Big Sky Conference

SENIOR SPOTLIGHT: Kuder’s atypical path is culminating in standout senior season

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To watch Tyler Kuder reach his full potential as a senior in the Big Sky Conference, it’s hard to imagine how he might have dominated the Frontier Conference.

The 6-foot-3, 318-pound Idaho State defensive tackle is a physical specimen. Kuder is a high-motor player with a mean streak, one of the most productive interior defensive linemen in the league. After last week’s 15-tackle performance in a 33-27 loss to Montana, Kuder has 75 tackles, including 40 solo stops, 10 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks. His tackles total is the most for any interior defensive linemen in the league and his tackles for loss are as well.

ISU defensive tackle Tyler Kuder (95)/by Isu Athletics

ISU defensive tackle Tyler Kuder (95)/by ISU Athletics

Kuder has been a bright spot on an otherwise dismal Idaho State defense. This fall, he has finally put together the talent that at one time earned him serious interest from several Pac 12 schools. Kuder’s hands are as big and strong as any ISU head coach Mike Kramer has seen in four decades coaching college football. His powerful build and explosive punch has helped him earn All-Big Sky recognition each of the last two seasons. Kuder’s ability to run and his overall effort stuck out right away to Montana State offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey as the Bobcats prepare to face Kuder and the Bengals in Pocatello on Saturday afternoon.

“He’s listed at 315 and he runs like he’s 250 (pounds),” Cramsey said. “He plays with great, great effort. I say that pretty much every week when we talk about who are the good players in this league and who are the good defenses in this league. That word effort keeps coming up. He plays with a high motor. He’s a strong kid. He’s got some snap to him. He has all the stuff to make a defensive lineman good.”

ISU defensive tackle Tyler Kuder/by ISU Athletics

ISU defensive tackle Tyler Kuder/by ISU Athletics

Kuder’s standout senior year has been overshadowed by injuries and poor performances from the Idaho State defense. The Bengals enter Saturday’s game with a 2-7 record after giving up more than 41 points per game. But Kuder himself has realized his potential after a winding road that included a stop at NAIA Montana Western for a season.

“When he first came here (in 2012), he had enormous talent,” Kramer said. “He was big and strong and he could jump. He moves extremely well. And yet, he was not very skilled in how to use his hands and how to recognize schemes and how to work and fit. He didn’t play as well as he could play all the time.

“What he’s done this year is he’s become way more consistent. He has great hands and really good eyes and balance and the ability to change direction at 318 pounds. But more importantly, he’s learned how to keep blockers off of his body. He has such enormous hand strength, he can do things guys haven’t been able to do in this conference since drug testing.”

Kuder grew up hard in Payette, Idaho on the Idaho-Oregon border. Kramer compared the doublewide trailer in a weed-infested lot to “the worst reservation home you can find in Montana, like that.”

KuderTyler“When I went to his house, it was absolute heartbreak to see where he lived,” Kramer said. “You can’t imagine He sure deserves most of the credit because the rest of us would’ve said, ‘Ah, I’m just going to drink my way into a construction job.”

Despite the adversity of growing up in poverty and living in a town of less than 7,500 people, Kuder was a standout on the football field from an early age. By his junior year of high school, he was receiving heavy interest from Oregon, Washington State, Boise State and the University of Idaho.

At the end of Kuder’s junior year in 2009, Oregon assistant (and current head coach) Mark Helfrich called to say Kuder’s grades and standardized test scores were not up to par. The Ducks were pulling their scholarship offer. Boise State followed suit.

Idaho stuck with Kuder and he ended up signing with Robb Akey’s staff in February of 2010. He was accepted into UI but because of poor SAT and ACT scores, he did not make it through the NCAA Clearinghouse. He did not attend school of any sort that fall.

Before the 2011 fall semester, Kuder was in Pocatello visiting a friend. On his way out of town, he stopped at the Maverick gas station by the freeway entrance. He saw former Idaho State assistant Nick Whitworth, at the time the offensive coordinator at Montana Western. Whitworth offered Kuder a full ride scholarship to come play offensive line for the Bulldogs. Kuder accepted on the spot.

ISU defensive tackle Tyler Kuder tackles PSU utility quarterback Paris Penn/by Brooks Nuanez

ISU defensive tackle Tyler Kuder making a tackle for loss/by Brooks Nuanez

After a year in Dillon, Kuder realized the level of competition would not help him maximize his potential. Matt Troxel was a graduate assistant on Akey’s staff when the Vandals had recruited Kuder. By 2012, Troxel was the offensive line coach at Idaho State on Kramer’s staff. Kuder ran into Troxel during the off-season and Troxel convinced Kuder to come to ISU.

“It would’ve been different, especially playing o-line but I probably could’ve done amazing things at Western playing offensive line,” Kuder said. “I always follow Western football because of all of my friends I made there. It just would’ve been way different and crazy to know what I could’ve done there.”

“If he would’ve stayed in the Frontier, he would’ve been as good as anybody in the Frontier since the tight end from Carroll College (Casey Fitzsimmons) who went to the NFL,” Kramer added.

In 2013, Kuder cracked Idaho State’s starting lineup. He notched a pair of sacks to earn honorable mention All-Big Sky honors. That same year, he lost his father. Kramer called it a turning point.

Last season, he piled up 56 tackles and 2.5 TFLs to earn second-team All-Big Sky honors. It’s been his progress academically that has been the key to Kuder reaching this point in his career.

“He was really good in high school and nobody missed on him but nobody thought he could ever become what he is academically,” Kramer said. “He deserves all the credit in the world for getting to the point where he is going to be a college graduate in December. That’s about amazing a story as how good he is physically.

ISU defensive tackle Tyler Kuder

ISU defensive tackle Tyler Kuder/by Brooks Nuanez

“I think the loss of his father (in 2013) matured him a lot and made him really understand what opportunity is versus what is required to play a game. Tyler has become a man and put to use a pretty incredible set of skills, including his brain.”

For at least a few more weeks, Kuder will get a chance to use his physical skills. ISU will not make the playoffs but Kramer thinks Kuder is “a next level guy.” Idaho State’s head coach thinks that if teams want to put the time in with Kuder, he could some day make it as a defensive lineman. Or Kramer thinks Kuder could play offense in the NFL early on.

“If teams don’t want to wait, they can turn him into an offensive linemen and he would be an instant starter,” Kramer said. “The kid who is the starting center for the Seattle Seahawks (Drew Nowak) is a Mid-American defensive linemen (from Western Michigan) and the Seahawk coaching staff took a guy with good pop and a good motor and turned him into an every down player for a good football team. I think Tyler’s future might be on offense depending on the NFL team that gives him the opportunity.”

Kuder does no care what opportunity comes along. He will take any presented to him.

“There’s been a couple of scouts that have come to practice to watch me,” Kuder said. “After the season, hopefully I can find someone to represent me to get the right training I need to get the best chance I can to get to the next level. I hope I can make it and keep playing.”

Photo attribution noted. All Rights Reserved.

 

 

About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

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