Henry Nuce grew up on the other side of the country with no knowledge of college football or really anything else about the state of Montana before moving to Kalispell during his sophomore year of high school.
Before moving to the Treasure State, Nuce had no thought of playing college football or that the prospect was even a possibility.
He had no connection on either side of one of the fiercest rivalries in the West so, as a football fan, he said he “kind of liked both the Bobcats and the Grizzlies” his first couple of years living in Montana.
But as the 6-foot-4, 235-pound defensive end blossomed into an intriguing prospect with plenty of upside and his recruitment picked up, his allegiance rapidly shifted.
“When I first started getting recruited and then in my senior year, I went down to a Griz game and it was unbelievable,” Nuce said. “I loved all the coaches and I loved (UM defensive line) Coach (Barry) Sacks. He’s a great guy. During that game, I was like, I had to come to this team. It blew me away.”
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Nuce spend his younger years in Michigan before his family moved to Winthrop, Maine. When Nuce first move to Kalispell, he had never considered playing sports after high school. That quickly changed at Glacier, one of the state’s top producers of college-ready talent.
“The transition from Maine to Montana for sports, the sports out here (in Montana) are way more competitive than they were where I’m from,” Nuce said. “I had to do a lot more lifting, a lot more running, I had to get myself way bigger, faster and stronger just to get a varsity spot out here.
“In Maine, nobody on my team really ever played college football so I didn’t really know it was a reality. When I moved out here, I heard there was three or four guys every year from Glacier going off to play college football. I was like, ‘Holy cow, that’s cool.’ I thought I could do it but I was never really certain. Then my junior year, I knew I wanted to play college football. So I worked for it and I got with the guy.”
The guy is Mike Gerber, the former strength and conditioning coach for Bobby Hauck’s dominant Griz teams of the 2000s. Gerber has since moved to the Flathead Valley and trains local athletes with college aspirations.
“He knows people from all over and has everyone’s number so he helped me a ton,” Nuce said. “Plus, he’s an unbelievable coach.”
Glacier head coach Grady Bennett’s top-notch program, Gerber’s help with his physical development and the new sports culture he ended into helped Nuce focus his goals on playing football at the next level.
Nuce attended camps at Montana and Montana State in June, receiving positive feedback from both coaching staffs while on each respective campus. He made a visit to a Griz game in the fall and a scholarship offer soon followed. He visited Montana State’s campus while the Bobcats were still in the FCS playoffs, catching a practice in December.
When the new early signing period opened on December 18, the experience of Washington-Grizzly Stadium and his trust in the Montana coaching staff helped solidify Nuce’s decision to become a Griz.
“They didn’t really try to sell me on the program. They just let it speak for itself,” Nuce said. “They showed me around the school after I had committed but they told me they wanted me. That was really the recruiting pitch along with getting me down to a game. Once I saw a game, I was sold.”
Bennett, who played quarterback first at Montana State before standing out at Montana, told the Missoulian in December he thought Nuce was the second-fastest player on the Wolfpack last season. The first? Wide receiver Drew Deck, himself a Montana signee who was the Class AA state champion in the 300-meter hurdles last season.
Nuce used that speed to wreak havoc in opponents’ backfields last season. He finished with 84 tackles and 12 sacks, forcing five fumbles and recovering two more on the way to first-team all-state honors.
“Strong, aggressive, tough,” Sacks said in a UM video produced on signing day. “Runs like the wind in football games. Has got an excellent chase factor with him.”
Part of Nuce’s development into a Big Sky-caliber defensive lineman came from Bennett’s structure within the football program that has produced more in-state prospects than any other Montana high school since Glacier opened in 2007.
Nuce said Bennett consistently reminded the players that “you are never the same. You are either getting better or you are getting better. That helped me learn the mentality to get better every day.”
And part of Nuce’s development into one of the top defensive prospects in the Treasure State went under the radar. Nuce’s offers were largely unknown outside his immediate circle. And his commitment was never reported. The day he signed with the Griz was the day most followers of UM football learned his name.
Nuce doesn’t use Facebook or Twitter like the vast majority of college prospects these days.
“Shoot, I’ve just never been a social media guy,” Nuce said. “I’ve never wanted to do it, I guess.”
Although the Griz let their program speak for itself, Nuce said their play on the field when he watched them live and on television throughout their 10-win season in 2019 also stood out.
“I did get to watch them and they had Dante Olson, the Buck Buchanan Award winner and I loved watching him and that whole defense,” Nuce said. “They were always hustling to the ball and you never saw defensive lineman just going through a little pass rush and then just stand there. Everyone was running to the ball, always. I just thought it spoke about the program so much.”
Nuce said he is still deciding whether he will major in chemistry or biology, but he’s a high-academic student who will likely excel in any discipline. He said he fell in love with the city of Missoula, adding “you have some of the best fly fishing anywhere so that’s what I will be doing.”
Three years ago, Nuce lived on the East Coast and had no illusion of playing sports after high school or moving to a fly fishing mecca. In a few months, Nuce will move again, this time to Missoula to chase a dream he’s only had for a few years but a dream that, at least in its first step, has already come true.
“I signed alongside Drew Deck and I never thought I would be signing a letter of intent to play college football,” Nuce said. “It was hard to explain. I was in awe that I get the opportunity to do this and how few people get to play college sports, especially at the D-I level. It was just awesome. I’m very excited.”
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