BOZEMAN — As Ty Gregorak reviewed the film from Montana State’s first spring scrimmage, MSU’s defensive coordinator saw something you don’t often see.
Bryce Sterk tracked down Chris Murray from behind.
“Chris is one of the best athletes in the league and one of the fastest athletes in the league and it was a great effort play, but the kid really can move,” Gregorak said with a chuckle when Sterk’s name first came up during an interview last week. “For a 6-foot-5, 260-pound dude, he can really boogie.”
If the defensive end transfer from Washington can boogie his way around quarterbacks and give the Bobcats a real threat as a pass rusher, the Washington transfer will likely have Gregorak and third-year head coach Jeff Choate dancing with glee.
For the better part of the last five decades, Montana State has had a solid reputation for consistently producing pass rushers. Starting with Gary Decolati in 1964 on to Gary Gustafson in 1970 before Bill Kollar ascended to first-round draft pick status in 1974 and continuing with sack-masters like Les Leininger on MSU’s 1976 national championship team, Mark Fellows on the 1984 national champion Bobcats and future NFL Draft pick Corey Widmer in the early 1990s, the lineage of All-Americans defensive linemen from MSU is rich.
Standouts like Neil Smith, Adam Cordeiro and Jon Montoya bridged the gap from Widmer to Dane Fletcher, a Big Sky MVP in 2009 who laid the foundation for Caleb Schreibeis and Brad Daly to earn MSU’s first two ever Buck Buchanan Awards in consecutive years with two of the most prolific sack seasons in league history.
Since Daly won the Buck in 2013, Montana State’s once-gaudy sack numbers have steadily declined. Last season, MSU ranked 11th in the 13-team Big Sky with 17 as a team. The Bobcats have 32 sacks in Choate’s first two years at the helm and in Gregorak’s defense.
In 2012 — the last season Montana State claimed the Big Sky title — MSU piled up 39 sacks, including 12.5 by Schreibeis in his breakout season. No Bobcat has surpassed Odin Coe’s six sacks in 2014. Derek Marks led the team with four sacks; only outside linebacker Mac Bignell and defensive tackle Zach Wright had two or more last season.
Enter Sterk, a 6-foot-4, 262-pound athletic specimen who is dawning, coincidentally or not, No. 37 as MSU turns into the second half of its 15-practice spring football session.
“As long as he is, he is going to force a lot of quarterbacks to not be able to make a lot of throws into the boundary and when he’s rushing the passer, he will have that length, that reach on the tackle with the power and the leg drive,” MSU defensive line coach Byron Hout said. “He’s going to create some problems in this league with his pass rush.”
With starting Buck end Grant Collins on the shelf recovering from shoulder surgery that cost him the second half of last season and sophomore Jacob Hadley limited this spring as he recovers from a torn ACL suffered last spring, Sterk has been the No. 1 at MSU’s hybrid end/outside linebacker spot all spring.
“I played something similar to the Buck ever since high school so it is a natural fit being a standup edge rusher and dropping into the flat,” Sterk said in March. “It’s very similar to what I’ve been playing. My skill set, I’m not the fastest guy or the biggest guy but I think I can contribute.”
The modesty comes naturally to Sterk. But to see the chiseled specimen move laterally or burst up the field is to see one of Montana State’s most formidable, explosive athletes in motion.
“He is a guy who looks the part and is playing the part right now,” Choate said. “He’s got some confidence right now. He’s a guy who can be an impact player for us when he’s confident.”
“I like the kid a lot,” added senior defensive tackle Zach Wright following MSU’s first scrimmage of the spring. “He’s got a great drive. He’s got a great body, great physique, tall guy. We call him the moose. It’s great to have another guy who can affect the pass rush like he does.”
The Lynden, Washington native led his high school to three Washington 2A state football titles and also won multiple state championships in track as a standout hurdler.
As a prep senior in 2015, Sterk hardly left the field. He anchored the offensive line as the starting left tackle and posted 147 tackles, 10 sacks and six forced fumbles on defense, helping Lynden reach the Class 2A state championship game, the fourth straight in Sterk’s high school career.
Sterk helped Lynden to a 32-game winning streak that included three state titles. He was the Northwest Conference MVP and a unanimous first-team all-state selection on both sides of the ball. In track, he finishes sixth in the 300-meter high hurdles in 39.97 seconds as a junior. As a senior, he finished second in the state in the 400 meters in 50.2 seconds.
Sterk earned a three-star rating as a defensive end/outside linebacker in Northwestern Washington. He received offers from Eastern Washington and Portland State before Choate, then the defensive line coach at Washington, offered a scholarship. He also had an offer from Wyoming.
“I’ve always said, ‘this guy has everything it takes to be a Pac 12 player but he has to have the confidence and belief in himself,” Choate said. “One of the things I told him when we recruited him here to Montana State is, ‘I want you to believe in yourself as much as I’ve believed in you twice.’ I see that now. I see him really comfortable.
“I can tell he really likes being here. (Sophomores) Lewis Kidd and Chase Benson are the guys he hangs around with and it’s the three stooges running around. They have smiles on their faces. He’s relaxed, he’s playing fast. It’s kind of neat to see a kid coming into his own who you knew had the ability to do it.”
During his redshirt season in 2015 playing under Choate at UW, Sterk won the team’s Ultimate Dirt Dawg Award for his work in the weight room. In 2016, he saw his first action in a in the win over Rutgers, recording two tackles and a fumble recovery. In 2017, he did not earn any game action.
“There was times I wasn’t really playing as much as I’d like to so it was really frustrating but I wouldn’t trade it,” Sterk said. “I learned a lot of lessons, met some great people and had a really good time.”
“Coach Choate, that year he was there before he came here, he definitely helped me a lot with the pass rush and setting a foundation because I didn’t know a lot coming out of high school about college level football. He definitely laid good ground work for me as a player.”
Lynden is a town of about 12,000 located in the greater Bellingham metro area about five miles south of the Canadian border. The town, which also produced standout MSU women’s basketball player and former Big Sky MVP Jasmine Hommes, has a strong Dutch population similar to the community that resides in the Manhattan and Churchill areas out side of Bozeman.
Sterk said he enjoyed his time in Seattle to a certain point, especially when he was in the university district at UW, but he started to yearn for rural life again.
“I started feeling uncomfortable and out of place. I would dress in Carharts and a hat. Coming here, it’s easier to fit in,” he said.
Sterk admitted to being rusty early in spring but the transition to MSU has been smooth, both because Choate runs a program similar to UW head coach Chris Petersen and because Hout played for UW defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski at Boise State so the terminology and the way MSU goes about its day to day practices is very similar.
What could be different is the presence Sterk could bring to the end of Montana State’s defensive line. It’s what the Bobcats are hoping for as they try to cultivate Sterk’s confidence this spring .
“I love that kid so far,” Gregorak said. “That kid has just come down, kept his mouth shut, worked. He’s a good-looking kid. I don’t know if he was going to see the field or not at Washington. This is what is cool about college football. He’s a good kid that just needed another chance. He’s going to help this program.”
[/restrict]Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
