BOZEMAN, Montana — Alec Eckert has always looked the part. But Shawn Howe remembers when Eckert first arrived on the Montana State campus just how much simple work it would take to mold the man with bulging biceps into a top-level performer.
Howe, who’s having a smash hit of a debut season as Montana State’s defensive coordinator, was the MSU defensive line coach for four seasons prior. The 2021 Bobcat defensive line featured future NFL Draft pick Daniel Hardy as a defensive end along with future San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle Sebastian Valdez at tackle.
Chase Benson, an All-American DT, and Amandre Williams, a former standout at Washington who played Buck end, also highlighted the unit. And a redshirt freshman named Brody Grebe, who would go on to become a three-time All-American and the 2024 Big Sky Conference Defensive Player of the Year, also factored into a front that helped Montana State make the national championship game in head coach Brent Vigen’s first season.
Following that campaign, Hardy, Benson and Williams all exhausted their eligibility. That allowed Grebe, Valdez and Blake Schmidt to emerge. Following the 2023 season, Valdez abruptly entered the transfer portal, leaving a gaping hole in the middle of the Bobcat defense.
Valdez is one of the most physical formidable players in Montana State history. The 6-foot-3, 301-pounder still carries the nickname “The Hulk” now that he’s in the NFL.
Enter Eckert, a 6-foot-2, 285-pounder with a build that no surprise helped earn him FBS interest coming out of Lewiston, Idaho. But when Eckert first arrived on the Montana State campus in January of 2024, he was a few sizeable steps away to meeting the standard it takes to play on the Bobcat defensive line.
“Alec Eckert, when he first got here, I remember we’re watching him the first couple days, and we’re like, oh, Lord have mercy,” Howe said with a chuckle. “We got a long ways to go. And we just got back to the absolute basics with him.
“His footwork was terrible. He had to take 13 steps to move five yards. I stopped making the emphasis of every single drill being about anything besides him gaining ground. Then I would eventually let him finish a drill and participate in the other stuff.
“And Alec is one of these guys who is like some of the other great players here who is willing to do the hard work, is willing to obsess over the details and is willing to have a little humility and understand what he’s got to do to get to where he wants to go.”
Between his arrival on campus and the beginning of the 2024 season, Eckert made enough strides to earn a starting spot. When Schmidt went down with a season-ending knee injury midway through last season, Eckert and classmate Paul Brott were relied on heavily to anchor the interior of a front on a team with national championship dreams.
And after being in the program for two seasons and nearly two calendar years, Eckert has emerged as one of the better interior defensive lineman in the country for a Bobcat front with a reputation as one of America’s best.
“We recruited him because of the loss of Sebastian Valdez and I don’t for one minute, did he think he needed to come be Sebastian Valdez but he also knew he needed to become the best version of Alec Eckert,” Vigen said. “Last year, that was hard because he didn’t have the weight. He had been back and forth at Washington State between inside and outside so this was his big climb last year to get to a fighting chance with his weight. He had a good, solid year last year but he recognized he needed to take this to another level. He’s done that.
“Much like (fellow senior) Hunter Parsons, Alec is playing at a level that I don’t know we expected, honestly. I think he’s exceeded our expectations. He’s playing the best football of his career.
As a 265-pound junior, Eckert started 16 games and logged 28 tackles. This season, he’s up 20 pounds although his numbers are “down”. But that’s not a fair assessment considering how dominant the Bobcat defense has been. Hardly any players have gaudy stats, both because MSU gets off the field so quickly in most games and also because the ‘Cat defense comes at opponents in waves, playing a full 20 defensive players an almost equal number of snaps.
Montana State leads the Big Sky and ranks favorably nationally in total defense (313 yards per game allowed), scoring defense (17.1 points per game allowed), and passing defense (195 yards per game). Eckert has 17 tackles, three tackles for loss and two sacks. His best ability has been his ability to be a key cog in a larger efficient machine. And that’s what helped him earn honorable mention All-Big Sky honors.
“It’s work. That’s how he’s become this,” Howe said. “There’s no real secret sauce. Montana State is not this special place where you come and you just transform. Here, you come, it’s a place you got a bunch of people here ready to develop you and ready to work relentlessly to get you to the best version of yourself that we can.
“And if you are willing to do that, you will become great. Alec was willing.”
