On the Monday of his team’s early bye week, Montana State head coach Jeff Choate said his team needed to work through some personnel issues and find its best 11 players on both sides of the football.
On Saturday about an hour before his team kicked off its Big Sky Conference schedule against North Dakota in Grand Forks, Choate submitted a lineup filled with changes, including junior Grant Collins moving back to middle linebacker, senior kicker Luke Daly not making the trip and true freshman cornerback Tyrel Thomas making is first career start.
Montana State senior Luke Daly did not travel to UND
A week after his statement about personnel adjustments, Choate used his press conference on Monday to confirm that sophomore Gabe Peppenger had edged out senior Luke Daly during a bye week competition for the starting field goal kicker duties. Choate indicated Daly, who missed the first three field goal attempts in his senior season, including both his tries in a 31-27 home loss to No. 4 South Dakota State, would still handle the kickoff and punting duties.
Later in the week, Peppenger beat out Daly for the kickoff duties and sophomore Jered Padmos, MSU’s punter in 2016, earned the right to travel to North Dakota instead of Daly. The senior took to Facebook to express his feelings, the post the first indication of the news.
“Friends and family. Unfortunately, I am no longer able to punt and kickoff for the cats. Even tho I disagree with why the coach made this decision today. I am still planning on helping the team out in practice as much as I can. To all my teammates I hope you win this weekend,” Daly wrote.
During the bye week press conference, Choate also said he needed Montana State’s interior offensive line spots, namely the two guard positions, to “simply pay better.” Choate said he liked the ongoing competition at the right guard spot between senior Caleb Gillis and redshirt freshman Taylor Tuiasosopo. He said he would like more competition at left guard.
Montana State guard Taylor Tuiasosopo (60) will start at left guard today
Over the last two weeks, Montana State found it that competition in a different form Tuiasosopo will make his first career start at right guard while Gillis will start at left guard in place of sophomore Jake McFetrdige.
The defensive starting lineup will also feature a collection of changes, the biggest being junior Grant Collins’ move back to middle linebacker. Sophomore Josh Hill has a leg injury and did not make the trip.
Collins, an imposing 6-foot-4, 245-pound Bozeman product, started 11 games at Mike linebacker as a redshirt freshman in 2015. His 88 tackles ranked second on the team and he added five tackles for loss.
When Choate and defensive coordinator Ty Gregorak first arrived, they moved the long, rangy son of former NFL defensive end Shane Collins to the edge at MSU’s Buck end spot. He has shown flashes but struggled to equal the production of his first season as a starter.
Montana State junior Tyrone Fa’anono
Choate indicated that sophomore Brayden Konkol, a starter at strong safety for the last month of the season last fall, might move back to the defensive backfield after starting MSU’s first two games at Will linebacker.
Instead, Konkol will remain at Will and senior Khari Garcia will make his first start this season at free safety, keeping All-Big Sky senior Bryson McCabe to strong safety. McCabe played strong safety for seven games last year before shifting to free to make room for Konkol. Sophomore JoJo Henderson, MSU’s starting free safety the first two weeks, should see plenty of playing time today as well.
Thomas, a 5-foot-9, 175-pounder from Los Angeles, has played well on special teams, in spot repetitions at cornerback and at nickel back during his first two games of college action. Saturday, he will start in place of sophomore Damien Washington opposite senior Bryce Alley.
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
