Jeff Choate’s first National Signing Day as a head coach was far from the first NSD he’s experienced. Montana State’s new head coach has spent the last 15 years as an assistant at the FBS level so most National Signing Days were accompanied by stress as he would wait for the letters from coveted prospects to roll across the fax machine.
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Choate’s first class at MSU was assembled in a whirlwind fashion. Choate was hired the first Friday in December but elected to stay on Chris Petersen’s staff as the defensive line coach at Washington for the remainder of the final month of 2015. The Huskies played in the Heart of Dallas Bowl the day after Christmas. Choate did not hold his first staff meeting until January 3, exactly one month before MSU hoped to sign its first recruiting class of a new era.
Because Choate’s first class came together in a short period of time, Choate said the Bobcats tried to exercise patience. Choate said MSU wanted to recruit players “of high character who are accountable to themselves and their teammates, show toughness and the ability to make plays on the field and men who want to be members of the community at Montana State.”
Choate’s first class includes 19 players, 16 from the prep ranks and 10 from high schools in Montana. The group has a cumulative grade-point average of 3.42, an almost identical figure to the average of incoming freshman at Montana State, a university that continues to gain momentum in all aspects. Choate praised his new signees, particularly three transfers he expects to compete for starting positions right away: quarterback Tyler Bruggman (Scottsdale CC), cornerback Naijiel Hale (Washington) and center Alex Neale (UNLV).
“I don’t know exactly what type of players these guys are going to be just yet,” Choate said. “They have to get here and buy into what we are doing, be immersed in our culture. I’m not going to be able to tell you this is a five-star recruiting class. That’s going to come down the road. We will see where these guys are two or three years down the road and see how much they have contributed to our program and our university. But I do know this: these are five-star people. That’s the most important thing to me in this process.”
Choate inherited a group of 10 verbally committed recruits who pledged their allegiance to MSU when Rob Ash was still the head football coach. MSU signed seven of those prospects last week. Choate said one of his first objectives was to craft an opinion about each committed player and “make sure I feel good about them.” He did feel good, keeping each of the 10 offers on the table. The three previously committed players who did not sign with MSU were all Texas prospects that would likely be ruled as partial or non-qualifiers academically.
The staff used patience in evaluating players but also made sure to not over-sign on signing day. Choate said Montana State has “plenty of room” for potential transfers. He said available money could also be given to “young men already in our program who excel during spring ball.”
“You don’t have to spend all your money on signing day,” Choate said. “There’s still a lot of good players out there. If you have some patience and you still have some money left in your wallet, you are probably going to benefit from that.
“We could probably use an interior defensive lineman and someone else in the secondary. But I’m not going to spend money to spend money.”
When Ash was fired on November 23, his assistants were told they would have a chance to interview for positions on the new coaching staff. Less than a week after being hired, Choate decided to retain three of Ash’s assistants: linebackers coach Kane Ioane, running backs coach Michael Pitre and recruiting coordinator Bo Beck.
Beck was in Texas recruiting despite his job hanging in limbo when he found out he would be retained. Beck and Choate had crossed paths while pounding the pavement in Houston over the years, so they were not unfamiliar. But Beck still didn’t get to meet with his new boss face to face for weeks.
Instead, he spent a week in Austin trying to recruit Dakota Prukop to stay at Montana State. The star quarterback instead elected to transfer to Oregon. Beck then went to work facilitating recruiting efforts as the MSU coaches tried to touch base with committed prospects while identifying new recruits, all the while trying to win the in-state recruiting war with the Montana Grizzlies.
“What we did, we did it for the kids in the program because at the time, none of us had a job,” Beck said. “I truly believe that if we hadn’t done that, you lose the guys who were committed at the time, it hurts two years down the road. When we got out there and got to the kids, they were ok with it. We were like, ‘Hold on tight, MSU is a first-class program and they are going to get the right guy here. And when we do, you’ll hear from them so just hang in there.’ All the kids really did, especially the Montana kids.”
Troy running back Sean Opland, Colstrip offensive lineman Jake Sessions, Great Falls CMR running back Karl Tucker, Boulder punter Jered Padmos and Belgrade defensive end Derek Marks all were verbally committed to Ash’s staff. Sessions, Opland and Padmos all committed during the fall of 2015 while Tucker committed in the spring of his junior year. Marks gave his verbal commitment to Montana State in the fall of 2014.
“I’m the biggest fan of Montana kids, having the kids I’ve been able to coach here,” Beck said. “I’m really excited about it. Derek Marks is a trooper. To stick with us like he stuck with us and to commit so early, those are the type of kids that we are adding to the program.
“I think they always talk. He’s always the statesman. When we have the recruits in for the games, he’s committed and he’s here. He’s in their ear, this is why I did it, come with me. Those type of guys are the main recruiters.”
Before Choate was hired, Ioane secured a verbal commitment from Huntley Project athlete Michael Jobman. The new staff helped land Gatorade Player of the Year Balue Chapman of Bozeman, Helena prized defensive lineman Chase Benson, lanky 6-foot-6 Billings Central wide receiver Jacob Hadley and productive Dillon defensive end Kyle Finch.
“Even with the prior staff, we knew there was a lot of quality kids in the state this year,” Beck said. “We turned our focus into the Montana guys like we always do. We had to target a bunch of kids.”
Despite scrambling to secure the old and continue finding the new, the Bobcats were still able to bring three groups of recruits to Bozeman for official visits. Neale and Bruggman each visited MSU before New Years, giving their verbal commitment before leaving and starting classes on January 3. The first group weekend, Chapman, Benson, Lancaster, California offensive lineman Taylor Tuisosopo and Minneapolis defensive end Lewis Kidd visited the same weekend as half a dozen committed players and each pledged to the MSU staff before leaving. The second weekend, Finch, Hale and El Dorado Hills, California wide receiver Kevin Kassis were among six who visited and each of the three committed before leaving. The third weekend, Lawndale, California quarterback Chris Murray and Hadley visited with Padmos and Sessions and helped finish off the class.
Beck praised the new coaches for their flexibility and hard work in facilitating official visits in a town many of them were new to as well.
“Those guys he hired are warriors right now,” Beck said. “They came in and jumped on board. They haven’t been through one recruiting weekend. Their first weekend was just like being a recruit.
“I thank Coach Choate for having enough trust in me to say, ‘Hey, do what you do and if we need to change something, we will change it.’ It felt like we’d been working together for years. Everybody pulled the rope. Everything I asked them to do, they did. It felt smooth and it was cool with the new guys. That was my only worry: what was the weekend going to be like when these guys don’t even know where 19th Avenue is. I just really appreciate all the hard work they put in for it.”
[/restrict]Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Right Reserved.