That willingness has helped Eckert overcome some doubters within his own room, including one of Montana State’s captains.
“Me and Alec, I didn’t really like him too much when he got here, competition-wise, and I let him know that,” said Brott, the proud bearer of MSU’s No. 41 jersey. “And I always joked that it was him that didn’t like me. After we talked that out and sorted that out, we’ve been like brothers. He’s one of my best friends.
“He’s worked so hard. When he got here, I was kinda worried. But he worked his butt off and I think he’s one of the best D-tackles in this conference, in the country.”
Eckert was a high achiever and a standout performer during his prep career in Lewiston. He led the state of Idaho in sacks his senior year and earned a designation as a two-star recruit.
That helped him earn offers from Washington State, Idaho, Montana State, Columbia, and the College of Idaho. Eckert really liked what Montana State had to offer both academically and athletically. But the allure of the FBS and the proximity of Pullman to Lewiston plus the wacky nature of recruiting during the pandemic helped the Cougs land the hulking defensive tackle.
He redshirted at Wazzu in 2021 and was mostly a scout team player in 2022. In 2023, he played in one game with one quarterback hurry. But he found himself wanting more playing time and more wins.
He already had a relationship with Montana State, so the choice was easy.
“First of all, Bozeman is beautiful, wake up every day in a beautiful place,” Eckert said. “And I am around great guys every day. It took a little bit to get adjusted. I have a lot of good friends at my old school but I have just as good of friends here and these are brothers for life.
“Getting there early in January, you get a feel for the culture and you get to go through the hard stuff with your teammates. I got here early enough to do winter conditioning, hiking Pete’s Hill, hiking the M. That harder, grittier stuff you only get to do during the off-season. And it’s a less busy time of year so you have you have time to acclimate, have time for yourself and to figure out how you fit in.”
Eckert said that the defensive line room, friendly competition with Brott aside, took him in. Eckert specifically named Grebe, Schmidt, Brott and Kenneth Eiden IV as Bobcats who helped him mesh with the team. They also helped him learn about what it takes to uphold the lineage of fierce defensive linemen at Montana State.
“We always say in our room, your standard is your lowest form you are willing to accept so however far you push yourself or however far you allow yourself to slip, that is your standard,” Eckert said. “You have to prepare to meet your standard. Brody laid that foundation for me. And now we have all four seniors (Brott, Eiden, Parsons, Eckert) holding everybody accountable and bringing everybody along.”
It’s been that standard that has set the standard for the Bobcat football team. Eckert, Brott and and Eiden have led the pace for “setting the tempo, setting the tone and running the show”, as Eckert puts it.
Eckert himself has learned how to lead by example, particularly with his prowess in the weight room. It’s one of the factors that helped sway Brott’s opinion of his fellow interior hog molly.
“He’s strong. That dude can bench and elephant,” Brott said. “That dude is smart, strong and he just stays calm. He’s not scared to do his job and if he does mess up, it’s next play. He’s very calm and poised.”
Howe remembers that Eckert came to Montana State with a physically impressive build — “He looks like an underwear model out there with his huge biceps, all swelled up and everything” defensive line coach Nick Jean-Baptiste said with his endearing chuckle — but that he needed to learn how to cut it loose.
Now he’s cutting it loose and he’s found his perfect fit.
“I think if you ask him, his path was his path but he probably just should’ve come here out of high school,” Vigen said. “There was an opportunity but that was the Covid year and that was a messed up recruiting situation. But he found his way here and I don’t think he takes anything for granted.
“I think he really appreciates being here and his opportunity to play ball and be a Bobcat, I’m certain he’s so grateful for and I know we are grateful it played out the way it did. We are so thankful that he’s the guy we have at that moment in time and I think we hit a home run with the player, but more so the person Alec is and what he’s meant to this program and ideally, the impact it’s made on him.”
When Eckert first arrived in Bozeman, he felt home sick. Now, he feels right at home and he’s hoping he can help the Bobcats chase their ultimate goal: a national championship.
“I love it here,” Eckert said. “I call home and I sometimes think I sound too excited and my mom is worried I might not move back home when I graduate. Coming here was the greatest decision I ever made, for sure, not just from a football perspective but from a friendship perspective, the opportunities that opened up in Bozeman and in Montana.”
