BOZEMAN — With the storm of the millennium serving as distraction for a young man far from home, Bryce Alley will have his football experience come full circle in a strange sort of way on Saturday night.
Four years ago, Alley was a wide-eyed kid from Houston trying to adjust to life in Montana far away from his beloved mother. His father, Ben Alley, passed away not two years earlier, losing a hard-fought battle with cancer and leaving Bryce as the man of the Alley home.
The North Shore High School standout cornerback came to Montana State with reservations of leaving his mother, Gennie, thousands of miles away but with the intention of playing early. During that true freshman year in 2014, Alley dressed but did not see the field during Montana State’s 2-1 start.
MSU wrapped up its non-conference slate against normal Big Sky Conference rival Eastern Washington at Bobcat Stadium. During the 12-game schedule provided FCS teams once every four years, Montana State engaged in yet another classic shootout with the league’s most lethal passing attack in an uncommon non-league tilt.
His first month on campus, Alley’s mind spun with thoughts away from the field, worrying about his mom’s welfare and wondering if he made the right decision coming so far from the Lone Star State. He could’ve been at Central Arkansas, at least in a similar region as his family. He could’ve stayed committed to Houston Baptist and been in his hometown. Instead, he was in the Rocky Mountains waiting his turn and wondering what the future held personally and athletically.
With Montana State up by two touchdowns in the third quarter but All-American quarterback Vernon Adams furiously rallying EWU, all of a sudden Alley was no longer a redshirt. Former MSU secondary coach Brandon North, the first of four position coaches Alley would have as a Bobcat, threw Alley into the game. On the very first play of his college career, he lined up against Eastern Washington’s No. 10, a hulking slot receiver who Alley had no preconceived knowledge of.
Cooper Kupp, arguably the single greatest player in Big Sky Conference history, ran a fade route up the seam, catching a 49-yard pass over the top of Alley that helped set up an Eastern touchdown. “They faded me, too and I learned who Cooper Kupp was real quick,” Alley said years later with a laugh.
The score cut the MSU lead to 44-37. The Eagles would persevere that afternoon, winning 52-51 in the first of what would become a trend at MSU of scoring huge point totals and coming up short.
Four years later, Alley will again have Gennie and his dad’s sister, Janelle Willis, on his mind. Hurricane Harvey has decimated the Magnolia City, flooding America’s fourth-largest metropolis on a catastrophic level and leaving many homeless, powerless and helpless.
Despite the distraction, Alley himself will celebrate his first of last firsts in his college career. After losing his redshirt in that EWU loss in 2014, he played sparingly despite Montana State’s defensive struggles. During 2015 and 2016, he displayed the confidence and gumption to be a significant contributor but never seemed to settle into a solidified starting role as two different coaching staffs tried option after option at cornerback.
Now Alley is a senior, a team leader and one of the most charismatic, well-respected veteran football players in the Treasure State. MSU has seen a massive culture change under second-year head coach Jeff Choate, transforming from an offensive powerhouse without much fortitude into a tough-minded football team that wants to win in a hard-nosed fashion.
MSU cornerback Bryce Alley (24) defending former tight end Austin Barth (15)
If Eastern Washington was Alley’s baptism by fire, Washington State will be Alley’s next chance to prove he can rise above the adversity that has trademarked his young life. Alley begins his senior season as Montana State’s starter at boundary cornerback. The 5-foot-11, 175-pounder will have his steady footwork and solid fundamentals tested early and often against Washington State’s prolific, fast-paced ‘Air Raid’ offense.
With the tragedy raging on in Houston, Alley will have something entire different to focus on: Wazzu quarterback Luke Falk and the Cougs’ Pac 12-best passing offense.
Getting his final season off on the right foot, proving he can become a top-tier Big Sky cornerback, living to make his late father proud; all motivate Alley. And he refuses to be distracted as he begins his final campaign.
“Everyone has a story,” Alley said on the final day of MSU’s fall camp. “What are you going to do with it? Are you going to lean back and use that as an excuse for every mistake you make? Or are you going to try to do better with yourself? That’s how I have always gone about my life.
“You have to adapt and overcome, make the best of any situation you put yourself in. I feel like that was a problem for some of these out of state kids. It’s hard to adapt, it can be but you have to do it. If you don’t, your situation won’t get any better than it currently is. You have to make the best of what you have.
“That starts again on Saturday.”
Mike Rider, a former Montana State team captain and Big Sky champion who coached the Bobcat secondary in 2015, remembers watching Alley put in relentless extra work in the off-season following his true freshman season. Rider would find Alley hitting the sled to work on shedding blocks, doing extra releases with wide receivers to work on his press technique or running extra gassers on his own following conditioning sessions.
“Bryce absolutely loves football and he was always, always the guy doing extra work before and after practice and working on his craft,” Rider said. “He is a true team guy that never whines or complains but simply comes to work every day and has great mental toughness.”
Rider noticed right away the high expectations Alley holds for himself, both on the field and with his construction engineering classes. He also noticed right away how hard Alley is on himself when he does not perform at the highest level.
During the 2015 season, Alley flirted with the starting cornerback position opposite current New York Jet Bryson Keeton. But senior Trace Timmer and true freshman Tre’Von Strong also found reps, getting in the way of Alley breaking out.
Last season, Alley was part of what former secondary coach Gerald Alexander called the “rotating employment office” for the corner spot opposite All-Big Sky cornerback John Walker. Alley competed and eventually earned the starting job for MSU’s final two victories of the season, a two-game streak that helped an otherwise disappointing campaign finish with a 4-7 record. Alley ended his junior year with 22 tackles.
