Editor’s Note: This is the fourth installment and final installment for a series about Montana State’s transfers. The Bobcats signed nine transfers in February. Today we look at the offensive transfers.
The last time Beau Sandland and Brandon Brown went through a fall camp, they were with a little different caliber of athlete.
That’s not a shot at the No. 11 Montana State Bobcats, the team both Sandland, a senior tight end, and Brown, a junior wide receiver, hope to contribute to heavily in 2015. And each said the schedule and grind and vigorousness of their former and current fall camps were comparable. But the evaluation of talent disparity isn’t a shot at the Bobcats. It’s the reality when you’re comparing a FCS team with Miami and Baylor.
Brandon Brown
“The difference between here and Baylor is everyone at Baylor runs 4.3s,” Brown, who spent three years in Waco, said with a laugh following Monday morning’s practice at Bobcat Stadium. “We literally could line up five wide and every single dude would be that fast. I’m a fast guy. I’ve run 4.5 before and I wasn’t even middle of the pack.”
Before last fall, Bruce Feldman formerly of CBS Sports (now of FOX Sports) reported that Baylor had five athletes who ran sub-4.4 40-yard dashes. When he asked strength coach Kaz Kazidi if the sprints were hand-timed or electronically timed, Kazidi responded: “They’re all electronic. We don’t hand-time anything. Hand times are for your mama. Your mama don’t work here. We’re not hand-timing anything around here. We encourage people to come watch our guys work. They take this seriously.”
Miami has had as much football talent as any school in the country for three straight decades. There are currently 59 former Hurricanes on NFL rosters. The Hurricanes have had at least one former player make the Pro Bowl every season since 1985, 29 years in a row. Just in the last decade, Miami has had tight ends drafted in the first round like Jeremy Shockey, Kellen Winslow II, Greg Olsen, Jimmy Graham and the player who started in front of Sandland, Clive Walford.
Walford started for two-plus seasons at Miami, he caught 87 passes for 1,299 yards and 12 touchdowns. He was the 68th overall pick in the third round of last spring’s NFL Draft by the Oakland Raiders.
Sandland by Colter Nuanez
“I’m having a lot more fun and taking a lot more reps around here,” Sandland said with a laugh. “I don’t have an NFL guy in front of me. It’s great.”
Sandland is no slouch himself, at least when it comes to his measurables. The 6-foot-6, 260-pounder can run and uses his enormous hands and long arms well. He may not have been able to crack the starting lineup at Miami, but he did catch nine passes, including a touchdown, for the Hurricanes in 2013 as the Hurricanes’ third tight end.
Sandland chose Montana State because his father recently moved to Hamilton. He sat out last season as a redshirt, bringing up his fifth season of eligibility this fall. Spring ball served as his first action as a Bobcat. The statuesque senior turned more than a few heads.
“This cat is a different person,” MSU offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey said in March. “He’s what they are supposed to look like. We are going to have some fun with him.”
“He’s an absolute freak of nature,” added junior quarterback Dakota Prukop following the duo’s first practice.
Still, Sandland has much to prove in his lone season with the Bobcats. After not qualifying out of high school, Sandland spent two years at Pierce junior college in Los Angeles. He hasn’t played a game since the fall of 2013.
“It’s been a while,” Sandland said. “Last year, I redshirted, the year before I was third string. I was playing but not much. And the year before was junior college football. I’m very anxious. It’s going to be here before I know it. I’m definitely glad we have these 10 days to get ready for the game. We will be where we need to be when that game comes.”
Brown
Montana State opens its season on September 3.
After working with one of the nation’s most explosive teams, Brown is battling Justin Paige for repetitions at MSU’s Z wide receiver spot. When MSU plays three receivers on one side, Brown can operate out of the slot. He said enrolling in January after essentially being recruited by Prukop, his former high school teammate, helped him get a jump-start on learning the offense in an effort to contribute as a junior. With less than a week left in fall camp, Brown should fit into the rotation in tandem with Paige and alongside Mitch Griebel, Mitchell Herbert, Conner Sullivan and Jayshawn Gates.
“He’s playing at a consistent level right now,” MSU second-year wide receivers coach Cody Kempt said. “He’s becoming more comfortable within the offense and within the team. He gets along with everybody. With more repetition, you will become a better football player and he’s continued to get more repetitions and he’s continued to improve his craft.”
Sandland
“He was here all summer and spring too and he’s fitting in great,” added Griebel, a team captain for 2015. “He’s living with Dakota. We are a tight-knit group. When he’s around all of us, he’s one of us. I think he’ll help us this season. He’s a fast guy. That’s never a bad thing. He’s got a good mindset and he doesn’t take any plays off.”
Brown has some of the best speed on the team. He’s been prone to drops at times this camp but his ability to create separation, make cornerbacks miss and his release off the line should help Brown to a productive first season in Bozeman. Brown said his “connection with Dakota from back in our high school days is starting to return”. During the spring, he wore a red non-contact jersey because of minor shoulder injury. So far this fall, he and the rest of the wide receiver group save senior Manny Kalfell (hamstring) have been healthy. None of the other 11 has missed a practice.
“Receivers are all healthy and from what I’ve heard, this is the total opposite from last year,” said Brown, referring to a rash of injuries that cost five upperclassmen receivers their seasons before Big Sky Conference play began last season. “We make sure we recover and that’s why we hit an extra stretch after practice and then we hit an extra ice bath. Then we go to the training room, get our stuff taken care of.”
Sandland
Sandland agreed that having a spring drills under his belt before preparing for his final collegiate fall camp gives him a leg up. He initially chose Miami because it meant he could join the Hurricanes in January and participate in spring ball. If he would’ve wanted to take an on-campus math course at Pierce that spring, he could’ve taken one of his offers. He had Georgia, Florida, LSU, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Ole Miss recruiting him. Instead, he chose to go to Coral Gables.
Now he’s in Bozeman and Sandland’s time is running thin.
“My last year, I’m a fifth-year senior, redshirted last year, didn’t do anything at Miami my first year and the two years before that, at junior college, so this is my last one and I have to do something,” Sandland said. “All my cards are on the table now. This is it.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez or noted. All Rights Reserved.
