Big Sky Conference

RECAPTURING DOLA: Montana’s senior offensive linemen have alongside one another

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For most people, a Honda Civic is an adequately sized car. It has enough room for a driver to feel comfortable and the space on the other side of the vehicle isn’t exactly roomy, but it’s not tight enough that a passenger feels like they’ve been suckered into a death trap.

For Jackson Thiebes, the Civic is a little more snug. Thiebes, a senior offensive lineman at Montana, stands 6-foot-5 and tips the scales at a little more than 300 pounds. He might prefer the space presented by a truck or a larger SUV, but he drives what he drives and it just so happens to be a Civic.

Last year during spring break, Thiebes and a few friends — McCauley Todd, Cameron Rokich and Devon Dietrich — had the idea to head south down Interstate 15 to Zion National Park in southwest Utah. It seemed like a great idea. The park is a gem of the Southwestern United States with beautiful canyons and rivers that cut through the Navajo Sandstone.

But there was one problem: if they were to make the more than 800-mile trek into southwestern Utah, they were going to need a car and it was likely to be Thiebes’ Honda Civic. So all four men, all of whom stood at least 6-foot-4 and collectively weighed somewhere close to 1,200 pounds were going to have to stuff themselves into a car like giant sardines — and then they’d stuff their gear wherever they could make space.

UM offensive lineman Jackson Thiebes (60)/by Jason Bacaj

UM offensive lineman Jackson Thiebes (60)/by Jason Bacaj

“When they shifted in the back I could feel the car move,” said Thiebes, who was strapped into the driver’s seat of the Civic until the four linemen exchanged the car in Salt Lake City for a truck owned by Rokich’s dad. The trip is just one example of the journey Montana’s senior offensive linemen have endured together.

Though Rochich is no longer with the team, Thiebes, Dietrich and Todd are. They are about halfway through their final collegiate regular season and they make up three-fifths of a group of seniors who have helped solidify Montana’s offensive line. In recent weeks, with Thiebes and Dietrich holding down the left side of the line, Montana’s offense has begun to resemble the high-scoring unit fans thought they would see when Bob Stitt was hired at Montana in December 2015 as the Grizzlies’ 36th head coach.

Averaging more than 40 points per game during a 4-1 start, the offense has been especially effective of late. In a 43-20 win over Southern Utah, the Griz scored 27 straight points. A week later, UM scored 67 unanswered in a dominant outing against woeful Mississippi Valley State. During that time Montana’s senior quarterback Brady Gustafson has hardly been touched by opposing defenses and the Grizzlies’ running backs have found more and more room to roam.

Though they are far from a finished product — “We’ll never say we’re there or even close to it,” said Chad Germer, Montana’s offensive line coach —the line has had a lot to do with the offense’s productivity.

“We’ve got five good players in there, No. 1,” Stitt recently said. “They’re getting a lot of confidence. They’ve put the work in over the offseason. They’re much stronger, more powerful, they’re quicker, they are heavier.”

Stitt wasn’t directly referencing the senior offensive lineman, as Max Kelly and Todd have been relegated to backup roles and center Ben Weyer spends another season on the sideline after a second consecutive year cut short by a knee injury. But he might as well have been.

UM offensive lineman Devon Dietrich (71)/by Brooks Nuanez

UM offensive lineman Devon Dietrich (71)/by Brooks Nuanez

Since arriving on campus in the fall of 2012 — Thiebes came in the spring of that academic year as a walk-on from Lewis & Clark State by way of Kalispell Glacier — the five linemen have followed a similar path to the one Stitt described.

Montana was once full of offensive linemen that towered over the opposition. It wasn’t unusual to look at the Grizzlies’ depth charts and see linemen standing 6-foot-9 like Chris Dyke or weighing upward of 330 pounds like Colin Dow and Terran Hillesland. The group of freshmen offensive linemen in 2012 didn’t fit that description. Though they were brought in by a coaching staff that wanted to play a brand of power football under former head coach Mick Delaney, they viewed themselves a little differently.

“It didn’t necessarily fit with how we thought we were as athletes,” recalls Dietrich, a 6-foot-4, 309-pound former preferred walk-on from Woodinville, Washington who is working on a string of 32 straight starts. “We’re a little bit quicker and a little bit lighter.”

Yet they were pressed into action by former offensive line coach and Griz great Scott Gragg. Kelly, a 6-foot-7, 301-pounder out of Gonzaga Prep in Spokane, played in seven games in 2013. Weyer, a 6-foot-4, 301-pounder from Bozeman, saw action in nine contests. A year later, the 6-foot-7, 304-pound Todd played in nine games with one start, Thiebes played in six with two starts, Kelly played in five, Weyer started 12 games at right guard and Dietrich started all 13 at right tackle.

The team made it to the second round of the 2014 FCS playoffs, losing to Eastern Washington. Within weeks of that loss, Montana announced that Stitt would be replacing retiring Mick Delaney as head coach and he was bringing with him a new offensive system and an offensive line coach who knew a thing or two about Montana offensive lines.

“We’re gonna have the toughest offensive line in the country, and you have to have that,” Stitt said in his introductory press conference. “Everyone thinks we’re going to spread this thing out and it’s all finesse and we never run the ball. That’s not our football team. We’re gonna be tough, we’re gonna have a 1,000-yard rusher.”

