BOZEMAN — Brent Vigen’s voice wavered a bit as the emotion of the moment, a storybook tale of redemption, solidified for Montana State’s fourth-year head football coach.
Vigen, a master of stoicism in his own right, steadied himself for a moment before answering a question about his exceptional captain.
“It’s hard to quantify how much he means to this program and for him to have this performance today,” said Vigen, his arms crossed as he contemplated just how much impact senior defensive back Rylan Ortt has had this season. “He’s poured so much into making the most out of everything he’s been given. He’s a big-time player. And he’s crazy smart, crazy prepared. And he lets it go play out on the field, whether that’s being in the right place all the time or getting some other guys in the right place. He’s not afraid of the moment and I’m thankful we have him here.”
The poignant quote could be replicated about many team captains across college football. And although Ortt’s story from walk-on to starter to team captain to first-team All-Big Sky Conference safety for the No. 1 team in the nation is uncommon, it’s not unique.
But Ortt is unique. He’s the son of a Griz and the grandson of a Wyoming Cowboy turned Griz. He’s a foundational high school player for a football program at Missoula Sentinel that became one of Montana’s best thanks to Ortt paving the way. He’s a Montana Gatorade Track & Field Athlete of the Year turned articulate ambassador for one of the great football teams in Montana State’s rich history.
More than any of those platitudes, Ortt has helped define MSU’s culture during the Vigen era, a four-year span that has seen the program reach new heights. The cerebral and thoughtful captain has been a pivotal part of MSU’s 44-9 record since the beginning of 2021. The run includes a national championship appearance, a semifinal run the year after and two Big Sky Conference championships in the last three seasons.
Ortt himself capped off his first-team all-conference senior campaign with a virtuoso performance last weekend against MSU’s archrival, the University of Montana Grizzlies. The Missoula product grew up a huge Griz fan, dreaming early on that he might get the chance to don the maroon and silver and play at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
That dream was altered when he walked on at Montana State ahead of the 2018 football season.
Six years later, after Ortt had rolled up 11 tackles in the final game of the 2024 regular season, including half a dozen that changed the game and thwarted Montana’s sputtering offense, neither Vigen nor Ortt could help but show some emotion during the post-game press conference that followed the on-field celebration of MSU’s first 12-0 regular season in its football history, an undefeated run capped by a 34-11 win over Montana.
“This is pretty special on senior day, to be able to have my family here and do this with those guys in the locker room,” Ortt said as he fought back tears. “To be able to hug everybody, hugging guys I’ve been here six years with, saying I love you and we did it.”
Ortt is one of the most veteran former Missoula Sentinel alums on the roster, but a collection of five former Spartans are now Bobcats. Ortt led the day in MSU’s 34-11 win over Montana defensively while fellow former Spartan Adam Jones rushed for 197 yards and two touchdowns to buoy the offense.
“What these seniors mean to me, guys like Rylan and Marcus (Wehr), Tommy (Mellott), they have built this program on their backs through their hard work,” Jones said. “These seniors had a vision for what they wanted this program to be and they have spread that throughout this team, especially to us younger guys. The leadership is tremendous. It’s truly a player-led team.”
A player-led program: it’s become a commonplace cliché for proclaimed goals for college football teams from coast to coast. But what does it really mean?
Every group of young people will have some individuals who rise to the top and lead the way, whether that’s by what is said or by what is done.
Montana State has had a variety of notable leaders in its recent history, from servant leaders like Derek Marks or vocal leaders like Brayden Konkol, those who led by example like Mitch Brott or through perseverance like Grant Collins.
But Ortt has redefined what it means to be a leader after getting passed the torch from Ty Okada and Daniel Hardy, two MSU underdogs turned NFL dawgs who carried the torch after players like Troy Andersen, a second-round NFL draft pick and an Atlanta Falcons starter when he’s at full health.
