BOZEMAN — On the second play of Montana State’s first scrimmage, Tyler Natee lowered his shoulder into a linebacker’s sternum, the sound echoing throughout Bobcat Stadium, immediately drown out by the hollers from the sideline from Natee’s Bobcat teammates.
Each time Natee broke into the second level after that initial trucking of junior middle linebacker Walker Cozzie, defensive players were less keen to engage with the powerhouse tailback with the nickname “Big Bacon.”
When 270 pounds gets a full head of steam, who could blame the less than eager defenders from shying away?
“He’s a little bit of a problem. You have to make some business decisions there and get out of the way,” Montana State third-year head coach Jeff Choate said with a satisfied chuckle following the scrimmage.
Montana State has had the legs for two years with explosive quarterback Chris Murray operating a version of the spread option attack. MSU led the Big Sky Conference in rushing yards per game last season, becoming the first team since Cal Poly joined the league in 2012 other than the triple-option Mustangs to top the conference. Now Montana State has the bacon to go with the legs.
“If you want to tackle that guy, get low, get real low,” MSU senior defensive tackle Zach Wright said. “It’s always hard because any time you do an escape off a guy, you have half a second to try to get low. It’s nice when the guy is a buck 80. But when 270 is coming at you, you have to damn near drop to the ground.”
The 6-foot-1, 270-pound wrecking ball came to Montana State after spending two seasons at Indiana. He was recruited to Bloomington by former head coach Kevin Wilson out of Trinity High in Euless, Texas. When Wilson left to become the offensive coordinator for Urban Meyer at Ohio State, the new coaching staff sat Natee down and told him he would not have a role in the new offensive attack.
“I made a big boy decision and decided to open my recruiting back up to see my options,” Natee said earlier this week.
When Natee put himself back on the market, McGhee, now MSU’s running backs coach, was the first person to reach out. McGhee has been in communication since Natee was the signal caller for their high school alma mater during McGhee’s time working as a graduate assistant at NC State.
“It’s crazy how things work out. Coach McGhee had wanted to get me since high school but it didn’t work out that way,” Natee said. “He hit me up, I took a visit sometime in December and I fell in love with the community and the environment and the culture is already built here so I embraced it and committed.”
The former prep quarterback comes from the same storied Texas football powerhouse that gifted the Bobcats with two-time Big Sky MVP quarterback DeNarius McGhee along with standouts like Na’a Moeakiola, Tray Robinson and the late Eryon Barnett.
“I know about all the guys who played there before me and I’ve talked to them too,” Natee said. “They said the same thing McGhee told me: you will be loved by the environment, by the community and everything is so close together that it’s going to make you feel at home. The stadium gets sold out and it’s an experience you won’t ever forget.”
Natee graduated from Trinity High as the school’s 7th all-time leading rusher after gaining more than 3,000 yards on 337 attempts (8.9 yards per carry) and scoring 25 touchdowns. The then 6-foot, 239-pound high school quarterback also completed 100-of-171 passes for 1,403 yards and 11 touchdowns. He caught seven passes for 169 yards and two TDs.
He was a three-time all-district selection, once as a fullback in 2013 and twice as a quarterback in 2014 and 2015. He led the Trojans to the 2014 Class 6A regional final and a 10-1 record in 2015. Trinity was ranked No. 1 in Texas and No. 4 nationally in 2015.
“Very easy going, very laid back, easy going, put his glasses on and you’re like, this guy is a super intellectual guy,” Choate said. “He has a good sense of humor, alsways a smile on his face, really a positive attitude. I’m sure this guy hasn’t had everything given to him in life. Even this transition here wasn’t really that easy for him. But whatever it was, go get a job to pay the bills, he’ll do what he has to do. He’s a hard working kid who has a great approach to life.”
At Trinity, Natee began his career under Steve Lineweaver, the man who helped Trinity win three state titles, including in McGhee’s senior year in 2009. He posted a 175-29 record in his 15 seasons at the helm before retiring in December of 2014, right before Natee’s senior year. Chris Jensen, Lineweaver’s longtime offensive coordinator, took over as head coach and had similar success.
“Trinity definitely set a foundation for toughness,” Natee said. “We have a saying there that if it’s not rough, it’s not right. It ain’t right if it ain’t rough. You have to be able to go through tough times and lower yourself to accommodate yourself and rise up. It’s not always going to be easy. Being able to adjust to certain situations you are not comfortable with, that’s going to happen and that’s just life.”
Coming out of high school as a 3-star athlete prospect, Natee had offers from Indiana and Arkansas State. He also received interest from SMU and Baylor. In 2016, Natee earned honorable mention All-Freshman Big Ten honors from BTN.com and was the Big Ten Freshman of the Week after rushing for 111 yards on 18 carries and a touchdown against Maryland. He finished his freshman year with 237 yards on 61 attempts and one touchdown.
“When he gets to the second level, a safety, they will turn it down,” McGhee said last week. “They just may act like they missed him and run past him. If you look at the tape he had at Indiana, I think he was Big Ten Player of the Week and if you look at that game online, you will see the safety from Maryland just run past him. Didn’t even attempt to tackle him. He has brought that sort of attitude to our offense.”
In the game against Maryland — an afternoon Natee calls “definitely one of the most fun games of my life just because of the involvement I got” — the burly ball carrier lined up at Wildcat quarterback more often than not. Regardless of how he gets his hands on the football, he has the same mentality once he breaks through the line of scrimmage.
“I just go at them the same way I go at defensive linemen or linebackers, always trying to have that toughness and try to run over anybody that is in my way,” Natee said. “That’s my strong point, being able to run over anybody no matter the situation or how far I am in the open field. It can be a one-on-one with me and a safety and I’m not going to try to juke them. I’m just going to try to run straight through his face. Having that dog mentality against defenses, and showing that down after down after down is a good time.”
Natee will be the first to admit he misses playing quarterback. Last week, Choate said having a big back who also has a decent abilty to throw “allows us to be really creative.” Choate praised Natee for his blocking ability, his wiliness to play special teams and of course for his ability to move the chains in short-yardage situations.
“I think we still need to get about 12 to 15 pounds off of him in the summer but he has unbelievable power and vision and really is light on his feet,” Choate said. “Probably the most impressive thing to me is how intelligent he is. He picks things up very quickly. We don’t have to spent a lot of time repping stuff. That probably goes back to his high school days as a quarterback.”
McGhee’s previous relationship certainly helped serve as the bridge that led Natee to Bozeman. But the Bobcats were on the hunt for a big back regardless. McGhee said a main talking point this off-season has been figuring out how to turn field goals into touchdowns in red-zone situations and avoiding coming up short or without any points at all after long drives. Natee seems like the perfect solution if he can produce consistently.
“If you have 260 pounds coming at you downhill in inside zone as a Mike linebacker, you don’t want to do that all night long,” McGhee said. “In the 4th quarter, we will start to lean on some guys and run through some guys because there’s a lot of weight there trying to tackle him play after play after play. And when he doesn’t get the ball and that defensive end starts to crash and Chris pulls it out on the edge, Chris is a big-time weapon out on the edge. It will be interesting to see how people try to defend it.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Right Reserved.
