Former Montana State offensive line coach Brian Armstrong signed every recruiting letter the same way: “The Next Great One.”
It was a premonition of things to come. But not without plenty of trial and tribulation, injuries and resilience for Titan Fleischmann.
The Pocatello, Idaho native will play the final game in his hometown on Saturday. And he’s closing in on the twilight days of his outstanding Bobcat career.
He has already earned the right to be called “the next great one” when it comes to Montana State offensive linemen. He’s one of four Bobcats ever, linemen or otherwise, to earn All-American honors at two different positions. He’s working on a streak of 42 consecutive starts. And his team has been ranked either at or near the top of the polls for three years running.
Oh, and he’s one of 18 finalists for the William V. Campbell Trophy, also known as the Academic Heisman Trophy for college football.
But it wasn’t always like this.
Not that long ago, Fleischmann felt like he wasn’t living up to his end of the bargain.
And to hear him say last year in the weeks leading up to the national championship game last January, the hulking offensive lineman felt “like one of the misfit toys who’d been cast aside,” the ones that the kids don’t want to play with anymore because they are broken.
The Pocatello, Idaho native spent the first part of his college career just trying to endure. He was injury-riddled. He didn’t have much of a chance to build up his body because of what seemed like a constant string of surgeries.
Brent Vigen remembers Fleischmann walking into his office and apologizing. Fleischmann said he was not living up to his end of his scholarship and that wasn’t OK with him.
“I remember one of those years, if not both, him coming in after the season and really apologizing for not being able to live up to his scholarship,” Vigen said. “I’m like, man, you will. Trust me. You’ve got the right attitude. You will.”
Fleischmann, of course, did earn his keep. He lived up to his scholarship just like he lived up to his namesake. And now he has a chance to be an unforgettable leader and stalwart as Montana State tries to become the first team in Big Sky Conference history to repeat as Division I-AA/FCS national champions.
The 6-foot-5, 305-pounder went from broken to durable over the last few years. That toughness combined with his stern yet affable personality and his steadfast leadership ability has made him a Bobcat captain two years in a row. He’s been selfless — he was the incumbent right tackle a year ago only to move to guard to help MSU get its best five on the field up front, then moved back to power tackle this season — and more than anything, he’s been flat excellent.
He was a first-team All-American on a national championship team and a third-team All-American the year prior. He’ll make his 42nd career start on Saturday and looks to be in line to join Marcus Wehr as the second Bobcat offensive lineman ever to earn first-team All-American honors multiple times. His All-American nods at two different positions give him rare bragging rights in the history of Bobcat Nation.
Montana State offensive line coach Matt Smith said this year’s slow start up front had a lot of moving pieces, and putting Fleischmann back at tackle was one of the biggest.
“Every day, every moment, he’s learning how to lead and then exacting it,” Smith said. “He’s got some fire, now. He’s getting after guys. And we need that in this group. We need him to get after guys. At the same time, I think he also found when giving guys a pat on the back, how much of a difference that can make, too. He knows how his guys respond.
“He does such a great job and with his experience with what he does, nobody can match that.”
Fleischmann is one of four children of Ryan and Meg Fleischmann, each Division I athletes who had the bold foresight to name their eventually 6-foot-5 son Titan and their eventually 6-foot-4 son Bruin, who’s playing his final season at Montana State after graduating from the Air Force Academy.
Titan’s name comes from Greek mythology, and he jokes that his parents “really called their shot,” since it would be “pretty funny” if a Titan stood 5-foot-7 instead of 6-foot-5. The family has a running joke about it too: the 6-4 lineman is the shortest Fleischmann male in the family. His name also honors his grandfather, Ty Solness. The “Ty” in Titan is meant to represent his “grandpops.”
Ryan played football and Meg played basketball at Idaho State. Titan followed in their footsteps, becoming a multi-sport athlete at Century High School. He was a first-team all-state selection as an offensive lineman while also manufacturing some production defensively too (27 tackles, two sacks as a senior). He ended his career as a four-year starter, a three-year captain and a two-time Scholar Athlete of the Year. He also was a three-time captain in basketball.
When he signed with Montana State in 2021, former MSU head coach Jeff Choate said:
“Titan is an awesome kid, and when you have a guy with the athleticism of a tight end and the body of a tackle you have someone who’s going to be a really good player. He also brings that physical mindset, the mentality you’d see with Mitch Brott with how he finishes blocks, his great feet, super good hip flexibility. He’s a multi-sport athlete, his dad was a coach so he’s been around football his whole life, and you never get off the phone after talking with Titan and feel bad about the future of our country. If there’s enough Titan Fleischmanns out there we’ll be fine.”
Fleischmann’s first several years at Montana State were riddled by injury. During an interview with Skyline Sports about MSU strength coach Sean Herrin last December, Fleischmann lamented “feeling like one of the busted toys in ‘Toy Story.'”
