Bobcats By the Numbers: #99
5/28/2015 4:13:00 PM | Football
A look at the number 99 through MSU history...
Every day we look at players who donned the jersey number corresponding to the number of days until the Bobcats open the 2015 season on September 3 against Fort Lewis College. The list of MSU football players by the jersey number is based on preseason rosters. The set of available rosters is complete from 1946-81 and '83-present. Only the 1926-27, 1934, 1937 and 1941 rosters are available in the pre-WWII years. Corrections, additions, or rosters that fill out the set will be welcomed enthusiastically via e-mail at: blamberty@msubobcats.com. Complaints about featured players also welcome, but possibly with less enthusiasm.
99
Current #99 – Marcus Ferriter, DE, Butte. (This Year) A highly-touted defensive end prospect from Butte Central... joins his brother Sean, an All-Big Sky thrower on the Bobcat track and field team who qualified for the NCAA West Regional Championships this season… was First Team All-Class A for the Butte Central Maroons... started 40 straight games for the Maroons.
Spotlight Player: Dick Lyman was a First Team All-Big Sky defensive tackle in 1976, which was news. The bigger news was that he was in the lineup at all after a serious bout with Crohn's Disease sidelined him for the entire 1975 campaign. Rather than bluff our way through the story based on media guide tidbits and ancient statistics, in many cases this year Bobcats By the Numbers will let those who saw these great Cats tell the tale. Long-time MSU Athletic Trainer Chuck Karnop on Dick Lyman: "He was a big guy, tall and big-bodied, and he could run. He was pretty active. He was really a solid player. You weren't aware of him making a lot of great plays, but he always took care of business… He didn't make the big hit or the real physical play, and once he talked about the fact that he was always the biggest kid around, and that other kids would say things like, 'Don't fall on me, you might smother me,' things like that, and I think that really affected him."
Bonus Player: One of the most engaging and pleasant Bobcats in recent memory, Aaron Papich followed an improbable path to a very productive career at MSU. A standout football player and wrestler at Great Falls High, he did not fully qualify initially. He enrolled at MSU in January of 2004 as a walk-on, and turned heads during the spring. He played in all 11 games in the fall of 2004, contributing immediately. Papich became a starter as a sophomore in 2005, but battled a rash of injuries in 2006. He was a Second Team All-Big Sky defensive tackle as a sophomore and senior, finishing with 27.5 career tackles-for-loss. He was appointed team captain as a senior.
Notable #99s in the Bobcat Past: Willie Kofe turned in an outstanding freshman campaign as a Bobcat in 2000, but after completing an LDS mission he ended up playing at Arizona State, and has coached at both Sacramento State and UC Davis… Nick Barbero played only six games as a defensive end-turned-tight end for the Cats, and caught just two passes. But one of them was a monster – on MSU's first possession of a crucial 2003 conference game at Weber State, Barbero leaked out as the second tight end and caught a 62-yard scoring strike from Travis Lulay. That set career highs for Lulay to that point of 324 yards and four TD passes. Barbero caught only one other pass at MSU and left after that season.
Through the years: Tom Powell (1975), Dick Lyman (1974, '76), Chris Jensen (1977), Jim Missel (1979-80), Gregg Wilks (1984), Tom Jacobs (1985-87), Matt Christiansen (1988-91), Dallen Bjerkness (1992-96), Jarrod Beekley (1997-98), Carson Souter (1999), William Kofe (2000), Aaron Ware (2001), Nick Barbero (2002-03), Aaron Papich (2004-07), Brian Bignell (2008-12), Dallas Hayes (2013), Marcus Ferriter (2015-)
Other 99 Notes: No player wearing the number 99 has ever earned All-America honors for the Bobcats… the only First Team All-Big Sky choice to wear 99 for MSU was Dick Lyman in the school's 1976 National Championship season.
99
Current #99 – Marcus Ferriter, DE, Butte. (This Year) A highly-touted defensive end prospect from Butte Central... joins his brother Sean, an All-Big Sky thrower on the Bobcat track and field team who qualified for the NCAA West Regional Championships this season… was First Team All-Class A for the Butte Central Maroons... started 40 straight games for the Maroons.
Spotlight Player: Dick Lyman was a First Team All-Big Sky defensive tackle in 1976, which was news. The bigger news was that he was in the lineup at all after a serious bout with Crohn's Disease sidelined him for the entire 1975 campaign. Rather than bluff our way through the story based on media guide tidbits and ancient statistics, in many cases this year Bobcats By the Numbers will let those who saw these great Cats tell the tale. Long-time MSU Athletic Trainer Chuck Karnop on Dick Lyman: "He was a big guy, tall and big-bodied, and he could run. He was pretty active. He was really a solid player. You weren't aware of him making a lot of great plays, but he always took care of business… He didn't make the big hit or the real physical play, and once he talked about the fact that he was always the biggest kid around, and that other kids would say things like, 'Don't fall on me, you might smother me,' things like that, and I think that really affected him."
Bonus Player: One of the most engaging and pleasant Bobcats in recent memory, Aaron Papich followed an improbable path to a very productive career at MSU. A standout football player and wrestler at Great Falls High, he did not fully qualify initially. He enrolled at MSU in January of 2004 as a walk-on, and turned heads during the spring. He played in all 11 games in the fall of 2004, contributing immediately. Papich became a starter as a sophomore in 2005, but battled a rash of injuries in 2006. He was a Second Team All-Big Sky defensive tackle as a sophomore and senior, finishing with 27.5 career tackles-for-loss. He was appointed team captain as a senior.
Notable #99s in the Bobcat Past: Willie Kofe turned in an outstanding freshman campaign as a Bobcat in 2000, but after completing an LDS mission he ended up playing at Arizona State, and has coached at both Sacramento State and UC Davis… Nick Barbero played only six games as a defensive end-turned-tight end for the Cats, and caught just two passes. But one of them was a monster – on MSU's first possession of a crucial 2003 conference game at Weber State, Barbero leaked out as the second tight end and caught a 62-yard scoring strike from Travis Lulay. That set career highs for Lulay to that point of 324 yards and four TD passes. Barbero caught only one other pass at MSU and left after that season.
Through the years: Tom Powell (1975), Dick Lyman (1974, '76), Chris Jensen (1977), Jim Missel (1979-80), Gregg Wilks (1984), Tom Jacobs (1985-87), Matt Christiansen (1988-91), Dallen Bjerkness (1992-96), Jarrod Beekley (1997-98), Carson Souter (1999), William Kofe (2000), Aaron Ware (2001), Nick Barbero (2002-03), Aaron Papich (2004-07), Brian Bignell (2008-12), Dallas Hayes (2013), Marcus Ferriter (2015-)
Other 99 Notes: No player wearing the number 99 has ever earned All-America honors for the Bobcats… the only First Team All-Big Sky choice to wear 99 for MSU was Dick Lyman in the school's 1976 National Championship season.
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