Editor’s Note: This is the second installment of a four-part series about Montana State’s transfers. The Bobcats signed nine transfers in February, including seven on defense. Today we look at the linebackers.
Rob Ash already said he will no longer identify Marcus Tappan or any other of Montana State’s non-freshmen newcomers as transfers.
And Tappan, a sophomore dropdown from Cincinnati, is making sure to do his best to seem like he’s been at Montana State for years.
“Marcus Tappan acts like he’s been here for five years,” Ash said following Tuesday’s practice. “He’s been here most of the summer, which helps but he’s really blended in.
“He has really impressed me with his attitude. He hasn’t tried to act like he’s bigger and better than anyone else. He’s just gone out there and tried to do what he can do. If he’s running with the 2s, he plays just as hard as when he’s running with the 1s. I really like his attitude and demeanor. And he’s got good speed. He flies around well.”
Tappan
Tappan, a 6-foot-2, 235-pounder with quickness that belies his size, has shown he’s fitting in on the field as well. Playing Will linebacker, he’s gotten repetitions with the first and second defenses. He’s turned the head of Jody Owens, a first-year assistant that was once a Big Sky MVP as MSU’s Will linebacker in 2012.
“Marcus is very good with his hands and he’s got a good football mind, so he understands basic concepts,” Owens said. “That’s going to put him over the top. He just has to continue to figure out the little specifics of the defense, but as a whole, I think he’s going to be a contributor for us.”
Tappan, who was a junior college All-America at Glendale CC in California before transferring to Cincy, is making sure to do all in his power to master defensive coordinator Kane Ioane’s scheme.
“The new defense we just installed (Tuesday) morning, I’m definitely going to stay in later after practice to slow it all down and study it so I can play faster,” Tappan said. “The first defense we installed with the odd and 3-4 and stuff, we moved faster and played faster. With the one we just installed, I thought I could’ve improved a little better but as the day went along, I thought I caught my rhythm with my eyes and reading my keys.
“I feel like I’m athletic enough to make the plays and if they need me to make a tackle, I’ll make that tackle. That’s one of the reasons I came here. Coach Ioane plays an aggressive defense and I felt like it filled my skill set best. Now I just have to get it down.”
Tappan is one of two linebacker transfers and seven defensive transfers overall that Montana State added in the off-season. The other linebacker is Zachary Stern, a 6-foot, 200-pounder from Santa Monica Junior College.
Stern participated in his first practice on Wednesday. He wasn’t cleared until then, a situation that became tenuous as Stern waited for the go ahead to join his new team.
“It was the happiest day of his life maybe yesterday when he was cleared, I think. His smile was from ear to ear,” Ash said. “We are very careful here to make sure we do things right and all the paper work is in. Zach had to wait and wait and wait. He was out of money and out of food and he knew he was falling behind. But then he got the word and it was like he had a new lease on life.”
Stern won’t put on pads for a few days as he eases his way back in. When he does, he’ll compete with sophomore Mac Bignell at Montana State’s Sam linebacker spot. He could also find time in the secondary if called upon.
Stern
“The challenge will just be the terminology because the defense, we run an odd front and a 4-3 and we did the same exact thing at my community college,” Stern said. “My defensive coordinator Steven Garcia definitely prepared me for this. The small difference is they run a quarters scheme and there’s different coverages on each side. We did run things that are similar to that but it’s constant here, something different on each side and that’s the biggest thing I have to get used to.”
Ash said Montana State targeted Stern because of his versatility and his track background. He was a 200 and 400 meter runner at Santa Monica when he wasn’t playing football in the fall.
“His greatest asset is speed,” Ash said. “We recruited him because he was really good on special teams, especially the coverage units because of his speed and his linebacker type mentality. The other thing we thought he might be able to do is to play that Sam linebacker and be kind of a hybrid nickel back at the same time. That’s somewhere where you put the nickel back in. If he has enough speed at nickel and linebacker in the same body, that’s an advantage.
“We don’t have anywhere close to a judgment on that yet but that’s one of the things we thought when we recruited him.”
While Stern brings versatility and can carve out a niche role even if he doesn’t start, Tappan finds himself entrenched in one of Montana State’s most heated position battles. He’s split starter reps with sophomore Blake Braun the first four days of camp. When Tappan first arrived in Bozeman, he lived with Braun, a situation that has since changed but not because of the position battle.
“It’s competition, man, that’s all it is,” Tappan said with a smile. “I’m looking forward to when we get to go full contact and we get some real hitting out here. I’m looking forward to the scrimmage. Me and my brother (Braun) can duke it out then. I think it’s fun. I love competition.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
