BOZEMAN, Montana — Entering the 2019 season, Montana State’s roster was flush with talent. The defensive line features three former FBS dropdowns along with a four-year starting captain in Derek Marks. The secondary is led by the top safety pair in the Big Sky Conference in Brayden Konkol and Jahque Alleyen and also features senior Greg “Munchie” Filer III, one of the top man corners in the league.
The offense rests upon a rock-solid offensive line foundation and is highlighted by playmakers with unorthodox skill sets like slot receiver turned do-everything pass catcher Kevin Kassis, quarterback turned receiver Travis Jonsen and of course, Troy Andersen, a two-way throwback who is arguably the most diverse player in college football.
So coming into Jeff Choate’s fourth season at the helm, the narrative surrounding the program naturally centered upon who would play quarterback for the Bobcats. And whoever that player is, most prognosticators agreed that the man under center just had to make sure to not burn the house down for an otherwise supremely talented outfit.
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Three games into his career as MSU’s starting quarterback, redshirt freshman Casey Bauman has executed his main job — taking care of the football — flawlessly. He has also been maddeningly inconsistent in the passing game, particular on short and intermediate routes.
In three games, Bauman has completed 48.6 percent of his passes, which is right in line with his two predecessors. Chris Murray completed 49.4 percent of his 338 passes during his two-year stint as MSU’s primary quarterback in 2016 and 2017. He threw 21 touchdowns and 17 intercetpions.
Last season, Andersen completed 55 percent of his passes but managed just three touchdowns compared to six interceptions.
Through three starts, Bauman has struggled with his accuracy — last week’s 16-of-30 performance for 149 yards in a 23-14 win at Western Illinois is his bets outing so far — but he has taken care of the ball admirably. He has not thrown an interception or committed a turnover.
“He’s having moments where all the pieces are coming together,” Choate said a few days after MSU’s 38-17 win over No. 12 Southeast Missouri State. “I don’t know if the game has completely slowed down for him yet. But he’s definitely having moments where he sees it pre-snap, split safety, this is my progress, I’m on.
“When his feet get a little happy and he doesn’t transition his weight properly, he tends to sail balls. He’s gotta finish on his front foot. That’s the biggest thing with a tall quarterback is the weight transfer.”
Bauman is 6-foot-7 and 235 pounds. His size and muscular built are elite and unique at the FCS level if not for all of college football. Choate has mentioned on several occasions that when he does not transfer his weight to his front foot, “The ball dives on him because he has such a high delivery point.”
In offensive coordinator Matt Miller’s current offensive scheme, Bauman is required to identify the post safety or if a team is playing split safeties, Choate said. Depending on that identification, Bauman’s reads are relatively simple. Choate said it comes down to learning how to “manage the perimeter a little better and not pre-determining things.”
Choate also mentioned Monday that he thinks Bauman is squeezing the ball too hard, which the head coach thinks is a matter of just relaxing.
“He’s got to be able to put some body shots on some of our guys in our quick game. That’s probably the biggest thing,” Choate said two weeks ago in a one-on-one interview with Skyline Sports. “When we take shots down the field, they are called 50/50 balls for a reason. We aren’t expected to complete 70 percent of those. But we’ve been able to stretch the field and get some chunk plays in the passing game on a pretty consistent basis. I think that will be a positive thing for us to build on.”
Although Bauman is yet to find a rhythm or any semblance of a personal hot streak, he has impressed his head coach nonetheless. He has thrown for 405 yards, including a 30-yard touchdown pass to sophomore Coy Steel for MSU’s lone touchdown in a season-opening loss to Texas Tech.
Montana State has won two straight games since then, averaging 30.5 points per game in the process. MSU is one yard short of averaging 400 yards of total offense in that span. The Bobcats have only converted 7-of-29 (24.1 percent) of their third down attempts. But 2-0 against FCS competition is what Choate is most worried about.
“It’s easy to criticize the quarterback, I get that, but here’s what that guy has done for us: he hasn’t thrown one interception,” Choate said. “He’s taken one sack in three games. He’s been very, very smart with the football.
“At the end of the day, when you are playing good defense (MSU is giving up 15.5 points per game against FCS competition), you can take some chances but you would probably be better off letting your defense play. I really commend him for staying within himself, taking care of the football, valuing the football for our team. I think those are things we can build on.”
Miller took over as Montana State’s offensive play-caller with four games to play in the regular season last fall. The Bobcats averaged more than 35 points and 430 yards of total offense under Miller’s direction, finishing the campaign on a three –game winning streak that reached four with a first-round playoff win.
Whether it was Courtney Messingham or Brian Armstrong or Bob Cole or now Miller calling the plays, the first three seasons under Choate have been highlighted by the spectacular running ability of Murray and Andersen combined with the one-dimensional reputation of the Bobcats’ attack.
Montana State is averaging nearly 200 rushing yards per game despite the fact that sophomore starting running back Isaiah Ifanse has only played a game and a half because of an injury, senior Karl Tucker II missed last game with an injury and Andersen has been limited because he’s “banged up”, according to two sources within MSU’s program.
The more conventional run concepts have been more prevalent. But the unconventional ones, like playing Andersen or Jonsen or even Kassis at quarterback, have also been heavily included in Miller’s play-calling.
“When we are rolling, we are clicking pretty good but we still have disjointed moments,” Miller said following Wednesday morning’s practice. “We have to get that out of our system and play consistently for 60 minutes over the course of a game.
“We have to be more conventional with our running game,” Miller said. “We have a great stable of running backs who are doing a really nice job. When Isaiah is going, he does a really nice job. (Senior) Logan Jones had a breakout game (167 rushing yards at WIU) for his senior season. It is a little different because with that plus-one run game with the quarterback, you are adding an extra hat to the blocking scheme. You feel a lot better when it comes to that. That’s why we still have it as part of our system. We are just getting to it in different ways with different guys.”
Miller echoed Choate in his critique of Bauman — “We have to clean some stuff up, simplify some reads, let them play faste and confident and make sure Casey is delivering accurate throws,” Miller said — and also put an emphasis on “cleaning up” the mechanics and fundamenals of the position.
Miller, a standout wide receiver at Helena Capital before authoring a record-setting career at Boise State, is now MSU’s quarterbacks coach along with his play-calling duties. He notices that “some of it is nerves” but with three games and a fourth non-conference tune-up against Norfolk State on Saturday coming up, Miller believes Bauman is close to finding his stride.
“You can just see it: when he is confident and he’s calm, his mechanics are good. When he is not settled into the pocket, his mechanics might go out the window and his feet are really loud in the pocket and he’s inaccurate with his throws,” Miller said. “That’s something we are working on constantly, every single day.
“Like I tell him, just go play pitch and catch like you’ve done your entire life. A lot of those throws are not super difficult to make in terms of what we are asking him to do. Also at the same time, you have to think about this is a whole different world for a quarterback playing in college football compared to high school football. When live bullets are flying, it’s so much faster than at practice.”
In two weeks, Montana State hosts Northern Arizona, the dark horse contender in an already stacked Big Sky title race. As Miller says, “that’s when we start playing for big money.”
With three starts under his belt, Bauman presumably will start to turn the corner from the mental part of the game. Choate and his staff are banking on it.
“I think he’s got plenty of reps,” Choate said. “We made this decision so early in camp, it’s not just the game reps. He also had that extra two and a half weeks of practice where he was really taking the 1 reps. We know what he is not doing well. We know what he is doing well. There are some decisions he would like to have back. But I think he’s making progress.”
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Photos by Brooks Nuanez or Jason Bacaj. All Rights Reserved.
