Chad Newell remembers playing rock-paper-scissors with Austin Barth before practice every day to see who had to play scout team tight end and block All-American defensive ends Caleb Schreibeis and Brad Daly each practice.
Back in 2012, Newell was a no-name walk-on from Billings Senior trying to fit in wherever he could. Barth was a tall, skinny quarterback recruit from Columbia Falls buying his time on Montana State’s scout team waiting for his turn to make a run at the starting spot once star signal caller DeNarius McGhee moved on.
Barth, a 6-foot-5 Columbia Falls product, weighed just 208 pounds when he first arrived at Montana State. But his courage against two of the better defensive ends in Montana State’s long line of star defensive linemen and his formidable frame showed MSU’s former coaching staff flashes of what he might grow into.
MSU tight end Austin Barth (15) hurdles a Cal Poly defender in 2015
That fall, Barth earned Scout Team Player of the Year honors and it was hardly because of his ability to throw a football. More often than not, Barth found himself simulating tall wide receivers or tight ends on the scouting report as Montana State surged to a third straight Big Sky Conference championship.
Fast forward five years and now Barth is a monster of a man, a 260-pounder who serves as one of Montana State’s tallest players. He is one of just five players, including just two from MSU’s 2012 signing class, who has reached his fifth and final season of eligibility. Despite his physical tools, Barth has been lodged behind the Big Sky Conference’s best tight end for three seasons, with Tiai Salanoa earning first-team All-Big Sky honors in 2013 and 2014 and Beau Sandland earning first-team All-America honors last season.
Barth has taken the journey in stride, from the countless extra meals he’s shoved into his stomach to put on close to 50 extra pounds to his role as a mentor to MSU’s suddenly-inexperienced tight end group to serving as Montana State’s long snapper each time Rocky Hogue inevitably gets hurt to being among the lone survivors from Montana State’s most recent run as a premier team in the conference.
MSU tight end Austin Barth (15) laughing with running back Chad Newell (17) in 2015
“He’s a guy who has come to work every single day for five years,” said Newell, now a two-year captain and All-Big Sky running back for MSU. “I remember him being a skinny quarterback trading off with me to play scout team. He’s committed to the work it takes to be great and the work it takes to be champions. He’s done a great job leading that group of tight ends. Even when Beau was here, he has always been the leader of that group. He’s done a great job getting to where he is physically and never wavering.”
Newell and Barth are among just five Montana State fifth-year seniors. MSU has 12 seniors on its roster all told, but just two — Barth and senior guard J.P. Flynn — signed with the Bobcats on National Signing Day in 2012. The other 10 players, including stud quarterback Dakota Prukop, left Montana State before exhausting their eligibility. Of the other 12 seniors, just Barth, Flynn, Newell and former walk-ons Fletcher Collins and Will Krolick have been with the team since 2012.
“I remember that first day in the freshmen meetings, (former MSU offensive line coach) Coach (Jason) McEndoo said, ‘Look to your left and look to your right. Only one of you is going to make it.’ With us, it went every further than that,” Barth said. “At the time, you are thinking, ’yeah right’. But now you realize how hard it is to make it this far.”
“We’ve been through it, man,” Flynn said. “A group of us will sit down for dinner or we will be in the locker room and we always talk about how this is the last go-around. We always talk about my room, 515 in North Hedges, or 328, Barth’s, all the memories we had together. It’s been a riot. We’ve had a good run. It’s exciting to think about our futures and what’s going to go on, meeting little Barths one day. It’s crazy to think we are the last ones left standing.”
As a senior at Columbia Falls High in 2011, Barth was a first-team Class A all-state selection as a quarterback and a linebacker. Barth was also an all-state basketball player who played a key role in the Wildcats’ 2011 state title run. Barth was the first commit for that signing class of 12, giving his pledge to former head coach Rob Ash in the spring of 2011.
With Prukop in his signing class, Jake Bleskin a year ahead of him and McGhee entrenched as the starter, the signs pointed to the big body switching positions. Barth remembers going on the Bobcat Nation fan message board and reading about how his future should be at outside linebacker or defensive end. He ended up a tight end, heading to the dining hall and the weight room much more than he ever expected than when he first became a Bobcat.
After the move became official in the spring of 2013, Barth dove in on transforming his physique. He spiked to 240 pounds by the beginning of his second fall camp.
