BOZEMAN — Bill Kollar has made unrelenting effort a trademark of his career, whether as an All-American interior defensive lineman at Montana State or during an MVP performance at the 1974 Senior Bowl or during a solid NFL career after becoming one of just three players from the Big Sky Conference to be selected in the first round of the NFL Draft.
Kollar is one of only four Bobcats to have his number retired and by all accounts, one of the great players in MSU and Big Sky history. That hard-charging way has carried Kollar through a successful second career as one of the NFL’s most revered defensive line coaches. His most recent stops are perhaps his greatest accomplishments.
In Houston, Kollar helped JJ Watt rise to become the NFL Defensive Player of the Year while also building the pass rushing foundation for suddenly-blossoming former No. 1 overall draft pick Jadeveon Clowney. The last four seasons, Kollar has been with the Denver Broncos, helping Von Miller earn first-team All-Pro honors three straight seasons and clinch the MVP of Super Bowl 50.
When Kollar speaks, he demands attention, just like he did when he addressed the current Bobcats on a suddenly sunny Saturday in Aprli. Following MSU’s first spring scrimmage of 2018, Kollar praised the team for their work ethic and spirited effort during the 75-play exercise.
“For Bill Kollar to be here and for him to tell the team — and I think he meant what he was saying — he was just so impressed with the way the kids went to work,” MSU defensive coordinator Ty Gregorak said. “It’s a dang whiteout at the beginning of the day. It’s snow, rain, then it’s sun – only in Bozeman, Montana can you get every weather condition possible in one practice. For a Montana State Hall of Famer, a long-time pro, to have him say he was really impressed with the way we worked for a couple of hours, I think we all would agree with him.
“Our kids go to work. They bring their lunch pail. The culture has been set. They know what the standard is. We have a bunch of really good kids who go out and go about their business in the right way.”
When Jeff Choate first took over at Montana State in December of 2016, he inherited a proud program that had lost its way. The Bobcats had gone from a balanced outfit that used efficient offense, superior offensive line play and one of the nation’s best pass rushes to win three straight Big Sky Conference championships between 2010 and 2012 to a wickedly dangerous offensive team that posted a 13-11 combine record in 2014 and 2015 because of a defense that could not stop anybody.
In the waning years of the Rob Ash era at MSU, selfishness, apathy and complacency crept into the program. The divid between the offenses and the defense was apparent, as was the lack of initiative in day-to-day practices.
Choate cut his teeth under Mick Dennehy — the former Montana State assistant and Montana head coach — when Dennehy was the head coach at Utah State. As a former high school coach, Choate always prided himself on solid, fundamental defensive ideals and the steadiness of the culture of his programs. Those ideals were fortified during his rise through the coaching ranks as he spent stints at Boise State and Washington with heralded head coach Chris Petersen.
When Choate took his first college head coaching job at Montana State, he recognized the internal issues that plagued the Bobcats right away. He went to work morphing the culture into the one he desired, a culture of camaraderie, brotherhood, strong work ethic and toughness. With Montana State set to open its third fall camp under Choate on Friday, the Bobcats are hoping what Kollar observed in the spring can carry over to a fall in which the team is trying to snap a streak of three straight losing seasons.
“You can definitely see the culture change over the three years I’ve been here by the dudes who have left the program and the dudes who have stayed,” Montana State senior center Alex Neale said. “It’s been awesome to see the ones who care.”
Over the last two seasons, Montana State has fortified its defense despite a relative lack of elite talent on that side of the ball. The Bobcats have also cultivated its closeness as a team through a concerted effort by the coaching staff with the players. The players have bought into the intangible aspect of camaraderie fully.
“The brotherhood is definitely established,” Montana State third-year sophomore outside linebacker Jacob Hadley said in April. “We are all family here, all friends who love being around each other. That really makes coming here every day working more enjoyable for everyone.
“It’s about putting the team before yourself. You are going to do whatever is best for the team. It’s not about you.”
That closeness has translated into accountability and showed up during summer workouts.
“Over the summer, we had almost 100 percent attendance for summer workouts and I think that was a really big step,” MSU sophomore linebacker Michael Jobman said. “We went through last season and this off-season, winter workouts went really, really well for us. We had no one that you could call an energy vampire. Everyone was up and ready to go every day.”
In an effort to help his players become a tight-knit group, Choate mixed up the locker room, moving position groups around. He galvanized senior leaders like J.P. Flynn and Matt Brownlow to bring the team closer together through summer social activities like fishing and floating the river. The head coach also put a priority on streamlining the culture through little rules that have led to noticeable results in continuity.
“I don’t think it’s subtle, I think it’s dramatic,” Choate said in April. “Our culture night and day from when we walked in here two years ago. They know: this is what we are wearing to work out every day. There’s no telling kids to take their earrings off, take their necklaces off. That stuff is done in the locker room. They know when it’s time to come to work, they come to work. They know the discipline it takes.”
