Mac Bignell has been one of the most productive outside linebackers in the Big Sky Conference since cracking Montana State’s starting lineup before the 2015 season.
The senior from Drummond has lived in opponents’ backfields, piling up 35 tackles for loss over the last two seasons, including leading the league with 20.5 as a sophomore in 2015.
Bignell’s final season in blue and gold will be a whole new adventure. On Friday, MSU head coach Jeff Choate and defensive coordinator Ty Gregorak confirmed the wiry, ripped 6-foot, 217-pounder has moved from his spot on the edge at Sam linebacker to the inside position of Will linebacker in Gregorak’s 3-4 defense.
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“One of our main priorities was to make the second level of our defense more athletic, faster and better in the open field in space,” Gregorak said. “You move a guy like Mac Bignell, who has done that for four years to Will linebacker, you instantly do that.
“People might ask if he’s big enough. The answer is absolutely. He’s put on some pounds in the off-season. But he’s a very savvy football player. You don’t have to be 230 pounds be an inside linebacker anymore. You have to be able to run, shed blocks. And like I was telling him the other day, don’t get blocked. A lot of times, you don’t have to fit your gap every time as long as you are in your gap and using your hands and your athleticism. We are going to be instantly better.”
Bignell’s move to Will displaces Josh Hill, a starter for all 11 games as a redshirt freshman last season. The 5-foot-11, 218-pounder from Kalispell Glacier exceeded expectations by notching 54 tackles, three tackles for loss and two interceptions. Hill will shift from the Will spot to the Mike linebacker position vacated by the graduation of Fletcher Collins.
The former Montana Class AA Defensive Player of the Year will look to carry the momentum of earning the final Big Sky Player of the Week after his nine-tackle, one interception performance in MSU’s season-ending 24-17 victory over Montana in Missoula to finish Choate’s first season 4-7.
“Josh Hill has had a tremendous off-season and is really playing at a high level for his size,” Choate said. “You look at him and you go, ‘Cut you’re hair Josh, you’d look a lot better’ (laughs). But other than that, he looks like me out there playing, about 5-10, 220 and let’s go. He’s really smart, tough football player.”
Bignell said the biggest challenge of the position move is not the physicality he will experience playing in the box. It’s the mental transition of learning a new spot after starting 22 straight games at Sam over the last two seasons.
The former Class C star said he put on 17 pounds in the off-season, training fervently at The Pit in Bozeman, a training facility run by former MSU All-American defensive end Dane Fletcher where the Bobcats did a good amount of team training during winter conditioning. While he packed on pounds, Bignell said he knows it’s good weight because he lowered his body fat in the process.
“I’m going against guards and centers more instead of tackles and tight ends so that’s the biggest difference,” Bignell, the youngest son of MSU Hall of Fame tight end Joe Bignell, said following Wednesday morning’s session. “I still have to know my gaps and I’m still basically outside so it’s not a whole lot of difference. I moved from 8-man football to 11-man football. Football is football.”
The linebacker shuffle comes from a desire by Choate, Gregorak and longtime linebackers coach Kane Ioane to have Bignell and Hill “anchor the interior of our defense.” The coaches feel confident to shuffle two returning starters to new spots because of the physical progress made by redshirt freshmen Balue Chapman, a former Montana Gatorade Player of the Year from Bozeman, and Jacob Hadley, an intriguing converted safety from Billings Central.
Chapman helped lead Bozeman High to the 2015 state championship by running through tackles as a running back and piling up stops in the backfield as a defensive end. He pushed to earn playing time upon arriving on campus last fall but ended up redshirting. The son of former standout Bobcat defensive back Brett Chapman is up from 189 pounds to 205 and looks much more muscular.
The 6-foot-6 Hadley came to Montana State with substantial athletic potential but unknown collegiate position. He was a Class A all-state selection at wide receiver and cornerback at Billings Central. The all-state basketball player has explosive jumping ability and good hands so many thought he was best suited to play wide receiver. But Hadley ended up cracking MSU’s two-deep depth chart at free safety as a true freshman.
“(Hadley and Chapman) are both athletes, both love football and I’m excited to see the competition,” Gregorak said.
The smooth moving Hadley played in five games as a true freshman before suffering an injury that required season-ending surgery. MSU petitioned and received a redshirt for Hadley. He enters his second year as one of the five tallest players on MSU’s roster. But he also has a frame with the potential to pack on weight. When Hadley came back from Christmas break and tipped the scales at 220 pounds, Choate immediately rethought Hadley playing in the secondary.
“Even though he’s a really good athlete, asking him to backpedal and cover receivers was probably going to be a little bit of a challenge,” Choate said. “The good news is he’s smart, he’s tough and he’s going to continue to get big. He’s got a chance to do some really interesting things for us. I love the competition between him and Balue. They bring a little different skill set, a few different strengths but they are both really dynamic players. I both really like those guys.”
Montana State’s defense showed vast improvement under Gregorak’s direction. In Rob Ash’s last two seasons as MSU’s head coach, the Bobcats had no problem scoring points but appeared to have little chance of stopping opponents from doing the same thing. Montana State led the Big Sky in scoring offense in 2015 and finished 5-6, leading to Ash’s dismissal.
Enter Choate and company. The Bobcats finished second in the league in scoring defense (25.1 points per game) and third in total defense (388.6 points per game). But offensive struggles plagued the team during an 0-6 start in league play.
That defensive unit returns Bignell, Hill, All-Big Sky senior strong safety Bryson McCabe, junior Buck end Grant Collins, junior defensive tackles Zach Wright and Tucker Yates, senior cornerback Bryce Alley, sophomore strong safety Brayden Konkol, senior defensive back Kharia Garcia and a slew of other young players who helped contribute to the improvement.
Gregorak challenges his defense to force three turnovers every practice. The Bobcats fulfilled the goal consistently during fall camp and it carried over onto the field for the first month of last season. MSU forced 12 turnovers during a 2-1 start and sat at No. 1 in the FCS in turnover margin at +11 entering league play. But the trend completely reversed as MSU turned the ball over 24 times and forced four turnovers during an 0-6 start to Big Sky play. MSU went a month straight without a takeaway.
Montana State’s defense forced four turnovers during Wednesday’s session, including a nice interception by Washington transfer cornerback Darren Gardenhire, who will sit out the 2017 season per NCAA rules, and a fumble recovery by Hadley.
“The first thing I did when I brought the defense up was challenging the group, ‘can you do it again? Or are we just going to be front runners?” Gregorak said. “September was pretty good. How did October go? It wasn’t so hot. We can’t be frontrunners. We can’t come out and get zero or two tomorrow. We have to get three every day.”
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Photos by Brooks Nuanez and Colter Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
