The scars of battle are branded all over Chad Newell’s body, permanent reminders of the toll he has paid to play the game he loves.
The scar that runs down his right leg indicates an opportunity lost, a gruesome injury suffered playing basketball that snapped his tibia and fibula, most likely costing him a football scholarship out of high school.
On his left hand is a scar the length of his fist, a reminder of a senior season plagued with disappointment and marked with bad luck from the beginning.
Most days for the last two months, Montana State’s warhorse running back has worn a heavy brace on his left knee, the result of a hyperextension that caused severe sprains to several ligaments and bone bruising. During MSU’s trip to Weber State, Newell could barely get off the bus. Practices and pregame warm ups throughout his final season have been slow crawls as he tries to warm up his body, a vehicle with plenty of miles on it after a bruising five-year Division I career.
Almost every one of Newell’s 10 fingernails is mangled. On this day in mid-November as he sits alone at a table on the second floor of Brick Breeden Fieldhouse, his right elbow is red and pink from a recent turf burn. Each Sunday, and each weekday these days, Newell’s existence depends as much on his stretching routine and his three daily trips to the training room as his toughness.
As his Montana State career winds down — a four-year stretch characterized by grit, toughness and enthusiasm approaching legendary status — Newell looks the part of a beaten man. But surgical scars and aching joints cannot wash away the brightness in his eyes when he remembers his time as a Bobcat. To hear the articulate captain talk is to realize that no matter the physical pain he endures now or later, his time in Bozeman has molded him into a leader of men, a warrior running back that has garnered respect from thousands around the Big Sky Conference.
“Chad leaves behind that Montana warrior attitude, the definition of a Montana badass,” Montana State senior captain J.P. Flynn, one of Newell’s roommates and best friends, said last week. “No matter what cards are dealt, what situation you are in, you keep pushing and give it everything you’ve got.
“You have a guy who breaks his hand first game of the year, goes under the knife, seven screws and a plate and 10 days later is playing in a conference game. He crushes his knee that day. Everyone saw the picture. Never missed a down. Not one snap. You want to know about toughness? That’s tough.”
Scars may last forever. But memories like the ones the Billings native has crafted in Bozeman may never fade. Regardless if his football days end on Saturday in Missoula after the 116th rivalry showdown with the Montana Grizzlies or if he continues defying the odds at the next level, he’s never had a second thought if the pain is worth it.
“To me, it’s never been a question. This is what I do, this is what I love to do,” Newell said. “Running the ball is what I love to do. I want to play a physical brand of football. I’ve never cared if I got hurt. That’s what Montana football is based on: physicality. You learn that from a young age in high school because in Montana you don’t see tremendously athletic people so it almost always comes down to who’s tougher, who hits harder.
“The pride people take in being from Montana and the way we come up, football represents what we are all about.”
Newell’s senior season got off to a less than ideal start. And the hits have kept coming. An All-Big Sky junior campaign that included 12 touchdowns for the top offensive unit in the Big Sky could not overcome a dismal defense that put Montana State in shootouts it could not win. A season that included just three real Division I wins ended with Montana pounding the Bobcats 54-35 in Bozeman. Two days later, MSU fired Rob Ash and most of his staff.
In less than a month, All-American quarterback Dakota Prukop turned his back on Newell, Flynn and a small but talented class that signed with MSU in 2012. Prukop went on recruiting visits to Alabama and Oregon, ultimately choosing the Ducks.
Weeks before Prukop’s exodus, MSU hired Jeff Choate as its 32nd head coach. The intense, honest mentor won over many of the Bobcats, including the veteran leaders, right away.
“His values and the things he teaches are easy for us to get in line with because they are just like ours,” Newell said. “From the moment he stepped on campus, Choate was able to win guys over by being himself.”
Because of Choate’s straightforward, caring coaching style and his apparent drive, optimism brewed from January through August. Internally, Newell and his older teammates believed they had the leader to help them return to elite form. Newell, Flynn, tight end Austin Barth, linebacker Fletcher Collins and wide receiver Will Krolick are the only five remaining Bobcats with rings from MSU’s 2012 Big Sky title team. Among MSU’s 14 seniors, only Barth, Flynn, Newell and fourth-year senior Gunnar Brekke played prominent roles on the Bobcats’ 2014 playoff team.
Newell, a captain in 2015 and 2016, believed Choate’s philosophies of toughness and hard-nosed football would help the Bobcats rise to the top of the conference quickly. But the storybook script turned sour almost instantly as the calendar flipped to September.
Brekke missed Montana State’s opener at Idaho while battling pneumonia. In his absence, Newell endured 26 physical carries, rushing for 100 yards and scoring a touchdown to draw MSU within three, 20-17. But MSU’s offense sputtered for the final minutes while Newell endured a beating that left many who watched the game whether he injured his hand, his wrist, his rips or his brain.
When the dust settled, Choate revealed Newell broke his hand on the second play of the game. He underwent surgery that installed seven screws and a steel plate. Because of the surgical procedure, not the pain, Newell missed the next two games, both non-conference home victories against inferior opponents.
Newell returned for Montana State’s Big Sky opener against North Dakota. On his final carry of the first half, multiple UND defenders crushed him as he fought for extra yards, crumbling his body and making his left knee literally flex backward.
He emerged from the locker room and managed to push MSU to the brink of victory. UND safety Cole Reyes stuffed Newell on a two-point conversion attempt that would’ve tied the game as MSU fell to 0-1 in league play with a 17-15 loss.
“Playing hurt, that’s what you do as a football player and he’s a football player,” MSU third-year running backs coach Michael Pitre said. “You play through pain and discomfort. You play when it’s cold. You rise to the challenge no matter what. He doesn’t know how much football he has left so he refuses to waste an opportunity to play the game he loves.”
