BOZEMAN — Michael Jobman has the height, the length and the mass coveted by inside linebackers. The former Class B star also has a few top-notch mentors to teach him his new position.
For the next four weeks, maximizing the extra reps the third-year sophomore is receiving during Montana State’s ongoing spring football practices will be crucial for the Huntley Project product to master the Mike linebacker position.
Jobman, who backed up senior Grant Collins at Buck end last season, is currently MSU’s No. 1 Mike linebacker with junior Josh Hill, a two-year starter on the inside of defensive coordinator Ty Gregorak’s 3-4 defense, limited this off-season. Hill, a Kalispell Glacier product and former Class AA Defensive MVP, had shoulder surgery in the off-season.
“I’m loving it,” Jobman said of his position change. “It’s awesome. It’s a change but I’m enjoying it. It’s going well.
“The biggest change is the respective view change on the field. That’s the biggest thing I’ve felt comfortable with because when I was at Buck, everything was right in front of me and I had to react right away. At linebacker, it’s a difference view of the field. Everything on the offense is spread out.”
The 6-foot-4 Jobman is up to 242 pounds, he confirmed on Wednesday afternoon. He came to MSU as a 211-pounder who played outside linebacker and running back at Huntley. He ended last season at 225 pounds. If Jobman can hold that weight and make enough progress to crack the rotation, he will unquestionably be one of the biggest inside linebackers in the entire Big Sky Conference next season.
“I was a big linebacker,” said Gregorak, a star middle linebacker at Colorado in the late 1990s before knee injuries derailed his career. “I know he can do it. It’s all about pad level, teaching him to do things. Big, long, rangy dudes, they just have to learn how to play with good pad level. If you ever come by our drills, you will always hear me harping on him and his pad level. He’s 6-4 and he has to learn how to play at six feet.”
Gregorak is one of two former studs that can offer advice to Jobman. Prior to the last two seasons at MSU, Gregorak spent 12 seasons at Montana, coaching linebackers from 2003 until 2009 under Bobby Hauck, then calling UM’s defense for five seasons under Robin Pflugrad (2011), Mick Delaney (2012-2014) and Bob Stitt (2015). Gregorak coached more than three dozen All-Big Sky linebackers that came in all shapes and sizes. His tallest linebacker was Tyler Joyce, a 6-foot-5, 230-pounder who finished his career as one of Montana’s all-time leaders in career tackles.
MSU’s defensive coordinator compares Jobman to Shane MacIntyre, a 6-foot-3, 222-pound former Helena Capital standout who led the Griz in tackles in 2004 during an all-league junior campaign and finished his career with 22 tackles for loss.
“You get a young, athletic kid like Michael who you can train, I do think he can be a big ol’ ‘Mike’ for us,” Gregorak said.
The other mentor is Randall Jobman, Michael’s father. Randall was a team captain and starting inside linebacker for Tom Osbourne at Nebraska in the late 1980s. He was NU’s starting Mike as a senior captain in 1989 during a season that saw the Huskers win 10 games and finish No. 11 in the country.
Despite his big-time experience, Michael said his father stays out of trying to coach him up when it comes to his new position.
“I have talked to him a little bit as far as what his college experience was but he doesn’t ever really give me advice as far as the actual linebacker position goes,” Jobman said.
With Hill and junior Will linebacker Brayden Konkol — a standout from Belgrade who started all 11 games for the Bobcats in his first season at linebacker after converting from safety — limited or out for spring football, Jobman is one of a collection of young linebackers vying for positioning on MSU’s depth chart.
Troy Andersen, the Big Sky Freshman of the Year last season after bursting on the scene in his first collegiate season, is slated to replace All-American Mac Bignell.
“Spring ball has gone well so far, honing on our responsibilities and what we are supposed to do as linebackers,” Andersen said.
“During the season, you are sitting back and watching and observing and learning but now if you get the reps and you are in there doing it yourself, it’s a lot different but it’s good for moving forward. The young guys need to get some reps and some confidence to hone in on what you are doing.”