“Being a former walk-on myself, I see a lot of myself in Rylan at that point in my life,” said MSU defensive coordinator Bobby Daly, a two-time All-American linebacker during his decorated MSU career between 2004 and 2008. “What he has done that’s changed our defense is his ability to lead. He’s improved his athleticism and makes a ton of plays. But what makes Rylan unique in my eyes is his ability to communicate and his ability to lead.
“When you talk about an elite program, a lot of coaches talk about having the ability to have a player-run program, a player-led program. Rylan is that to a T in my eyes.
“He has the ability to confront and command more from his peers than anyone on the team. He doesn’t give a s—t what they think about him. And that’s tough at that age. I struggled with that when I was a player (an All-American linebacker at MSU in the late 2000s). I was nowhere near the leader that Rylan Ortt is.”
Daly said that on multiple occasions this season during both games and in practice, there have been moments when Daly has been preparing to confront a player for a lack of effort or a lack of preparation.
“I can think of a whole bunch of times when the defense is coming off the field and I know somebody made a mistake and I’m about to jump their ass and Rylan is out in front of it. He’s doing it before I even get there. That’s the way things are supposed to be,” Daly said.
“He’s earned that respect from this group and it’s from his hard work and his play-making ability. I don’t want to take away from the football player he is because he’s been a huge, huge asset to us this year.”
Montana State’s seniors have walked a variety of paths to reach this final season. A core group who signed with MSU in the Class of 2020 and redshirted during the pandemic season. A fivesome — Ortt, All-American offensive lineman Marcus Wehr, All-Big Sky center Justus Perkins, starting tight end Ryan Lonergan, three-year starting defensive tackle Blake Schmidt — have been with Montana State since the fall of 2019, making them the last of a special breed: sixth-year seniors who started and finished their careers at the same school.
That group who redshirted in 2019 got a chance to meld with the group in 2020 that also redshirted, created this super senior class whose chemistry and production have been the catalyst for MSU’s historic surge.
Ortt showed flashes his first two weeks of fall camp in 2019 before suffering an elbow injury that required surgery. He missed that season and there was no football the next year.
In 2021, Ortt broke into the rotation as a redshirt freshman, playing a role on a ferocious defense that helped Montana State make its first national championship run in 37 years. Among his 27 tackles, six came in an upset win of No. 1 Sam Houston in the quarterfinals of the playoffs and five more came against South Dakota State in the semis.
Ahead of the national championship game in January of 2022, Ortt was suspended by the NCAA for six games because of a failed drug test. He missed the first month of the season in 2022 because of complications with his reinstatement, but found a way to crack the starting lineup for the Big Sky co-champions the final six games of his sophomore year.
MSU puts a high priority on recruiting the safety position. Throughout Ortt’s career, Montana State added safety transfers like Kendrick Bailey, Blake Stillwell and Dru Polidore.
Even with a missed first season for development, nearly a year without game reps and the coaches recruiting transfers to take his spot, Ortt kept rising to the top of the secondary room.
“Rylan came in the same time as me and we’ve been through it all together,” said Grebe, the recently anointed Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year. “The coaching staff has tried over and over again to try to replace him. They’ve brought in guys to play over him. They have brought in multiple transfer safeties and nobody can out-work the man.
“He might not be the most athletic safety in our conference, but man, he works his ass off. He does everything the right way and he knows what’s coming before it comes and that’s what makes him play so fast.”
In Montana State’s conference opener, Ortt had an interception that helped keep the momentum in MSU’s favor. He jumped an out route on a third and short and made a diving pick.
“I asked him afterward if he knew that was coming and he said, ‘Oh yeah,’” Grebe said with a chuckle.
Ortt finished the regular season as Montana State’s leading tackler. He totaled 63 stops and had 3.5 tackles for loss.
Montana State’s individual statistics have been skewed all season because of MSU’s domination. The starting defense only played in games in the fourth quarter against UC Davis and Montana the last two weeks of the regular season. Ortt had eight solo tackles in each of those pivotal wins and 2.5 of his tackles for loss.
The 6-foot-1, 210-pounder blocked a kick against Mercyhurst, forced a fumble and recovered it in a 38-7 win over Idaho and has also broken up three passes to earn first-team All-Big Sky Conference honors.
