Editor’s Note: This is the second installment in Skyline Sports’ ELEVATED EXPECTATIONS series profiling Griz football player who are likely to see elevated roles this season for Montana.
PART I: Local walk-on tackle Keintz continues rapid improvement
MISSOULA — Running back Adam Eastwood made one of the highlight plays in Montana Grizzlies football practice Tuesday, hauling in a wheel route over his shoulder with a linebacker hanging desperately onto his jersey and dragging him back.
That’s been a pretty common occurrence so far throughout fall camp as Eastwood has played his way into the center of the fierce running back competition at Montana.
It’s tough to determine who’s winning the competition at any given time, and depth charts aren’t supposed to be reported anyway, but, at the very least, Eastwood will be getting some carries for the Griz this fall.
The transfer from San Diego State is one of a couple players who were initially recruited by UM head coach Bobby Hauck at other schools and then followed the coach to Montana.
“Obviously, it’s been a good move for him and for us,” Hauck said. “He comes from a program that’s more similar than the one that the guys who were here were in, so it’s probably been easier for him.”
That familiarity with the program, and what Hauck wants to do, has helped Eastwood and quarterback Dalton Sneed, who was recruited to UNLV by Hauck just months before Hauck resigned at the end of the 2014 season.
Hauck recruited Eastwood out of San Diego’s Central Catholic High School in 2017. He walked on at San Diego State and redshirted his freshman year, but Hauck’s departure shook up his plans, and he reached out to his former coach for a spot on the Griz.
“He came up here,” Eastwood said, meaning Hauck, “and I kind of saw it as an opportunity to come up here and potentially see the field, so I decided to make that move, and now I’m here.”
The running back arrived in Missoula in the middle of January. As you’d expect from a San Diego native coming to Montana in the dead of winter, Eastwood went through a bit of a shock. But once he joined up with the football team and spring practice started, the adjustment was smooth.
“It was pretty crazy at first, super cold, I didn’t know anybody,” Eastwood said. “That was kind of a steep learning curve, coming up here and not knowing anybody, but it really came around. Everybody brought me in as one of their own. Now this feels like a second home.”
Eastwood quickly went from an anonymous transfer to a key part of a deep running back rotation that’s battling it out for carries. He had three carries for 14 yards in the spring game.
Jeremy Calhoun and Alijah Lee, the Grizzlies’ two leading rushers from last season, are back, as are Rey Green and Terron Moses, both of whom have shown promise. Adding Eastwood to that group made the running backs perhaps the deepest position group on the roster, which Hauck thinks is a good thing.
“It’s a physical position, so you need depth,” Hauck said. “Those guys are getting hit every play. They’re making blocks or getting tackled, so you have to have some depth there. They’re fighting it out. It will be fun to see who winds up at the top of the depth chart Week 1.”
Eastwood does have a niche. At 6-foot-1, 215 pounds, he’s the heaviest running back on the roster. Lee, at 205 pounds, was the primary short-yardage back last year, and Calhoun, 210, can also handle those carries, but Eastwood has shown his toughness so far.
“I’m definitely more of a physical runner, downhill guy,” Eastwood said.
Eastwood said it took him a while to learn the schemes, but being in Missoula for spring practice was a big help, and now he’s raring to go for the season, regardless of where he ends up in the rotation.
“I knew I needed to come out here and perform and show that I have the potential to be one of the guys to carry the ball,” Eastwood said. “I think the team is really coming along together. We’re getting better each and every day, and that’s what we’re out here to do.”
Andrew Houghton is a freelance journalist in Missoula providing Griz football content for Skyline Sports. Photos by Jason Bacaj and Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
