BOZEMAN — Jered Padmos was a standout golfer during his time at Jefferson High School in Boulder. The last few weeks at Bobcat Stadium, Montana State’s punter has simulated a strong wedge game to stick the football deep in opposing territory.
After a roller coaster beginning to his sophomore season, Padmos has found an elite zone in recent weeks. In MSU’s 28-14 win over Idaho State, Bobcat head coach Jeff Choate called Padmos Montana State’s “unsung hero” after he averaged 52 yards per punt, pinning the Bengals inside the 20-yard line four times in five kicks.
Last week in MSU’s 16-14 loss to No. 25 Kennesaw State in Bozeman, Padmos pinned the Owls inside their own 15 yards line three times, including twice inside the 5. Padmos stuck a punt at the KSU 2-yard line before the Owls drove most of the field for a game-winning field goal.
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Padmos’ performance proved particularly crucial considering Kennesaw’s deliberate triple option offensive attack.
“Jered did exactly the same thing he did last week and really did a tremendous job for us,” Choate said. “He pinned three inside the 20 and a couple that forced them into having a long field. If you put that team on a short field, you are going to have a lot of problems.”
Padmos pinned Idaho State inside the 6 twice, once resulting in a long ISU touchdown drive in the second quarter, the second resulting in a three-and-out before halftime.
In the fourth quarter, Padmos squirted a rugby-style roll punt 70 yards to pin the Bengals at their own 8. Three plays later, Montana State senior Mac Bignell intercepted a Tanner Gueller pass and raced 18 yards for a game-sealing touchdown.
“Paddle fish, he was unbelievable,” MSU defensive coordinator Ty Gregorak said with a laugh when referencing his nickname for the punter. “We are getting ready to go play defense and I’m trying to go point him out, holler at him because he was fantastic the way he flipped the field. I was very impressed with him and it was huge. Some of our very best defense was because of him, because of the field position battle, he was awesome.”
The standout set of weeks for has been part of a crucial stretch for MSU’s specialists. As a true freshman, Padmos averaged 39.7 yards per punt, pinning opponents inside the 20-yard line 10 times and forcing 18 fair catches. He had five boots of more than 50 yards with a long of 76.
As Montana State’s placekicker, fellow true freshman Gabe Peppenger also proved to be solid. The walk-on from Missoula Sentinel hit 9-of-13 field goal attempts, including seven of his eight attempts from inside of 40 yards. He also averaged 61.8 yards per kickoff on 33 blasts, 11 of which went out of the back of the end-zone. He also nailed all 25 of his PAT tries.
Both in-state products found new competition during spring drills. Luke Daly, an All-Big Sky conference selection as a sophomore in 2015, suffered a torn ACL in winter condition in the winter of 2016. Later that spring, he ran into legal trouble that earned him an indefinite suspension from MSU and the football team.
Daly returned from the injury and was reinstated to the roster in March of 2017. He showed tremendous length strength and an ability to explode through the ball on both kickoffs and field goals. He also found a new ability to punt.
Peppenger and Padmos pushed the senior throughout spring football and fall camp. But Daly ultimately won all three jobs.
Then it all fell apart for the Billings Central product who harbored NFL dreams. He missed a 42-yard field goal attempt wide right in the first half of a loss at Washington State. The kick would’ve cut the WSU lead to 14-3 going into halftime. Instead, MSU suffered its first shutout since 2006 in the 31-0 loss in Pullman.
The following week, MSU began its matchup against No. 4 South Dakota State with a 12-play, 64-yard drive to set up a 33-yard field goal attempt. The kick seemed like it should be a chip shot for a kicker who nailed a 56-yarder in a game two years earlier. Instead, Daly shanked the kick wide left. MSU ended up falling behind 17-0 before halftime. MSU cut the lead to 24-21 in the fourth quarter and Daly had a 45-yard attempt to tie the game. He missed that kick as well. Montana State lost 31-27.
MSU took an early bye in Week 3 before heading to Grand Forks to play defending Big Sky champion North Dakota. The MSU coaches decided to leave Daly home in favor of Padmos and Peppenger. Daly took to social media to voice his displeasure. A week later, his name was removed from the MSU roster completely.
The Fighting Hawks could hardly stop the Bobcats, so Padmos punted three times and Peppenger was only needed for eight kickoffs. During a drizzly homecoming against Weber State, Peppenger nailed his first field goal attempt from 24 yards out but missed from 34 and 41 yards in a 25-17 loss to Weber State.
“Both he and Jered Padmos, it’s been a yo-yo for them,” Choate said. “Compete, here’s the direction we are going, take a deep breath. A couple of weeks later, everything changes. It took maybe a minute to shift gears going from thinking they were going to get that year back when they didn’t get to redshirt to it sinking in that you never know when your number is going to be called. I think both of those guys have done exceptionally well.”
The last month, both specialists have gotten on track and stayed consistent. Padmos is averaging 42.4 yards per punt and has pinned opponents inside the 20-yard line 10 times this season. Peppenger has made three straight field goals, including a game-winner at Northern Colorado as time expired to lift the Bobcats to a 27-24 victory.
“As a kicker, you don’t want to treat your routine too much,” Peppenger said two weeks ago. “When it comes down to a final game winner, nothing changes except the time clock. So when you think about it, you may have kicked that same kick thousands of times but the pressure, the fact that it’s a game winner is on you so you want to keep your routine the same for when your nerves are up.
“It feels good being thrown in there. I had a rough start against Weber but that’s in the past. I can only focus on the forward. I have some good momentum going forward.”
That ability to focus on what’s in front of them has been crucial as the Montana specialist duo have gone from rookie standouts to potential second-year redshirts to starters once again.
“Compliments to them,” MSU special teams coordinator BJ Robertson said following the Northern Colorado win. “That’s one thing Coach Choate always harps on is how are we going to respond. One of my favorite quotes is life is 10 percent of what happens to you, 90 percent how you respond. Last year, they responded well coming in as true freshmen. Athletes are creatures of habit so they wanted to be in that routine. It’s taken a few weeks to get back in that regular routine but I feel like they have done a nice job of handling that.”
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Brooks Nuanez contributed to the reporting of this story. Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
