Analysis

Bobcat D-line making strides under Choate’s watchful eye

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Over the last three seasons, Jeff Choate has coached some of the most freakishly gifted athletes in all of college football.

During his one season on Will Muschamp’s staff at Florida in 2013, Choate mentored Buck ends Dante Fowler and Ronald Powell. The 6-foot-3, 265-pound Fowler went on to become the No. 3 overall selection in the 2015 NFL Draft while the 6-foot-3, 245-pound Powell went in the fifth round.

During his time coaching defensive line during the 2014 and 2015 seasons at the University of Washington, Choate mentored the likes of Hau’oli Kikaha, a 6-foot-3, 250-pound hybrid pass rusher who led college football with 19 sacks in 2014, and Danny Shelton, a 6-foot-2, 339-pound mountain who became the No. 12 overall selection in last season’s NFL Draft.

So when the longtime defensive position coach — Choate coached linebackers at Boise State and Washington State before heading to the SEC — took over as the head coach at Montana State last December, he had to look at his new defensive linemen through a completely different lens.

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Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved. 

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About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

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