With Montana beginning its third fall camp under head coach Bob Stitt Tuesday, Skyline Sports will break down UM’s roster by highlighting prominent battles for playing time in various position group.
Today’s position: Wide receiver rotation (non-H wide receivers)
The players: Outside receivers — Keenan Curran (6-foot-2, 203-pound junior); Justin Calhoun (5-10, 174-pound sophomore); Samuel Akem (6-4, 198-pound redshirt freshman); Jed Nagler (6-4, 218-pound redshirt freshman); and Brennan Corbin (6-5, 210-pound redshirt freshman).
Inside receivers — Jerry Louie-McGee (5-9, 175 sophomore); Samori Toure (6-3, 186 redshirt freshman).
Montana’s Jerry Louie-McGee / By Jason Bacaj
What’s at stake: Bob Stitt’s first two recruiting classes, particularly the 2016 class, included talented wide receivers in droves. Now a collection of those players are coming off redshirt seasons and will make their much-anticipated debuts for the Grizzlies in 2017.
Louie-McGee was spectacular at times during a freshman season highlighted by both big plays and injury. He helped Montana seal it’s upset victory at No. 3 Northern Iowa with an electric punt return. He set a school record the following week with 21 receptions in a loss at Cal Poly.
But Louie-McGee’s usage — he caught 73 balls, 29 more than Calhoun, the team’s second-leading receiver — took it’s toll. He missed three games with a shoulder injury.
It’s unlikely the talented yet unproven Toure will displace Louie-McGee at the fly sweep-running, bubble screen catching Z receiver position. But Toure’s combination of size and ball skills could make him a threat to push for time at either the slot or on the outside, which in turn could ease the burden on the slight Louie-McGee.
On the outside, Montana finally has a collection of players who can contribute at both X (boundary) and Y (field) wide receiver. Curran, Montana’s top boundary receiver last season, may move back to Y, Stitt said in July. Calhoun, who primarily played Y last season, might play the short-side next season. Stitt called Akem “an excellent short-side (X) receiver” as well.
Montana sophomore wide receiver Justin Calhoun/ by Jason Bacaj
Nagler and Corbin worked mostly Y receiver during spring football. Both give Montana an element of size and physicality it has been missing during Stitt’s first two seasons. Corbin is the most physically intimidating of the group, while Akem, a former prep champion hurdle runner, is the most athletic. Meanwhile, Nagler was once considered the best overall athlete in Montana during his time at Whitefish High.
“We have depth finally,” Stitt said at the Big Sky Kickoff in July. “We’ve always had good players starting for us. But if we took them off the field, I had to be aware of who was on the field calling plays. Now we feel like we can call plays and the backups are going to do the job for us and we can play just as fast.”
“For the first time, I feel like we could play eight to ten guys any given Saturday,” added UM third-year wide receivers coach Mike Ferriter.
If that’s the case, all of the redshirt freshmen along with all three incumbents could make up the core of the rotation.
How they fared in 2016: Louie-McGee earned Freshman All-American honors to go with All-Big Sky honorable mention recognition after catching 73 passes for 651 yards and three touchdowns. Calhoun caught 42 passes for 625 yards and six touchdowns in his first season as a starter. Curran caught 40 passes for 601 yards and a team-high 10 touchdowns.
Akem, Toure, Corbin and Nagler all redshirted last season.
UM junior WR Keenan Curran, pictured here against Idaho State in 2016/ by Jason Bacaj
The case for Curran: Curran had an up and down season in 2016. The positives included a 107-yard game sparked by a 75-yard touchdown catch in UM’s season-opening 41-31 win over Saint Francis to scoring touchdowns five weeks in a row, capped by a four-touchdown performance in a win over Idaho State.
The downs included no catches against Northern Iowa and Southern Utah and losing his starting spot against Cal Poly.
Curran is talented. If he can continue improving his versatility and master both outside spots, he will be a fixture in the rotation.
The case for Calhoun: Calhoun was among the surprise breakout performers for last season’s 6-5 Griz. He has deceptive speed, creates separation well and has good ball skills. He will have to prove his consistency in order to fend off a collection of more naturally gifted athletes.
The case for Akem: Akem has earned himself quite a reputation behind closed doors. Because Montana’s practices are not open to the media, most of Akem’s performances have come in the presence of the Griz only.
During his first year at Montana, Akem turned plenty of heads internally, earning Offensive Scout Team Player of the Year. By the end of spring football, he was taking repetitions with the starting offense. He caught four passes for 34 yards in the spring game. If Akem lives up to the hype, he should be an integral part of Montana’s offense in 2017.
The case for Corbin: The Anaheim native has one of the most impressive prep highlight films, at least in terms of purely dominating the opposition with his physicality, of any Griz pass catcher on the current roster. His natural speed and ball skills makes him an intriguing threat. Is he ready to take the next step?
Jed Nagler, pictured here before his senior year in high school at Montana State’s individual camp/ by Brooks Nuanez
The case for Nagler: Nagler is probably the least likely of the four redshirt freshmen to make a significant impact. But he could certain earn himself a few handfuls of passes with a good camp.
In 2015, Nagler won Class A state titles in the 100 meters, the high jump, the 4×100 relay and the 4×400 relay. He helped Whitefish to the 2013 Class A state track championship and the 2015 Class A state football title. He was an all-conference selection four times in football, earning an offer from Montana State for his defensive prowess.
In other words, he’s a capable athlete with potential. If he continues to develop physically — he’s up 10 pounds to 218 — he might end up as an H receiver down the road.
The case for Louie-McGee: McGee is lightning in a bottle when fully healthy. His ridiculous agility in and out of his cuts makes him one of the most elusive players in the FCS. With added depth, Montana could play even faster, meaning Louie-McGee could find similar production even if he’s sharing time with Toure or others.
The case for Toure: Akem won the battle of most hyped redshirt freshman during the year away from the game, but not by much. Toure’s internal reputation grew significantly over the last year as well.
Stitt has brought up Toure in multiple interviews without solicitation over the last five months. While he’s listed as a Z receiver currently, he will work in at all three non-H spots. If all goes according to plan, Akem and Toure, maybe more, will join the three returners as the primary non-H receivers.
What they must accomplish during fall camp: Montana wants to play at such a fast pace, quite literally all 23 receivers on the roster will get chances early on to prove themselves. Whoever makes the most of those opportunities, particularly these seven players, will in turn receive more chances, meaning more likelihood to secure spots in the rotation.
Also on the roster: Lamarriel Taylor (6-2, 195, sophomore); Kobey Eaton (6-3, 185, sophomore); Mitch McLaughlin (5-9, 175, junior); Michael McGinnis (6-3, 191, freshman); Malik Flowers (6-2, 185, freshman); Jared Thurber (6-4, 169, freshman); Nick Fouch (6-0, 162, freshman); Mitch Roberts (6-1, 188, freshman); Danny Burton (5-10, 172, freshman); Braxton Reiten (5-9, 170, Columbia Falls).
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