On Tuesday, March 24th, Montana State football will reconvene for spring practices in the lead up to the Sonny Holland Spring Classic on April 25th. Rarely has a spring season been anticipated with such high expectations as exist this year; the defending national champs seem to have everything in place needed to repeat. With that said, the program is not without its open questions and the spring season is where many of those questions will get answered. Few realize how important this month of football ends up being for where things will stand in fall camp and the beginning of the regular season.
So in anticipation of a key spring, here are five questions to keep an eye on:
- How do the Cats reload on the defensive line? Montana State loses remarkably little from their 2025 run. But the losses they will deal with tend to be clustered at certain positions. One of those is the defensive line, which is serious business given how much the ‘25 defense relied on the ability to pressure opposing quarterbacks without blitzing.
All four starters– Kenneth Eiden and Hunter Parsons at DE, Paul Brott and Alec Eckert at DT– have graduated, leaving the entire starting lineup up for grabs. Competition on the interior is going to be fierce given how much talent and experience returns. Zach Black, Talon Marsh, Hunter Sharbono, and Josaiah Asuega all played to one extent or another last season. Meanwhile, sophomore Hudson Wiens was one of the most highly regarded prep talents in the state coming out of Bozeman High and is reportedly healthy and ready to compete, along with talented Minnesota product Graysen Schneider, who redshirted last season. The question at DT is not so much “where do they turn?” but “who wins out?” in what will surely be a tough battle.
The picture is a little bit clearer at DE. Zac Crews and Dominic Solano both played major rotational roles over the past two seasons and seem like shoe-ins to start. Seth Brock was a freight train on special teams last year and flashed when given chances on defense (he sacked Ah Yat in the Super Brawl). But while the top three appear to be set, the rotational depth is more of a mystery. Jake Vigen and Logan Frederickson are veterans who could potentially see more time, while Blaine Downing is a Saco product who redshirted in ‘25.
There’s little doubt that the Cats have the talent to reload on the defensive line but, beyond Crews and Solano, who wins the starting/rotational roles is anyone’s guess. I would not rule out a summer transfer at defensive end.
- Who is stepping up at cornerback? The other area of the roster that saw a concentration of defections was cornerback– especially outside corner. Three of the top four guys were in the portal almost instantly after the national championship, despite all being redshirt freshmen: Carson Williams left for Indiana, Seth Johnson for Iowa State, and Jhase McMillan for UCLA.
The lone player returning who carried a heavy load last season is Takhari Carr. In light of this, it’s no accident that the lone portal addition that the Cats made this winter was cornerback Gianni Edwards, who comes to MSU after spending his freshman season at the University of Arizona. The list of other names to watch begins with Kory Boyd, a Dallas native who flashed a ton of talent on special teams last season. Marcus Coleman is another TX product who redshirted in 2025 and may be ready for more.
Beyond those names, incoming true freshman Jasaiah Denmark is one to watch. Denmark decommitted from Sac State in February and decided to come to Bozeman. One reason he cited for the switch is the chance to play right away and by all accounts he’s the type of talent who has a chance to do just that. The other factor to consider is that the Cats have a logjam of talent at safety and nickel. Would they consider moving a Tayden Gray or a Timothy Thomas outside? If that’s on their radar, we will surely see hints in the spring.
I think Carr, Edwards, and Boyd are heavy favorites to secure the top spots at corner, with Coleman and Denmark in competition for rotational work.
- Who is sharing the backfield with Adam Jones? The Bobcats are such a run heavy team that in any given season, they essentially need two starters at running back. In 2024, Scottre Humphrey had 199 carries and Adam Jones had 184. This last season, Jones had 173 while Julius Davis had 170. Clearly Jones is going to continue to be 1A at the position, but who will be 1B and replace Davis’ production?
Barring a late transfer, the options on the roster are Colson Coon, Jared White, Cale Breslin, Malachi Claunch, Shanko Kornachuk, and George Helms. Coon and White were the next men up on the depth chart in 2025. Coon is a nifty runner with underrated power who is frankly just fun to watch. White is a dangerous receiver out of the backfield. The rest of the group are basically unknown, all of them being redshirt freshmen who combined for one total carry in 2025. Breslin enrolled at BYU in spring of ‘25 and then transferred to MSU last summer before ever playing for the Cougars. Helms, a Big Sky native, spent one season at Elon before transferring to the Cats. Claunch and Kornachuk were MSU recruits out of high school who redshirted in 2025.
I like Coon’s chances to carve out a big role, though perhaps there might be more of a committee approach than we’ve seen previously. That said, there are some really interesting dark horse candidates.
- Who seizes open jobs on the offensive line? Starters Braden Zimmer, Titan Fleischmann, and Burke Mastel are back in 2026, but J.T. Reed graduated and Cedric Jefferson transferred. This leaves two spots open for the taking. But what’s most interesting about the situation is that Fleischmann and Mastel’s position flexibility mean that the new starters could really come at any spot outside of left tackle, where Zimmer looks like the next MSU stalwart 4-year starter.
Fleischmann was a stellar right tackle before moving inside and dominating at guard. Mastel was supposed to be the starting center before a broken hand forced him to move to guard, where he wouldn’t have to snap. So whether you’re primarily a tackle, guard, or center, you have a chance to land a job this year.
The Cats are absolutely flush with up-and-coming talent. Let’s start with the guys who made the 2-Deep last year: Nate Thornton backed up Zimmer at left tackle despite being a true freshman, Everett Carr started at guard until Mastel was healthy enough to play, Dylan Rollins was listed as a backup at guard as was Tommy Nilson, Aiden Kaplan and Zac Nyland both made the list at center at various points and Samoa Ezekiel at right tackle.
Beyond those seven, Dalton Noble (So), Vaughn Wirkus (Fr), and Ben Winters (Fr) were all highly regarded in-state recruits. Regardless of how this shakes out, the offensive line is the lifeblood of great football teams and MSU is set up for long-term success.
- How does Daly feed all the mouths at linebacker? If the offensive line is overflowing with talent on offense, the same is true of the linebacker position on defense. For my money, Cole Taylor is the best linebacker MSU has had since Troy Andersen and, before him, since Alex Singleton. He’s that good. But along with him, Neil Daily and Bryce Grebe are both worthy of starting roles plus Xavier Ahrens somehow managed to play serious snaps as a true freshman despite not even being a linebacker in high school. So there you have four guys who are all worthy at a position with two spots. And that’s to say nothing of the talent behind them: Ryan Krahe, Brock Steel, Josh Woodberry, Ryan Bowles, Vinnie Souza… The only downside of dominating in-state recruiting is that you end up with more good players than you can find snaps for.
All that to say, this will be one of the strongest competitions on the entire roster and it will be interesting to track not only who wins the starting roles, but how much Bobby Daly is prepared to rotate. One question is whether the relative shallowness at defensive end could be addressed by depth at linebacker. Would Vigen and/or Daly ask a guy to change positions or put a hand in the dirt on passing downs? That’s something to watch.
Taylor needs to be on the field as often as possible. The rest of the competition should be fun to watch.
So there you have it– storylines and questions to track during this spring season. The Cats are set up just about as well as one could imagine for another run at the championship and it all starts on March 24th. Let’s see what they do with the opportunity.