UM offensive lineman Jackson Thiebes (60) & Devon Dietrich (71)/by Brooks Nuanez

UM offensive lineman Jackson Thiebes (60) & Devon Dietrich (71)/by Brooks Nuanez

For that to happen one of the first calls Stitt made when he was filling out his staff was to Germer, a former offensive lineman at Montana who coached some of the meanest, most effective lines in program history during his two previous coaching stints with the program. Germer, an All-American center for the 1991 Griz, coached offensive line for Mick Dennehy and Joe Glenn between 1998 and 2002. He went with Glenn to Wyoming from 2003 until 2008, coached for Bobby Hauck at Montana in 2009 then went with Hauck to UNLV until 2014.

The five seniors quickly had a few adjustments to make. They had to learn a new system, a new coach and a new mindset.

Though it’s unclear exactly what the origin is, most people you speak with will tell you that Germer invented something called DOLA. A mysterious acronym with a very specific goal Todd can articulate: “Just being tough and grinding and doing your job and imposing your will on other teams. That’s just something we all identified with and really wanted to make that the focus. It’s great to be a good athlete and to be big and be strong, but if you’re not going to go out there and grind and use that, then what’s it worth? As an offensive lineman that’s what you have to do. You have to have that pride in doing your job like that. It’s just what we wanted to be about.”

Kelly remembers the linemen identified as DOLA before Germer arrived. But that quickly changed. They were introduced to the full meaning of it by their new coach. The three-tiered system was explained to them and then they were told not to use the term until they could fully embody exactly what it meant.

UM offensive lineman Devon Dietrich (71)/by Jason Bacaj

UM offensive lineman Devon Dietrich (71)/by Jason Bacaj

“Coach Germer really brought back that mentality that makes up DOLA,” Todd said.

Added Dietrich, “He wanted us to earn it. He didn’t want us to just say it to say it. He wanted us to say it because we knew that’s what we were and that’s how we were playing.”

During that adjustment period the five linemen, already a close-knit group, relied on each other. Every Thursday they went out to dinner. Together they watched comedy shows like ‘Always Sunny In Philadelphia’, ‘The Office’ and ‘Parks & Rec’. They discussed life, their classes, their relationships. They went out together. They went on road trips.

Slowly, the group began to adjust to the new system and their new coach, who instead of drilling them into getting everything perfect, wanted his players to get the job done.

“It was hard at first just breaking it down and starting from the ground level,” Thiebes remembers. “We were watching ourselves on film from spring and we couldn’t believe how bad it looked. You could see progression every day, getting better and better.”

Eventually, the work paid off and the DOLA mindset was realized some time around the Grizzlies’ 57-16 win over Eastern Washington last November. A week later Montana traveled to Bozeman and handed their fiercest rival a 54-35 beating.

Montana has since lost just two games, but the linemen, now bigger and stronger than ever, have been shuffled in and out of the starting lineup. Todd started eight games last season, but has yet to break into the starting lineup this year. Kelly started in five games last season, but has sat behind redshirt freshman Angel Villaneuva this fall. Dietrich and Thiebes, on the other hand, have retained their starting positions throughout 2016.

UM offensive line coach Chad Germer/by Brooks Nuanez

UM offensive line coach Chad Germer/by Brooks Nuanez

Despite the position battles, there has been no infighting. No sniping. No animosity.

“That’s one thing that I’ve told them I was super impressed with,” Germer said. “They compete against each other all week long and then support each other on Saturdays.

“That’s the life of an offensive lineman. You go from taking no reps weeks on end to all of a sudden you’re a starter and you’re in there every play. We need everybody and their attitude has been outstanding as far as that goes.”

That fragility has been realized in other ways. Last fall, Weyer went down with an ACL injury that ended his season. He worked through rehab, then through winter conditioning and returned to the field in the fall. But in Montana’s season-opening 41-31 win over Saint Francis, Weyer tore his ACL again, ending the 2016 season after just two quarters. While difficult for Weyer to experience, the other offensive linemen have used their teammate’s perils as a sort of sobering motivation.

“It hurts to see him not being able to do what he loves and that is to play the game of football,” Dietrich said. “ … I think everyone kind of looks at his situation and understands that could happen to any of us. We want to use that to best of our abilities not just for ourselves, but we don’t really want to take a rep off because Ben doesn’t have those reps so I’m going to play as hard as I can because I know Ben can’t. So I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that whatever he can’t do I’m going to try to do for him.”

It’s unclear what Weyer’s future holds. He has already undergone three knee surgeries and nobody is sure if he will try to petition the NCAA for a sixth season. Sixth years aren’t often granted, but Weyer’s situation is one the governing body is generally sympathetic to.

UM offensive lineman Devon Dietrich (71) blocking in the 2015 playoffs/by Brooks Nuanez

UM offensive lineman Devon Dietrich (71) blocking in the 2015 playoffs/by Brooks Nuanez

In the meantime, the other four senior linemen have kept Weyer involved in everything they do. During their five years together they have grown closer than teammates. They say they’ve grown to trust each other in every situation on and off the field. They say they’re more like brothers than anything else.

“I think all of us would say the same thing,” Dietrich says, “it’s a group that 50 years down the road we’ll still be cracking jokes and hanging out with each other.”

 

 

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