Jacob Hadley is very matter of fact when describing his physical transformation since he arrived on the Montana State campus last summer.
“I ate a lot of food,” Hadley deadpanned after a mid-week practice at MSU during the Bobcats’ almost complete set of 15 spring football practices.
Hadley’s athleticism was never in doubt during his standout career at Billings Central. The 6-foot-6 athlete used his smooth running ability, standout ball skills and an elite jumping accentuated by his broad wingspan to earn Class A first-team all-state honors as a wide receiver, a cornerback and a slashing forward on the Rams’ basketball team.
But Hadley’s ideal college position was a mystery when he signed with MSU in February of 2016. His frame looked like a wide receiver but in one of his first conversations with MSU head coach Jeff Choate, Hadley couldn’t stop talking about how much he loved to hit.
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Initially, Choate thought the long, bouncy freshman might be a cornerback. Eventually, he cracked MSU’s defensive rotation as a safety, playing in three games before right wrist and shoulder injuries — the former of which required surgery — relegated him to redshirt freshman status. Despite playing in the three games, Hadley was able to petition the NCAA and won his appeal to regain his fourth year of eligibility.
For the second half of the 2016 season and all the months of the off-season leading up to the opening of spring ball in March, Hadley packed on pounds like almost no other Bobcat. The once-195-pounder reported to spring ball at 220 pounds, a much more ideal weight for his latest position: Sam linebacker.
“Even though he’s a really good athlete, we thought asking him to back pedal and cover receivers was going to be a challenge,” Choate said a week into his team’s five-week spring ball session. “The good news is, he’s smart, he’s tough and I think he’s going to continue to get big.”
Choate singled out Hadley after his stellar performance at the Triangle Classic spring scrimmage, the first of three live sessions for the Bobcats. Hadley had two touch sacks and two other tackles behind the line of scrimmage. On Monday, Choate kicked off the final week of spring ball by singling out Hadley again.
“Defensively, the guy who has stood out the most is Jacob Hadley,” Choate said. “It’s made us rethink how do we get our best 11 on the field.”
That rethinking has been made even more complicated by the equally rapid development of fellow redshirt freshman Balue Chapman. The former Montana Gatorade Player of the Year from Bozeman was a Class AA first-team all-state running back and rush defensive end in high school. He backed up All-Big Sky Conference Sam linebacker Mac Bignell last season while redshirting.
The 6-foot-1, 200-pound Chapman is like Bignell in build, a wiry, deceptively strong player with quickness in space and a knack for slipping past blockers before running through ball carriers.
“Mac Bignell is great influence to look up to,” Chapman said. “He shows what you can and can’t do at the position.”
The physically development of Hadley and the sharpened mental acuity of Chapman helped Choate and defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Ty Gregorak feel comfortable enough to move Bignell to Will linebacker, one of MSU’s two inside linebacker spots in Gregorak’s odd front defense.
Hadley and Chapman have rotated with the starting defense for much of fall camp, although Hadley missed last Friday’s scrimmage with an illness. In his place, Bignell took the majority of Sam reps while senior Lukas McCarthy was the starting Will. Chapman played with all three defenses, registering a tackle for loss and laying the hit of the day when he leveled fellow redshirt freshman tight end Clark Judisch in the open field.
“Neither one is a starter, neither one is a backup,” Gregorak said. “They are in probably one of the best competitions in camp and will continue into summer and into fall camp.
“I love Jacob. Everything about Jacob is about pad level because he’s 6-foot-12 (laughs). He’s all of 6-5, maybe even 6-6. He’s a great kid, smart, tough. There’s a feel. It’s not like playing in the back end or playing receiver or corner like he did over in the Magic City. It’s a feel but you can see progress in the last few weeks as far as rolling into his pressure or even just getting in his stance. I think the sky is the limit for Jacob.
“Balue has twitch, he really does. He’s an undersized guy. If you look at them, it looks like Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger in ‘Twins’. Jacob can rest his arm on Balue’s shoulder. Balue has a lot of twitch and he’s squirrely. He’s like an energizer bunny. Him at 6 a.m. and him at 6 p.m. is the exact same, like a little spaz. But I love both those kids.”
In Gregorak’s defense, the Sam linebacker goes to the “field” or wide side of the field on almost every snap. Because of the alignment, both the Sam and the Buck linebacker/end spot requires athletes with great length and an ability to eat up space quickly.
The fact that neither Hadley or Chapman played outside linebacker in high school did not deter Gregorak from moving arguably MSU’s best defensive player to a different spot to give the youngsters a chance to get on the field.
“Our Sam will 99 percent go to the field so he will be removed a lot, will be a space guy so you have to be an athlete,” Gregorak said. “You look at those two, I know they played different positions in high school but Jacob is a corner, wide receiver, safety, now linebacker. Balue was a running back, rush end…athletes, both of them. That’s what we have to keep building on this defense if we want to get this thing to where we need to be.”
Hadley said the biggest adjustment to the move has been playing in the box and enduring the constant physicality inflicted by MSU’s offensive line. At his height, he said pad level is “the toughest part” because if he doesn’t get his pads low, “I get run over.” But the contact and physical nature of the move has been welcome for Hadley.
Both players were such superior athletes in high school, it’s been quite some time since either one was in a position battle, if ever. Chapman lettered four times at one of the state’s largest high schools while Hadley was a three-year varsity starter in football and basketball. Hadley said he feels the pair complements each other nicely while also pushing each other. Chapman agrees and sees a greater goal.
“The competition right now, me and Hadley, we are pushing each other and want the best for each other,” Chapman said. “We want the best for each other and that’s it. Whoever comes out on top, comes out on top. We just want to win.”
[/restrict]Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
