For the first time this decade, Montana State no longer has a gunslinger from the Lone Star State on its roster.
On Tuesday, MSU head coach Jeff Choate announced the release of Jordan Hoy, a redshirt freshman quarterback from Rockwall, Texas. Since 2010, only Texas natives have guided Montana State’s offense. DeNarius McGee earned two Big Sky Conference Offensive MVP honors and guided MSU to three straight league titles in four years as a starter (2010-2013). The last two seasons, Dakota Prukop was among the top dual-threat quarterbacks in college football, piling up nearly 8,000 yards of total offense and earning All-America honors last fall before transferring to Oregon in the off-season.
“Jordan asked for his release from our program,” Choate said in an MSU press release, “and we’ve granted that for him. We wish him the best of luck.
“It really wasn’t a surprise,” Choate said following Tuesday’s practice at Montana State. “Going through the coaching change, the fit is always the most important thing in the recruiting process. I just think through the transition that it was pretty obvious to both Jordan and I that this wasn’t the right fit. Rather than drag it out, he had had conversations with his family and we had conversations. You only get to do college one time and you have to be in a situation where you are happy and successful. He felt it was right to make a change at this time.”
Former MSU quarterback Jordan Hoy
The 6-foot, 187-pound Hoy was one of three redshirt freshmen quarterbacks battling junior transfer Tyler Bruggman for the right to replace Prukop. Bruggman, a former four-star recruit who’s made stops at Washington State, Louisville and Scottsdale Community College, has taken the bulk of the first-team repetitions as MSU enters its fourth week of a five-week session of spring drills. Hoy has split second-team reps with Ben Folsom, a 6-foot-2, 190-pounder out of Dillon who returned from two years on an LDS mission last season to redshirt alongside Hoy. Former Class AA Offensive MVP Brady McChesney, a Kalispell Glacier product, has taken most of the third-team repetitions.
“The fit, I’m not talking schematically it all. It’s all about him enjoying his college experience,” Choate said. “That’s when the fit is right. You are recruited under a different staff with a different set of values. For us, with what our expectations are and the way we want to run things around here and he had come into the situation feeling that the values were different. That’s just the way it goes sometimes. We wish him luck. Everyone has to run their own race.”
The running quarterback came to Bozeman from Rockwall-Heath High, the same school that gifted Montana State with record-setting returner Everett Gilbert, All-Big Sky cornerback Darius Jones and reserve cornerback James Andrews. As a senior, Hoy threw piled up 2,850 yards of total offense and notched 28 total touchdowns, averaging 7.5 yards per carry. But he did not receive any scholarship offers until after his final season was over.
“It’s been real stressful. I didn’t get my first offer until the day before Thanksgiving and I only had three offers, so it’s not like I was a big time recruit or anything,” Hoy said in January of 2015 after giving his verbal commitment to MSU. “Most people thought I was flying under the radar and I thought the same thing. But some things don’t work out how you want them to.
“I’ve always been under the radar and that has fueled me to prove everyone wrong.”
Former MSU quarterback Jordan Hoy
The Bobcats brought Hoy on an official visit two weeks before National Signing Day. Prukop hosted Hoy and Montana State’s former coaching staff sold him on the dream of being the next great dual-threat quarterback from Texas to star at Montana State. He committed and signed two weeks later.
“I feel like I fit in perfect with what Coach Cramsey does,” Hoy said in 2015. “The read option, I really excel in that with being so athletic. Throwing the ball, I can make every throw on the field. The things (Cramsey) runs, I feel like it will fit me really well. I can’t wait to be the next Texas quarterback at Montana State.”
Hoy’s only season in Bozeman was rocky. Under former head coach Rob Ash, redshirt freshmen dressed for home games. Hoy was suspended for a violation of team rules and wore street clothes on the sidelines during at least two MSU home games last season.
In February, MSU signed Chris Murray, a 6-foot-3 athletic, mobile quarterback from Lawndale, California. The Bobcats also added Charter Oak (Covina, California) quarterback Kamden Brown as a preferred walk-on. Choate said MSU would look for someone to fill Hoy’s spot but that MSU “probably won’t take another high school quarterback.”
“We are thin,” Choate said. “We are going to bring a high school kid in and we may look for another one. That’s just the nature of college football. Some of it has to do with the transient nature of coaching staffs. Coach Ash and his people had been here for nine years so there hasn’t been a revolving door. But any time there’s change, it’s going to be hard on these kids. I certainly appreciate and respect that. If this is the best decision for him, we are going to move forward and try to find guys who can help us win ball games in the fall.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
