BOZEMAN, Montana — If you have an elite offensive line, you have a chance to win a championship; it’s one of the oldest notions in football.
And it’s a notion Montana State hopes is true in 2021.
But for that idea to come to fruition, MSU is going to need a few unproven players to rise their playing levels with the departure of a few outstanding pieces.
Mitch Brott started a Montana State-record 50 games during his career, capping his senior year in 2019 with All-Big Sky Conference and All-American honors as MSU plowed its way to the semifinals of the FCS playoffs for the first time since 1984.
Connor Wood, a massive 6-foot-5, 320-pounder who played tackle and guard in his two years as a starter for MSU playoff games, abruptly left the program following the first spring ball under new head coach Brent Vigen. The Boise native graduated and grad transferred to Missouri of the SEC.
Wood’s presence would have given Montana State four of the more talented and experienced offensive lineman in the league.
Lewis Kidd, a 6-foot-6, 312-pound returning all-league selection (at guard) will play left tackle for his senior season. His start September 4 against Wyoming in the Bobcats’ season-opener will be his 34rd straight.
Fellow senior Taylor Tuiasosopo, a 6-foot-4, 305-pounder who earned all-league honors last season at guard, has started 28 games in his MSU career. He and do-everything senior Troy Andersen served as Montana State’s representatives on the Big Sky’s preseason all-league squad.
Zach Redd, a 6-foot-1, 295-pound junior, is from the same high school as Wood (the duo helped the Rocky Mountain Grizzlies win an Idaho 5A state championship in 2015) and has been a consistent cog of MSU’s interior offensive line in 2018 and 2019. Redd played mostly center in 2019 but has taken most of his snaps since Vigen took over in February of this year.
Redd’s bump to guard and Kidd’s bump to tackle means Montana State needs two players to emerge; one, respectively, at center and the other, preferably, at right tackle.
Vigen said he thinks sophomore Cole Sain, a 6-foot-4, 280-pound transfer of Riverside Community College by way of Montana, is the man at center. And talented redshirt freshman T.J. Session, an athletic 6-foot-4, 282-pound tackle out of Vista Murrieta High in Southern California will also have ELEVATED EXPECTATIONS this upcoming fall along the Bobcat offensive front.
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“T.J. Sessions and Cole Sain are certainly the next guys up based on their performances in the spring,” Vigen said.
“I do think it’s good we have a couple of guys, all three of those experienced guys, who have played multiple positions and have some inside out capability when you look at Lewis and Taylor. I know Zach has played some center.
“But who’s going to be the other two, plus who’s going to be six or seven or eight? Now it’s right there for the taking for some of these guys.”
Although Session missed some practices early during fall camp, he has nearly solidified the right tackle position heading into this weekend’s fall camp-capping scrimmage. And Sain is the man in the middle of the Bobcat offensive line.
“Just hard workers,” Bobcats offensive coordinator Taylor Housewright said of Session and Sain during his media day press conference on August 5. “They’re very goal-oriented and they want what’s best for the team. I’m always pushing them, and they want that. They want to be coached and they want to be pushed.”
Sain is entering his third year of college football and his fourth fall since graduating from St. John Bosco Prep in Southern California in 2017. Yet he has never played a snap for the Bobcats.
Neither has Session, although he would’ve pressed for playing time in 2019 as a true freshman if not for a knee injury that derailed his entire rookie year.
Session has an outstanding frame, noticeable athleticism, fluid fundamentals and toughness. He just needs to find a way to stay on the field for a Bobcat squad once again expected to play a physical brand of football.
“T.J. Sessions is one that really impressed us while he was out there in the spring but he’s missed a few practices this fall,” Vigen said. “He’s playing the last scrimmage in the spring game. He’s one where he’s continued to change his body, his demeanor.”
At St. John Bosco, Saine played with current Bobcat defensive backs Tyrel Thomas and Level Price Jr. Sain’s senior year, one of the Trinity League’s premier programs finished third in the national poll.
The family ties to the Treasure State date back farther than this writer’s date of birth. Sain’s dad, John Sain, was a second-team All-Big Sky selection in 1987 and his uncle, Mike Sain, also played for the Bobcats.
John Sain has had a house in Darby south of Hamilton in the Bitterroot Vally about 90 minutes from Missoula for years. So when Montana State did not offer but Montana did, Cole Sain pledged to the Grizzlies.
“I like to fish, I love the outdoors,” Sain said. “My dad got a raft and so he and I enjoy going out fishing in the Bitterroot by Darby.
“Now that I’m in Bozeman, I’ll still drive down there and that’s something we like to do together.”
Following a 2018 season that saw the true freshman appear in two games yet maintain his redshirt, Sain’s fit with the Griz wore thin. He transferred to Riverside Community College, one of the top JC programs in California.
At Riverside — a program that also gifted Montana State with former wide receiver (and currently Tampa Bay Buccaneer Travis Jonsen — Sain helped pave the way for a rushing attack that averaged 191 yards per game and 5.0 yards per carry.
“I learned a lot after being coached by a lot of different coaches,” Sain said. “I learned how much I love Montana State, that’s for sure. I love this program, I love this team and I’m very blessed to come here.
“Coach Armstrong has helped me tremendously and is still helping me. It’s been a crazy journey but that’s college football for you.”
Sain says his favorite parts about playing center are “making calls being the quarterback of the O-line is cool.”
Building the trust on the interior of the line with a unit that already acclimated to the hearing-impaired Redd at center came easier than expected for MSU’s new man in the middle.
“A big part of that is just having a bunch of great guys and we have that here,” Sain said. “A lot of great guys have really brought me in, especially our older guys, Tui, Lewis Kidd, Zach Redd, they have helped me get acclimated to the system and how things go here. They have made it a lot easier. We just have a great group of guys on the O-line and I’m just excited to be a part of it.”
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