The Cat-Griz rivalry spills into many aspects of the sporting landscape and the overall culture of the state of Montana.
Many kids and teenagers in the Treasure State grow up with predetermined allegiances stemming from family ties or local connections to the Montana or Montana State athletic departments, particularly when it comes to football.
Each year, the war for the top prep players is one of the most closely followed aspects of football in the Last Best Place. And often times, the predisposition a great many young people grow up with make it almost impossible for the enemy to cross the recruiting threshold and land a prospect from the other side of the aisle.
Tucker Yates established himself as one of the most intimidating, powerful and durable interior defensive linemen in the Big Sky Conference during a career that finished with a crescendo during his senior year in 2018.
Trey Yates intently watched his older brother thrive with the Bobcats while establishing his own reputation as one of the top small-school athletes in Montana.
When Montana State head coach Jeff Choate called Yates to offer him a scholarship as one of MSU’s first prospects for the Class of 2020, one might assume that Yates would commit to Choate immediately.
Not so fast. Yates knew Choate reminded him of his father and football coach, Stacey Yates. He knew that his brother loved his experience at Montana State. He had great respect for the MSU defensive linemen who flanked Tucker Yates during his career. And he knew Byron Hout was a top-notch defensive line coach.
But Trey Yates is his own man. And he wanted to make the decision on his own.
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Yates fielded the call while staying in Bozeman with Tucker to train. The brothers were eating breakfast before a morning workout. Although the call came “as kind of an awesome shock”, Yates simply thanked Choate without indicating any sort of decision.
“I wanted to keep my options open,” Yates said. “I didn’t say yeah, I will join right when he called me. I just said thank you for the scholarship.
“The Griz reached out to me too and I was going to go to the Griz and the Bobcat camps. I just told Choate I was going to compare the two and see how it goes.”
Montana State first started recruiting Yates during the winter of his junior year as he helped the Colts to a second straight Class B state team title. Yates himself won the heavyweight state championship. That helped him earn attention from MSU director of high school operations B.J. Robertson.
Even though Trey grew up rooting Tucker on against the Grizzlies — Tucker most famously punched the ball out from UM running back Adam Eastwood with eighth seconds to play on the goal line at Washington-Grizzly Stadium to seal a 29-25 victory for MSU in the 2018 Cat-Griz game — Trey still gave Montana a chance to give him a pitch. He went to camps last June in both Missoula and Bozeman.
“I went to the Bozeman camp second and I think that just went better for me,” Yates said in an interview in July. “That’s when I knew.
“Just the atmosphere, these coaches at Montana State, they get fired up, they get hyped. I love that. I love the hype of a team. And they seem really interested in me. They know who I am. They have known me since Choate first got here. It felt like I already know everyone there.”
Yates gave his verbal commitment to Montana State on June 22 days after finishing up his summer camp comparison. During his senior year playing under Stacey, Colstrip’s longtime head football coach, the 6-foot-1, 275-pounder earned Class B all-state and All-Eastern B honors on the defensive line for the second straight year.
On December 22, he signed his National Letter of Intent with the Bobcats. He is slated to play the 3-technique defensive tackle spot manned for three years by Zach Wright before captain Derek Marks moved inside and earned second-team All-Big Sky honors last season at the position.
“He’s a bulldog,” Choate said on signing day. “He plays with tremendous passion, energy, he’s a very strong guy, an excellent wrestler, a true competitor. Trey is a great addition to this class, and will add value to our interior defensive line.”
Following Montana’s 54-35 victory over Montana State in Bozeman, Trey remembers Tucker being furious. He also remembers, “these dudes from Texas and California talking about how it was whatever, saying it wasn’t a big deal, it was just another game.”
“Tucker came out of that loss freakin’ pissed. He was fired up. It was just different. He knows what it’s like.”
Knowing that Choate is a high-energy coach with a defensive mindset, a love of physical football players and an affinity for hard-working in-state recruits also proved important for Yates.
“He’s a blue collar coach,” he said. “He likes that hard hitting. That’s why MSU gets all the Montana boys. That’s another reason I picked Montana State. You go to U of M, they have all these Idaho and Washington boys that don’t really know how big a deal it is to go against the other Montana team.
“I’ve seen it before. Knowing what that game is all about is what usually means winning that game.”
Although Trey ultimately wanted to make his own decision, his passion for football came from following Tucker’s college career, he said. Trey admitted he didn’t really like football in his younger years, “but once we started hitting people, I started having a blast,” he added with a laugh.
Following Tucker’s career with the Bobcats helped spark Trey’s love of the game and helped teach him about the passion behind one of the oldest rivalries in college football.
“It was kind of a process,” Yates said. “When he was in high school, I didn’t really like football at all so I didn’t really get to see him play in high school, which I completely regret. But when he got to college, I started watching him more and I saw how he progressed as a player. He got bigger, he got stronger and he got faster, way faster.
“He was just dominant. He was always dominant as a football player, wrester, just as an athlete. He’s always had that mentality. Just to see him grow throughout the years has been awesome and has had a big influence on me.”
That influence trickled over on the wrestling mat, where Yates is considered the top heavyweight in the state of Montana for the second season in a row. After finishing as the state runner-up as a sophomore, he is gunning for his third straight podium finish at the state meeting in a few weeks. He credits wrestling as much as anything for getting him to the point of realizing his Division I football dreams.
“I don’t credit wrestling enough for football, or anything for that matter,” Yates said. “Wrestling is the hardest sport, hands down. For practice, it’s just two hours of torture (laughs).
“I’m a heavyweight. I’m hurting after practice, me and my other heavyweight buddy. We are hurting during sprints, all the conditioning. But it’s helped me stay low, have a good pad level because in wrestling, you have to have a good stance, attack low, get low for a leg, protect yourself, a whole bunch of stuff. And it’s a mentality.”
Much like his older brother, Trey is self-assured, confident, straightforward and projects an aura of toughness that he backs up with his athletic accomplishments. Yates said he likes the honest way of interacting with the MSU coaching staff. His personality impressed the Bobcat coaches as well.
That’s what made Yates one of the earliest offers, earlier commits and most recognizable signees for MSU’s Class of 2020.
“This is a very talented kid, a guy who grew up watching his brother,” Robertson said. “He wants to one-up his brother on the championship ring counts and I’m excited he wants to take it to the next level. Tucker left it better than he found it and his brother wants to take that next step and do the same thing.”
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