BOZEMAN – Just HOW fast IS Tommy Mellott?
It’s been the question on a very many people’s minds watching Mellott since he took the Football Championship Subdivision by storm with an unforgettable burst onto the scene as a true freshman in 2021.
It’s been a question for the last four years as Mellott broke off run after run, leaving defenders in the dust as often as any college football player in America.
Montana State strength coach Sean Herrin had clocked the stud quarterback from Butte at speeds exceeding 23 miles per hour on a few of his touchdown runs during his senior season, a year that culminated in Mellott winning Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Year and the Walter Payton Award as the national offensive player of the year in the FCS.
How would Mellott run with a variety of NFL and CFL scouts looking on? Is he really the fastest player on Montana State’s roster? Or in the Big Sky? What about… the country?
Mellott answered all those questions and then some with one of the most impressive pro days by a Big Sky Conference player in the history of the workout batteries that professional football teams hold so sacred.
Mellott started wowing here on Friday in the Bobcat Athletic Complex weight room, pounding out 19 repetitions on the bench press and soaring 41 inches on the vertical. After hitting 41 on his first try, he had the scouts move up the measurement so he could go for 43 inches. He just missed hitting that mark.
“This is a relief,” Mellott said. “The season gets over and the next week, you are shipped off for training. You are away from your family, your loved ones and it takes consistency.
“But I would also like to point out that it’s much more than consistency the last 12 weeks. It’s the last eight, nine, 10 years and so many people pouring into me. Coach (Arie) Grey (Butte High football and track coach) was a track and football athlete at MSU and he poured into me did so much for me. And everyone at MSU, and then the last three months down in California, everyone that contributed to this is something special.”
When the workout moved over to the North Dome, Mellott continued to put on a show. He broad jumped 10 feet, four inches. He ripped off a pair of 40-yard dashes that many scouts had under 4.40 seconds, coming in “officially” at 4.39 seconds. Skyline Sports had Mellott’s 40s at 4.38 and 4.33 seconds.
Mellott also had elite times in the short shuttle (4.20 seconds) and the L-drill (6.93 seconds) before going through both throwing and route running/catching drills.
“I loved working out as receiver. I’m a football player, always have been, I just happened to play quarterback the last few years,” Mellott said. “That’s what our team needed to win. And I put everything into it. People doubted my ability to play the quarterback position. After four years, I became the player of the year at the quarterback position. That’s the type of growth I can have at any position there might be. I’m glad to see there’s a start to it and there’s a couple of weeks here I can start to develop that. I just want to continue that.”
Brody Grebe, a former Class C superstar from tiny Melstone, showed the speed and versatility to play his natural defensive end spot or to perhaps transition to linebacker or even tight end/H-back. The 6-foot-2, 244-pounder got off to a strong start, pumping 25 reps on the bench and notching a 38-inch vertical.
Grebe registered a 10-foot-4 in the broad jump. In the 40, he also elicited strong visual reactions on the faces of the 13 NFL and five CFL scouts that were in attendance by running 4.58 and 4.54 seconds in the 40.
“The main thing for me was size-wise, I probably wasn’t an ideal size for defensive end, length and height, so being able to show that I could do different things off the ball, full back, tight end, that’s what I wanted,” Grebe said. “I wanted to show versatility, especially for the special teams and other factors.
“I felt I did well and the scouts were pleased with it. I just wanted to get on the team.”
Marcus Wehr ended Montana State’s 2024 season as the top NFL draft prospect not only in the program but also in the Big Sky. He did nothing but solidify that notion and might hear his name called the final weekend of April.
Wehr hit 29 reps on the bench and had a 34.5-inch vertical, which would’ve been a Top 3 mark among offensive lineman at the NFL Combine.
He ran a pair of 40s around 5.2 seconds at 301 pounds. And he notched 9-foot-6 in the broad jump, which would’ve been the second-best offensive lineman mark at the combine.
Rylan Ortt, a walk-on turned team captain who capped his career with first-team All-Big Sky honors as a safety last season, showed tremendous athleticism in his testing. The Missoula Sentinel product notched 23 reps on the bench, a 37.5-inch vertical, a 9-foot-9 broad jump, and ran 4.72 seconds in the 40. He also had a time of 4.32 in the pro shuttle and a pro day best 6.89 in the L-Drill.
Other participants included wide receivers Ty McCullouch and Clevan Thomas, offensive lineman Cole Sain and punter Brendan Hall.
McCullouch’s best mark was 4.58 in the 40 and a 35-inch vertical. Thomas, a senior in 2023, ran 4.51 in the 40, notched a 37-inch vertical and pumped out 18 reps on the bench. Sain, a second-team All-Big Sky selection as a center, hit 27 reps on the bench and a 9-foot broad jump. Hall, who’s tests don’t really matter, still hit 11 bench reps and ran 4.75 seconds in the 40.
“This was a special day to be back here and compete with those guys again,” Mellott said. “After our last game (a 35-32 loss in the FCS national title game to North Dakota State), you end the season emotionally and it’s abrupt. You immediately have to pick yourself up and immediately have no idea where you are going. You have to tell loved ones, your family, everything that is comfortable, goodbye. You have to put your faith into everything around you.
“All these guys worked their butt off the last several months and to go see everybody’s performance was very special.”
