BOZEMAN — Chris Long was ready for an adventure.
And Ryan King wanted a fresh start with a winner.
Together, the duo are among the most unlikely starting wide receiver duo Montana State has ever had. And the pair from the Eastern time zone could be a pair of hidden weapons as MSU enters the stretch run of their season.
Long, a spindly and speedy transfer from Rutgers who grew up outside of Philadelphia, has battled dings this year but has shown flashes of his game-breaking speed. King, a hulking 6-foot-4, 216-pounder from Loganville, Georgia who started his career at Georgia Tech before transferring to Montana State from East Carolina, provides a physical mismatch for Montana State and has shown flashes of his ability to win one-on-ones, including when he caught his first career touchdown on Saturday in MSU’s 66-14 onslaught of Weber State.
MSU’s offense has evolved to the point where Montana State is throwing more than they did during its last near-decade offensive stretch dominated by running quarterbacks like Chris Murray, Troy Andersen and Tommy Mellott. This season, Justin Lamson is throwing for nearly 220 yards per game and has thrown 18 touchdowns.
If it were all about the numbers, Long and King would probably be dissatisfied with their small pieces of the pie. Taco Dowler has hauled in 51 catches for 645 yards and five touchdowns. That’s caught 31 percent of Lamson’s 166 completions, 32 percent of his 2,026 yards and just short of one-third of his 18 touchdowns.
Redshirt freshmen Dane Steel (26 catches, 301 yards, TD) and Jabez Woods (16 catches, 268 yards, two TDs) have become reliable options, although Long and King remain the starters. King and Long have just a few more catches than Woods….combined.
Yet it was never about the numbers for either of the former FBS athletes. Most of Montana State’s most common selling points – winning culture, passionate fan base, elite game day experience – resonated with them both and now they are each thoroughly enjoying their time in Bozeman.
“I had no idea what to expect because I had really never heard anything about Montana, but when I first came, it’s so beautiful and it’s not really at all what you think,” Long said. “It’s very different from where I’m from. And that’s a good thing.
“More than anything, it’s fun playing in the Big Sky. Our team is so good and it’s so fun being on a team that wins.”
King has been in Montana for two years now. And he’s acclimated nicely to both the lifestyle, the affinity for winning football games and the way the Bozeman and MSU community embraces the Bobcats.
“My first thought when they reached out was ‘It’s going to be really cold’,” King said with a chuckle. “I came on my first visit in June and I didn’t think it was TOO cold, but there was snow on the mountains so I knew what was coming (laughs). Being from Georgia, you don’t see that.
“Being from the city, seeing the mountains, it’s beautiful and peaceful. But more than anything, I feel like all the people in the community are extremely welcoming. If I have a Bobcat shirt on and I’m at the grocery store, I’ll get a couple ‘Go Bobcats’, just from random people that I’m sure have followed the team and know me. It’s good to see that the community is so tight knit around Bobcat football.”
When Montana State embarked on the arduous and unenviable task of replacing Tommy Mellott, not only was there a need to replace a Walter Payton Award-winning quarterback. But there was also a necessity to redefine Montana State’s offensive identity.
Mellott is unquestionably one of the great running quarterbacks in college football history. He helped Montana State craft one of the most unique offenses the Big Sky has seen. And although MSU rushed for more than 300 yards a game over the last few seasons, there was always a need for a tall, physically skilled outside receiver who could catch back shoulder fades. Heck, Lance McCutcheon earned himself a shot in the NFL with one of the breakout senior seasons in MSU history when he caught eight touchdowns, including three touchdowns in the playoffs when Mellott took over as the starting QB as a freshman, during Montana State’s run to the 2021 FCS national title game.
That’s what the Bobcats first saw when they started scouting King, a former Top 50 recruit in the state of Georgia his senior year at in 2019 at powerhouse Grayson High. King spent three seasons at Georgia Tech and 2023 at East Carolina but didn’t get any opportunities with the Pirates. When he entered the portal, he looked the part of possession receiver that had helped make Mellott so comfortable throwing the back shoulder fade a few years earlier.
The 6-foot-4, 216-pounder with speed to burn knew he could make an impact more than the opportunities that were being provided him at ECU (he only played in four games and caught no passes.)
“I took a visit to Bozeman and I just loved it, loved everything about it,” King said. “It was a different environment. Everyone I saw, they were shaking my hand, saying they couldn’t wait to have me and I wasn’t even committed yet. Having that family environment, it was no-brainer to come to Montana State and try to win a championship.”
King started a few games during his time at Georgia Tech, including against Georgia in 2021. That was enough to get the attention of MSU’s offensive staff once he hit the portal two years later.
“Ryan is a rare breed, body type wise,” said Sam Mix, who was the running backs coach when King was getting recruited and now coaches receivers. “He looks different out there. That was an attractive get for us. His speed is something we were excited about.
“He provides elite length, elite speed. Ryan is the type of receiver who plays with extreme effort, plays really hard and he’s starting to come on.
“He wanted a place where he could have a significant role. The guy has a want, we have a need, supply and demand. I think that’s pretty accurate in any industry.”
Last season, King showed his worth most often in the run game. King is one of the best blockers on the Montana State offense. He caught 15 passes for 162 yards but most of his impact came when clearing the perimeter.
“He plays at one speed, plays at a consistent speed, plays at a consistent tempo,” Mix said. “I think we play with great effort as a team, that’s why we have the success we have. I would put him up there as a high effort guy. Also, his knowledge of the playbook is elite. He can play all three positions. He can play slot and wherever outside. That’s a credit to him because he’s had Georgie Tech playbooks, East Carolina playbooks and now he’s had two playbooks here.”
