An unfortunate injury might have changed the course of Garrison Poetzl’s career enough to get him to commit to Montana over Montana State.
Poetzl, an offensive and defensive lineman from Billings Senior, had offers from both schools and was leaning towards the Cats this spring before he dislocated his elbow right before the summer camp circuit.
By the time it healed, Poetzl could only attend a few late-summer camps. The first happened to be at Missoula, and by the time it was over, Montana State was no longer his frontrunner.
“I really got to appreciate and respect the coaching staff,” Poetzl said. “I would say their staff definitely resembles my high school staff right now. I’m blown away every day by my coaches, and when I was there I was blown away by their coaches, just the understanding of the game and understanding how to coach a winning football team. So the coaching staff definitely won me over from there.”
Shortly thereafter, Poetzl became one of the members of Montana’s 2019 recruiting class, committing to head coach Bobby Hauck in late September.
The defensive lineman is currently out with another injury after tearing his ACL and meniscus in practice a few weeks ago.
That injury ended his senior season, but Poetzl said that the surgery went well.
“I got a graft taken from my hamstring,” Poetzl said. “It’s a pretty common way to replace an ACL for athletic people, and the graft that they found is actually like the biggest that the doctor’s ever had, it means it’s, like, the strongest. So, I have like a super-sized ACL right now, which is pretty sweet.”
With no complications, recovery from ACL tears usually takes around nine to 12 months, which means Poetzl might struggle to be back on the field by the start of fall practice next August.
Regardless of when he’s back on the field, Poetzl will bring potential to Montana’s defensive line, which is where he said the coaches are planning to play him.
He’s started on the D-line at Senior since he was a sophomore, which also happened to coincide with the year the Broncs won their first state championship in decades.
That roster also included current Griz wide receiver Gabe Sulser, as well as Poetzl’s older brother, Luke, who had interest from both the Cats and the Griz but went into the military instead.
“My brother, he played the exact same positions I played my junior and senior year, left tackle and then defensive end,” Poetzl said. “It was fun, but it was rough. In practices, our D-line coach … he always had fun making me and Luke go against each other, because Luke would get so pissed at me whenever I would beat him.”
Poetzl then came into his own as the key man on both lines for the Broncs in his junior year, and kept doing the same this year before his injury.
He said he normally plays at around 250 pounds, which would make him a good fit at defensive end at UM.
“I’m a little bit quicker than you would probably think I was, and I like to read players,” Poetzl said. “Not a lot of people like to look across at their opponent and really get to know them, and then try to guess what they’re going to do. That’s what I try to do. I like to get to know a person real well, just like observing them, watching film all week and learning their tendencies, and then you get to the game and you feel like you know everything about them.”
Poetzl isn’t Montana born and raised, which complicated his recruitment even further because his family didn’t have an attachment to one school or the other.
He grew up near the University of Oregon, going to games at Autzen Stadium, before his family moved to Lake Stevens Washington, where his brother played with Huskies quarterback Jacob Eason.
The Poetzls only moved to Billings shortly before Garrison started high school, when his father got a job preaching at Faith Chapel there.
Poetzl said that he had never been to either a Montana or Montana State game before this fall, but said that game day at Washington-Grizzly Stadium reminded him of his childhood.
“I never felt that excitement that I felt in Autzen Stadium in Oregon when I was a kid, from the crowd and everything,” Poetzl said. “And then I went to Montana and I really felt that. It was like, wow, these fans care, everyone’s into it, this is how it’s supposed to be played and observed.”
He committed barely a week later.
“I think I was so certain with it,” Poetzl said. “There wasn’t a whole lot of doubt in my mind about what I’m supposed to be doing. There’s just like, Oh, this is the next step, this is where I’m supposed to go. So, it was definitely a relief just to get it all over with and really focus in on a place.”
Photos by Travis Clarke. All Rights Reserved.
