Before pregame warmups on Saturday, Ty Morrison had never kicked in Washington-Grizzly Stadium – not during a game, a practice, in a pressure situation or just screwing around.
About six hours later, the junior college transfer was staring down the uprights behind the south end zone in the biggest of pressure situations. Up by two points with under two minutes to go, Montana needed a field goal to force Missouri State to score a touchdown to win.
In front of a nervous Wa-Griz crowd, Morrison calmly measured off his steps, then knocked the 38-yarder through the uprights. The kick helped the Griz seal a season-opening 29-24 win as Montana’s new specialist made an instant impact.
“Going 3 for 3 on field goals was really big for us, especially late when we needed that field goal to ensure they needed a touchdown,” Griz defensive end Hayden Harris said. “It allowed us to really get after the passer at the end.
“Having him is a great addition. When we can win in all three phases of the game, that’s huge for us, so having him going forward is going to be key for us.”
The kick was sweet redemption for Morrison. Because of a run of concerts at Washington-Grizzly leading up to the season opener, he hadn’t gotten a chance to kick in the stadium until Saturday, and his first kick in a Griz uniform – an extra point in the first half – ricocheted off the left upright straight back at him.
“As soon as I came off the field, (head) coach (Bobby) Hauck came up to me,” Morrison said. “We talked about what went wrong, and then as I was walking over to our kicking net to get everything squared away, I had multiple teammates coming up to me and cheering me on, getting me back in the right state of mind. So they were a huge help there.”
After that, Morrison was perfect, making two more PATs and all three of his field-goal tries, from 35, 22 and 38 yards. Not only that, he punted exceptionally, averaging over 45 yards per boot – including a majestic 61-yarder – and sticking Missouri State at or inside its own 10-yard line twice.
In his debut, Morrison became the first Montana player to both record a punt and attempt a field goal in the same season since Chris Lider in 2014. Lider, who had been the kicker two years before, was the regular punter by that time in his career and missed his only field-goal try. The last player to do both regularly at Montana was Brody McKnight in 2011.
“(Missouri State’s) punter is an All-American, Ty outpunted him by three yards,” Hauck said in the postgame press conference. “That field goal at the end was huge, he was just money, so I was really happy for him, proud of him.
“That’s not an easy thing to do, miss one then come back. All of those were really critical too, every one of those points after that was pretty critical, so he did a great job.”
Although he’s only played one game, Morrison’s uncommon versatility gives him a chance to be the crown jewel of the recent line of great specialists that Montana had developed under Hauck’s tutelage.
Over the past several years, having a top-notch punter has helped enable Montana’s field-position game and defined the Grizzlies’ opportunistic, special-teams-heavy style.
Both Brian Buschini and Patrick Rohrbach went from unheralded in-state walk-ons to all-conference punters, with Buschini parlaying his success into a transfer spot at Nebraska. Kevin Macias, who made 23 of 27 field goals in 2021 to set a new program record for career field-goal percentage, is still kicking professionally in indoor leagues.
The chance to work with Hauck helped sway Morrison to Montana. The two first met at San Diego State’s kicking camp the summer after Morrison’s first year at JUCO College of the Canyons. He’d had a successful freshman season, making the all-Northern Conference first team by averaging just over 35 yards per punt and making 12 of 15 field goals for the Cougars.
“I met coach Hauck at the San Diego State kicking camp, and almost immediately, I loved the way that he was coaching me up,” Morrison said. “From there, I ended up having to take a redshirt year at my junior college, and then I was blessed enough to end up here.”
In fall camp, Morrison beat out former Kansas kicker Grant Glasgow and former Kent State kicker Jo Silver for the starting jobs. On Saturday, he had the perfect introduction to Washington-Grizzly Stadium and its fanbase, looking every bit the successor to Buschini, Rohrbach and Travis Benham as a punter and showing impressive poise to bounce back from his first miss.
So far, Hauck’s special teams expertise and Morrison’s talent looks like the perfect match. And now that he’s actually gotten to kick in Washington-Grizzly Stadium, Morrison is confident that he’s only scratching the surface of what that partnership might accomplish.
“Coach Hauck being able to instruct me is huge for me,” Morrison said. “He’s obviously our head coach and our special teams coordinator, so he dials everything up throughout the summer, whether it’s working on my drop or speeding up my time so that we can get the ball off without getting blocked. Little things like that were harder to get at a school where you didn’t have somebody who knew what they were talking about, necessarily. But coming here, he’s been a huge help to get me dialed in and ultimately getting it to where I can help our team.”
