Homegrown players

[ilovethecats]

My god

[tetoncat]

Pretty cool to see so many Montana grown kids get 1st and 2nd teams recognition.

1st Team:
Tommy Mellott (OPOY) - MSU
Brody Grebe (DPOY) - MSU
Marcus Wehr - MSU
McCade O'Reilly - MSU
Rylan Ortt - MSU
Taco Dowler - MSU
Keyshawn Newby-James - Idaho
Junior Bergen - UM

2nd Team:
Paul Brott - MSU
Ryan Tirrell - UM
Trevin Gadney - UM

Adam Jones (Freshman of the Year) - MSU

100% shows that the Montana kids care more and work harder.

Man. That's a garbage take. Saying kids from outside Montana don't work as hard or care as much about the team because they aren't from Montana is a bizarre comment.

Nothing against the out of state kids but it definitely means more to guys from in state. Guys like Lonergan, McCade, Rylan want it more because they know how important Bobcat football is.

No they don't. Cat Griz might be, bit winning and playing at their highest level is important to a lot of kids. Was

[tdub]

Pretty cool to see so many Montana grown kids get 1st and 2nd teams recognition.

1st Team:
Tommy Mellott (OPOY) - MSU
Brody Grebe (DPOY) - MSU
Marcus Wehr - MSU
McCade O'Reilly - MSU
Rylan Ortt - MSU
Taco Dowler - MSU
Keyshawn Newby-James - Idaho
Junior Bergen - UM

2nd Team:
Paul Brott - MSU
Ryan Tirrell - UM
Trevin Gadney - UM

Adam Jones (Freshman of the Year) - MSU

100% shows that the Montana kids care more and work harder.

Man. That's a garbage take. Saying kids from outside Montana don't work as hard or care as much about the team because they aren't from Montana is a bizarre comment.

Nothing against the out of state kids but it definitely means more to guys from in state. Guys like Lonergan, McCade, Rylan want it more because they know how important Bobcat football is.

You somehow don't think that guys like Mitch Herbert or Chris Murray or Nick LaSane or Tyler Lulay or Denarius McGhee or Jody Owens, or Alex Singleton, our Daniel Hardy or Ryan Johnson didn't "want" it as much? I have a really hard time with that.

If Chris Murray cared so much he would’ve passed classes. Those guys obviously cared but when you would rather play for Montana State than Michigan or you name it, I’d say your effort and passion is going to be different. I mean remember when Tommy was crying on the sideline after the SDSU game, that is unparalleled passion.

That’s a low-blow on Murray. I’m a Montanan through-and-through, but just because a kid is from the other side of an imaginary line has absolutely zero to do with how hard they work. You give two extremes of examples to apply to everyone from in/out of state. Do any Montana kids that leave the state work less hard than every in-state kid at whatever school they are at?
If you’d have just left how hard they work out of it, probably not much argument. There can definitely be a little more ingrained passion when you grow up with it your whole life. But I’ll guarantee how hard someone works has nothing to do with where they are from.

[Colter_Nuanez]

There was a giant reunion of former Bobcat players who played when I first started covering MSU in the early 2010s at the game. Mitch Herbert, West Wilson, Isaiah Ifanse, Damien Washington (who lives in Bozeman), Dakota Prukop, Elvis Akpla, Anthony Cosme-Peko, Julius Lloyd, Willie Patterson....

None of those guys are from Montana...all absolutely LOVE Montana and are the proudest Bobcats around. I promise you guys like Elvis Akpla, Mitch Herbert, Dakota Prukop worked just as hard if not harder than anyone Montana State has had during their MSU careers....

[kwcat]

Not every player that comes here to play football decides that they love it and want to stay. For those that do well and are from in the state of Montana and grew up wanting to be a Cat or those that came here and found a new home and bleed blue and gold,Thank you for coming. Let us keep winning the in-state and out of state recruiting battles. It’s an event that I have come to love over my nearly 60 years. Happy Thanksgiving everybody

[TomCat88]

I know lots of homegrown players that played at every college in the state that weren’t hard workers. And they’re scattered over the last 45 years or so. The worst one was from Montana. And he admits it. Got there, realized he didn’t want to be in a short time span and loafed around, then quit.

[Cataholic]

Work ethic and dedication is such an interesting topic. Everyone has the ability to be dedicated. It is up to the individual to make that commitment. It is not because of the zip code they grew up in.

I know of two incredible athletes that played together at the same high school in Montana. Both were considered Top 5 Montana recruits their senior year. Each had sub-11.00 speed and played for the same coaches with same facilities. Both were expected to be successful in college but one was a “guarantee” due to his work ethic. The other had “questions” for the same reason. The guarantee became one of the best Bobcats of all time. The other left football after his sophomore year.

The biggest difference I saw between the two was the “guarantee” came from a middle class family was taught to understand the importance of working hard. The other came from moderate wealth was never really held to be accountable. The difference was upbringing. It had nothing to do with zip code.

[Colter_Nuanez]

[CodyCat]

There was a giant reunion of former Bobcat players who played when I first started covering MSU in the early 2010s at the game. Mitch Herbert, West Wilson, Isaiah Ifanse, Damien Washington (who lives in Bozeman), Dakota Prukop, Elvis Akpla, Anthony Cosme-Peko, Julius Lloyd, Willie Patterson....

