Deciding where to attend college is one of the most important decisions an individual will make. But Jackson Pepe has more pressing things to worry about in his immediate future.
Pepe, a two-way stud for Kalispell Glacier, has a senior year filled with redemption ahead of him, or at least he hopes. He has been mulling over his football future for a while now, waiting for the right opportunity to present itself. When it did and the Montana Grizzlies offered a scholarship, he jumped at the chance.
It took just seven days between Montana offering and Pepe, slated as a safety at the college level, committing. The decision allows him to concentrate on his senior season, one he hopes begins with revenge on Friday night and ends with a Class AA state championship trophy.
[restrict paid=”true”]The Wolfpack lost in the AA state title game last season to Billings Senior. The 2017 march toward reclamation begins Friday night in Columbia Falls — Glacier’s field turf is not fully installed. Pepe wanted to get his college decision out of the way before he and his team focused on taking down Senior and chasing their first state title since 2014, a championship that would mark the second in school history.
“There was a lot of factors,” Pepe said. “I wanted to commit to a school before the season started in case I had gotten hurt or something. And I want to concentrate on my senior season. My family, they like Montana. It’s the best offer I have, great school and I love the school that loves me I guess is my mentality.”
Pepe first heard from the UM coaching staff via Twitter last spring. Montana secondary coach Shann Schillinger extended an offer to Pepe to attend UM’s junior day in April. From there, Schillinger began recruiting Pepe consistently. Pepe sent in his academic transcripts, the next step to Schillinger inviting him to UM’s individual camp in July.
Meanwhile, Pepe also attended Montana State’s individual camp in June. He said the Bobcats were in more frequent contact and he actually expected an offer from MSU first, one he said he would’ve considered as well.
“Montana State had actually been talking to me quite a bit and I was under the impression that I was going to be offered by them first,” Pepe said. “I’m happy that UM did. They are a really good school and I’m excited.”
That offer from Montana State never came. Schillinger and UM quarterbacks coach Andrew Selle, the Grizzlies’ primary Northwest Montana recruiter, continued courting Pepe until UM head coach Bob Stitt came in with a solid offer the final week of July. On August 7, Pepe verbally committed.
“We had good chemistry,” Pepe said. “I went to the camp, did really well and three weeks after, I got a call from Coach Stitt saying they were giving me a scholarship.
“Coach Schillinger is an awesome guy who helped me a bunch. I like talking to him and looking up to him and I can’t wait to play safety for him.”
The 6-foot-1, 200-pounder does a little bit of everything for head coach Grady Bennett and the Wolfpack. Last season, he rushed for 118 yards and a touchdown, caught 24 passes for 322 yards and three touchdowns, intercepted three passes, forced a fumble, averaged 25.2 yards per kick return with a long of 41 and averaged 15.2 yards per punt return with a long of 91. He scored two special teams touchdowns and returned one of his interceptions for a score.
Pepe was an Class AA honorable mention all-state selection as a safety and a first-team all-state pick as a punt returner as a junior.
In Glacier’s memorable 63-62 overtime win over Missoula Sentinel, Pepe scored touchdowns on offense, defense and special teams in a game played in his future home stadium, Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
Pepe will be the fourth Kalispell Glacier product on Montana’s roster, joining junior safety Evan Epperly, sophomore kicker/punter Brandon Purdy and sophomore defensive end Andrew Harris. Montana State’s roster also features six Glacier products: sophomore quarterback Brady McChesney, junior running backs Noah James and Logan Jones, sophomore linebacker Josh Hill and true freshmen linebacker Tadan Gilman and defensive lineman Jaxen Hashley. Bennett, the only head coach in school history, played quarterback at Montana in the early 1990s.
“Coach Bennett and the whole coaching staff has really given us a college football schedule which teaches us not to be just good football players but good people as well,” Pepe said. “That transitions. It really changes people into who they need to be to be ready for the next level.”
Pepe said he has been in light contact with the current Glacier products on the Griz. He said Epperly “has been really cool to me” but other contact has been infrequently. Pepe has been in contact more heavily with the MSU players who are former Wolfpack.
“I am really good friends with all the Montana State guys, Tadan Gilman, Jaxen Hashley, known them since I was little, grown up with them,” Pepe said. “Logan Jones, Josh Hill were kind of my mentors going into high school. It will be interesting playing against them (laughs).”
Before Pepe and his Wolfpack teammates — which now includes another future Bobcat in Drummond transfer Mark Estes, an MSU commit — pursue a state title run, they must first worry about Friday’s rematch with Billings Senior.
“We have learned to focus week by week and not on the end goal,” Pepe said. “A state championship is what we want and the end goal every year but we really try to focus on is day by day, practice by practice, really focusing on what we have one week at a time.”
That mentality will translate well into the ever-evolving and highly competitive Big Sky Conference. When Pepe arrives at Montana, he wants to study business. He is concentrated on what will play out over the next few months with a sense of a burden eased with his college decision out of the way.
“It’s huge to get this out of the way,” Pepe said. “It means a lot. My goal since I was a little kid is to play Division I college football. To have that finally fulfilled or the opportunity to have that fulfilled means a lot. It feels good knowing all the hard work I’ve put in and all the hard work everyone else has put in for me to be successful is paying off.”
[/restrict]Photos courtesy of Pepe family. All Rights Reserved.
