“Injuries are part of the game.”
You hear that sentence repeated almost every time a player in any sport is announced to be out for a game, a stretch of games, an entire season or a career. It’s just a cold, simple fact.
And often, one man’s injury can be another man’s opportunity.
But generally, injuries drag teams down. Sometimes just one injury is enough to sidetrack a season. Other times, injuries come in bunches – just ask the San Francisco 49ers. Rarely do teams hold up when they see multiple key players knocked out for long stretches.
Montana State football is without question in that ‘rare’ group.
Most recently the Bobcats found out that first-team All-Big Sky fullback Rohan Jones, who is for all intents and purposes an H-back/wing tight end, was forced out of action for MSU’s initial playoff game against UT-Martin. Just five plays into the game Bobcat’ tight end Hunter Provience was hauling in his first career touchdown pass that led to a 49-17 win over the Skyhawks.
It was a fitting moment in a season that has seen the Bobcats appear to scoff at the conventional notion that injuries will eventually turn a good team into a floundering one.
Way back in the spring, MSU began crossing paths with the injury bug as 2023 All-Big Sky running back Julius Davis and promising safety Dru Polidore were sidelined and expected to miss at least the start of the 2024 campaign. During preseason camp in August, team captain and center Justus Perkins was hit with a debilitating ankle injury less than two weeks before the season opener while Burke Mastel and JT Reed, who were expected to rotate at one guard spot, were both knocked out as well. Kicker Casey Kautzman was also injured shortly before the season.
By the time MSU’s first game at New Mexico was set to kickoff, the Bobcats had absorbed and adjusted to the Davis and Polidore injuries. Sophomore Scottre Humphrey and freshman Adam Jones had been primed at running back, while sophomore Caden Dowler had slid out from his nickelback spot and into safety seamlessly.
The Perkins and Mastel/Reed injuries had come so late that MSU had to make wholesale adjustments on the offensive line. Not a single position would be manned by someone who was expected to play there entering the Week 0 showdown with the Lobos. Senior Cole Sain moved to center from guard. With both guard spots vacated, tackles Marcus Wehr and Conner Moore moved over one spot, while backups Titan Fleischmann and Cedric Jefferson got their first career starts at tackle.
What transpired was nothing short of amazing as the Bobcats, without Davis at running back and with a completely reshuffled line put up 567 yards of total offense against New Mexico. Humphrey and Jones combined for 36 carries for 307 yards and the two touchdowns, which happened to be the final two scores of that game and propelled MSU from 17 points down to a 35-31 win.
Buried in that rash of injuries, Montana State lost All-American offensive linemen Rush Reimer (Cal) and Omar Abedigion (Baylor) to Power 5 programs.
“We had to come up with a plan, then we had to come up with another new plan,” Montana State offensive line coach Al Johnson said earlier this season. “We absolutely got lucky last year to have the same starting five start all 12 games. It really came down to how do we get the best five once Justus went down. We get an injury inside and we really had to look at the best five. You have to say Titan at right tackle is the best next guy. And redshirt freshman Cedric Jefferson coming in at left tackle.
“It takes me having patience…and then it sometimes takes me not having patience,” Johnson said. “A lot of it is communication. It’s working together but most of it is communicating.”
Since the opener, the Bobcats have seen starting defensive tackle Blake Schmidt, starting linebacker Danny Uluilakepa, and starting safety Dowler lost for the season and in Schmidt and Uluilakepa’s cases for their careers.
Schmidt was replaced by Paul Brott, Uluilakepa by Neil Daily, and Polidore was able to get his old spot back shortly after Dowler went out. With MSU rotating numerous players along its defensive line in games, Brott’s ability to replace Schmidt meant that someone would need to replace Brott to enable MSU coaches to the defensive line fresh. Freshman Hunter Sharbono took the torch, and the Bobcats don’t seem to have missed a beat. Alec Eckert has also played valuable reps on the inside and outside of the front, while Zac Crews and Hunter Parsons have done a nice job spelling All-American Brody Grebe and his all-conference bookend Kenneth Eiden IV.
The loss of captain Uluilakepa at linebacker was perhaps the most daunting. MSU relies on a three-man rotation for its two linebacker positions and with only Uluilakepa, fellow senior McCade O’Reilly and freshman Bryce Grebe taking reps during competitive portions of games a huge void was created.
Enter Daily. The sophomore from Billings made a huge impact in his first start as the Bobcats faced Portland State without Grebe, who sat out due to a nagging injury. All Daily did that day was get his first career sack on one of the most athletic quarterbacks in the Big Sky in Dante Chachere and add another tackle-for-loss when he pulled down running back Quincy Craig behind the line of scrimmage.
Polidore was a well-known commodity from his 2023 debut performances. Earlier this week, Idaho head coach Jason Eck called Polidore the “finest free safety in the conference.” The first play of his first game back was tackle-for-loss against Idaho. He’s since pulled down two interceptions and in just six games played well enough to earn All-Big Sky honors.
Montana State’s cornerbacks have had to dig into their depth as well. Jon Johnson missed about a month with a hand injury, but MSU didn’t miss a beat as senior Simeon Woodard kept playing at an elite level, sophomore Andrew Powdrell rose to an all-conference level (second-team) and redshirt freshman Tayden Gray started earning more turns.
Myles Sansted’s performance during 2024 doesn’t take a back seat to any of those stories. The sophomore walk-on was really expected to do much more than be a placeholder for Kautzman, but it didn’t work out that way as Sansted simply keeps making his kicks. He’s currently 12 for 16 on field goals and 69 for 71 on extra points. A vast improvement over 2023 when MSU was a collective 10 for 19 on field goals and 57 for 63 on extra points.
Sansted’s range has steadily improved over the season as he connected on a 49-yard attempt in the season finale against Montana and the week before he hit from 42 yards against UC Davis, with both kicks coming right before the end of the first half.
Along with those major injuries the Bobcats have also suffered their share of minor setbacks. Davis, who returned for the tenth game against Sacramento State, sparked MSU’s relatively dormant run game against UC Davis in the second half, then was a key factor in the opening touchdown drive of the Cat-Griz game is back on the shelf again. Several players, including receiver Ty McCullouch, defensive end Brody Grebe, backup safety Taki Uluilakepa, Adam Jones and Moore have all taken short periods off.
The Bobcats have Rohan Jones listed as the starter at fullback for Friday night’s home quarterfinal game against the Idaho Vandals. Whether he starts or doesn’t play seems inconsequential at this point.
