BOZEMAN, Montana — Life can get pretty sleepy playing free safety at Montana State. At least the last few seasons have seemed that way.
Just ask Jeffrey Manning, Jr.
The senior-to-be is one of the most decorated returning Bobcats from a defensive group that loses a glut of players from a historically talented unit that helped MSU play for the national title last season.
Yet Manning was an honorable mention All-Big Sky Conference selection last season, due in part to the fact that he did not have eye-popping numbers. He made 34 tackles and two tackles for loss in 15 starts.
“The one thing that (former MSU defensive coordinator) Coach (Freddie) Banks used to preach to me last year was to never go to sleep,” Manning said with a chuckle. “When you have the trump card that is Troy Anderson, Callahan O’Reilly, Chase Benson, the list I can go down, when you have monsters like that in front of you, there isn’t a lot of work to be done.
“When a play does come your way, you better be awake.”
Manning did however have four interceptions, including a near pick-6 that set up a touchdown in Montana State’s rout of Sam Houston in Huntsville, Texas. The 42-19 MSU victory marked the first time in program history the Bobcats ever won a road playoff game. It also gave Montana State a semifinal home game against South Dakota State.
The action ended before reaching Manning pretty much always last season unless the ball was thrown over the top. It’s pretty hard to make very many plays at or around the line of scrimmage when you have two NFL Draft picks playing on your front seven, plus a defensive line anchored by All-American talents like Benson and Amandre Williams.
Andersen, who went in the second round of the NFL Draft to the Atlanta Falcons, rolled up 147 tackles and 14 tackles for loss on the way to winning FCS Defensive Player of the Year. Daniel Hardy totaled 77 tackles, including 16 sacks and 24 tackles for loss before being selected in the 7th round of the NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Rams. Strong safety Tre Webb, a transfer from San Jose State who almost landed at Notre Dame, had 70 tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss to earn a shot with the Falcons himself.
Benson (41 tackles, 8 tackles for loss) and Williams (44 tackles, 12.5 tackles for loss, 8.5 sacks) are also part of the prolific senior class. And that’s not even mentioning Callahan O’Reilly, MSU’s second-leading tackler behind Andersen (95 stops) or stud nickel back Ty Okada (78 tackles, six tackles for loss) who had productive, all-conference junior seasons.
“He’s (Manning) the last line of defense so hopefully not a ton of stuff is getting to him, particularly in the run game,” MSU second-year head coach Brent Vigen said with a laugh. “We were pretty shore up in front of him last year.
“Because of the nature of his position, we don’t ask him to play a bunch of man to man and he’s not a safety who pressures. He’s playing deep and you have to be really disciplined to play that kind of position. He showed that last year and now we need him to take it to another level.”
Don’t let the numbers fool you. For one, Manning tied true freshman Simeon Woodard for the team lead in interceptions, a total that tied for third in the league. And secondly, Manning provided a last line of defense for a defense that gave up very few big plays, but was not completely immune to occasionally getting gashed.
“He made a significant impact last year, covered a lot of ground and made the plays he needed to,” Vigen said. “He really played at a level that maybe exceeded our expectations so now, we raise those expectations for him.
““For him, it’s things like taking on a little more of a communication role, taking more of a leadership role and on the football field, it’s about making all the plays he made and maybe even a few more.”
And now, with Andersen, Hardy and formerly Webb (he was cut by Atlanta the third week of August) in the NFL, Benson serving as an assistant strength coach at Arkansas State and Williams with no eligibility remaining, Manning is one of the last men standing. He certainly has plenty of reinforcement from Okada and O’Reilly, a pair of former walk-ons expected to be leaders this season. And Manning feels like his ready to fulfill Elevated Expectations during his final season at MSU.
“For guys like Ty (Okada) and me, one of our main goals is to prove last season was not some fluke,” Manning said. “We had 11 picks through five or six weeks. We have guys coming in and returning that are going to make a big splash.
“Like Simeon Woodard, nobody really expected anything from him but we knew what we had in Simeon. We have so many corners coming back and sure, we lose Tre Webb, but we have great depth at the strong safety spot too. We have a lot of guys ready to explode on the scene and prove that last year was real?”
Elevating play individually and as a group will certainly be a boon for a Bobcat defense hoping a variety of lesser known players like defensive linemen Blake Schmidt and Sebastian Valdez plus linebackers Danny Uluilakepa and Alex Johnson work into the mix.
Manning came to Montana State after spending three seasons at Oregon State. He made more tackles for the Beavers in 2018 (36) than with the Bobcats last season. He transferred to MSU following the 2019 season and joined the Bobcats in January of 2020.
That was under a different coaching staff and a different program identity. He waited for almost two years to play his first game for the Bobcats, then had to focus on not napping as he waited his turn.
Despite the defensive personnel overturn, Manning and MSU have high expectations this season. The Bobcats are ranked in the top four of every major preseason national poll. Manning’s ability to fulfill Elevated Expectations will be a key if Montana State wants to make another run at Frisco.
“I hate speaking about it, but if you just look back, we made it to Frisco last year, let’s just call a spade a spade,” Manning said. “And I feel like now that we’ve seen that we can make it there. I feel like the locker room is hungry. Alright, now when we get there, what can we do with it? Why not bring that trophy back to Bozeman where it’s supposed to be?”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez and Jason Bacaj. All Rights Reserved.
