MISSOULA, Montana — Samori Toure had quite literally the most prolific afternoon of any receiver in Montana or FCS history during his second-to-last game with the Grizzlies.
During an elongated off-season abruptly extended again and again because of a global pandemic, Toure made the decision to take his talents to the Big Ten.
The race to replace an explosive wide receiver who caught 12 passes for an FCS-playoff record 303 yards in a single game in 2019 — Toure broke Randy Moss’s decades old record — is one of the key story lines for a Griz football team harboring elite internal expectations entering the 2021 season.
Montana has been chomping at the bit since a 17-10 loss in the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs to a Weber State squad that the Griz dismantled less than a month earlier in Missoula. Sure, UM played a pair of games in the spring.
Head coach Bobby Hauck and his staff are so serious about their football team, the coaching staff intensely scouted all four of the semifinal qualifiers during the spring season along with all the teams from the Big Sky Conference.
In other words, the Griz hope to be among that company by the time the calendar turns from November to December.
“It’s the standard around here; we play to win them all, and that’s how we want it,” Montana junior safety Robby Hauck said following Monday’s practice. “It pushes everybody to be better and never be satisfied.
“I felt like we got a pretty good taste of that in 2019 and there’s still a lot of work left to do and so we’re really excited to get out on the field and perform at the highest level we think we can play at.”
Montana opened up fall camp with a spirited, crisp practice on a picturesque Garden City evening on Monday night. UM did not take Dornblaser Field until 6:30 p.m. with temperatures hovering in the mid-70s and not a trace of smoke in the previously smoke-soaked Missoula sky.
From Griz senior linebacker Jace Lewis wearing No. 37 for the first time to corner back Omar Hicks-Onu donning No. 0 (a new number allowance in college football) for the first time in Montana history, changes abounded as UM’s pursuit of its first Big Sky championship in 10 years began.
Lewis, wide receiver Samuel Akem, left tackle Conlan Beaver, quarterback Cam Humphrey, defensive ends Justin Belnap and Joe Babros and Gavin Robertson are all potential honors candidates from Montana’s group of 12 super seniors.
A slew of players with starting experience dot the roster. Hauck asserted at the Big Sky Kickoff media event in Spokane last month that his roster is finally balanced and doesn’t have many obvious holes.
“We’re back in business,” Hauck said before Monday’s opener. “We’re excited to be out here. I can’t wait to get on the field with the guys. It should be a lot of fun.
Still, as with every fall camp for every football team around the country, questions will be part of the fall camp narrative.
“I like our depth at almost every position, I think that there isn’t a huge drop off,” Hauck said. “When we’re in late October, November, December, you know, we may be talking about different guys than we are in September.”
Here’s a look at six important questions for Montana football as football officially returns to the Garden City at long last.
Who, if anyone, will replace Toure?
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Although it seems like a steep if not impossible task to replace a player who hauled in Montana single-season records of 87 catches for 1,495 yards while also scoring 13 touchdowns, Montana has an array of options who could step up. And it might be done by committee, which would actually fit the blue print Hauck used on the perimeter during his first tenure leading the Griz from 2003 until 2009.
It’s not as if Montana doesn’t have options at wide receiver, particularly because of the return of Akem, a 6-foot-4, 210-pounder from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma that has the ability and potential to be one of the best receivers in the country.
And the Griz have a plethora of other options. Is junior Mitch Roberts ready to become the next breakout star who is also a homegrown product? Is junior Gabe Sulser ready to fulfill his potential that made him among the very few true freshman Hauck has EVER talked about at Montana?
Can junior Malik Flowers find a way to score touchdowns on offensive plays and not just kick returns? Is redshirt freshman Keelan White the diamond in the rough the coaching staff thinks he might be? Is the freshman Ryan Simpson hype real?
The fact that there are so many options combined with the fact that Humphrey has proven his style is of a quarterback who quickly gets through his reads before distributing the ball around the field means Montana will almost certainly find a way to replace Toure’s production, even if it takes a group effort.
Roberts, a 6-foot-1, 200-pound former prep quarterback at Missoula Sentinel, was solid in 2019, catching 37 passes for 420 yards and a touchdown.
Sulser, a 5-foot-9, 170-pound lightning bolt from Billings, is a former champion sprinter who scored a 53-yard touchdown on his first collegiate touch during a Griz homecoming win in September of 2018. He ended up with four touchdowns and five plays of at least 50 yards among his 13 offensive touches as a true freshman.
