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Instate Recruiting

BrownBear9501 said:
A point they mentioned was that last year there were 8 Montana natives that were Big Sky All conference players. Out of those 8, 7 were bobcats. Not sure about anyone else but as a Griz fan I don’t believe that is a “win” for us when you see that piece of data.
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Not sure I believe the stat either.
 
Copper Griz said:
Sorry, but your argument sounds like you are old and out of touch. Everyone freaking out about in state kids. How many have transferred from both programs for NAIA schools? Montana kids don’t equate to home runs every recruiting cycle. Times have changed. Bobby isn’t recruiting against Cliff, the Big Unit or Rob Ash anymore. Bozeman changed. Yeah, the city and the University. U of M stubbed their toe during that time period. Bozeman caught up. That’s great for the rivalry and Montana as a whole. It has taken years for U of M to try and right the ship. Years! EWU is no longer a powerhouse. Weber is a train wreck and Idaho stinks. Weird, but times changed and those programs are struggling to keep up. The moral of the story is nothing stays the same and Schmidt is living in the last. I also don’t think he likes Bobby and has a major case of butt hurt over the Sentinel situation where the lad ended up at MSU for his unsavory remarks. (I actually think he is probably a decent kid and just made a dumb mistake).
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Very good post. Obviously, I agree.
 
Listen….i hate the Cats as much as the next person but out of the former cat players I mentioned that were big contributors to their best team in program history: Grebe, Mellott, Jones, Ortt, Wehr, Dowler bris., even Brott and Eiden IV….as a Griz fan are you satisfied that we didn’t get any of these Montana guys?. We are the Griz, not Weber State or Northern Colorado. The expectation is that we should get the best in state dudes every year. When did the mentality of making excuses for not getting the job done with in-state recruits become acceptable?
 
mthoopsfan said:
Not sure I believe the stat either.
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You're right.....MSU had 6, UM had 1 and Idaho had 1.

1st Team:
Tommy Mellott (MSU)
Marcus Wehr (MSU)
Brody Grebe (MSU)
Keyshawn James-Newby (Idaho)
McCade O'Reilly (MSU)
Rylan Ortt (MSU)
Junior Bergen (UM)
Taco Dowler (MSU)
 
Well we can argue about in state vs out of state, but we have one of the highest GPA’s on record for our football players, something we pride ourselves on and report on. 13 straight semesters over 3.0 and continues to climb. That team across the divide doesn’t even report their football team GPA, just makes blanket statements.

When was the last time we had a player in trouble off the field? Le Texier? 5 years ago and the charges were dropped. Never became a prominent player and transferred to Idaho. In that time we’ve seen multiple bobcats arrested for domestic abuse and kicked off the team and found guilty. We’ve seen multiple bobcat assistant coaches arrested in connection with DUI’s and later plead or were found guilty. When was the last Griz football assistant that got in trouble? 2 decades ago?

Schmidt stated that he’s a baiter just like Haley. He’s reaching and though they may be upset this isn’t the glory days of the 2000’s, many aspects of the program are better now than they ever have been.

Everyone is mad about Jones, we had Iverson Young at the time who was our highest rated recruit ever. Maybe if it was an in state kid he wouldn’t have left, but can you imagine had he have stuck it out? We need to find the best player period. Pretending that all of MSDUI’s starters are Montana kids and that we have none is disingenuous. Do they have more, sure. We can be mad about legacy players, wasn’t RO suspended d/t a banned substance?

They’re also mad about Zack Crews. It was his own actions that took away his shot playing here. Remember that. You can be mad that they drug his path to redemption along then didn’t bring him on, but if it weren’t for his part in it, he would be here today. Has it had an effect on recruiting guys at Sentinel, sure. Maybe having higher standards now isn’t the worst thing in the world.

We were in the title game 2 years ago. Something we hadn’t seen in 15 years. We have the best record since that same period of the 08-09 teams to this point in the season. Maybe this isn’t a team equivalent to those, maybe it is. Yet to be determined.

I’ve been critical of BH 2.0 many times, but he’s adjusted more than he ever did in the past. The portal wasn’t a thing back then. You couldn’t just take off if wanted to because you’d gave to sit a year. It’s a whole different world now. He’s learning to recruit it like everyone else. He’s moved on from good friends/assistants like Germer and Rosenbach which none of us thought he would do. He’s continually brought in quality coaches and assistants and analysts d/t his connections and continues to bring in guys you would never expect to come in like Kennedy, Price, Bradford, and Linehan.

Now we get mad about middle runs, but it sure seems like he has taken the handcuffs off of the offense for the most part and we’ve seen much more parity in the play calling.

I’m fine with where Bobby has us as a program and with recruits. Pretending that a Montana kid from 6 hours away is anymore local than a kid from ID or Wa that is 3-4 hours away is dumb. Recruit the best players, put together the best team each year. We will see if having a single window helps our coaches focus their efforts in recruiting without killing themselves as well.
 
mthoopsfan said:
What was the stat the prior year?
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Don’t know but I think we should have more Montana born all conference guys every year. That should be the expectation. Fact of the matter is no one was happy with last season and going 9-5 while our hated rivals rattle off 15 straight wins and a title appearance just a year after we go to the chipper ourselves.
 
