BOZEMAN — Justus Perkins may seem like one of the odd men out.
But you’d never know it by observing the Montana State senior captain on a day-to-day basis.
“It’s honestly such a bummer and it kills me that he hasn’t gotten to play as much this year, but you’d never notice it seeing him around the building,” said one Montana State administrator who sees the Bozeman native frequently. “He hasn’t changed his demeanor one bit. That guy is a real one.”
“You want to know who was the happiest guy in the world before he got hurt? Justus Perkins. You want to know who’s still one of the happiest guys around? Justus Perkins,” said another member of the MSU athletics department.
Perkins has experienced quite a journey since joining his hometown Bobcats as a walk-on in 2019. He went from a 240-pound offensive lineman than most thought had no chance to contribute to a stalwart center who entered his super senior season with a chance to break Mitch Brott’s Montana State program record for career starts and consecutive starts to a team captain for the No. 1 team in the country who has been relegated to the sideline for the vast majority of his senior year.
As a redshirt freshman, Perkins started all 15 games as MSU made a run to the national title game in Brent Vigen’s first season at the helm. He started 14 more tames in 2022 as Montana State won its first Big Sky Conference title in a decade. He started all 13 tames last year, earning All-American honors for the first time and all-conference honors for the second time.
He entered this season with 41 straight starts, needing just nine starts to tie and 10 starts to break Brott’s record as Montana State’s power tackle from 2016 until 2019.
Then less than two weeks before the 2024 regular season began, Perkins suffered a leg/ankle injury during MSU’s fall camp scrimmage that has derailed his senior season.
He has not made a start. He has appeared in four games, including for a few snaps in Montana State’s 34-11 win over rival Montana to stamp an undefeated regular season. Still, after that pivotal and Big Sky title-clinching win, tears of joy streamed down Perkins’ face as he embraced his father, Josh, a former Bobcat himself.
“He’s been Mr. Reliable for us, honestly, and he was about to break the record for consecutive starts before he got hurt, which is ironic and also such a bummer,” Montana State senior wide receiver Ty McCullouch said in November.
“He’s one of those guys who’s really smart and he understands the offense. He directed all the offensive linemen when he was out there and he made the smart play. He’s still doing that even if he hasn’t been on the field. When he was playing, he was always doing the right thing to make the offense go and now that he’s been out, he’s is still doing exactly that same right thing on the sideline trying to help everyone out.”
When the 6-foot Perkins first announced he was walking on to Montana State, the move came with plenty of skepticism. Perkins was a Class AA first-team all-state selection as a senior the fall of 2018 and his father was a four-year letterman at cornerback from 1995 until 1999, so he comes from a solid high school program and from solid athletic stock.
But his shear lack of size made many wonder if he was just another hometown kid getting a chance to fill a roster spot for the Bobcats.
“It still baffles me for sure how good he is because I played him in high school and when I was a junior (at Butte, Bozeman’s rival), we heard ‘Justus Perkins is going to MSU? Oh, he’s a good kid and a Bozeman kid. The Cats always recruit guys in the city because they help the program,” Montana State senior All-American quarterback Tommy Mellott said in November. “That’s what we thought.
“And then I got here the next fall (in 2020) and I was like, ‘Oh, this guy is a force to be reckoned with.’ He bought into everything he can to try to find the field.”
Perkins instantly dedicated himself to the weight room and to gaining mass. He also benefited greatly from getting to redshirt during the 2019 season before getting another year of development when the 2020 season was called off due to the global pandemic.
He checked in at 257 pounds in 2019, 265 pounds in 2020 and 285 in 2021.
“When I first got here, he was certainly the best snapper of the group but that’s certainly not the limiting factor to getting on the field,” Mellott said. “It’s being physical, understanding everything. And that comes naturally to him.
“He has a great mind. He understands the point of attack and the point of competition. He understands how the entire offensive line has to move together. He communicates really well. And he built his stature up.”
When Vigen first took over in the winter of 2021, he inherited a team with offensive line standouts like Lewis Kidd, who’s still flirting with sticking on an NFL roster, and Taylor Tuiasosopo, who was a two-time All-Big Sky selection at guard. The unit also featured tackles T.J. Session and Rush Reimer, a pair of top-level talents who would ultimately transfer to Cal.
The unit also featured Zach Redd, a physical player with a hearing deficiency that started 13 games at center in 2019 and slid over to guard for 15 more starts in 2021.
Coming into the 2021 season, the battle for the starting center spot was between Redd and Cole Sain, who was a junior college transfer by way of the Griz (he played in Missoula in 2018) who had joined the program the previous year.
Instead, Perkins won the starting center job as a freshman ahead of Vigen’s first game as the head coach at Montana State.
“Really smart and playing that position, he can communicate really well and could communicate as a young player really well, so to step in like he did as a freshman after Cole got hurt that fall camp, impressive,” Vigen said. “If you would’ve told me in the spring of 2021 that Justus would be starting when we went down to Wyoming, I would’ve thought you were crazy. He had to grow.
“(Former Montana State offensive line coach Brian Armstrong) Army had coached him for a few years, so there was some belief, but he had to overcome the size component….But his intelligence, understanding the game, understanding angles, being able to communicate, being able to snap, it became clear before that first game that he had to be the guy.”
Former Montana State head coach Jeff Choate was he first to point out Perkins’ puzzling yet impressive ability to win individual matchup and lead an offensive line unit.
Choate once said, “You see the guy and you think, ‘this guy is going to get dominated, how will he make an impact?’ Then you put on the film, even in practice, and he’s always winning. Most of the time, the guy he’s going against is on the ground.”
Vigen noticed similar traits early. And the natural ball skills possessed by Perkins along with the passion to be a contributor for the team he grew up loving his entire childhood contributed to his rise.
“For the short comings that come with his size, everything else outweighs that,” Vigen said. “His strength levels, his intelligence, growing stronger every year has allowed him to be a guy that, coming into this year, he’s getting All-American consideration. Unfortunately, it hasn’t gone according to plan and he hasn’t played.”
“But he was never going to be told, you’re too small to do this, you’re a walk-on, whatever. For guys to break through that, they have to be the ones who see it. And somehow, someway, that’s who his is. He confidence has been a driver for him. Confidence can be your worst attribute at times, but the guys who have it in the right amount like Justus, who aren’t going to be told they can’t do something, that’s what you are looking for.”
For several years, the big personality garnered interview requests relatively frequently because of his quick wit, his positive attitude, and his local roots. Perkins decided he was going to go old school and have as many of his fellow offensive linemen alongside him when he would do on-camera interviews.
When he first started cutting his teeth, he found himself as a scout team player pitted against All-American interior defensive linemen like Chase Benson.
“I was getting man handled and I was wondering, ‘Is this for me?,” Perkins remembered in an interview with Skyline Sports in August. ““But I bought into that mentality that Coach Choate instilled and I’m glad I did.”
And although this season has not gone nearly according to plan, Perkins has been grateful to be along for the ride.
“Growing up here, being a Bozeman kid, going to the games, being a kid, sitting in the stands, and now being a player that hopefully the kids watch means everything to me,” Perkins said. “My dad playing here forever ago and being able to play with my brothers, it means the world to me.”
