Editor’s note: This is the second installment in a series breaking down the Montana State Bobcats following the third spring under head coach Jeff Choate and his staff. Today’s installment addresses the DeNarius McGhee’s move from coaching quarterbacks to coaching running backs.
FIRST INSTALLMENT: Bobcats still searching for Murray’s main competitor
BOZEMAN — Jeff Choate brought back a legend from the past to help mentor his quarterback of the future, a talented athlete who has already crafted some memorable mythology of his own.
A year after his hiring at his alma mater, former Bobcat quarterback DeNarius McGhee is no longer coaching the position he played. Instead, with the departure of running backs coach Michael Pitre to join Jonathan Smith’s staff at Oregon State, Choate has reassigned McGhee to Pitre’s former position. Montana State’s third–year head coach hired Bob Cole, a veteran of the coaching world, to serve as MSU’s passing coordinator.
“I’m going to tell you, the guy has been awesome,” Choate said of McGhee. “I told him it was going to be the best thing for him. Of course, he was a little apprehensive at first. But he did a coach’s clinic the other day — he’s such a detailed guy and he prepares so well for things — he walked out of there and was like, ‘that was awesome.
“He talked about ball security for about 15 minutes, aiming points on inside zone. You can tell he’s excited and he’s learning, which is what this process is all about.”
McGhee rose to lofty heights during his career under center at Montana State. The Euless (Texas) Trinity High product became one of just 14 quarterbacks in college football history to throw for more than 10,000 yards and rush fore more than 1,000 in his four years as a starter. McGhee threw for 11,203 yards and 79 touchdowns, helping MSU to three straight Big Sky Conference championships, earning Big Sky Offensive MVP honors twice.
After spending a year with former MSU offensive coordinator Brian Wright as a graduate assistant on the offensive staff at Florida Atlantic in 2014, McGhee served as a GA at North Carolina State in 2015 and 2016.
Meanwhile in Bozeman, Chris Murray was replicating a feet not accomplished by a Bobcat quarterback since McGhee: the electric dual-threat quarterback was leading Montana State to the first of two straight wins over the rival Grizzlies, rushing for 142 yards and two touchdowns in a 24-17 victory in his debut at Washington-Grizzly Stadium to cap his true freshman season in 2016 with a crescendo.
While Murray showed flashes of incredible promise — he rushed for 860 yards and 12 touchdowns despite starting just five games — he was also wildly inconsistent, combining with former Washington State and Louisville transfer Tyler Bruggman as the main contributors to an offense that turned the ball over 23 times during an 0-6 start in Big Sky play to begin the Choate era in what ended up as a 4-7 campaign.
In December of 2016, Choate lured McGhee back to Bozeman with designs on the former All-American turning MSU’s current signal caller into an adequate thrower to compliment his peerless running ability. During his sophomore year under McGhee’s tutelage, Murray showed improvement, completing 51.5 percent of his passes for 1,597 yards and 15 touchdowns — up from 44 percent for 778 yards and six TDs as a rookie. But he could never find a happy medium.
Murray threw for 311 yards and four touchdowns in a narrow 31-27 loss to No. 3 South Dakota State and for 174 yards and three more touchdowns the following week in a 49-21 dismantling of defending Big Sky champion North Dakota. But he completed just eight passes in a 25-17 loss to eventual Big Sky champion Weber State and just two more in a 30-22 win over Portland State the following week.
The impassioned, vocal McGhee spent most of the first few months of the season on the sideline and could be seen trying to motivate Murray with his spirited style. By the final month of the season, McGhee moved up to the coaches’ box to assist first-year offensive coordinator Brian Armstrong with the play calling.
During his Bobcat career, McGhee played for four offensive coordinators: Dale Svoboda during his redshirt year in 2009, Wright during the first of his two Big Sky Offensive MVP seasons in 2010 plus 2011’s 11-2 campaign, Kevin McGiven during his MVP season in 2012 and Tim Cramsey in his injury-riddled senior season. During that time period, MSU also had two different running backs coaches (Kerry Dixon, Demo Odems).
At FAU, McGhee learned under Wright and FAU running backs coach Roger Harriott during his one year in Boca Raton, Florida. He learned under offensive coordinator Eliah Drinkwitz and running backs coach Des Kitchings during his two seasons working for head coach Dave Doeren at NC State.
“Accumulated all that knowledge, it’s about using all that I’ve learned,” McGhee said. “It’s about applying it by bringing it to the table for our staff and our kids.”
McGhee applying all that plus what he’s picked up over the last few months in coaching a running backs group that loses as many as four of its top five producers in terms of carries depending on what Choate and his staff decided to do with versatile, talented sophomore Troy Andersen, who took reps exclusively at outside linebacker during MSU’s recently completed set of 15 spring practices.
