Take Malik Putney for example. His cousin, Ahmaad Rorie, is an all-league point guard for the Griz basketball team. But Montana did not recruit him for several reasons. One, they had already added Robby Hauck and Gavin Robertson as transfers and signed David Koppang, Jackson Pepe and Nash Fouch during the early period. They had no room left even if Putney is on par with Fouch and likely better than Koppang and Pepe as prep recruits. Also, Jeremy Thielbahr, Putney's coach at Eastside Catholic, was a Mike Kramer assistant at MSU.iaafan wrote: ↑Thu Jul 19, 2018 7:20 amMy guess is there’s a huge pool of recruits out there, so there’s not a lot of instances where both schools are after the same kid. I also doubt that UM or MSU is gonna go after a player (unless they know that player has serious interest) that the other has already been recruiting and they have little chance of getting.
Choate has really strong ties in the NW and elsewhere. I wouldn’t want to go head-to-head with him. I’m sure Peterson recommends to recruits that MSU is a great option. When you have someone like that doing your bidding it helps.
Malik Metcalf played for Joey Thomas in high school. Much easier connection.
Bellevue has consistently sent players to Montana but Isaiah Ifanse was not recruited by the Griz. UM signed Drew Turner and Adam Eastwood early while also returning several veteran backs, including Jeremy Calhoun and Alijah Lee. And Ifanse did not get offered by any school other than teams that run the triple option — Montana State, Wofford, Air Force, Navy, Hawaii.
James Williams was not recruited by Montana because Montana does not recruit Texas. Montana State has for quite some time.
On the flip side, recruits like Cole Grossman from Skyview in Vancouver, Washington did not receive any attention from the Bobcats but is a Griz signee because the Griz have recruited that high school hard for many years. Ellis Henderson also went there. The Griz signed several kids from Western Washington like Fouch (Woodinville) and Tyler Ganoung (Gig Harbor) from schools outside the Seattle area that probably have more traditional Griz ties while Montana State is, as mentioned, capitalizing on Choate's NW ties and his presence for several seasons at Washington in Seattle.
Even in state, it's more rare than most think that both programs offer kids equally. Two years ago, Choate commented that Montana State got every kid they offered that Montana also offered except one: Bryson Deming.
This year, the Griz got a bunch of Montana kids the Cats didn't really recruit that hard like Koppang, Levi Janacaro, Max Morris, Jackson Pepe, Nick Germer and Colten Curry. The Bobcats also got recruits the Griz didn't recruit that hard like Lane Sumner, Kaleb Winterburn, Logan Kleinhans, Joey McElroy, Blake Alred, Treyton Pickering and Mark Estes.
