On Wednesday, Montana State expects to sign as many as 13 prep prospects who are previously committed to the Bobcat football team.
MSU could sign as many as five mid-year transfers who would join the program for winter conditioning when the spring semester commences in January.
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Montana State has already received a verbal commit from Coffeyville JC kicker Tristan Bailey, a Colorado Springs native who began his career at Wyoming. Over the last week, Montana State has hosted official visits for four other potential transfers who the Bobcats hope sign National Letters of Intent when the first-ever early signing period opens on Wednesday, December. 20.
Recruiting entered a dead non contact period at midnight Sunday night.
Jonsen is a 6-foot-4, 210-pound former 4-star prep recruit who spent two seasons at Oregon and played last season at Riverside Community College. Natee is a 6-foot, 270-pound former 3-star recruit out of Texas powerhouse Euless (Texas) Trinity who spent the last two seasons at Indiana. Echols is a 5-foot-9, 170-pound former 3-star tailback/slot receiver who spent the last two seasons at Cal. Sterk is a 6-foot-5, 245-pounder from Lynden, Washington who has spent the last two seasons at Washington.
Former Oregon and current Riverside CC QB Travis Jonsen
Jonsen was among the most highly recruited players in the country coming out of Servite High School in Anaheim. The four-star recruit was rated as the No. 3 dual-threat quarterback in the country by Rivals.com as a prep senior in 2014, ahead of 2016 Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson.
In 23 games as a starter, he threw for 3,361 yards and 29 touchdowns and rushed for 2,133 yards and 26 more touchdowns. Jonsen participated in the 2015 U.S. Army All-American Bowl where he threw a 92-yard touchdown pass on his opening attempt.
He graduated early and enrolled at Oregon, choosing the Ducks over offers from Alabama, Arizona, BYU, Cal, Colorado, Fresno State, Maryland, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Penn State, Tennessee, Utah, Vanderbilt and Washington.
At the California junior college powerhouse, Jonsen could not beat out Victor Viramontes, a Norco, California native who was initially committed to Michigan coming out of high school. Viramontes is also the prep quarterback of former Montana State wide receiver Cam Sutton, who caught 13 passes and six touchdowns in his first season at Riverside. Viramontes threw for 1,916 and 19 touchdowns and rushed for 1,248 and 26 touchdowns to lead Riverside to a 10-2 record.
Jonsen threw for 176 yards and three touchdowns in his lone start of 2017, a 52-9 win over Victor Valley. He also rushed six times for 46 yards that day. He threw just 23 passes and ran 32 times the rest of the season. He rushed six times for 126 yards and a 64-yard touchdown in a 56-7 win over Chaffey JC. He had six carries for 128 yards, including a 74-yard touchdown in a 51-14 win over Long Beach. Jonsen finished 2017 with 372 yards passing and four touchdowns and 38 carries for 425 yards and three touchdowns.
Former Indiana running back Tyler Natee/ IU athletics
Nateegraduated from Trinity High as the school’s 7th all-time leading rusher after gaining more than 3,000 yards on 337 attempts (8.9 yards per carry) and scoring 25 touchdowns. The then 6-foot, 239-pound high school quarterback also completed 100-of-171 passes for 1,403 yards and 11 touchdowns. He caught seven passes for 169 yards and two TDs. He was a three-time all-district selection, once as a fullback in 2013 and twice as a quarterback in 2014 and 2015. He led the Trojans to the 2014 Class 6A regional final and a 10-1 record in 2015. Trinity was ranked No. 1 in Texas and No. 4 nationally in 2015.
Coming out of high school as a 3-star athlete prospect, Natee had offers from Indiana and Arkansas State. He also received interest from SMU and Baylor. In 2016, Natee earned honorable mention All-Freshman Big Ten honors from BTN.com and was the Big Ten Freshman of the Week after rushing for 111 yards on 18 carries and a touchdown against Maryland. He finished his freshman year with 237 yards on 61 attempts and one touchdown. He also caught one pass. In 2017, the now 270-pounder was relegated to the scout team and didn’t play in a game.
If Natee comes to MSU, he will be the latest in a long line of successful Trojans to play for the Bobcats. DeNarius McGhee, MSU’s current quarterbacks coach, won two Big Sky Offensive MVPs and quarterbacked the Bobcats to three straight Big Sky titles (2010-2012). Other former Bobcats turned Trojans include running back Tray Robinson, linebacker Na’a Moeakiola and the late Eryon Barnett. MSU sophomore defensive tackle Elu Leota also prepped at Trinity.
Zion Echols
Echols came to Cal from Charter Oak in Covina, California as an inside receiver in Sonny Dykes’ up-tempo spread offense. The 5-foot-9, 175-pound speedster held offers from Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, UCLA, USC, Utah, Washington and Washington State before choosing Cal and redshirting in 2016.
Dykes was fired at the end of the 2016 season and replaced by Justin Wilcox, Boise State’s defensive coordinator for four seasons (2006-2009) while MSU head coach Jeff Choate was at Boise. Wilcox also coached at Washington in 2012 and 2013; Choate coached at UW 2014 and 2015 before taking over at Montana State before the 2016 season .
Last season under Wilcox and in Cal offensive coordinator Beau Baldwin, formerly Eastern Washington’s head coach, Echols moved to a slot back role. He carried the ball 13 times for 17 yards and caught five passes for 17 yards while playing in six games.
At Charter Oak, Echols rushed for 4,076 yards and 64 touchdowns in three years as the starter. His senior year, he rushed for 2,147 yards and 37 touchdowns. Echols scored 90 touchdowns in 37 high school games including 22 receiving and four kick return touchdowns.
Charter Oak is the high school alma mater of former Montana State safety Khari Garcia, a senior in 2017. Current Bobcats who prepped at Charter Oak include sophomore cornerback Damien Washington and sophomore quarterback Kamden Brown.
Bryce Sterk
Sterk earned a three-star rating as a defensive end/outside linebacker at Lynden High in Northwestern Washington. He received offers from Eastern Washington and Portland State before Choate, then the defensive line coach at Washington, offered a scholarship. He also had an offer from Wyoming.
As a prep school senior in 2015, Sterk hardly left the field. He anchored the offensive line as the starting left tackle and posted 147 tackles, 10 sacks and six forced fumbles on defense, helping Lynden reach the Class 2A state championship game, the fourth straight in Sterk’s prep career. Sterk helped Lynden to a 32-game winning streak that included three state titles. He was the Northwest Conference MVP and a unanimous first-team all-state selection on both sides of the ball. In track, he finishes sixth in the 300-meter high hurdles in 39.97 seconds as a junior. As a senior, he finished second in the state in the 400 meters in 50.2 seconds.
During his redshirt season in 2015 playing under Choate at UW, Sterk won the team’s Ultimate Dirt Dawg Award for his work in the weight room. In 2016, he saw his first action in a in the win over Rutgers, recording two tackles and a fumble recovery. In 2017, he did not earn any game action.
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Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.