Just did a quick count: MSU had 5 first teamers from MT, Griz had 4 (5 if you count Junior Bergen for making it in two positions).
 
The Cats are stuck on the traditional recruiting method of going after high school players in Montana who let’s face it even in AA are not regularly facing the best competition while the Griz are taking guys who have already played at the college level, often times from the FBS, guys who would not look at Montana or Montana State out of high school but now have college experience are the guys the Griz are going after.
 
BrownBear9501 said:
Don’t know but I think we should have more Montana born all conference guys every year. That should be the expectation. Fact of the matter is no one was happy with last season and going 9-5 while our hated rivals rattle off 15 straight wins and a title appearance just a year after we go to the chipper ourselves.
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Why would we be happy with more Montana kids rather than more wins? I don't understand this fascination with how many players on the team grew up in Montana. We want the best players. And once they put that jersey on, they are ALL Montana. Some of those people go on to become lifelong Montanans and Missoulians.

Gubner is back. Cam Humphrey stuck around. Sammy Akem is not only a great addition to being a sports fan in the Big Sky, but he is also a wonderful human being who is a wonderful person to have in the community. I know that there are many, many more. There is no reason to discriminate against people just because their parents didn't have the good fortune to raise them in Montana.
 
Grizzinator said:
Schmidt also makes the point that Bozeman recruits report a similar approach of feeling welcomed and part of a family. Then he says UM takes more of a “lucky to be offered and have a chance to play here” approach. I’m sure he’s oversimplified the sentiment but it’s also fair to question approaches if legacy kids from Missoula are choosing to go east.
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Honest questions here. Should all legacy kids be entitled to Griz offers? Do you value a legacy kid of a Griz great over the legacy kid of a career practice squad guy? If a coach gets the vibe a legacy isnt wanting to play the position he’s projected at, do they offer anyway to keep the neighbors from grabbing a recruit from “your backyard”?
If the Griz had recruited Griz legacy Rylan Ortt, would the local news have been relentless and run Bobby out of town for running a dirty program after Ortt got suspended for PED’s?
 
Wolf777 said:
Now do 2023?
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First or second team all conference players from montana since 2018

2018
Montana State -
Troy Andersen - Dillon
Mitch Brott - Billings
Tucker Yates - Colstrip

Montana
Jace Lewis, Townsend
Jesse Sims - Stevensville

2019
MSU
Mitch Brott
Troy Andersen
Josh Hill - Glacier
Brayden Konkol - Belgrade
Derek Marks - Belgrade
Chase Benson - Helena

UM
Jace Lewis
Jesse Sims
Josh Sandry - Big Fork

2021
MSU
Lance McCutcheon - Bozeman
Chase Benson
Callahan O’Reilly - Bozeman

UM
Patrick O’Connell - Kalispell
Brian Buschini, P - Helena
Trevin Gradney, Billings -
Jace Lewis

2022
MSU
Brody Grebe - Melstone
Tommy Mellott - Butte

UM
O’Connell

2023
MSU
Treyton Pickering - Sunburst
Marcus Wehr - Billings
Brody Grebe
Nolan Askelson- Billings
Tommy Mellott

UM
Junior Bergen - Billings
Braxton Hill - Montana
Trevin Gradney
Levi Janacaro - Missoula

2024
MSU
Tommy Mellott
Brody Grebe
Marcus Wehr
McCade O’Reilly
Rylan Ortt
Adam Jones
Taco Dowler
Paul Brott
Kenneth Eiden

UM
Junior Bergen
Ryan Tirrell
Trevin Gradney
TJ Rausch
 
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PTGrizzly said:
To a point, you are correct. However, just for example, look at the year Adam Jones graduated. There absolutely was room for him in the class. If the talent is good enough, it is not going to be an either/or. You make room for good talent that you can develop.
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We signed 4* Inverson Young in the same cycle the cats recruited Jones. Any coach would have done the same, even the cats were recruiting Iverson. Now if Bobby had had a crystal ball and knew Iverson would transfer to be closer to home and Jones was going to have a breakout year, maybe he wouldn’t have recruited differently.
 
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grizfnz said:
We signed 4* Inverson Young in the same cycle the cats recruited Jones. Any coach would have done the same, even the cats were recruiting Iverson. Now if Bobby had had a crystal ball and knew Iverson would transfer to be closer to home and Jones was going to have a breakout year, maybe he wouldn’t have recruited differently.
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I would certainly hope they weren’t recruiting him based on how many stars he had.

The problem with Young isn’t that he transferred, it’s that he wasn’t very good.
 
PTGrizzly said:
To a point, you are correct. However, just for example, look at the year Adam Jones graduated. There absolutely was room for him in the class. If the talent is good enough, it is not going to be an either/or. You make room for good talent that you can develop.
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You assume Jones had real interest in Montana. I don't think you should assume that.
 
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