MISSOULA, Montana — Keali’i Ah Yat rolled to his right fluidly. After looking off his first read, he quickly spied Landon Ransom-Goelz jetting into a window that had been left open by the No. 1 Griz defense.
Effortlessly, Ah Yat whipped a tight spiral into the narrow window with an A-Rod-esque flick of the wrist. The ball was a bit high, which might be just how Montana’s newest offensive weapon likes it. The man we are deeming LRG from here forth smoothly leaped, landed in stride and raced past two more defenders for a roughly 35-yard touchdown.
It’s one of dozens, if not hundreds, of scores Ah Yat will throw this preseason. And if he takes another step similar to the rise he made between his redshirt freshman season and last season, most of Montana’s single-season passing records are at least within striking distance.
But the swagger Ah Yat is so apparently operating with now was on full display during this midweek fall camp afternoon. Ah Yat simply nodded in LRG’s direction, winked and put up a No. 1 finger as he calmly walked off the field.
Ah Yat looks like a new man so far in 2026. Last season, he was the up-and-comer, the precocious young kid walking in his legendary father’s footsteps and trying to help the Grizzlies forget their recent quarterback turmoil.
Now, after gaining 12 pounds of muscle this offseason and effectively rehabbing from an injury that hobbled him last fall, Ah Yat looks like one of the alpha dogs on the Griz.
In 2025, former Montana head coach Bobby Hauck elected to pick captains on a week-to-week basis. Ah Yat was not a captain during his sophomore year. On Friday, Ah Yat was named one of Montana’s four captains, along with senior running back Eli Gillman, senior linebacker Peyton Wing and senior linebacker/end Solomon Tuliapupu. It was another nod to Ah Yat’s growth and maturation, as well as a nod to the different way new head coach Bobby Kennedy is operating in Missoula.
Ah Yat went from a prodigious freshman with promising talent who played in a few games on a team that went to the national championship game in 2023 to the part-time starter enmeshed in a Griz quarterback controversy that had very little to do with him in 2024.
Between a fourth quarter against South Dakota State in the second round of the 2024 playoffs that saw KAY throw for more than 200 yards and both of his touchdowns in the final frame alone despite UM’s 35-18 loss in Brookings, and the stretch run of last season that saw him throw for a career-high 360 yards and four touchdowns in a 50-29 thrashing of SDSU in Missoula, Ah Yat took as big a leap as any quarterback in program history or recent Big Sky Conference memory.
Ah Yat went from promising to potent during last year’s 13-2 season. He threw for 4,070 yards and 33 touchdowns to earn first-team all-conference honors. He was just the second Griz quarterback ever to surpass 4,000 yards, and he was the first Montana QB since Craig Ochs in 2004 to earn first-team all-conference honors.
During this particular practice early in fall camp, the throw wasn’t of much consequence in the bigger picture. The Griz certainly have bigger fish to fry than a midweek practice touchdown. But the fact that Ah Yat looked so cool, so comfortable and so packed with confidence while making it — and the fact that he looks like the next in line to challenge Dave Dickenson in the sphere of great Griz quarterbacks — gives Montana plenty of confidence heading into Kennedy’s first season.
“I think he’s night and day compared to where he was last year,” said Kennedy, who was Montana’s wide receivers coach last season and had a front-row seat to Ah Yat blossoming into a star. “Really feel good about where he’s at, but we all got to get better. I think he’s got to become a little more vocal with his leadership, but there’s no doubt the guys respect him.”
When Montana’s 2025 season ended bitterly in defeat in Bozeman, many wondered if Ah Yat would be the latest Big Sky star to chase dollar signs and move on to the FBS. But that never materialized.
On Dec. 30, about a week after UM’s 48-23 loss to eventual national champion Montana State in the semifinals of the FCS playoffs, Ah Yat decided to toy with the Griz faithful a little bit.
“First and foremost I want to thank the Montana coaching staff, my teammates and the fans. These last 3 years I have created so many memories with so many special people. With that being said I’ve decided to not enter my name in the portal. This is too fun lol I’m back! #GoGriz.”
When asked about the tweet, Ah Yat couldn’t help but crack a smile.
A few months later, when Hauck jumped ship, first “retiring” and then taking the defensive coordinator job at Illinois, Kennedy earned a head coaching shot for the first time in a coaching career that dates back to 1990. Kennedy’s first initiative was to make sure the offensive coaching staff stayed as intact as possible, and he particularly desired to retain ace offensive coordinator Brent Pease.
BK’s second priority was making sure Ah Yat and All-American running back Eli Gillman, among others, didn’t go anywhere. One source confirmed that Ah Yat was lured by an SEC school that offered a high-six- or even low-seven-figure enticement.
During an offseason commercial shoot for The Press Box, a local fan-favorite sports bar located adjacent to the University of Montana campus, Gillman and Ah Yat joked as part of the script about what it took to get their images painted in a Griz mural on the side of the PBox.
One of Ah Yat’s scripted lines included him saying, “The Press Box told me they would erase me off the wall if I ever left.” The camera then flashes to Gillman, who winks and says, “Montana and The Press Box treat us like royalty. We would never leave.”
And that sentiment held true all offseason. Despite getting offered big bucks, Ah Yat remains loyal to the program that made his father, Brian, a household name 30 years ago.
“You see a lot of people nowadays posting about transferring and these long paragraphs of thanking the coaches, and I had my mindset. I knew I was gonna come back here, so I just wanted to have a little fun with it, play with the fans’ emotions a little bit and just joke around,” Ah Yat said with a smile when asked about the tweet and the commercial. “But at the end of the day, I wanted to be here, and that’s God’s plan for me. So I can’t wait for this upcoming season, and definitely glad to be back here.”
Pease has been a coach on and off at his alma mater since his outstanding playing career ended in the late 1980s. Many wondered if he might be Hauck’s heir apparent. Instead, he’s back to working with the offense and the quarterbacks, which is another reason Ah Yat returned. That, and the fact that the confident signal-caller is all in on what his new head coach is selling.
“I love Coach Kennedy,” Ah Yat said. “I think he’s done a great job keeping our team together and setting his foundation for what he wants. So, I think that’s been established now throughout the spring and going into the summer, and it’s really just keep on building, keep on pushing forward as a team and just keep stacking days, getting ready for that first kickoff on August 29.”
The Griz offense is expected to be spearheaded by a trio of offensive superstars, including Ah Yat and Gillman, plus Brooks Davis, a speedy outside receiver who had one of the great freshman seasons by a Griz wideout in program history.
The rest of the unit is shrouded in mystery. Who will replace Swiss Army knife playmaker Michael Wortham, who’s now with the Jacksonville Jaguars? Who will replace Drew Deck’s clutch play on the perimeter and in the return game? How will an offensive line with a new position coach in Brent Myers and five starting spots up for grabs come together? And who will fill the shoes of graduated, bruising first-team all-conference tight end Evan Shafer?
If history is any indication, the receivers and the running backs will be among the best in the conference, as has been the case for most of the last 40 years.
As the old saying goes, though, if you have a quarterback, you have a chance. And Montana has one of the rising signal-callers in all of college football guiding the offense.
“I think the game in front of him has slowed down so much that he knows defenses really well by alignments, by pre-snap and post-snap situations, that he can react to those and not put himself in trouble,” Pease said. “I’m excited to see if he can take another step.”
