When football coaches switch from talking about individuals, schemes and opponents, to talk about their team’s depth the attention drop off is almost palpable. However, with college football seasons seemingly expanding from year to year the importance of having players that can spring into a starter’s spot on a moments notice without a considerable drop off gives those teams a big edge.
You need look no further than the past two seasons (2019 and 2021) at Montana State to learn a positive lesson about the vital importance of depth.
In 2019, the Bobcats were rolling into the Cat-Griz game when linebacker/running back/quarterback Troy Andersen was lost for the season. Despite playing at home, the news was crushing for MSU fans, who couldn’t be blamed if they thought their chances had taken a precipitous drop, until about midway through the first quarter. By that time all was forgotten in terms of Andersen’s presence on the field as the Bobcats rolled out to a big lead early and cruised to a 48-14 win. The numbers put up by the offense and defense that day were beyond what the Bobcats had been averaging all season with Andersen.
The game also was served as the first start for Daniel Hardy, at the time an unknown backup outside linebacker who blossomed into an All-American defensive end in 2022 and an NFL Draft pick by the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angles Rams last spring.
The 2021 post-season was even more revealing as the Bobcats maneuvered through playoff games without the likes of running back Isaiah Ifanse, defensive tackle Chase Benson, and defensive back Ty Okada – all three were All-Big Sky selections – among others.
MSU has picked up right where it left off in terms of showing its depth at the start of the 2022 season, and that is especially true at running back, a group that already had Elevated Expectations entering this season with the seemingly inevitable absence early this fall of All-American Isaiah Ifanse.
During Saturday’s season opener, MSU operated without three of its top four tailbacks. Ifanse and senior grad transfer Kaegun Williams formerly of San Diego State did not see action in MSU’s 40-17 win over McNeese State. Elijah Elliott, an upstart as a freshman last year, had one carry for -1 yards.
The Bobcats had to resort to Lane Sumner, but that term is a little misleading. Sumner had a solid freshman campaign and logged two 100-yard games during that season. His sophomore season was plagued by injuries forcing All-America tailback Ifanse to carry much heavier than expected workload. Sumner proceeded to seize his opportunity gaining a career-high 176 yards on 24 carries good for a whooping 7.3 yards per carry.
He wasn’t just a ball carrier though. The junior also hauled in a pass for a 50-yard gain to set up a touchdown and finished with 228 total yards on the day. He had a 53-yard touchdown run and another run of 28 yards called back on holding penalties. Had those runs counted, he would’ve rushed for 257 yards, the third-most in a single game by a Bobcat.
Sumner wasn’t the only MSU tailback to light up the Cowboys. True freshman Jared White collected 89 yards, including a 48-yard jaunt that featured a bruising stiff arm, on just seven carries. The duo collected 265 yards rushing between them despite sitting in the middle of the depth chart entering the season.
But there’s more.
“Garrett Coon had a really good spring so he should not go unnoticed either,” MSU head coach Brent Vigen said before Saturday’s game that also featured White. “So, we got five guys there. So, I feel much better. We feel much better about our depth at that position.”
With, actually six, running backs expected to be at his disposal at some point of the season the script is flipped from a season ago when the backfield was basically just Ifanse with a sprinkle of Elliott.
“We leaned very heavily on Isaiah in every which way last year, and that was in part because those two (Sumner, Elliott) just didn’t have the type of seasons from a health perspective that we’d hoped,” Vigen said. “I think those two are really important.
“We are not just counting on filling the void with help from the outside with Kaegun and Jared; you also have to look at Elijah and Lane, neither of them were really healthy last year. Lane got hurt against Wyoming and was really never the same. Elijah had some ups and downs. So it starts with those two, it really does. And they both bring different things to the table. So, it’s gonna have to be one way or another by committee.”
Williams came to MSU from San Diego State, while White jumped straight out of high school. Elliott has a year with the program under his belt, while Coon is yet to be heard from in game action.
The redshirt freshman out of Wyoming and former Gatorade Player of the Year has been impressive in both the spring and summer practices and could be seen as soon as this weekend.
“Garrett Coon is tough as nails,” offensive coordinator Taylor Housewright said. “He comes from Wyoming, and you could hand it to him 40 times and he’s going to get up and keep rocking and rolling. He doesn’t say a whole lot, which is perfectly fine by me.”
“We brought Kaegun Williams in, played receiver in high school and played a lot of football at San Diego State,” Housewright continued. “He was never the man but they’ve had some pretty darn good tailbacks. He’s played a lot, played on all special teams, very dynamic runner. I’m excited about him, great kid, great family. We hit a home run getting a guy like that to come into here because he’s about winning. I think with this portal thing, that’s the thing you have to be scared about but he’ll do whatever he can to help this team.
“Elijah Elliott helped us out last year when we needed him. He can catch the football, quick, put on some weight and gotten stronger, which is what he needed to do. Jared White is a freshman who’s really, really surprised us. You are going to see him a little bit. He has a bright future and is going to be hard to keep off the field.”
The Bobcats also put on display their ability to run the ball from the receiver positions against McNeese State as true freshman Taco Dowler of Billings had two carries for 24 yards and University of Kentucky graduate transfer Clevan Thomas, Jr. had a pair of runs.
All that and MSU also gets a good dose of running from quarterback Tommy Mellott and Sean Chambers. Mellott ran for 44 yards and a touchdown against McNeese, while Chambers had two touchdowns and ran for 23 yards exclusively in goal-to-go situations.
Montana State is at home again this Saturday when it hosts Morehead State out of Morehead, Kentucky at 1:30 p.m..
