While Jerry Louie-McGee was tearing up the Montana Grizzlies’ single-game receiving record in a nail-biting loss to Cal Poly, another redshirt freshman was having quite a day himself.
Justin Calhoun, up until this year known to Griz fans as the redshirt brother of running back Jeremy, pulled down eight balls for 63 yards. Across from the field from Calhoun, Keenan Curran, another young Montana receiver stretched five catches into 62 yards.
A week later as McGee again went over the century mark in yards in Montana’s 43-20 defeat of Southern Utah, Calhoun finished with four catches for 87 yards and a touchdown. Opposite him, James Homan, who entered fall camp as the starter at X receiver, had his biggest day in his first year with Montana, grabbing six passes for 103 yards and a score.
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“I think we’ve done a good job so far of when guys are presented opportunities they’ve taken advantage of him,” said outside receivers coach Nolan Swett, the man who presides over a group some thought would be a tenuous transition from a a pair of receivers that struck fear into every defensive coordinator on Montana’s schedule in 2015 to a group that had a combined four receptions when the season began in September.
When Montana’s 2015 campaign came to end in the second round of the FCS playoffs last December, the Grizzlies waived goodbye to their all-time leader in receiving yards in Jamaal Jones and a highlight waiting to happen in speed demon Ellis Henderson. The sudden change from a record setter in Jones and a touchdown machine in Henderson (his 23 TD grabs is seventh in school history) to a handful of players yet to see much playing time concerned more than a few who follow the Griz.
But those concerns seem to be dissipating as Calhoun, Curran and Homan have shown themselves to be capable replacements.
“Justin has been doing a great job out there all year and we’re throwing James Homan out there and he had a great day,” Montana coach Bob Stitt said Monday during Montana’s weekly news conference. “It’s what we tell those guys, if you get man coverage then let’s just put the ball up there and let them go make a play.”
Of late, that’s exactly what the group has been able to do.
Homan commented Saturday following the homecoming victory that Southern Utah’s corners were bailing off the line of scrimmage allowing Montana’s receivers the room they needed to operate underneath. On more than one occasion, Homan caught the ball short and eluded tacklers for extra yards.
Calhoun had similar success, including a 43-yard score late in the second quarter that took advantage of the Thunderbirds jumping another route.
“It’s one of those things that they didn’t have a choice,” Swett said. “If Justin Calhoun is going to start he doesn’t have a choice but to be a redshirt freshman. If Keenan Curran is playing for us as a sophomore, he doesn’t have a choice. These guys need to perform.”
To some degree the outside receivers have benefitted from the attention Louie-McGee is attracting. Once Louie-McGhee had his 21-catch outing at Cal Poly, defenses were forced to find a way to stop him. But as Stitt explained Saturday evening, it’s not so much that the elusive former walk-on is being used as a decoy as much as it the setup of Montana’s passing game.
“It just happens that way,” Stitt said. “The play is there and the quarterback does a great job of, ‘Hey, it’s not there so we’re going to do this where we’ve got to check to somebody else.’ Brady (Gustafson) has things going on all the time that you as a fan don’t know that he has going on. Then they take Jerry away and he goes back to James.”
To another degree, the group has been strengthened by a rotation managed by Swett and a plethora of reputations handed to them in practice. Perhaps the most important aspect of the rapid maturation were the spring drills that Homan and Calhoun used to make names for themselves.
All that work is starting to pay of with the three receivers’ rapport with senior quarterback Brady Gustafson.
“In practice they’re getting reps with all the different quarterbacks so there’s no instance on Saturdays a guy has never caught a ball from Brady,” Swett said.
The win over Southern Utah marked the first change to the depth chart at the X and Y positions this season. Instead of Curran starting opposite Calhoun, Homan, who entered fall as the starter at X despite the brevity of his stay in Missoula, spent the majority of the game outside.
Part of that was prompted by the trust he gained from the coaching staff before he was beset by an injury during fall camp. But another aspect of it was the internal competition the staff has tried to foster. Displeased with the play of Curran in certain crunch-time situations against Cal Poly, the switch was made.
“Keenan is a very good player, a very good player, but you have to learn that if you’re gonna be in there then you have to get it done or it’s next man up and James got an opportunity and he took it and ran with it,” Stitt said of sitting down a receiver who is averaging 18.8 yards per catch.
And just as the head coach hoped would happen, Curran has publicly supported Homan and went to social media to highlight the depth the position is starting to display, tweeting: “Stat to keep an eye on: Number of outside WR’s for the Griz that score a Touchdown. Currently at 4, potential for 6.”
Montana hosts Mississippi Valley State on Saturday afternoon.
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