Although the scuttle in Griz Nation is all about Montana’s revamped, high-pressure defense, Kade Boyd felt right at home last Saturday in Cheney.
Conventional thinking would indicate that Boyd would feel uncomfortable as a defensive back being thrust into more one-on-one and aggressive coverage situations. But in reality, that’s what he was more comfortable with in his fourth year as a Griz safety.
“Literally, it gave me flashbacks from last year and the past couple of years,” Boyd said.
That included getting to go after the quarterback himself.
“Some of the blitzes I was even in on. So knowing that I was even coming free on a couple of those gave me a lot of confidence that I know I really won’t be in coverage for that long. So it’s not like I’m really out there on an island when I’m on a slot receiver. That gives you a lot of comfort,” he said.
Montana spent the last eight years, including the first three years of Boyd’s career, playing a high-pressure defense that included a variety of coverage schemes on the back end, most of them man-to-man and most of them high-pressure in the front and at the line of scrimmage. So when a beat-up Griz defense coming off of two straight games in which UM barely found a way off the field decided to make a stark change, it actually was a reversion to a comfort zone for much of the Griz secondary.
Northern Arizona hung 49 points on Montana. Idaho followed with 42 in Missoula, converting 11 of 14 third downs and scoring on all six of its red zone trips. After a bye week, the Griz showed up on the red turf and piled up a school-record 11 sacks.
That feeling of comfort parallels how Boyd feels about his time in Missoula. The Billings Central product originally committed to Montana Tech in January of 2023 following his senior season of football, a campaign that saw him finish as the Rams’ all-time leader in career rushing touchdowns during a span that saw Central finish runner-up in Class A twice in three years.
That spring, with his move to Butte just weeks away, the phone rang. And on the other end, one of the greatest Grizzlies of them all awaited with an offer Boyd could not refuse.
Tim Hauck, then a Griz defensive analyst and later the team’s co-defensive coordinator and one of the all-time best players in the history of the Big Sky Conference, called to offer Boyd a spot at the Division I level as a preferred walk-on.
Boyd had been coming to Griz games since he was a little boy. He’d always dreamed of playing for Montana. He couldn’t pass it up.
“There’s little pictures of me with my Griz football pillow and Griz blanket,” Boyd said. “Being able to come up here on game days, I was literally like five years old, was awesome. So I’ve always had a dream to play here and knew that’s what I wanted to do all the way through.”
And over the last four years — from getting thrust into an early contributing role with a trial by fire having to guard former Eastern Washington wide receiver Efton Chism III (currently of the New England Patriots) to having to go through last off-season’s coaching change — Boyd has certainly had his ups and downs.
But in his last two games, the fourth-year senior is playing his best football this season and some of the best ball of his career. Against Idaho, he posted 12 tackles and a sack. Against Eastern Washington, he made five more tackles and snared an interception of Nate Bell late in the first quarter, setting up a Griz touchdown, as Montana snapped its first two-game losing streak since 2022 with a 42-33 win. The victory was just Montana’s second ever at “The Inferno”, EWU’s infamous red field. Boyd has played in both.
“Bringing more pressure, that changes things up a lot for the guys on the back end, knowing that the guys up front are going to get home,” Boyd said. “So the ball has to come out quickly. Just being able to trust ourselves, trust each other in coverage, knowing that we’re there for each other, and just not being afraid of getting beat, just going out there and playing with confidence, is a big part of what helped us out there on Saturday.”
This week, first-year Griz head coach Bobby Kennedy tabbed Boyd as his rotating fourth captain, an honor he said Boyd earned long before the pick in Cheney.
“That interception was a big play, and it was a tough play, and he managed to bring it in,” Kennedy said. “But Kade’s been a guy, whether it be in the weight room, whether it be in the off-season, he very easily could have been voted captain just outright.”
It’s a long way from where he started. Boyd redshirted as a walk-on in 2023, spending his first season practicing on the scout team deep into the winter alongside a tight-knit group of freshmen.
“Starting as a walk-on, you don’t really get to get much action, so just being able to stay motivated through the early stages of that was tough,” Boyd said.
What got him through was the group around him.
“Those days of practicing into December and January, just grinding out scout team, I don’t think any of us really could have made it through without each other,” he said. “We all still keep in touch to this day.”
The first breakthrough came in Cheney, on Sept. 28, 2024. Boyd made the first tackle of his college career that day as Montana outlasted Eastern Washington 52-49 for its first win at “The Inferno,” and he spent part of it matched up with the Eagles’ star receiver.
“I had to guard an NFL receiver, Efton Chism, a couple of times,” Boyd said. “So seeing that I could stay in front of him was a pretty big deal.”
He earned a scholarship after spring ball in 2025, the payoff for what he told 406 MT Sports last fall was “a little bit of a risk” in leaving a scholarship at Tech. Then he became a key part of the rotation for a Griz team that went 13-2 and reached the FCS semifinals, picking off a pass in the season opener against Central Washington. He still calls that run his favorite memory in a Montana uniform.
Then came the coaching change. Bobby Hauck retired in February, and Montana entered 2026 with no returning starters in its secondary. Boyd’s experience made him one of the veterans in the room. It also put him on the field next to one of his oldest friends. Clay Oven, a fellow Billings Central product who also came to Montana in 2023, has grown into a starting linebacker. Oven piled up eight tackles and two sacks in Cheney.
“Both of us coming in as freshmen and, each in our own journey, working our way up through the ranks, and now starting together has been awesome,” Boyd said. “There’s no better feeling than both of us being in on a tackle and being able to celebrate together, like it was in high school and all through growing up before that. It’s been a surreal experience.”
His teammates have noticed the growth.
“I think he’s a huge part of our defense,” Griz linebacker Colton Lentz said. “He was a great player last year as well, but came on super strong this year in the off-season, just being a vocal leader and leading our guys into battle every single week, every single day for practice.”
Montana (6-3, 4-2 Big Sky) hosts Portland State on Saturday before Idaho State comes to Washington-Grizzly Stadium for Senior Day on Nov. 14. When Boyd runs out of the tunnel that night, he’ll be doing what the 5-year-old with the Griz pillow always dreamed of doing.
“I think he’s living his dream, right?” Kennedy said. “But not only is he living it, he makes right on it every day in terms of the way he works, the way he deals with other guys on the team, and just his presence is really good.”
Boyd knows what the journey taught him.
“Just being able to work hard and knowing that if you just keep your head down, your dreams can come true,” Boyd said. “Being able to stay motivated when you’re down, stay motivated when you’re up. You just have to go with the flow of things and be able to take that with you.”
