Big Sky Conference

Griz delighted with Montana-first recruiting class

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The first and last National Letters of Intent came from Oklahoma and in the 4-hour span between the time Terron Moses and Kendall Sweet signed their papers, other NLIs flooded in from around the country as Montana was finally able to break its silence and announce its 2017 recruiting class.

In what appears to be an attempt to address the roster’s overall athleticism, Montana on Wednesday signed 22 players — 18 of them from the prep ranks and four transfers. The Griz balanced the class evenly between head coach Bob Stitt’s offense and coordinator Jason Semore’s defense. The common theme among the newly minted Grizzlies: untapped athleticism.

Montana targeted three-sport athletes with the ability to play multiple positions. For instance, Braydon and Bryson Deming, twins from Billings West, will be moved from their respective high school positions to something new this fall. The same can be said of Trevor Hoerner of Columbia Falls, McKenzie Holt Thompson Falls, Skyler Martin of Issaquah, Washington and Mitch Roberts, a Missoula Sentinel product. And though they were introduced at specific positions Wednesday morning, there remains the possibility that Billings Senior quarterback Nathan Dick, Sidney wide receiver Michael McGinnis, Sweet (a safety from Tulsa, Oklahoma) and Polson quarterback Tanner Wilson could play elsewhere during their time in maroon and silver.

“It’s a very, very good day in a coach’s life getting to signing day and getting these players signed up,” Stitt said to the gathered media in the Canyon Club atop Washington-Grizzly Stadium. “… We’ve been putting in a lot of miles and time to get this crew signed up. I want to thank our coaches because they’re the ones that do this.

“They did a fantastic job putting together another class for us that is going to be great down the line.”

While Montana feels it was successful finding talent around the country, Stitt was most pleased with his staff’s work inside the state. Montana continued its ever-lasting quest to etch out its territory within the state’s borders throughout the 2016-17 recruiting season. It landed the Deming twins from West, the Gatorade Player of the Year in Dick, and a host of talent from the northwest part of the state, including Hoerner, Holt and the Polson pair of Matthew Rensvold and Wilson.

Stitt said it was important to build the class around Montana kids and that’s the essentially the story of this year’s class. The first eight commitments Montana received were called in from a 406 area code. Montana found one quarterback in Wilson that Stitt talked extensively with during summer camp and another in Dick it feels could develop into a play-making signal caller.

“The biggest thing about this class is 10 Montana kids and that’s where we start,” Stitt said of a class that will top out far below the totals from years passed when Montana added at least 34 names to its roster. “We did a very good job of identifying the players with FCS ability very early. Our whole recruiting process revolves around the kids from Montana. There were a ton of them this year and as you can see we signed 10 of them that we feel that can help us win a lot of ball games.”

Montana, which got its first commit from McGinnis in June, spanned nine states to find its talent. Ten of the players came from Montana, but the remainder came from a wide expanse of states ranging from Florida to Pennsylvania to California. The class again exhibited the influence of Semore, who last year was influential in persuading recruits from Arizona to sign with Montana and this year tapped into his roots in Oklahoma.

Montana defensive coordinator Jason Semore/ by Brooks Nuanez

Montana defensive coordinator Jason Semore/ by Brooks Nuanez

A former defensive assistant at Oklahoma State and Tulsa, Semore received a nod on Twitter from Sweet, who made his decision to select Montana over Stephen F. Austin and Missouri State. Semore was also influential in landing the late commit from Moses, a speedy little running back from eastern Oklahoma, and in securing a commitment from Broken Arrow linebacker Carder Key in early October.

Stitt said that Montana was tipped off to Moses by one of the coach’s former assistants at Colorado School of Mines. Stitt said Tulsa was close to offering Moses before a recruit with a prior offer decided to commit to the Hurricane. Once that happened, Stitt’s old friend called him and told him to give the back’s tape a look. Moses, who ran for more than 1,900 yards in each his junior and senior seasons was on a plane to Montana a few days later and subsequently committed.

In the two classes Stitt has overseen from start to finish, Montana has landed five kids from Oklahoma after not signing one in the previous three decades.

Montana signed Helena Capital linebacker Marcus Welnel to join a group of linebackers that could swell to as many as five depending on where the Griz classify Sweet, who played in the defensive backfield and at linebacker for Tulsa’s Booker T. Washington High School.

Weeks prior to National Signing Day — the first day of the signing period that runs to April 1 and is the first opportunity for high school students with the intention of enrolling for fall semester to autograph their NLIs — the Grizzlies signed four transfers they are counting on to provide immediate impact. Montana added quarterback Caleb Hill of Blinn College, defensive ends Chris Favoroso of Arizona Western and Dylan Gilfoy of Diablo Valley Community College and Maryland defensive tackle David Shaw.

Favoroso has three years of eligibility while the other three come to Missoula with two years left on their NCAA clocks.

Montana, which scouted 13 of its 18 high school signees during its summer camps, entered the recruiting period with 21 scholarships after 17 seniors graduated and four scholarships were returned after sanctions stemming from an NCAA investigation expired. If previous reporting on the diving up of scholarships to instate recruits holds, Montana has as many as three full-scholarships it can use to sign transfers or high school students waiting until further into the signing period.

Asked whether the four scholarships had much influence on the staff’s recruiting strategy, Stitt said it was negligible. Instead of spreading the money from the four scholarships among incoming freshman, Montana prioritized using it to balance out those it will lose in its junior class compared to other classes. Stitt said that when he was hired, not many players in that class had scholarships. He estimated the number to be four and said it was his and his assistants’ decision to award players who had long played without major financial assistance with a larger amount.

OFFENSE (11)

QB — Tanner Wilson, Caleb Hill, Nathan Dick

RB — Terron Moses

WR — Matthew Rensvold, Mitch Roberts, Bryson Deming, Michael McGinnis

OL — Skyler Martin, Payton Stoner

ATH — McKenzie Holt

DEFENSE (11)

DT — David Shaw

DE — R.J. Nelson, Chris Favoroso, Dylan Gilfoy, Braydon Deming, Trevor Hoerner

LB — Carder Key, Michael Matthews, Marcus Welnel, Kendall Sweet

S — Isiahia Banks

About Kyle Sample

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