“He’s an extreme competitor and this team player at the same time too. I couldn’t say enough good things about Rylan making the most of this opportunity and beyond that, becoming a real key player,” Vigen said. “He’s a critical piece of our defense.”
“He is a phenomenal football player and he’s turned himself, through his hard work, into the athlete he is right now,” added Daly. “There’s a reason that Rylan wasn’t a scholarship kid coming out of high school. There was a limited athleticism and you are wondering if he’s a safety or a linebacker. He’s a much better athlete than he was when he got here. That speaks to our program and that speaks to him. Kids willing to be developed – that’s him.”
The first-team all-league recognition comes on the heels of a few snubs. Ortt rolled up 74 tackles, intercepted three passes and scored a defensive touchdown but earned just honorable mention all-conference honors last season.
“He’s always had a chip on his shoulder, and that’s still the case, plus he’s really smart and extremely driven,” Vigen said. “I know he came in here with a chip on his shoulder. He walked on. To make the best of that opportunity, you have to have an uncommon drive. You have to have ability. His preparation, understanding the game plan, being able to diagnose from his position are all really important to his success.”
Although the spin has consistently been that Ortt was a “limited” athlete coming out of Sentinel, it’s more that Ortt was simply a tweener without a defined college position. To say he wasn’t a good athlete when it comes to competitive drive and the ability to rise to the occasion would be a complete misnomer.
“It seemed like the bigger the moment, the better he would perform,” said longtime Missoula Sentinel head coach Dane Oliver last season.
Ortt was a two-year starter at quarterback who threw for 4,088 yards and 34 touchdowns while rushing for 1,262 yards and 26 more scores. As a junior in 2017, he helped lead Sentinel to an upset win in the first round of the Class AA playoffs over crosstown rivalry Missoula Big Sky, marking the first time Sentinel had won a playoff game in 30 years. Because he played limited snaps on defense, college coaches had a hard time extrapolating where he might play at the next level.
But Ortt was a no-doubt-about-it Division I athlete the last two years of his high school career, just in a different sport. In the spring of 2019, Ortt had several of the top javelin throws in the country.
Ortt’s unyielding competitiveness was on full display during the final chapter of his prep career at the Class AA-C state meet in Kalispell. According to longtime and Hall of Fame Sentinel track coach Craig Mettler, a former Griz defensive lineman, Ortt rose at 6 a.m. for his 9 a.m. javelin duel “with fires in his eyes and an aura of composure that set the tone for the day.”
Facing Evan Todd, a future All-American and Big Sky record holder at the University of Montana, and competing on a runway that was soaked from rain the night before, Ortt delivered a stunning throw of 208 feet, eight inches, creating one of the most memorable performances in Montana track & field history. If the runway were dry, Ortt very well could have threatened the state record.
“That was definitely probably one of the coolest sporting events I’ve been a part of,” Ortt said.
“I remember looking up and seeing all the people lined up and down the sector and I knew it was a heckuva atmosphere. It definitely gives you some juice to go throw. I think Evan Todd had beat my PR like three weeks before that so I had some motivation to get him in the state championship. He beat me the year before on the final throw. I was due.”
Not only did Ortt throw more than 20 feet farther than Todd, his mark is also the top in Montana since Todd Ogden in 2014. It reaffirmed that Ortt has the mental acumen to rise to the occasion in pivotal athletic moments.
“Rylan was has always been, and continues to, show his determination and focus, in which he reaps the rewards,” Mettler said. “There is no one more deserving of all the accolades than Rylan.”
Over the last few years, Ortt has kept tabs on Todd. He has wondered what his present might look like had he pursued track instead of football. He particularly wondered when he watched Todd throw at the Olympic Trials.
Because of his elbow surgery in 2019, Ortt said he can’t throw a football more than about 40 yards, so he’s pretty certain he can’t throw a javelin at an elite level.