“A lot of our explosive plays are Ryan’s blocks. Some of our biggest runs, look, it’s No. 9 manhandling a corner and that’s something you should see but you don’t see as often as Ryan does it.”
In Saturday’s 66-14 Monana State win over Weber State in Bozeman, King found the end zone for the first time. He now has 11 catches for 211 yards and the one touchdown during his senior season.
“I definitely feel like it’s evolved a lot, just being able to contribute to the offense,” King said. “They calling on us a lot on, third downs, or when we want a big play to change momentum. So I feel like just having that that pressure and that opportunity, it means a lot to us receivers. We hone for those opportunities that I practice every day, so just getting those in the game now is a really help with my roll.”
King may have just 26 catches over the last two seasons, but he will provide a matchup advantage for MSU in pretty much every game the Bobcats play this season. And King has been able to stay ready because of his background coming up in one of the strongest high school programs in one of the most competitve football states during his high school career.
“I went to one of the premier schools in Georgia, so from a young age, I was being molded into a college football player with dreams of playing pro football,” King said. “A lot of guys who came in before me went to big Power 4 schools. There was a lot of pressure but pressure builds champions so getting that pressure, winning a state championship honed me into the football player I am now, making me extremely competitive and pushing me to be the best I can.”
Long, who is from Willingboro, New Jersey outside of Philadelphia, got banged up after snaring two catches for 27 yards against Oregon. He missed a few games but has since returned. He enters this week with 12 catches for 159 yards and is still looking for his first trip to the end-zone as a Bobcat. His speed and sharpness in space provides matchup advantages against most FCS opponents.
That’s what Mix saw when he first noticed Long. Mix was watching film on a Big Ten contest between Washington and Rutgers. He saw No. 3 for the Scarlet Knights run a “boundary glance rout” against future NFL draft pick for the Huskies.
“And I was like, shoot, that’s a pretty challenging route so that might be a pretty good route runner,” Mix said. “Seven months later, when I was in the portal looking for a replacement for a receiver that I did not expect to leave, that was one of the first plays I saw on his highlight tape. So I called him.”
Long was lingering in the portal looking for a fit. Montana State had a new offensive coordinator in Pete Sterbick, a reshuffled offensive coaching staff including Mix going to wide receivers and a need for a veteran receiver with speed on the outside after Lonyatta Alexander transferred to pair with Dowler, King and whatever young receiver emerged.
“There was a little bit of an adventure in his mind,” Vigen said. “He just went up the road from Philadelphia to go to Rutgers and he spent four and a half years there. He had been out West a little bit but he had never been to Montana. We get that every once in awhile and it doesn’t have to do with the show Yellowstone (laughs).
“Every once in a while, you get a young man who wants an adventure. And that’s Chris. And on a football side, he saw a clear opportunity, too.
“He’s got a lot of talent and he has been a really good teammate to this point. Chris is like several of our transfers where they don’t really even know what they are looking for until they are in the mix of it. Chris has rapidly realized that he’s part of this team, and he’s never really been a part of a team like that. And he’s part of winning. He’s never really been a part of winning and expectations. And I’m happy for Chris to be able to experience this right now.”
Vigen said he started to see Long acclimate to the team and the community over the summer when he was involved in a few events that helped him see what Bobcat Nation was all about. He represented the Bobcats at the Pro Bull Riding event in Big Sky and also helped at the MSU Ladies Night event.
“He told me, ‘Coach, I’ve never been a part of anything like this,” Vigen said. “And that’s cool because I don’t know if he doesn’t come here. Rutgers is still a Big Ten program but that wasn’t his experience. That feels good. Being supported, being appreciated is something that still really matters to these young people, there’s no doubt about it.”
Long said when he was at Rutgers, he could go all over town and back and forth to his hometown plus Philadelphia, too, without anyone recognizing him or realizing he was a college football player. The acknowledgement is part of Long’s pleasant experience and so is the fact that Montana State takes an eight-game winning streak into this weekend’s primetime showdown with No. 9 UC Davis.
“It’s a totally different feel than Rutgers and we weren’t the most winning of teams,” Long said. “We won games but it wasn’t how we are winning over here. It’s a different feel to be winning and celebrating your teammates and the vibe being good when you come back in the facility after the games. It’s a great feeling.”
“Usually, before this, when I was away from home, I would get home sick. But coming out here, I haven’t been home sick. It’s actually kind of crazy. The energy is good if you know what I’m saying. I have felt at home and it was an easy adjustment for me, especially for the time I’m going to be here. It was a great change.”
Neither King nor Long has a signature performance for the Bobcats, yet. But the games they remember are played in November and December, as the saying goes. And each has undeniable gifts that would help break games open if Montana State decided to isolate either or both
Coming down the stretch, King is trying to appreciate the experiences football has provided him and to appreciate being on a team with real national championship aspirations.
“I really love that I’ve been able to travel a lot, you know, even going to three different schools. I feel like it’s not a bad thing, because I got to see a lot of different parts of the of the country,” King said. “I just feel like being able to see different people and be in different environments really helps with just developing me as a man and a person, just being able to deal with different people. It’s been a lot of growth.
For Long, being somewhere completely unlikely has helped him learn to expand his horizons.
“Sometimes, you have to take your chance in life even when you know it’s going to be an adventure that’s uncomfortable for you,” Long said. “Sometimes, you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable. That’s the mindset I had coming to Montana State and not worrying about what’s going on back home affect me or anything.”
