The secondary at Montana State University appeared to be set for years to come with a junior and three freshmen in the four-man rotation at cornerback when the 2025 season started and finished. The Bobcats also return everyone in the safety and nickelback spots.
Then the NCAA Transfer Portal came calling.
The Bobcats lost not one, not two, but all three of their standout freshmen cornerbacks. They’ve been scrambling to bring in transfers of their own along with moving some of their safeties over to fill the voids. How that’s all going to shake out is yet to be seen, but there have been some signs of good things to come just a few days into fall camp.
The one player that has first-hand experience and possibly knows more than anyone about the situation at cornerback is returning starter Takhari Carr. The outspoken senior is a lot less worried about the adverse effects of losing the other starter and two backups (Jhase McMillan, Carson Williams and Seth Johnson), than most.
“We got a lot of guys with different skill sets that help the team,” Carr said. “We got guys that return that we know can go in there and play some good viable minutes. And young guys that you haven’t seen that aren’t on the radar yet that’s going to make a huge impact on this team.
“I’m excited for y’all to see our new group of guys. They had a great spring with a lot of depth.
Carr, who started last season. He had an up-close view of last year’s competition and finds himself doing the same in 2026.
“All the guys that I’ve seen, it’s just night and day improvements from they’re first camp to their next camp,” Carr said. “Just throw out some names right now. Tim Thomas, Marcus Coleman Gianni Edwards. We picked up Alec (Wills from Penn) through the transfer portal. He played in the Ivy League and had some good times. Kory Boyd got in some time. We’ve got a lot of guys with some different skills set. Fast, longer guys, so we gonna see how these guys put it on film and the guys’ win. The best guys are going to go out there and play no matter how old they are.”
MSU’s highly touted nickelback Tayden Gray, who recently received a preseason All-Big Sky nod, also has intimate knowledge of the cornerback battles.
“Corner development is going really good, really smooth,” Gray said last week. “They’re sticking with our number one receivers right now, so that’s a good look to see.”
Gray was one of the players that took a look at the corner spot in spring.
“I played corner a couple times this spring and decided to stay with nickel,” Gray said with a slight laugh. “We’re trying to find our starting corners. We have one, we’re just trying to find the other one. Safeties are pretty much the same as last year. The transfers (Alec Wills from Penn and Gianni Edwards from Arizona) are not bad. They’re hanging with our offense, so that’s all we need to see for sure.”
Wills was a two-year starter for the Quakers. He’s coming off two seasons with 45 tackles, 14 pass breakups and two interceptions. Edwards was a highly touted prospect out of high school who decided to join MSU shortly after the Bobcats won the national title.
Carr is also keen on how the Bobcat’ operation proceeds and what everyone in the cornerback room should be doing.
“Takhari is very vocal and he does a great job of kinda letting the young guys know how we do things around here,” defensive coordinator Bobby Daly, who is back in the position after coaching at the University of Texas-El Paso last season, said. “So, Takhari being in there as a senior and Alec Wills is a senior too, but there’s a lot of young talent.
“For those that haven’t been on the field in the fall it’s about building trust. Being playmakers, knowing what their job is, executing their job at a high level. It’s about making plays. If we have a playmaker back there it changes us as a defense. We’re looking for multiple guys like that to emerge.”
After the 2024 season, MSU lost cornerbacks Simeon Woodard and Jon Johnson to graduation, and Andrew Powdrell and safety Dru Polidore to the portal. They were able to get freshmen McMillan, Williams and Johnson ready for 2025 and that trio excelled in MSU’s 4-2-5 defense that relies on its defensive backs to keep receivers in front of them in order to avoid big plays. A bonus is having a good tackling, hard-hitting crew, which the Bobcats had in 2025.
They combined for 117 tackles and 17 pass breakups. McMillan blocked the late field goal attempt in MSU’s thrilling 35-34 championship win over Illinois State and Johnson was there to scoop the ball up and get it into Illinois State territory to give the Bobcats a chance to win the game in regulation, which they squandered.
Despite the seven months that have gone by since the title game, Carr seems to remember it like it was yesterday.
“That last ten minutes I can say that a couple guys got complacent and thought the game was over,” Carr said of the late heroics MSU needed. “That’s the same thing that can hurt us this year as we come from being successful, thinking that we did something that we accomplished something, but it’s not over until it’s over. One thing that we emphasized is finishing. Finishing, finishing, finishing.
“We understand that that game shouldn’t have been as close as it was. We took our foot off the pedal, but I think that experience is for the better because now next time we’re in a position we know to keep that foot on their throat however that looks like. Defense understanding in crunch time is when you need to be in the right spot the most.”
Seeing his sidekick make the play that kept ISU from grabbing the lead was something he knew that McMillan was capable of.
“Jhase, a guy that’s always doing the right things. Being in the right place at the right time. Using that speed, using that IQ, because he timed it. He timed that snap perfectly. That was a great play, a historic play that’s going to be remembered forever.”
MSU has a couple holdovers from last season with Boyd and Coleman, who starred on special teams coverage units, while the entire group from the safety positions and nickelback all return to establish one of the biggest strengths on either side of the ball. Tim Thomas, who primarily played safety, is completely at corner this season.
Caden Dowler, the Big Sky’s Defensive Player of the Year and first team All-America selection, returns for his final season at safety. He’s joined by juniors Bryant Meredith and Colter Petre, who filled in for Dowler when he was injured late in the season. Taki Uluilakepa was starting at safety when the season started and returned to the rotation later in the year. JJ Dolan was key in reserve at safety and nickelback and is expected to back up Gray at nickel this season.
Dowler was remarkable in the second half of the season when he intercepted a pass in five straight games, including two against UC Davis. He returned two for touchdowns – one against Montana and another the prior week against UC Davis. He missed three quarters of MSU’s semifinal win over Montana and played just over one quarter against Illinois State in the title game.
MSU’s depth was challenged with that loss of time from Dowler and also a season ending injury to Dolan during the regular season finale against Montana, but the Bobcats held up through it all thanks primarily to the play of Petre, Meredith and Uluilakepa, who all had ample playing time during the season.
One player that may pop up on the charts is sophomore Mason Dethman, who was a key player on the special teams cover units in 2025. Dethman brings a 6-foot-4, 205-pound frame to the spot and flashed his skills in the first fall practice when he came up with an interception.
The odd secondary development with a top-heavy cast at safety and nickel with the correspondingly unknown – with the exception of Carr – group at cornerback is one of the primary areas to watch as the Bobcats work out, who will play where and when once the starts.
“My first impression is if I went back to this date last year and said, “Hey, would you feel better last year at this time or this year? I probably feel better this year just because I think there’s more capable guys,” Montana State sixth-year head coach Brent Vigen said. “The three guys that ultimately left us after last season were all very much unproven in every which way heading into the season. So I think we have more guys that are in the running.
“We have a lot of candidates. That’s not even counting any of our true freshmen. It all still has to play out, but as far as having the competition, the talent, I think that combination is what you want at this point in time. The cream will rise to the top.”