The former Gatorade Player of the Year out of Senior High managed to appear in just six games in 2019 as various injuries plagued him. He caught nine passes for 82 yards and rushed four times for 25 yards but did not find the end-zone.
During the spring, Sulser caught eight passes for 145 yards and two touchdowns. Is that a harbinger for good luck on the horizon?
White is a 6-foot-2, 190-pound redshirt freshman from Vancouver, British Columbia who has built buzz within the program. And Simpson, a 6-foot-6 redshirt freshman stretch Armstrong from Bozeman, turned heads during the spring.
“We got dogs,” Akem, who enters the year after amassing 118 catches for nearly 1,700 yards and 18 touchdowns between 2018 and 2019. “That’s all I’m saying. I don’t know if you saw that video that’s been going around where this kid is just talking about dog, dog. But that’s how I feel about our receivers.
“I mean, you just look around and we just got dogs. I mean, there’s not much else I can say. I mean, we just got dogs all over the place. And I just can’t wait to watch them eat.”
What will the OL rotation look like?
Beaver, a 6-foot-5, 315-pound senior from Fredericksburg, Virginia, is Montana’s first true All-American candidate along the offensive line since David Reese, if not longer. Beaver enters his senior year with 23 straight starts under his belt. He is solidified as UM’s starting left tackle.
The emergence of super senior right tackle Dylan Cook, a 6-foot-6, 305-pounder from Butte who started his college career as a quarterback at Montana State-Northern in Havre, has caused for several other players to shuffle positions and fight for playing on the interior of the Griz O-line.
A.J. Forbes, a 6-foot-4, 303-pound former transfer from Nebraska, seemed to be Montana’s answer at center before suffering what looked like a serious injury late in UM’s 48-7 win over Portland State in April. But reports are that the leg injury wasn’t as bad as expected, evidence in the fact that Forbes was running with the first-team offense on Monday.
That leaves the rotation at the guard sports one of the most heated competitions of fall camp. Monday, super seniors Kordell Pillans (6-foot-6, 330 pounds) and Moses Mallory (6-3, 332) — each former junior college transfers — took the reps with the first-team offense.
But Colton Keintz (6-8, 320), a junior who started games in 2018 and 2019 at offensive tackle, should be in the mix for snaps at guard. Junior Skyler Martin (6-5, 302) has experience at both guard and center. Tyler Ganoung, a 6-foot-5, 326-pound sophomore who is one of the last hold over offensive line recruits from the Bob Stitt era, also played meaningful snaps down the stretch in 2019.
Expect all five to compete for playing time throughout the next month.
Is Humphrey ready to be the main man under center?
Humphrey, a 6-foot-2, 201-pounder from Issaquah, Washington right outside Seattle, started his career at Boise State. After a season at Saddleback Community College in California, Humphrey landed at Montana.
He pushed eventual starter Dalton Sneed during fall camp in 2018 and 2019. Now Humphrey will have to hold off a push from Kris Brown, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound redshirt freshman from Bozeman who’s never played in a Division I game save for the snaps he got in two games this spring.
Humphrey has appeared in games – 19 of them to be exact, including three starts in place of an injured Sneed in 2019 and two more starts during Montana’s two spring games, lopsided wins over Central Washington and Portland State.
During his time as UM’s starter, Humphrey looked solid in a 34-17 win over Eastern Washington, throwing for 176 yards and a touchdown. He looked tremendous in a 38-23 win at Portland State, throwing for 335 yards and four touchdowns, including three scoring strikes to Toure.
And Humphrey looked shaky at best in a quarter and a half of action against Idaho before getting pulled in favor of Sneed, who appeared to still be injured.
During the most recent spring slate, Humphrey completed 38 of his 57 pass attempts for 472 yards, five touchdowns and one interception. Brown went 8-of-12 for 112 yards and a touchdown while also rushing for a touchdown.
“We want the quarterbacks to keep competing,” Bobby Hauck said. “You’re always one play away from somebody else being in there anyway. So we got to keep those guys competing. Certainly Cam’s in front.
“That’s probably a question we should probably re-address maybe once a week, and I’ll let you know where it is.”
Hauck has long been known to stage quarterback competitions regardless of who his squad might return. Once upon a time, former Colorado transfer Craig Ochs faced competition from Jeff Disney. Jason Washington had to fend off Cole Bergquist, who in turn had quarterback competitions with Josh Swogger and Andrew Selle. Hauck brought in Sneed to compete with incumbent and Stitt protégé Gresch Jensen, then brought in Humphrey to push Sneed after Jensen left the program.
And now Humphrey must fend off Brown.
