Josh Hill and Marcus Ferriter each earned the designation as the top defensive players at their levels two years ago. Hill was a tackling machine as the Class AA Defensive Most Valuable Player as the linebacker led Kalispell Glacier to their first state title in school history. Meanwhile, Ferriter was a terror at Butte Central, leading the state with 23 sacks to earn Class A Defensive MVP honors as the Maroons advanced to their first state title game in more than 40 seasons.
Despite their high school accomplishments, Hill accepted a minimal scholarship to come to Montana State while Ferriter joined the Bobcats as a preferred walk-on. While each dominated as high school seniors and showed potential as redshirts last fall, hardly anyone expected what played out on Thursday.
[restrict paid=”true”]In Montana State’s season-opener, which doubled as Jeff Choate’s head coaching debut, Hill and Ferriter were thrown into the fire right away. Each started in MSU’s 20-17 loss at Idaho to open the 2016 season. Hill played 54 snaps, including 46 on defense, notching six tackles, including four solo stops from a Will linebacker position that has lacked production since Alex Singleton’s graduation in 2014.
“I wasn’t too nervous,” Hill said. “I was more nervous the days leading up to it. But I start on kickoff and as soon as we opened kicking off and I got to go out there and do my thing, the first time I get to go out and play college football, it was exciting. Coming out on defense, I didn’t have any nerves. I was just ready to go play.
“I didn’t expect to play at this level right away. I just kept the mindset of keep doing the right thing and rewards will come. I knew if I kept showing up to every work out and working as hard as I can, practice hard, I would get what I deserve at the end of the day.”
Hill has defied doubters since his time playing Glacier’s “stud” linebacker position as a two-year first-team Class AA all-state selection. The 6-footer starred despite weighing just 195 pounds as a high school senior. During the off-season, he dedica ted himself to the weight room, packing on 15 pounds of muscle to get up to 210 pounds. His goal is to weight 220 pounds by the beginning of next season.
“He’s been around the ball a lot in fall camp, too,” Choate said following the UI loss. “He’s a tough, physical kid. As he matures — God, I would love for that kid to be 220 and if we can get him there, he’s going to be an excellent Big Sky linebacker. That’s the only issue: his size and he can get swallowed up by some big offensive linemen.
“Josh is an outstanding football player with a nose for the ball,” Choate added at his weekly press conference on Monday morning.
Ferriter started at strong defensive end and played 28 plays, including 21 defensive snaps, notching his first career tackle. He started in front of junior Shiloh Laboy but Laboy ended up playing 35 snaps against the Vandals.
“Marcus is a guy because of guys getting nicked up who has had to emerge,” Choate said. “The good news is he put a lot of work in over the summer. He’s up to 255 now. He’s starting to mature. It seems like he’s getting a little bit bigger every day when I see him. I think he’s going to be a really good player. He’s a Butte tough kid who has a passion for the game who is really coachable. He will get better as the year goes on.”
Ferriter was not available for comment on Wednesday, the lone day Montana State defensive players can talk to the media.
On one particular sequence with Idaho facing a third down and short yardage, Vandals’ quarterback Matt Linehan handed the ball to explosive running back Andrew Duckworth. Hill met the junior in the hole and Ferriter helped his classmate finish off the stop, forcing an Idaho punt.
“Next man up and they got their opportunity today,” said Montana State junior captain safety Bryson McCabe following his gutty five-tackle performance in Moscow. “It was fun to see Josh and Marcus making big-time plays. That third down, to hold them to a field goal in the red-zone, that was a big-time play. I’m looking forward to playing more with them.”
Ferriter rose to a starting role after junior Tyrone Fa’anono suffered a leg injury during fall camp and junior Devin Jeffries suffered a season-ending knee injury earlier this month. Laboy’s nagging injuries thrust the 6-foot-4, 255-pounder into a starting role.
Hill rose to the top of the depth chart more early on. During the first week of fall camp, junior Blake Braun suffered a lleg injury that has kept him on the shelf ever since. Junior Lukas McCarthy, a junior college transfer from Fullerton, served as Hill’s other competition. Although Hill ran with the first-team defense for more of August, he didn’t know he was going to start until Thursday.
“I wasn’t really too sure what was going on because (linebackers) Coach (Kane) Ioane had talked to me the week before and said, ‘as of right now, you’d be starting if we played Idaho today,’ but he didn’t really talk to me after that,” Hill said. “I just had to go in there, get my assignments right, get aligned and go play. I was just trying to not over-think it.”
[/restrict]Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