Even with those high school accolades in multiple sports, Ortt essentially had to recruit himself. The Griz never came calling, which has motivated Ortt throughout the last six years. Ortt sent his film to B.J. Robertson, the director of high school relations under Jeff Choate at MSU, and that led to Montana State extending the walk-on offer.
“Being a walk-on, I take deep pride in it and I think it’s so cool with a program when you come in and you’re a walk-on, you see guys like (former captains) R.J. Fitzgerald and Ty Okada,” Ortt said. “My freshman year, I remember when Ty got put on scholarship. Seeing that, it gave me some motivation that I could to do this and learn from these guys and learn how to handle your business in the right way.
“It’s definitely carried me throughout my career. But it’s not just playing to get some money or get a scholarship but playing because you love it, you love the program, you love Montana State, you love the university, you love your teammates and you love the game. That’s the most important part.”
Despite Ortt’s run in with the NCAA and the subsequent reinstatement struggle that went with it, most everyone that’s coached him and played with him not only talks about but raves about his character and his natural leadership traits.
Vigen calls him “irreplaceable.” Daly says Ortt is the best leader on the team. Tommy Mellott, the face of Montana State football, is effusive in his praise of MSU’s team captain.
“Above his playing, it’s his character that stands out and gives him the ability to be a leader,” Mellott said. “He’s a vocal guy. He brings a lot of energy. He is super passionate. He grinds week in and week out. Whatever week we are in, he has a consistency that he has figured out and that’s why he’s so consistent in his leadership. And it comes down to who he is as a person.”
When you ask many young men about their influences, they have to think before crafting an answer. Ortt’s is definitive. He’s already earned a degree in finance and could follow in the footsteps of his father, Dan, a former Griz offensive lineman in the early 1990s who is now a financial adviser in Missoula.
And while Ortt says he has always looked up to his father, it’s his grandfather Warren Hill who he calls “absolutely my hero.” Hill passed away last October, a loss that has been a motivational factor for Ortt throughout his outstanding college career.
WARREN HILL OBITUARY
“My grandpa was a big part of my life growing up,” Ortt said. “He was always coming to all my games, telling me stories about when he was playing (first at Wyoming and then at Montana), how he grew up.
“The thing I thought was so cool that I always remember is how many buddies he had from college ball and high school and they were all still friends. He was one of the greatest people I’ve known. He was a huge influence in my life. It was a true honor to be his grandson.”
Ortt has never shied away from admitting what his dreams were as a kid. He wanted to play for the Grizzlies like his dad and grandfather had before him. But as soon as he became a Bobcat, his entire family “easily made the transition” into sporting blue and gold.
The strapping, chiseled safety has become a sort of cult hero during his senior year. Because 26 is the number of iron on the periodic table, he has earned the nickname of Rylan “Iron” Ortt, which has been used with vigor by Montana State television color commentator Ty Gregorak throughout the year.
Now that Ortt has the last laugh against the Grizzlies, he has no regrets and is in fact happy his pursuits were altered.
He has also never shied away from “the shared struggle,” whether that’s winter conditioning, running Pete’s Hill in Bozeman in the summer or trailing New Mexico by 17 points in the second half (a 35-31 Montana State win to open the season).
The Bobcat season still has another chapter to write. MSU is the No. 1 seed in the FCS playoffs for the first time in program history. The Bobcats have designs on their first national title since 1984.
Regardless of how this part of the story ends, Ortt has etched out an unforgettable name for himself and certainly made his namesakes proud during an unorthodox yet stellar career at Montana State.
“It means the world to me, just being able to represent the state of Montana and being able to represent Montana State University has been the biggest blessing of my life,” Ortt said. “I try to cherish that opportunity every single day, and I try to attack every day trying to make myself better and, ultimately, be a good representation of this team and this program and this university.
“We are near the end and that has sunk in a little bit even if I try to push it off to the side. I try to cherish every opportunity, like a snowy Tuesday practice, because we don’t have very many of those left no matter how far we go. It’s never bad when you get to do it with this group of guys under this coaching staff for this university.
“This is an amazing place to be and I’m just blessed that I was able to take advantage of it. Now we have to finish what we started.”