Hauck added transfers Kirk Rygol (no longer with the team) and Saddleback CC transfer Robbie Patterson, who took reps with the third team offense on Monday. But it’s the redshirt freshman from Bobcat territory that will be Humphrey’s biggest competition.
“Competition makes everybody better, no matter the position,” Hauck said “And quarterback is certainly included in that.”
Who the hell is going to be the kicker?
Hauck helped mentor several of the most prolific kickers in Big Sky Conference history, including Dan Carpenter and Brody McKnight, strikers who finished their careers second and fourth, respectively, in Big Sky history in scoring.
Tim Semenza was solid for the Griz in Hauck’s first season back, hitting 13 of 17 field goals and scoring 79 points in 2018. He graduated and did not return for his final season of eligibility.
In 2019, Brandon Purdy had a similar path, hitting 11 of 14 field goals and scoring 93 points before graduating and foregoing his final season of eligibility.
Montana enters 2021 with no proven commodities and three young specialists, all from Montana, in the mix to start.
Brian Buschini, a redshirt freshman out of Helena, is the strong front-runner to handle Montana’s punting and kickoff specialist duties. He averaged 35.6 yards on 40 punts during his senior year at Capital High. He’s shown an explosive leg and good control of his kicks during his time on the UM campus.
The field goal and PAT kicking competition will likely be between Carver Gilliam, a 6-foot-4 redshirt freshman from Whitefish, and Camden Capser, a true freshman out of Billings Central who scored 198 points, an all-time, all-class Montana state record, during his prep career.
“We have three weeks to become really, technically sound at every position,” Coach Hauck said. “I think we have a good nucleus of players that are going to be doing the blocking and tackling on those teams.
“And I think that we have a good nucleus of guys, we’ll be pretty good in the return game. And if spring is any indicator, everything’s gonna be just fine with the guys that are snapping and kicking the ball.”
Super senior long snapper Matt O’Donoghue, a preseason All-American, is one reason for Hauck’s confidence.
What impact will upgrades at cornerback have?
Justin Calhoun and Dareon Nash performed valiantly as converted wide receivers thrust into starting cornerback roles during the 2018 and 2019 seasons.
Hauck and his staff have put a high priority on upgrading the position since the last time the Griz took the field, hitting both the FBS and the high school ranks to improve the talent on the field while also adding a position coach with NFL pedigree to the staff.
Hicks-Onu and Trajon Cotton joined the Grizzlies after starting their careers at Oregon State. Justin Ford was once the top junior college prospect on the West Coast and on his way to Louisville before an injury rerouted him to Montana.
Corbin Walker flashed for the first significant time by taking an interception the distance for a touchdown in Montana’s second-round playoff win over Southeastern Louisiana in 2019. And freshman Autjoe Soe has built similar buzz within the program to rising players like White and redshirt freshman tight end Cole Grossman.
“I can’t wait to watch these guys make plays,” Robby Hauck said when asked about the cornerbacks. “Those guys are great dudes. There’s some of those guys were feels like they’ve been with us all this time. They’re hard workers and they love playing football. That’s the biggest thing. We got a bunch of guys that love to play football.”
Monday, Hicks-Onu and Walker ran with the first-team defense while Ford and Soe manned the second-team secondary. Ronnie Bradford led the group. The former 10-year NFL veteran — he intercepted a John Elway pass for the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl against Elway’s Denver Broncos nearly 25 years ago — most recently served as the defensive backs coach at USC.
Where do the Griz turn without Dante Olson?
How do you replace 179 tackles? You don’t. How do you replace a Buck Buchanan Award winner? The Grizzlies hope with a wave of new faces led by a pair of Montana-bred throwbacks.
Lewis, the new bearer of UM’s hallowed No. 37 jersey and a returning first-team All-Big Sky performer, will have an even more prominent role after piling up 131 tackles as a junior in 2019.
Expect Montana to roll its inside linebacker spots prevalently with Marcus Welnel, a 6-foot, 225-pound junior out of Helena Capital, and Braxton Hill, a 6-foot-2, 225-pound sophomore out of Anaconda to serve as the primary inside linebackers next to Lewis.
Junior Michael Matthews (6-2, 215), sophomore Levi Janacarro (6-0, 235) and redshirt freshman Kale Edwards (6-5, 240) could also challenge for reps at inside linebacker during this fall camp.
“I love those guys,” Robby Hauck said when asked about the inside linebakers. ” Dante is a guy where you can’t replace; those are big shoes to fill.
“That group is a high energy group and probably one of the hardest working groups on the team and they will do just fine. I’m excited to play along with those guys.”
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