“I hated eating,” Barth said. “I would eat full meals right before I went to bed and that was hard because then in the morning, you are not hungry. It’s hard to eat that much. It’s ridiculous when you really think about it but I had to do it.”
“I eat the same stuff, I would just load up, double or triple your portions, get on the protein shakes, all that extra stuff. I think I put it on a little too quick. I was slow getting used to it at 240 at first. I started to get used to it but this year, I got up to 260 and it was the same thing.”
In 2013, Barth played primarily on special teams, serving as MSU’s main long snapper before Hogue entered the picture. He notched five tackles on special teams but couldn’t find much field time with Salanoa and blocking specialist Lee Perkins in the fold. He caught one pass, an eight-yard gain against Southern Utah.
In 2014, Prukop took over as the starting quarterback and former offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey’s offense came into its own. The Bobcats scored 64 touchdown as 15 players found the end-zone. But Perkins scored the only TD by a tight end in a 59-56 win over Sacramento State. Barth again caught one pass for a nine-yard gain, serving in an in-line blocking role instead.
MSU tight end Austin Barth (15) stacked with former tight end Beau Sandland (85) in 2015
Last season, Sandland averaged 17.1 yards per catch and caught nine touchdowns on the way to becoming an NFL Draft pick. Barth rebounded from an appendicitis that cost him much of the spring and a significant amount of his mass to serve as a key blocker in a rushing attack that piled up 220 yards per game. He also caught 13 passes for 103 yards, but is still in search of his first touchdown.
“You just have to buy in,” Barth said. “This is a college sport with scholarship guys. Tiai was an amazing tight end, Lee was a great blocker and Beau was a freak athlete. I’m not an idiot. I saw how talented those guys were. I wanted to play so I found my niche and tried to take advantage of that.”
Barth has five catches this season, giving him 20 for his career. His statistics might not knock your socks off, but his blocking ability and versatility on the edge have earned him a reputation as one of the Bobcats’ toughest players.
“There’s a lot of different types of leadership and he models it every day,” Choate said. “He’s very prepared. If you ever really want to learn something you should teach it. That’s something that’s really helped his game is working with guys like Connor Sullivan and Woody Brandom and taking those guys under his wing. I’ve been tremendously impressed with him. He doesn’t talk about it, he lives it every day.”
Barth assumed the leadership role in the tight ends room under former coach Daniel DaPrato last season despite Sandland’s prodigious talent. Now in a room that includes sophomores Curtis Amos and Connor Sullivan and redshirt freshman Woody Brandom, Barth has taken to practicing for his future. The education major is the elder member of the room and that includes new tight ends coach B.J. Robertson, a veteran coach in his first year coaching the specific position.
MSU tight end Austin Barth (15) blocks downfield vs. Cal Poly in 2015
“Those young guys call him ‘daddy’,” Robertson said. “He’s definitely mentoring those young guys. Shoot, he’s mentoring me as well. He’s been doing it a long time and I’m new to the tight end position so it’s great having a resource like that.”
“I think it’s great he’s going into the education field and I hope he has a passion for coaching because I’d love to see that guy coaching young men in the state of Montana,” Choate added.
Barth said Sundays feel a lot different than he would’ve imagined before he started banging on the line of scrimmage. He enjoys displaying his strength and rarely thinks of what might’ve been.
“I enjoy the physical part,” Barth said. “There’s days you wish you were a quarterback and don’t even sweat through a practice and now it’s like you are grinding through a practice. But now it makes it even better. There were days when the quarterback days were boring for me because I was so used to bouncing around doing something. I love the physicality and everything it takes to make it on the line.”
Barth is closing in on his degree. He does not know where his future will take him but Robertson said he will long snap and work out for pro scouts in the spring and might turn some heads. Barth hopes he can stay in Montana to use his degree and potentially coach, but for now, he’s focused on finishing his career the way it started when he was a redshirt bouncing around on the scout team: with a Big Sky championship ring.
“I’ll remember all the relationships you build with everybody,” Barth said. “You meet so many different people. Think of all the people who come through here, all the people in the community that you meet that just want to help you out. Those memories are unreal. Then on Saturdays, there’s nothing like running out on Saturdays and 20,000 people screaming at you. It’s insane to remember. It’s hard to believe this is the last time around.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
