We’ll use “starting” as shorthand for “getting the most carries,” since it’s likely the Griz will again use a deep rotation at running back.

Ostmo was the lead back in that rotation last year with 132 carries for 743 yards and seven touchdowns, although damn near half (367) of those yards came in back-to-back weeks against over-matched Cal Poly and Eastern Washington. Aside from a decent 20-carry, 72-yard day against Sacramento State, he was mostly anonymous against the top teams on Montana’s schedule – three carries for four yards against Idaho, 10 for 23 against Weber State, 10 for 36 against Montana State and six for three in the playoff game against Southeast Missouri State before sitting out the next week against North Dakota State. Now a redshirt junior, the powerful back from Portland was Montana’s nominee for preseason all-league the position and should have the first chance to win the job.

Isiah Childs – 25%

Out of sight, out of mind early last season with injuries that limited him to just 11 carries before November, Childs was actually Montana’s most reliable back by the end of the season, filling in for Ostmo with 17 carries for 99 yards in the North Dakota State loss. The Akron transfer has the pedigree as a former 3-star recruit and first-team all-state player in Kansas. But injuries have stopped him from ever establishing a consistent place in Montana’s rotation. He averaged 5.8 yards per carry last season, higher than Ostmo or Xavier Harris.

Xavier Harris – 20%

I still believe in the potential of Harris, who led the team in rushing with 666 yards as a freshman in 2021. But he was passed by Ostmo and then Childs last season, and didn’t have more than three carries in any game after the Idaho State game on October 1. This is a big year for both Harris and his former Oxnard High teammate Aaron Fontes.

Eli Gillman – 4%

The sought-after recruit from Minnesota was hailed as a big win for the Griz when he committed. Montana mainly kept Gillman in the garage as a freshman, handing him a combined eight carries in the blowout win over Eastern Washington and the playoff loss at North Dakota State.

But that was enough for him to score his first college TD against the Eagles and show well against the Bison. Like Kris Brown, this estimate is about an equal blend of chances that he puts everything together and takes the job… and that the depth chart completely falls apart above him. What’s more likely is that he works his way into the rotation as the year goes on, while also contributing on special teams.

It’s worth noting that Gilman has made waves during the off-season and one source close to the program said he wouldn’t be surprised to see the former Minnesota Player of the Year get a bulk of the UM carries.

Other – 1%

If things got this dire with multiple injuries to the other guys on this list, I think Montana would actually turn back to Junior Bergen at running back the way the Griz did in the cursed 2021 season.

Missoula’s Colter Janacaro has the most experience among the rest of the running backs with 20 carries over the past two seasons. Incoming freshman Iverson Young is in a similar position as Gillman a year ago – a highly-touted recruit who’ll realistically be hoping for some garbage-time carries. There’s a lot of depth here for the Griz – there’s not much separating the top three, and Gillman and even Janacaro could handle bigger roles if things got weird.

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CORNERBACK

Trevin Gradney – 50%

This is, to be clear, about the second starting cornerback spot opposite Corbin Walker, who’s started for most of the two seasons and established himself as a good and possibly even great Big Sky DB. The battle for the second corner spot is probably the most important one to watch this fall camp – I think the Griz will be more or less fine no matter who ends up starting at running back, for example, but they really need to find someone at corner – but the one with the least clarity. None of the top candidates have gotten meaningful reps in games, with Walker and All-American Justin Ford both healthy and effective each of the last two seasons. Gradney is the one real holdover candidate. The former Billings West star is now a redshirt junior and has evolved into Montana’s special-teams ace while seeing very limited snaps at corner. He’s got all the tools – size, speed, ball skills and physicality clearly demonstrated by his special teams work. If he’s going to grab a starting job, it has to be this year. On the other hand, the Griz have stacked up with transfers at corner this offseason. Is that depth behind Gradney, regular competition – or because they have concerns about the young corner?

Ronald Jackson – 35%

The race behind Gradney is pretty muddled, largely because none of the candidates have seen any meaningful playing time at any level in a couple years. Jackson is definitely the one of that group to watch. The Akron transfer played in 17 games over three seasons for the Zips before coming to Missoula in the winter and playing in the spring game. Is he the next Justin Ford? That seems unlikely, but the Detroit native certainly has high-level experience.

Jelani Warren – 10%

The former UCLA defensive back is the late entrant in the race, committing to the Griz just two weeks ago. He walked on with the Bruins and was strictly a scout-team player in Westwood, which still seems like pretty fair experience for the Big Sky. Listed at 6-0, 199, most of the coverage he got at UCLA called him a safety, but he played corner in high school. I have no idea what position Warren is going to play or what shape he’s going to be in after not playing a snap in a real game in four years. Honestly, he reminds me of TraJon Cotton – a Pac-12 guy who can provide depth at a bunch of positions in the secondary.

Jace Klucewich – 5%

The former Frenchtown and Sentinel product picked up bigger roles on special teams as the 2022 season went on, finishing the year with nine tackles in seven games. Klucewich was a good recruit coming out of high school and could break out this year, whether that’s as part of the corner rotation, helping take over Gradney’s role on coverage teams or even as a returner.