Following the UND loss, Newell struggled to find full form as Montana State’s season spun out of control. MSU’s league losing streak peaked with a 38-21 loss at Southern Utah in which Newell was irrelevant and the Bobcats looked lifeless down the stretch.
Montana State started league play with six straight losses, the worst Big Sky losing streak in a generation in Bozeman. Last week in his final home game, Newell rushed for 132 yards and a touchdown to lead the ‘Cats to a 27-13 triumph over UC Davis.
“Doesn’t surprise me a bit,” Choate said of Newell’s effort in his home finale. “At the end of the day, if you are me, who do you want with the ball in their hands at the end of the day? He’s a first-class young man and he’s a tremendous football player.”
One win in his senior year is not what Newell signed up for. As a prep junior at Billings Senior, Newell earned interest from Montana State and Montana because of his physical yet smooth, agile running ability. That winter, in a basketball against Miles City, Newell snapped his leg in two spots.
“I knew it wasn’t good when I tried to stand up and my leg was at a 90-degree angle,” Newell told the Billings Gazette entering his senior year.. “I remember that being the worst pain I’ve ever had in my life.”
Throughout his high school days, Newell and his parents Bill and Leigh would go visit his sister, Jayme, while she attended pharmacy school at Montana. During the fall, the family would attend Griz games together. After his gruesome injury, almost all contact with Montana ceased while MSU offensive line coach Jason McEndoo stayed in touch.
When the time came, Newell asked McEndoo to save him a spot on the Bobcats. McEndoo ensured Billings Senior’s valedictorian he would be invited to fall camp in 2012.
That first season as a walk-on Newell carved out a reputation as a high-motor player on MSU’s scout team as the Bobcats earned their third straight Big Sky Conference championship. Newell earned a scholarship before the next fall camp and then proved worthy of it, earning first-team All-Big Sky honors as a special teams player in 2013.
As a sophomore, Newell had a breakout year, rushing for more than a 100 yards in a freezing cold win over Idaho State and scoring five touchdowns in a 47-40 loss to South Dakota State in the first round of the 2014 FCS playoffs. At that point, Newell assumed winning rings and chasing titles would be commonplace in his career. But the last two seasons have produced just eight total wins.
“Coming here, my expectation was to leave here with five Big Sky title and maybe a national title ring the way things were going when I got here,” Newell said. “I got here at the pinnacle of our success. We were in the midst of a three-year run winning the Big Sky and being a part of that really drove that hunger. Once you’ve had a taste of that, you just want to keep winning.
“That’s all we did when I got here. That was the expectation. That’s gotten away from us as a program, that expectation to win every single game. It’s palpable to me the difference coming into a game and a team collectively knowing that we are going to win no matter who we are playing. Now we have guys, you line up J.P., Gunnar, we know we are going to win our one-on-one matchup but as a collective team, that palpable sense of we are going to win isn’t there. We are gaining, building it. But we aren’t there.”
Newell rushed for 831 yards and 12 touchdowns last season to earn All-Big Sky honors. This season, he missed two games and played almost the entire conference season not at full strength. Still, last week’s 100-yard effort was his third this season and the seventh of his career.
“This year has been a nightmare for the seniors,” Newell said. “It’s an odd situation because our season isn’t going how we wanted but it’s easy to be optimistic about our program. We’ve at least helped relay a foundation for what is to come here. Things are going in the right direction. That’s obvious.
“The sacrifice has never been in question. Montana State has done so much for me personally. It’s given me the opportunity to get a college degree for next to nothing. It’s given me my best friends in the world. It’s done so much for me and my life. For me, making a sacrifice for this program’s future and this university’s future is easy to do.”
Newell’s effort against Davis gives him 631 yards and seven touchdowns this season. He has now rushed for more than 2,000 yards and 31 touchdowns in his decorated career. Newell has more touchdowns than any other Bobcat back except Cody Kirk.
“Hard work, determination and a guy who wills things to happen, that’s his legacy,” Pitre said. “Toughness, leadership, the list goes on. He brings so much but the biggest thing is the ability to will something to happen. He started as a true walk-on and now he’s worked himself into a position as one of the best Bobcats ever.”
“The odds have been against him. We’ve tried to out-recruit him, bring guys in, bring in transfers. He’s kept his eye on the prize which is being the best he can be which is why I think his best football is ahead of him.”
The long-haired captain has handled the fame that comes from the latest in-state walk-on to become a star. The accountability that comes with being locally famous has kept him in line and taught him to always act respectful in case a young person is watching him the way Newell used to idolize Montana running back Chase Reynolds as a kid.
The inspiration he might provide is something he is conscious of, just as he’s conscious of the dangers of the sport. He has suffered the physical downside of the gridiron as much as anyone, yet says he will still always encourage kids to play the game that has given him so much.
Newell will earn his mechanical engineering degree in December. He will stay in Bozeman to train with former Montana State star Dane Fletcher, a local product that played six NFL seasons and now owns a training facility in town, as Newell pursues his professional dreams.Regardless if he plays a football game following Saturday’s rivalry showdown, Newell has written a memorable story with a foundation of toughness and resiliency. Even if his body aches for years to come, the sacrifices he has made for the game he loves have been well worth it.
“If that’s all this game is asking for me is a few broken bones and some extra blood, that’s a small price to pay for what it’s given me,” Newell said. “It’s made me who I am as far as striving for character, being accountable, making me tough-minded. Things in life get tough. Being a student-athlete, you have to deal with so much. I can’t say enough about what this game has given me and the way it’s molded me. A little pain isn’t anything to ask.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
