From incumbents to graduate transfers to athletes playing the position for the first time, the praise for Gerald Alexander’s coaching ability was unwavering during Montana State’s recently completed fall camp.
Alexander, a former All-America Boise State safety who spent five seasons in the NFL, has been Montana State’s secondary coach for all of nine months. But his detail-oriented, direct coaching style has resonated with Montana State’s secondary, particularly among a collection of cornerbacks who have spent the last three weeks in a fierce competition for starting spots on the back end of the Bobcat defense.
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“Over these last two or three weeks, my game is steady improving,” said John Walker, a graduate transfer who started nine games over the last three seasons at Colorado who came to MSU specifically to learn from Alexander. “The things he has taught me so far are so good. I can’t wait for next week to come up to really see how I’m looking against other guys.”
Walker and sophomore Tre’Von Strong, a starter for eight games as a redshirt freshman out of Billings Skyview, will be the starting cornerbacks as Montana State takes on Idaho on September 1 in Moscow to open the Jeff Choate era at MSU.
“GA is like a spaghetti bowl of information,” said Strong, a converted safety who came out of nowhere to earn a starting position and break up six passes as a rookie. “He knows so much stuff and sometimes you just have to step back and be like, ‘dang, does he know anything about anything else?’ But he’s taught me a lot about the corner position individually but also about offenses, what the schematics of an offense is like, receiver splits and what they are going to do.
“The game of football is complex but when you study it, he makes it real simple. Offenses run things for a reason. They don’t just go out there and make stuff up. Wherever they are at on the field, something is coming. He’s taught us all those tips. Bringing his knowledge from the league has been very beneficial for us but he doesn’t throw it at us too fast. He takes his time.”
With 15 spring and 21 more fall camp practices plus eight days of game-week preparation for Idaho, Montana State hopes the lessons of the last year pay off.
Last season, opponents attacked Montana State’s young, unproven secondary relentlessly. Eastern Washington quarterback Jordan West completed 21-of-24 passes for 410 yards and six touchdowns in a 55-50 victory. Northern Arizona quarterback Case Cookus completed 18-of-24 passes for 244 yards and four touchdowns in a 49-41 win. Montana’s Brady Gustafson threw for 353 yards and four touchdowns in a 54-35 win. Against Portland State and North Dakota, the Bobcats only faced 20 total passing attempts as PSU piled up 465 rushing yards in a 59-42 win and UND rushed for 426 yards in a 44-38 victory.
Strong and junior safeties Khari Garcia and Bryson McCabe were all a part of Montana State’s beaten secondary a year ago. Now each one is a year older and a year wiser with the improved technique and instilled confidence provided by Alexander since he took over the entire secondary room in January.
Strong in particular has blossomed from a freshman lacking maturity to a sophomore expected to be a headliner for the Bobcats.
“Tre’Von, I think if he can continue to grow and develop under GA physically with who he is, I know he has a chip on his shoulder from last year,” Montana State first-year defensive coordinator Ty Gregorak said the second week of fall camp. “You talk about lambs to the wolves last year as a true freshman at that position…it’s not like playing guard or middle linebacker. You are a field corner as a true freshman. He carries that chip, which is good. I want him to carry that chip. I think he could be a really special cornerback in this league.”
“Maturity,” added Choate when asked the biggest difference in Strong this fall after a spring in which MSU’s new head coach got after him almost daily. “It’s hard to get thrown into that situation as a true freshman and it can get compounded by not making enough plays. Your confidence can get beat up. At the end of the day, he’s a guy who is going to benefit a lot from guys like John and Naijiel and a guy like Coach Alexander.”
The 6-foot-1, 190-pound Strong has the ability to play press coverage on the outside, the ball skills to cover receivers deep and the physical presence to play in the box if he lines up at nickel, something Montana State tried throughout fall camp. Strong worked his way into a starting position with a renewed motivation sparked by Choate adding Walker and sophomore Naijiel Hale, a starter at Washington as a true freshman in 2014 who has been away from football since then.
“Between the new transfers, I knew I had to come in and make a name for myself and show that I can still play,” Strong said. “Any time you bring in a transfer, you know the coaches want them to play a little bit.
“You can’t relax or think everything is going to be handed to you or be entitled. The competition through fall camp was good. We was all working hard.”
During film breakdowns, Alexander has challenge the cornerbacks. Mistakes resulted in pushups. Strong said the group had a competition to see who could collect the most interceptions, a competition won by true freshman Damien Washington, who is listed behind Walker and junior Bryce Alley at Field corner.
At the Boundary cornerback spot, Walker outlasted Tavon Dodd, a sophomore who converted from running back in the spring, and sophomore Braelen Evans, a one-time highly-touted recruit who has spent his first two years in Bozeman battling injuries.
“This fall camp for myself personally, we just started to build the chemistry with the safeties, them learning my game and me getting to learn their range and the way they communicate,” Walker said. “I like to play press a lot so it was a big thing to have fall camp so when we get in those coverages, I know where my safety help is going to be at and trust my safeties. As far as the team, I think we came along. Everybody is grinding, everyone working on one common goal: a championship.”
Montana State will be tested right out of the gates. Last season, Idaho averaged 280 passing yards per game with Matt Linehan at the controls. The 6-foot-3, 220-pounder enters his third years as a starter and has already thrown for 5,512 in his career, including 2,972 yards and 16 touchdowns last season.
“As far as what they run and our secondary, I feel like we are going to do our thing,” Walker said. “On the back end, the coverages we play, they are going to have to beat man coverage.
“We have a lot of confidence. They are an FBS school and we are an FCS school so this is probably a must-win game for them. But it’s just another game for us. That’s how I’m looking at it.”
[/restrict]Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
