BOZEMAN, Mont. — Former Montana State standout offensive lineman JP Flynn coached Carter Dahlke throughout Dahlke’s prep career at Bozeman Gallatin High. Dahlke was a two-way starter as a freshman and a two-way phenomenon his sophomore, junior and senior seasons.
“But there’s a play, a story, I promise you, I’ll never forget,” Flynn reminisced on the Big Sky Breakdown podcast this week with Colter Nuanez.
“We were playing Billings West his junior year, and they had Moose Ludwig [at tight end, who’s now at Texas Tech]. And mind you, for anyone who doesn’t know Moose, he’s like 6-5, 6-6, 235, 240 pounds and runs an 11-second 100-meter dash. I mean, he’s an absolute freak show.
“It was fourth-and-nine. They were on the 30-ish yard line, going in to score, and they decided to go for it. And so we got to the point, you know, when we’re scheming things up, we were just like, I mean, we don’t necessarily have anyone who matches up with this kid, right? So we’re like, “[Let’s] just put Carter on him,” you know, like, it’s one-on-one. Like, we’ll put our best player on your best player.
(Dahlke is 5-foot-9 and 175 pounds now, probably smaller then).
“And they throw, like, a little [out route] ball to him at about seven yards, and Carter literally, like — Ludwig catches the ball at six yards. Carter just wraps him up, suplexes and throws him back. Turnover on downs, we get the ball back.
“And I remember we all kind of turned and looked at each other. We were like, “Well, the chip on this kid’s shoulder is insane.” Insane. He’s just a heck of a football player.”
So when asked if he’s surprised Dahlke has become a primary cog in the offense for the defending national champions as a true freshman for his hometown Montana State Bobcats, the answer is “no, not whatsoever.”
Many who followed Dahlke in high school are not shocked he’s been a standout. But that doesn’t make anything he’s done the last month any less impressive.
Dahlke is the first Bobcat wide receiver since Eddie Sullivan in 2004 to have three consecutive 100-yard games (Sullivan did it five weeks in a row). And only Dahlke, Sullivan and Chip Hobbs in 1998 have such streaks in Bobcat history.
In just seven games and three starts, Dahlke has emerged as a “go-to guy.” That label is reserved for receivers who have a knack for getting open, don’t drop passes and can turn short plays into big plays.
Dahlke, who is on the Jerry Rice Award watch list for the top freshman in the Football Championship Subdivision, has done all of that over his past three games, helping keep the Bobcats at or near the top of the national polls (No. 1 in the FCS Selection Committee’s top 10, No. 2 in the AFCA Coaches Poll and No. 3 in the Stats Perform media poll) heading into the final five games of the regular season.
MSU’s quarterbacks have already started looking for the 5-foot-9, 175-pound skitter bug, whose sharp route running and instincts seemingly get him open on every pass play. His athletic ability stands out among the 21 other players on the field, catching the eye of even casual observers. The coaches are clearly designing plays to make Dahlke one of the primary targets.
“There’s a toughness,” MSU head coach Brent Vigen said of Dahlke. “There’s a mentality that he has. His competitive nature and his knack for just being in the right place at the right time, a pest, all that stuff. It’s just who he is. It’s how he’s wired. He’s got a bunch of athletic gifts for sure, but his mentality is just excellent in every which way.”
The superlatives roll off the tongues of his teammates, including arguably the most important one.
“The thing about him is I don’t think he’s ever satisfied,” quarterback Justin Lamson said. “You get these couple big games, you start to feel comfortable, I don’t see that with Carter at all. (Quarterback) Grant Vigen obviously played with him and told us very high things. The thing that sticks out to me about Carter is how hard he works in practice. Like, the dude is going a million miles per hour in practice. It’s actually ridiculous. He doesn’t take a play off if he’s on a run fake.”
Since MSU’s all-everything senior captain Taco Dowler was sidelined by an injury four games into the season, Dahlke has more than picked up the slack in Dowler’s slot receiver spot.