None of those guys are from Montana...all absolutely LOVE Montana and are the proudest Bobcats around. I promise you guys like Elvis Akpla, Mitch Herbert, Dakota Prukop worked just as hard if not harder than anyone Montana State has had during their MSU careers....

Thank you for posting this. What stupid posts suggesting that non Montanans don’t work just as hard.

[MSU01]

Monymony needs to spend less time on eGriz, as Mark Twain rightly pointed out the idiots over there are dragging him down to their level.

[Monymony]

There was a giant reunion of former Bobcat players who played when I first started covering MSU in the early 2010s at the game. Mitch Herbert, West Wilson, Isaiah Ifanse, Damien Washington (who lives in Bozeman), Dakota Prukop, Elvis Akpla, Anthony Cosme-Peko, Julius Lloyd, Willie Patterson....

None of those guys are from Montana...all absolutely LOVE Montana and are the proudest Bobcats around. I promise you guys like Elvis Akpla, Mitch Herbert, Dakota Prukop worked just as hard if not harder than anyone Montana State has had during their MSU careers....

My question though, if Montana State meant so much to Ifanse and Prukop why did they leave?

[Monymony]

My point is Montana boys understand immediately how big Bobcat football is for them. They care more about the program and the future as the program as they are Montanans. I believe this different level of passion flows over into harder work, while not always, I’d say the do care more.

[tetoncat]

There was a giant reunion of former Bobcat players who played when I first started covering MSU in the early 2010s at the game. Mitch Herbert, West Wilson, Isaiah Ifanse, Damien Washington (who lives in Bozeman), Dakota Prukop, Elvis Akpla, Anthony Cosme-Peko, Julius Lloyd, Willie Patterson....

None of those guys are from Montana...all absolutely LOVE Montana and are the proudest Bobcats around. I promise you guys like Elvis Akpla, Mitch Herbert, Dakota Prukop worked just as hard if not harder than anyone Montana State has had during their MSU careers....

My question though, if Montana State meant so much to Ifanse and Prukop why did they leave?

Ifanse had an extra covid year. Prukop I believe had degree and chance to be Power 5. If you graduated and went to UM for law school would MSU mean less to you.

[tdub]

My point is Montana boys understand immediately how big Bobcat football is for them. They care more about the program and the future as the program as they are Montanans. I believe this different level of passion flows over into harder work, while not always, I’d say the do care more.

Just put the shovel down man. You can’t dig out of this hole. For every one Prukop or Ifanse scenario, there’s 20 that bleed Bobcat blood through and through.

[Hi-Line Bobcat]

To disregard the comment “Montana players care more”, is either being guarded or disingenuous, because it is mostly the truth. You can put in as much work as the other guy, but caring is both a feeling and actionable term. Montanas do care more for the most part, because duh, they grew up here. I love out of state guys (just not the yuppies moving to Montana), and we wouldn’t be here as a program without them, but both can be true. If you don’t think that your to scared to say it out loud, due to the fine line all of us walk. Go cats and look forward to next month.

[tdub]

To disregard the comment “Montana players care more”, is either being guarded or disingenuous, because it is mostly the truth. You can put in as much work as the other guy, but caring is both a feeling and actionable term. Montanas do care more for the most part, because duh, they grew up here. I love out of state guys (just not the yuppies moving to Montana), and we wouldn’t be here as a program without them, but both can be true. If you don’t think that your to scared to say it out loud, due to the fine line all of us walk. Go cats and look forward to next month.

I absolutely know there’s an ingrained passion for most in-state kids. It’s part of the reason why I’m a passionate fan. But “care more” and “work harder” aren’t necessarily true.

[Cataholic]

My point is Montana boys understand immediately how big Bobcat football is for them. They care more about the program and the future as the program as they are Montanans. I believe this different level of passion flows over into harder work, while not always, I’d say the do care more.

This shouldn’t surprise you, but a number of current MSU guys were actually UM fans growing up. Heck, RJ Fitzgerald’s dads was part of the Gris national championship and RJ became one of the most passionate and loved Bobcats of all time.

[TomCat88]

To disregard the comment “Montana players care more”, is either being guarded or disingenuous, because it is mostly the truth. You can put in as much work as the other guy, but caring is both a feeling and actionable term. Montanas do care more for the most part, because duh, they grew up here. I love out of state guys (just not the yuppies moving to Montana), and we wouldn’t be here as a program without them, but both can be true. If you don’t think that your to scared to say it out loud, due to the fine line all of us walk. Go cats and look forward to next month.

Lots of Montanans say that some out of state Montanans care more about Montana, than native, multi-generational Montanans. Since that’s true then why can’t out of state players care more than in state players?

[utucats]

This thread

[BLACKnBLUEnGOLD]

I'd buy that Montana players care more about the Cat-Griz game.

I absolutely don't buy that Montana players work harder than out-of-state players. Am I really supposed to believe that Denarius, Quinn Catalano, Ty Okada, and Lewis Kidd were getting outworked just because they're not from Kalispell? No effing way.

When you say something like that, you're dissing an awful lot of great Bobcats. It's crap.