MSU’s 15 spring practices were mostly plagued by winter weather. Choate’s decision to begin practices at 6 a.m. in order for his players to prioritize their studies in the afternoon could’ve been detrimental to progress made on the field. Instead, practicing on sometimes icy turf at Bobcat Stadium revealed his team’s character to Choate.
“We are out there doing conditioning on a frozen piece of concrete and not a single kid complained,” the head coach said. “If you took a group of kids from Florida and put them in that situation, they are not doing that. Our guys just put their heads down.
“That’s what churns the program. Now everybody here is our guy. They are in. They are not dipping their toe in the water. They are our guys. I like how they work. I like how they treat each other. I like how they handle their business. I like how they compete. I think they are a tough group of guys. And I think they know what it takes to win.”
Bryce Sterk came to Montana State in the off-season after spending three years playing for Petersen at Washington. The 6-foot-5, 255-pound Buck defensive end first went to UW to play for Choate when he was Washington’s defensive line coach.
Now that the Lynden, Washington native is reunited with Choate, he sees the similarities in the program he left with the program he joined.
“They are very similar,” Sterk said March. “Coach Choate definitely has his own spin on things. But their practice plans are very similar, the meetings he has, the way they are set up, the values he teaches are very, very similar to what Coach Pete had. Even the defense is very similar to what Coach Pete had. What I would compare it to is Coach’s Pete’s program at the FCS level.
“Going in the locker room, I haven’t seen a guy that will say they don’t believe we can do great things with this program or thinks we are going to fall short. This is the most optimistic team I have been on. The record was 5-6 last year but you wouldn’t know it. What Choate preaches and what these guys have bought into is that 5-6 happened but that doesn’t define us. We as a team, we are ready to make the next step and be a great FCS team.”
MSU defensive line coach Byron Hout played at Boise State under Petersen and was a graduate assistant at his alma mater before taking his first full-time coaching job under Choate at MSU. He notices a similar attention to detail under Choate’s guidance that he experienced at BSU.
“You start to see just how the similarities, whether it’s in the weight room or how we run around in practice, how guys bring their notebooks to meetings,” Hout said. “It’s the little stuff that in the beginning was different for these guys. But they are noticing the little things and that’s created the culture. These little things throughout the years we’ve gotten better at are the key.”
Bob Cole is a coaching veteran who rose to success as the offensive coordinator under Dennehy at Montana before following Dennehy to USU. He most recently seved as the offensive coordinator at Northern Illinois from 20013 until 2016, helping Jordan Lynch transform into a Heisman Trophy finalist.
“From what I’ve heard, it’s taken a year or two to get it where it is right now but I’m pretty impressed with the attitude of all the players,” Cole said in April. “They are all bought in. You don’t have to worry about all that other nonsense that doesn’t go along with football.”
Choate’s first two seasons have been trademarked by a diametric shift in style, scheme and philosophy along with a slew of close losses. MSU lost its first six Big Sky Conference games with Choate at the helm. But the Bobcats kicked its turnover bug for Choate’s first Big Sky win over UC Davis, then beat Montana 24-17 in Missoula to finish 2016 on an upswing.
Last season, Montana State won five more games in league play, pushing MSU’s record to 7-3 over its last 10 Big Sky contests. MSU’s losses during that span included a 25-17 loss at home to eventual league champion Weber State, a 37-36 loss sealed by a missed two-point conversion at playoff-qualifying Northern Arizona and a 31-19 loss at perennial league power Eastern Washington. MSU also lost 31-27 to No. 3 South Dakota State and 16-14 to eventual FCS quarterfinal qualifier Kennesaw State.
“I think there’s a lot of really positive energy around our program,” Choate said. “I think people recognize the upward trajectory of the program and that’s something the Bobcat faithful around the state of Montana and around the Northwest have locked into. There’s good energy here.”
Despite MSU’s apparent improvements under Choate, the program is still striving to return to championship form. And around the league, the Bobcats are still striving for respect. The league’s coaches and affiliated media tabbed Montana State No. 8 in each preseason poll. It’s a motivating factor entering 2018.
“I don’t really focus on outside noise,” Choate said. “We have always had high expectations but I knew it was always going to be a process. That’s what I think grounds you. Just do the right things. Don’t try to win. Just do what winners do.
“Put the work in the correct way, treat people the right way. The wins will take care of themselves. The wins are a byproduct of hard work and having the discipline to stick to a process even when things aren’t going the way you want them to go and you are frustratingly close in terms of the painful losses we endured as a program not just last year but even the year before that.
“You stay the course and you start to see these young men mature and the ones that have bought in and stuck around I think are championship-quality people. That’s what you build a championship program on.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