He has three consecutive 100-yard games as a starter, catching 22 passes for 355 yards and three touchdowns over that stretch. On the season, Dahlke’s 17.3 yards per catch are tied for the most in the Big Sky Conference among players with at least 25 receptions, and he ranks eighth in the league in receiving yards per game.
After collecting six catches for 128 yards and a score over the first four games, he caught seven passes for 117 yards and a touchdown against Northern Arizona, 10 for 126 yards and a touchdown at Idaho, and five for 112 yards and a touchdown last Saturday at Eastern Washington.
“His emergence in this offense has been awesome,” Lamson said. “I’m obviously super proud of him, and I hope he just stays down and stays hungry and never gets comfortable, because I do think he’s not even close to a ceiling.”
Vigen didn’t have a hard time connecting with Dahlke. His son, Grant, now MSU’s third-string quarterback, was Dahlke’s quarterback at Gallatin High School in Bozeman, and Vigen could see early on that Dahlke was a dude. Even when Dahkle was a senior and Grant was already on the MSU roster, Vigen could keep going to the Gallatin games regularly because his youngest son was still playing for the Raptors.
“I think it’s been sitting in the stands over at Van Winkle the last couple years, honestly,” Vigen said of watching the Raptors play. “He was so hard to bring down, and I think his strength just was really what continued to shine through. He’s had the make-you-miss, the speed, all that stuff.
“Going through his junior year when Grant was a senior, watching him, I was, you know what, there’s a nickel, there’s a corner. You say, hey, what do you like, Carter? ‘I prefer to play receiver.’ OK, Carter, you’re a receiver.”
Dahlke had one of the most prolific seasons in the annals of Montana high school football as a junior, piling up 2,351 all-purpose yards, including 1,208 receiving yards and 13 receiving touchdowns.
In a 42-6 win over Great Falls C.M. Russell that season, he showcased all of his skills by scoring long touchdowns on a run, a reception and a punt return. He took a handoff 79 yards for a touchdown, then moments later went 59 yards for another score. On his first touch of the second half, he returned a punt 59 yards for a third touchdown. He finished with 282 yards on just eight touches — five receptions for 125 yards, one carry for 79 and two punt returns for 78.
Over his career, he was a seven-time Class AA all-state first-team selection across offense, defense and special teams. He totaled 5,872 all-purpose yards over four seasons at Gallatin: 2,490 receiving, 1,619 rushing, 904 on punt returns, 824 on kickoff returns and 35 on interception returns. As a receiver, he had 132 receptions, averaged 18.9 yards per catch and scored 29 touchdowns. On defense, he finished his high school career with 11 sacks and 22.5 tackles for loss.
Dahlke doesn’t appear daunted by the task of replacing Dowler, who has already put his name in the MSU record books as one of the greatest players in program history, with some of the biggest and most electric plays in the biggest moments.
“I’m not surprised at what he’s been able to do,” Vigen said. “The opportunity, unfortunately for our team with Taco being down, isn’t good. But what Carter’s been able to make of it has been awesome.
“Pre-Taco being out, he was getting opportunities and he was earning more opportunities, and he was making the most of them. A couple big third-down catches. Then he gets the opportunity over the last three games, and the ball’s found him. And when the ball’s found him, he’s been able to do some special things with it.”
Dahlke has four touchdowns this season. His first came in mop-up duty in the season opener at Utah Tech. His second, against Northern Arizona, put the league on notice. He took a short pass from Patrick Duchein, got a pair of blocks from his tight ends and sprinted 47 yards to put the Bobcats up 7-0 in the first quarter of a game they never trailed in a 28-14 win over the then-No. 18 Lumberjacks.
His third score gave the Bobcats a 10-7 lead at Idaho. Last Saturday, he took a short pass from Lamson and juked his way past multiple defenders for a 55-yard score that iced the game for MSU.
The Bobcats continue game-week preparations for Weber State, which has rattled off three straight Big Sky wins after a 2-3 start. The Wildcats are tied with Northern Arizona for first place in the Big Sky at 4-1, with MSU a half-game back at 3-1. WSU is 5-3 overall and ranked No. 22. MSU has won five straight against the Wildcats dating back to a 45-27 loss in Ogden, Utah, in 2016.