“I’ve learned from a lot of really good running back coaches so it’s been a pretty smooth transition because I have had a base knowledge of the position, playing quarterback and coaching quarterback, you understand protections and all of that,” McGhee said. “Now you just dive into more of the details of the aiming point and the vision that a running back has to have. It’s about coaching the details up.”
McGhee inherits a group that potentially loses Andersen, the 2017 Big Sky Freshman of the Year. The Bobcats also saw Nick LaSane (93 carries, 592 yards, three touchdowns) graduate,senior-to-be Noah James (four carries for 11 yards) retire and junior Edward Vander (47 carries, 270 yards) leave the program before spring ball. Junior Anthony Pegues also left the program following spring.
https://twitter.com/PeguesAnthony/status/988605781238001665
Senior Logan Jones (28 carries, 110 yards, TD) is the most experienced returning ball carrier outside Murray, who was second in the Big Sky with 1,124 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground last season. Sophomore Tyrel Burgess (10 carries, 46 yards) mostly took snaps at slot receiver during the spring practices he was able to participate in and fullback R.J. Fitzgerald’s one carry last season as a walk-on true freshman is the only other returning carry for an MSU running back.
To bolster the ranks, the MSU coaches moved junior wide receiver Karl Tucker II to the backfield. Montana State added Indiana transfer Tyler “Big Bacon” Natee because of a connection with McGhee; Natee also played quarterback at Euless Trinity in high school. Outside of Jones, the rest of the group is adjusting to the position along with MSU’s new running backs coach.
“Coach McGhee, he’s a Bobcat legend here and he’s always been back there so he has plenty of knowledge about the position,” Tucker II said. “He’s done a great job and I’m excited to see how it goes.”
The running backs room will get an influx of talent in the fall. Choate has said on multiple occasions while Andersen did not take a live rep at running back during the spring, he will still likely find himself in certain offensive packages next season. Fall camp will also bring the additions of four talented true freshmen: Sherod White out of Heritage High in the Inland Empire of Southern California, Justin Cauley from Venice High in Los Angeles, Lane Sumner from Huntley Project and Isaiah Ifanse, the 2017 Washington Gatorade Player of the Year out of Bellevue High.
“I love having the new guys because a lot of times as a coach, you come into a group and the guys have already been in the program, they already have certain tendencies or they’ve been in the program so they know what they can do, what they can get away with, etc.,” McGhee said. “But when you get a freshman coming in here, you can mold their mind, you can mold their mindset, you can mold their passion for the game and the work ethic they need to have. You can set the expectation from the beginning of when they come into the program.
“It helps the culture of the room when you do have a lot of new guys as a new coach.”
After coaching from 1994 until 2001 in the Idaho high school ranks, Choate first made the move college when he took a graduate assistant position at Utah State on Mick Dennehy’s staff in 2002. Choate rose quickly through the coaching ranks, serving as USU’s safeties coach and special teams coordinator in 2003 and 2004 before taking the special teams coordinator job at Eastern
Illinois in 2005, his first taste of FCS football.
In 2006, Chris Petersen hired Choate as his special teams coordinator and running backs coach at Boise State. Choate coached running backs for three years before moving to defense in 2009. He coached BSU linebackers for three more seasons before taking the linebackers job at Washington State on Mike Leach’s staff in 2012. He spent the 2013 season coaching linebackers and special teams on Will Muschamp’s staff at Florida before linking up with Petersen again to coach defensive line and special teams at Washington in 2014 and 2015. All along the way, Choate soaked up as much experience as he could, the path leading him to his first Division I head coaching job at Montana State.
“I think it’s almost necessary in this profession,” Choate said of moving positions early in his college coaching career. “Then you can’t get pigeonholed into any one thing. (Arizona head coach) Kevin Sumlin was a defensive guy forever. No one thinks of Kevin Sumlin as a defensive guy. They think Johnny Manziel, what they did offensively and one of the reasons he got hired at Arizona is he’s an offensive genius, right? But you have to cross train.
“Football is like a player: if all he can do is be a nose tackle, there’s not a ton of value to your organization. But if you think you can play him on fourth down in the red zone as a tight end, he’s great at covering kicks…it’s the same thing as a coach. The more things you can do well, the more value you have to an organization.
“Myself as a young coach, I coached every position on the field. Every time, there’s that little nervousness, ‘Am I the expert on this?’ And then you dive in and you walk away from it going, ‘I learned a lot, I’m better for it. And (McGhee) brings great energy every single day. DeNarius has done an awesome job with that group.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