He felt like an afterthought who had been cast out to the junk pile. He was broken physically but still had plenty of desire mentally. He was a forgotten man among Montana State’s stockpile of FBS-caliber offensive line talent.
That is, until he wasn’t.
He rebuilt his body and his mind, transforming himself into an All-American.
The architect and the repairman: Sean Herrin.
“There was a point where I was forgotten about, broken, and I was just going to be a backup guy. And Coach Herrin never lost faith in me,” said Fleischmann, a two-time All-Big Sky selection and a team captain. “That means a lot to me. I think he’s the greatest strength coach in America.”
The 2024 season was Fleischmann’s breakout year. He reached full health. He established durability. He solidified himself as the power tackle in an impressive offense that ran the ball for 325+ yards per game pretty much at will.
Fleischmann started all 16 games at right tackle. He finished the regular season ranked fifth among all FCS offensive linemen by PFF grading and third in run blocking as the Bobcats ran the table. MSU won 15 games in a row before falling 35-32 against North Dakota State, the second national championship game loss in four seasons under Vigen.
Following the year, Fleischmann was a third-team All-American with an established reputation as one of the top offensive tackles in the Football Championship Subdivision. Then he gave that reputation away, at least on the depth chart. When the Bobcats needed their best five on the field, the right tackle slid inside to guard without a word of complaint and proceeded to become a first-team All-American there, too, anchoring the interior of a line that helped carry Montana State to its first national title in more than four decades. He is one of just four Bobcats to earn All-America honors at two different positions.
Fellow captain Zac Crews calls Fleischmann a utility knife. He can do it all, Crews said, and despite all the surgeries, the miles and the years, he still moves like a spry young player.
The ghosts of Bobcats past
Ask Fleischmann how he came back from the scrap heap and he won’t start with himself. He’ll start with the men who came before him.
When he was a young buck sitting in the training room more often than he was standing in the huddle, the veterans around him became his instruction manual. NFL offensive lineman Lewis Kidd showed him what toughness looked like. Defensive tackle Chase Benson battled through injury after injury and showed him, play by play, how it was done. Three-time All-American defensive end Brody Grebe and two-time All-American offensive lineman Marcus Wehr did the same. And every one of them pointed him toward the same two men.
“They all showed that Coach Herrin is the blueprint on how to be successful,” Fleischmann said. “Follow that guy and listen to Coach Vigen, you’ll be good to go.”
So he did. Fleischmann trusted the process when there wasn’t much evidence that the process was going to work for him. He leaned on the people and the support system that Bozeman offered, and he let Herrin rebuild him from the ground up. Fleischmann believes that same trust is why the Bobcats seem to grow stronger as the leaves fall and the temperature drops. Vigen is now 15-2 in November as Montana State’s head coach. Fleischmann can’t fully explain it, but he has felt it every fall he’s been in Bozeman: the team solidifies as the season wears on, he says, hardening like concrete. The Bobcats don’t slip when it gets cold. They get rolling.
“The next great one”
There were days when the rolling stopped completely. Five surgeries, six, seven — at some point the number blurs, and Fleischmann’s parents would call and gently remind their son that he didn’t have to keep doing this to himself.
He kept doing it anyway, always keeping his motivations at the forefront of his mind.
The first motivation is his family. Fleischmann has always wanted to be a blueprint for his siblings, living proof that if you work hard and do your job, things work out. He’s also a self-described comic book nerd, and in the comics, the good guys always win. Be a good guy, do what you’re supposed to do, and you’ll find a way.
The second came in the mail years before the injuries started piling up. During his recruitment, then-MSU assistant Brian Armstrong signed off every letter he sent to Pocatello the same way: the next great one. There were a lot of letters. When Fleischmann was hurt and doubting, those four words kept pulling him back to the weight room, back to the classroom and back to the practice field, chasing the hope that one day he’d be remembered as a great one at Montana State.
He is well on his way. He’s one of 18 finalists for the National Football Foundation’s 2026 William V. Campbell Trophy, college football’s “Academic Heisman.” Finalists are chosen from a record 206 semifinalists across all NCAA divisions and the NAIA, and each receives an $18,000 post-graduate scholarship.
Fleischmann has a political science degree with a 3.81 GPA and a master’s in coaching science, and he is now working on a second master’s in family financial planning. Last season he became the first Bobcat offensive lineman to earn First Team All-America and First Team CSC Academic All-America honors in the same year.
The prowess Fleischmann shows on the field is perhaps most personified by his touchdown celebrations. If you’ve watched the Bobcats score at Bobcat Stadium these last three seasons, you’ve probably seen him celebrating it. The moment a running back crosses the goal line, No. 66 is sprinting to the end zone with both arms raised to the sky in front of the student section.
It started back when he was a tight end at Century who didn’t score many touchdowns of his own. Offensive linemen can’t dance, he reasons, and they don’t get to hold the ball. Their whole job is clearing a path so somebody else can score. So he decided long ago that if his buddies are scoring, he’s scoring too.
