After a youth spent playing soccer, a connection from a former Grizzly proved to be the very first step to Gabe Peppenger becoming a Bobcat football player.
Peppenger was a standout soccer player growing up in Missoula, starting in the sport at four years old. As an eighth grader, he and his dad, Dave, started talking about the possibility of transitioning his kicking skills to the gridiron.
[restrict paid=”true”]At the time, Peppenger was weighing his options between attending Big Sky and Sentinel. His family lives out Mullan Road, so he’s technically in the Big Sky school district. One of Dave’s old friends, Missoula businessman Damian Khoury, is the cousin of former Sentinel head coach Pete Joseph. After watching Peppenger kick a football through the uprights with ease, Khoury, who played on the Montana Grizzlies’ 1995 national championship team, gave Joseph a call.
“Coach Joseph called me and watched me kick,” Peppenger said last week. “I went to Sentinel, went out for two-a-day practices and it started rolling from there.”
Fast forward a few years and Peppenger had blossomed into one of Class AA’s best kickers. As a junior, he earned second-team all-state honors. Following the 2014 season, Peppenger first heard from B.J. Robertson, at the time the head coach at Montana Western in Dillon.
In 2015, Peppenger was the best kicker in Montana’s largest classification. He hit five of his seven field goal attempts, including four of more than 35 yards and a season-long of 42 yards against Helena High, one of three field goals he drilled against the Bengals. He nailed all but one of his 35 PAT attempts. He earned first-team all-state honors.
Peppenger grew up wanting to play for the hometown Grizzlies, a desire that increased as his success on the football field continued. But he never heard from second-year head coach Bob Stitt and his staff.
Robertson continued to recruit Peppenger throughout last fall. The kicker thought he might be bound for the Frontier Conference and he felt comfortable with the prospect.
In November, Rob Ash was fired after nine seasons at the helm following MSU’s first losing season in 14 years. In December, Jeff Choate was hired and promptly hired Robertson as the head of high school relations and one of his special teams coaches.
“When Coach Robertson came to MSU, he stayed in contact with me,” Peppenger said. “He helped me get in contact with Coach Choate. I set up a meeting with them and they gave me a tour of the campus.
“After the tour of the campus and seeing the field and getting to experience what Coach Choate had in mind for his plans, it all seemed like it was all the right fit for me. And when they said they were interested, that really opened up everything.”
During spring drills, Montana State operated with just one specialist: redshirt freshman Devon Tandberg. Luke Daly, an All-Big Sky Conference kicker each of the last two seasons, tore his ACL during winter conditioning and missed the spring session. MSU graduates Trevor Bolton and Jake Bleskin, the primary punters the last two seasons.
The attrition and graduation created a need. In May, Choate made it official: Peppenger would be one of 11 preferred walk-ons invited to fall camp the first week of August.
“Honestly, I’m going there with optimism hoping I can prove myself and show that I’m ready to play D-I,” Peppenger said. “I want to compete in the competition.”
Because of the inclement weather in Montana, Peppenger has kicked field goals sparingly during game action. But he has a strong leg, hitting from as far as 55 yards during practice during his time with the Spartans. While he’ll be the young guy in the group — MSU also signed kicker/punter Jered Padmos from Boulder in February — he is looking forward to learning from Daly as well as Choate and Robertson. Both coaches are renowned for their special teams prowess.
“If Daly isn’t fully rested, hopefully, he can teach me a few things because I’ve heard he’s really good,” Peppenger said. “The coaches, they both know the special teams games and it was nice to hear that they find it important, one of the more important jobs in football. They also told me about their backgrounds. Coach Choate ran me through some of his clips when he was coaching at other places and it was quite impressive.”
Peppenger isn’t sure what he will major in yet. He said the beauty of Bozeman and the modern nature of the town was a welcome change from his native Garden City. He also has some connections on the Bobcats already. Former Spartans junior defensive tackle Matt Brownlow, redshirt freshmen offensive lineman Collin Hammock and defensive end Byron Rollins are on the roster, although Rollins recently left for a two-year LDS mission.
Four years ago, Peppenger would’ve never imagined having a chance to play college football. Now he will have a chance to prove himself on the Treasure State’s biggest stage.
“Honestly, I’m kind of surprised and quite excited,” Peppenger said. “I’m kind of at a loss for words and it hasn’t really hit me yet that I’m going D-I. When fall camp rolls around, I’m going to be excited.”
[/restrict]Photos courtesy of Dave Peppenger. All Rights Reserved.