Now Alley enters his senior season as the player new secondary coach Mark Orphey calls “the old dog in our room”. The perseverance he’s shown, enduring four position coaches in as many years, learning three defensive schemes, playing for two head coaches and trying to stay on track for his degree has not gone unnoticed.
“He’s a guy who has had to wait his turn here,” said MSU second-year head coach Jeff Choate last week. “He has worked through maybe some confidence issues and has emerged. I think he’s a great story of having that perseverance to work through even when things aren’t going his way.
“He’s a long way from home being from Houston. It would probably be easy for him to pack his bags and head home. It seems that’s what this generation of kids likes to do is hang up their cleats if things get hard, try to transfer. I have a lot of respect for guys who finish things.”
Starting with former MSU head coach Rob Ash, the Bobcats established a fruitful recruiting pipeline from Texas to Bozeman. Lone Star State players have come from various backgrounds, from the working class suburban upbringings experienced by MSU’s sizable number of standouts from Euless Trinity High outside Dallas to kids from impoverished upbringings in the Houston ghettos like Tavon Dodd.
The Alley family grew up in “not the best area but definitely not the worst, either”, Alley said. He felt the pulls of the streets at times but surrounded himself with a friend group that kept him on the straight and narrow. The firm discipline from his parents helped as well.
MSU cornerback Bryce Alley (24)/ by Colter Nuanez
“My folks kept me level headed. I got enough whoopins coming up to keep me out of trouble,” Alley said with a laugh. “Fortunately, I wasn’t pulled into that.”
That guiding force left him toward the middle of his high school years when Ben passed away. Alley felt lost. Even now, Alley finds himself with a question about a life decision or in need of guidance. For most of his life, he always turned to Ben. But after his father lost his battle, Alley no longer had the man who he always thought had all the answers.
The solitude of being an only child with a suddenly widowed mother was harrowing for the teenager. It caused him to cultivate a new mindset as he moved into a new chapter of his life.
“He’s not suffering down here no more and I’m just trying to make him proud each and every day,” Alley said. “It’s hard but you have to keep going, can’t stop. You have to keep going, especially for my mom. She took his death the hardest, her and my dad’s mom. I took it hard too but I had to be strong for them. I don’t have any brothers and sisters and now she’s there by herself all the time. I have to be strong.
“I try to take all of the teachings and lessons my pops gave me coming up and bring them to life. And being up here has been more fuel to the fire.”
North Shore High School is accustomed to seeing Jim Mora and Nick Saban wandering the halls. The amount of high-level recruiters that check in at one of Houston’s most solid prep football programs is on par with any school in Texas.
MSU cornerback Bryce Alley (24) with defensive backs coach Mark Orphey
“College coaches started seeing we were coachable guys a long time ago,” said Orphey, himself a Houston Baptist and North Shore alum. “It’s about the culture of the high school and the way we go about things at North Shore. It’s a business mentality. You can see that with Bryce. He’s all about his business.”
Alley played on a defense his senior year of high school that had nine other Division I players. He was the only starter who did not earn all-conference or all-state accolades (although he was an honorable mention all-district pick), yet he still earned scholarship offers from Houston Baptist, Weber State and Central Arkansas.
With the heartbreak of his father’s untimely death still fresh in his mind, he wanted to stay close to Gennie, who works as a supervisor at the veteran’s hospital in Houston. He committed to Houston Baptist.
But Alley has known since he was a child that he wants “to build things.” He contemplated his commitment upon learning HBU did not offer engineering of any sort. Former North Shore head coach David Aymond has had a fair share of communication with recruiters from around the country. He remembered his interactions with former MSU recruiting coordinator Bo Beck. Aymond told Alley to get ahold of the Montana State defensive line.
“Beck called me and we chopped it up,” Alley said. “At first, I was like, ‘Coach, I don’t know if I want to go that far away.’ But he came down, we talked it out, I met Coach North who is actually at HBU right now. That relationship brought me here and I have been here ever since. I haven’t had any regrets since then.”
MSU cornerback Bryce Alley (24)
Montana State has had no regrets either. Alley has encompassed what Ash’s staff and Choate’s staff both want when it comes to the full picture of a student athlete.
“Honestly, Bryce is exactly what you want from a player when you recruit a young man out of high school,” Rider said. “He embodies what it means to be a student athlete at MSU and he is a special young man.”
Saturday, Alley will be one of just three seniors on Montana State’s starting defense along with safety Bryson McCabe and linebacker Mac Bignell. He’s the veteran in a cornerback group that will play sophomore Damien Washington, seldom used junior Braelen Evans and true freshman Tyrel Thomas.
“He’s been the backbone of this team,” Montana State sophomore quarterback Chris Murray said. “When I first got here last summer before I moved to the dorms, I stayed with Bryce Alley, Curtis Amos and Braelen Evans. He’s a great teammate. He’s a go-to off the field and he’s just like that on the field, the foundation.”
The man some Bobcats call “Mr. Smooth” can most often be found with a hair pick in his blooming afro as he closes in on his degree in construction engineering. He plans to return to Texas after he graduates but is open to staying in Montana as well. His faith in God and his dedication to succeeding for his father’s memory continue to guide him. His love for the game of football continues to be his driving force.
“I couldn’t come up here and not get a degree, not finish this thing,” Alley said. “I had to set myself up for life. You always have to have a plan in this world. You can’t bank on one thing breaking because if that doesn’t work, what you going to do next? At some point, I will have a family to feed and they will be counting on me to put food on the table so you always have to have something coming up.
“Throughout my life, with my dad and everything in Bozeman, I’ve learned to stay positive in stressful situations because they are always going to come. Life ain’t perfect. You have to deal with what you’ve got. And you always have keep grinding.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