After an all-state career as a quarterback and a safety capped with a state championship at Dillon, Andersen was thrust into action instantly at MSU at an entirely new position: running back. He ended up rushing for 515 yards and five touchdowns on 90 carries while catching seven more passes for 45 yards and a score.
“He’s a very smart young man, very gifted,” MSU third-year head coach Jeff Choate said in February. “If we had felt like we had to move him over (to offense), I don’t think that’s a stretch to do even on short notice. On three days of prep, he could go over and pick that up and be a really productive player. But because the linebacker position is not as instinctual, there is more fitting into the scheme and understanding how you fit into the other 10 guys you are out there with, he needs that time to sink in on that.”
The 6-foot-3, 220-pounder bounced back from an early-season shoulder ding to pile up 131 yards and two touchdowns in MSU’s 49-21 thrashing of 2016 Big Sky champion North Dakota in Grand Forks. Andersen showed big-play ability for the rest of the league campaign, including scoring a 19-yard touchdown in MSU’s 31-23 win over rival Montana. But the second half of league play, Andersen practiced almost exclusively with the linebackers to prepare himself to take over for Bignell, one of the best outside linebackers in school history.
“I like the challenge,” Andersen said in his first interview with the media since arriving on campus. “On offense, you are the one getting hit. On defense, you are the one hitting. I like that change up.
“There are good things about both. I do like defense right now. It’s a good fit for me.”
Jobman leapfrogged junior Walker Cozzie on the depth chart with Hill on the shelf. Sophomore Sean Opland, a Troy product originally recruited as a running back, is also fighting for reps at Mike, as is Callahan O’Reilly, a 6-foot-3, 215-pound Bozeman product who spent last season as MSU’s scout team quarterback.
“Me and him (O’Reilly) are kind of in the same boat right now,” Jobman said with a laugh. His position change is quite a bit bigger than mine since he came from the offense. Everything is new for him. We stick together and we are trying to help each other learn, coach each other through a bunch of this stuff.”
With Konkol limited, the No. 1 reps at Will have gone to Chad Kanow, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound sophomore from Great Oaks High in Temecula, California. As a true freshman, Kanow starred on MSU’s special teams, notching seven tackles in eight games and even scoring a touchdown after a blocked punt in MSU’s 30-22 win over Portland State.
“Chad is one of those guys who is wiry but he packs a punch for sure,” Andersen said. “He pops a couple guys in practice every day. He’s fast. He really has a good feel for the Will position. I think he’s going to be pretty good.”
Behind Kanow, Tadan Gilman, a former star from Kalispell Glacier, is taking the No. 2 reps at Will. Gilman’s father, Mark Gilman, was a tight end and team captain as a senior on Nebraska’s 1995 national championship team.
Hill is 5-foot-11 and 215 pounds, hardly the prototype size for a player with his production level his first two seasons as a starter. Konkol is 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds, fitting the prototype of a strong safety more than an inside linebacker. But both slated starters make up for their lack of girth with keen instincts, quick reactions, toughness and an ability to find the football. Hill racked up 69 tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss despite missing most of three games last season. Konkol had 83 tackles and two interceptions in his first season playing in the front seven since high school.
But the young trio of linebackers that are relishing the first-team repetitions this spring have a different look. Collins, MSU’s starter at Mike as a redshirt freshman in 2015 before spending the last two seasons at Buck end, is a 6-foot-4, 245-pounder who gave the Bobcats a similar physical presence in the middle when he filled in for Hill last season.
The addition of 6-foot-4, 260-pound junior Bryce Sterk from Washington to the Buck end position plus sophomore Jacob Hadley’s recovery from last season’s season-ending knee injury and subsequent move to Buck gave the Choate and Ty the ability to move Jobman to the middle.
With Jobman roaming the Mike position flanked by Andersen, probably MSU’s best overall athlete, and Kanow, an explosive player who’s pop belies his youthful stature, the Bobcats now have a fleet of young linebackers, all sophomores or younger, who stand 6-foot-3 or more with long arms and impressive range.
“The room is really starting to look the way I want it to look,” Gregorak said. “We have size and length and dudes who can run and hit and cover. We are close.”
[/restrict]Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