“How demoralizing is it when you’ve got a 300-pound big idiot holding his arms up after we just scored a rushing touchdown on you?” Fleischmann said with a laugh. “I want everybody in the stadium to know that we scored on whoever we’re playing.”
Coming together
The arms have been up a lot lately. But it took a while to get there this season, at least when it comes to the continuity and execution of the offensive line.
Montana State had to rebuild its offensive front around a new center in Aiden Kaplan, a reshuffled interior with Everett Carr stepping in at guard, and Fleischmann moving back outside to tackle after a full season at guard. Even for an All-American, Vigen said, there was a breaking-in period. Early in the year, Fleischmann admitted the group had a long way to go and that he personally needed to take major steps for the Bobcats to get where they wanted to go.
The line came together slower than anybody wanted, but it came together. Over the last month, MSU has looked more like the bulldozing Bobcat fronts of years past, including a 278-yard rushing day against a stout Weber State defense. And on Halloween, Montana State put together perhaps its most complete performance of the season, a 61-7 dismantling of Cal Poly. The theme all week, Fleischmann said, was start fast, and the pregame was one of the most dialed-in he’s been part of in six years. The Bobcats led 27-0 after one quarter and 48-0 before Cal Poly scored.
Now 8-1 and ranked No. 1 by the playoff selection committee, Montana State heads into November looking like the team Fleischmann has grown accustomed to: one that hits its stride right when the games matter most.
One elongated team
Ask Fleischmann about the pressure of carrying the weight of a national championship, of a program that just put together one of the best runs in its history, and he’ll politely correct the premise.
“I think we’re just one elongated team, if I’m being honest,” Fleischmann said. “I don’t view it as pressure. I view it as a privilege.”
To Fleischmann, every Bobcat who ever wore the blue and gold is part of the same roster. The 1976 national champions. The guys who wore No. 66 before him. Tommy Mellott and Troy Andersen, whose stories he got to be part of. The current freshmen and the high school kids who haven’t committed yet. Once you’re a Bobcat, you’re always a Bobcat, and the job of the current group is to carry a torch that was lit long before they arrived, dating all the way back to the first Bobcat team in 1897.
That view didn’t come out of nowhere. Fleischmann is one of the last players on the roster whose career began in the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse, before the Bobcats had the facilities they have today. Vigen said Fleischmann has always listened when the seniors of his freshman year talked about where the program used to be, and he has held on to a deep appreciation for the blood, sweat and tears of those who built it.
“He’s thoughtful. He’s passionate, and again, he’s just super positive about everything,” Vigen said. “But he can get as ornery as they get, too. He’s just a very interesting human being.”
Going home
Saturday’s game brings Fleischmann home to Pocatello, where so many friends and loved ones will fill the stands at Holt Arena. He credits the community there for helping raise two pretty successful young men (he and Bruin). But don’t call him an honorary Montanan. He’d rather drop the honorary entirely.
“I want to be from the 406,” Fleischmann said. “I wish the honorary wasn’t that. I want to be a Montanan.”
Pocatello made him a good kid, he says. Bozeman made him a good young man, just as the Air Force Academy did for his little brother Bruin. And this fall, the two brothers have shared a sideline in blue and gold.
Vigen sees in Fleischmann what college athletics is supposed to be about: a great student who loves where he is, who can handle adversity and persevere, and who will leave Bozeman ready to make an impact in the world, whether that’s as a husband, a father or whatever comes next.
“He’s going to conquer it for sure,” Vigen said.
Fleischmann admits he hadn’t let himself think about the end until recently. He has stayed locked on the next practice, the next game. But with the regular season’s final month here, it’s starting to feel surreal and a little emotional. He calls Montana State the best place in the country, a place that has given him more than he could have ever asked for, along with a group of brothers he’ll have for the rest of his life.
The broken toy that once sat on the shelf, wondering if anyone would ever pick it back up, has become one of the best offensive linemen in the country and one of the most beloved Bobcats of his era. Through all the surgeries, the position changes and the November nights, he has kept the faith that the good guys win in the end.
So far, the story has gone the way his recruiting letters promised. Titan Fleischmann became the next great one. And he can solidify that legacy with another historic run.
“It’s hard to put into words how special it is to be a part of this program,” Fleischmann said. “Because you line up every single season since I’ve been here and how successful we’ve been, and then every single season that I’ve started and how successful we’ve been, and the ability to play with some of these great guys that will always be remembered, like Tommy Mellott and Troy Andersen, and be a part of their story in a sense is very, very special. But I think the greatest thing is just the brotherhood.
“I think we’re just one elongated team. I feel like we’re just carrying the torch that has been passed to us and built for us.
“Now we are going to see how far we can take this thing one last time.”
GALLERY: Titan Fleischmann through the years
