Receiver Kevin Kassis and tight end Ryan Davis
Photo by: Adrian Sanchez-Gonzalez
BOBCAT FOOTBALL IN THE 2010s: The Receivers and Tight Ends
12/28/2019 2:00:00 PM | Football
A look at MSU's pass-catchers in the past decade
Rather than ranking the top Bobcat football players, games, and other moments from the decade that's coming to a close, let's take a look back position group by position group, and all that the 2010s brought Bobcat fans. It was quite a decade!
RECEIVERS/TIGHT ENDS
If you want to find the smartest guys on any football team you always start with the… receivers?
Yep… at Montana State, you can start in the receivers room. The decade started with junior Elvis Akpla and redshirt freshman Tanner Bleskin playing receiver for the Bobcats, ended with two-time captain Kevin Kassis, also an academic star, and Travis Jonsen, a one-time Oregon quarterback who played brilliant football as a receiver and Wildcat quarterback at MSU. In between there was Mitch Herbert, like Bleskin a CoSIDA Academic All-America, and many other smart and tough players.
And the receiver position offers at MSU in the past decade offers us great, great stories. Julius Lloyd – "Jumping Julius" made great and important catches during the team's first championship season of the decade… Tanner Bleskin's quiet demeanor belied a fierce, fiery competitiveness, and he was faster than he ever got credit for but took big hits and made brilliant catches and he remains the school's career receiving leader and an Academic All-America… Mitch Griebel was a crafty pass-catcher who could stand as a good working definition of a prototypical slot receiver… Mitch Herbert was another Academic All-America receiver whose productivity far out-stripped his natural ability whose father was a UM athlete and whose brother Justin was a Heisman Trophy finalist… Kevin Kassis came to MSU as not much more than a walk-on and through dogged determination rose from role-playing slot receiver to do-everything pass-catcher.
Kassis and Jonsen are worth another quick look for the disparate paths that brought them to MSU. Current MSU offensive coordinator Matt Miller knew of Kassis while coaching at Boise State, and added him to his new school's recruiting list. Kassis came from near Sacramento area for a partial scholarship, worked his way into the rotation as a true freshman with nine catches, then caught 21 as a sophomore. By the end of that season he had transformed his body, learned and played each of the receiver positions as well as taking a few snaps and throwing a few passes. By the end of his career he was among the top 10 receivers in program history in catches and receiving yards and a two-time captain. Jonsen, as a dual-threat high school quarterback from southern California, ranked ahead of players such as Lamar Jackson. But things didn't work out at Oregon, and after one junior college season he landed at MSU. A broken foot suffered in the off-season set him back, and by the time the 2018 season began he was a receiver. Jonsen took to his new role effectively, but more importantly willingly, catching 83 passes in his two seasons, including a huge catch to set up an important touchdown in the 2018 comeback in Missoula. He also gained tough yards between the tackles as a rusher, and also emerged as an excellent special teams player.
There's really no way to quantify how important the tight end position is in Montana State's offense, especially not catches. That was somewhat less true earlier in the decade, when Tiai Salanoa was one of the most important Bobcats, a two-time all-conference player who caught 43 passes while plowing huge holes as a junior and senior. A year later, in 2015, Beau Sandland joined Blake Wolf (2004) as MSU's only All-America tight ends since Joe Bignell more than three decades earlier by catching 37 passes, nine for touchdowns. Connor Sullivan was a dual-threat tight end for the Cats for a couple of seasons, catching one enormous and memorable pass in Washington-Grizzly Stadium in 2016, but with RJ Fitzgerald, Derryk Snell, Ryan Davis and Jacob Hadley the position has morphed into an amalgamation of fullback/H-Back/traditional tight end. Those four combined to catch just 11 passes, but played a key role in MSU's record-setting ground game.
Here is a look at Montana State's receivers and tight ends during the 2010s…
PRIMARY STARTERS (Those who started the most games at a position for each season from 2010-19)
OUTSIDE RECEIVER: Elvis Akpla (2010-11), Jon Ellis (2012-13), Mitchell Herbert (2014-17), Travis Jonsen (2018-19)
OUTSIDE RECEIVER: Julius Lloyd (2010), Tanner Bleskin (2011-13), Tanner Roderick (2014), Justin Paige (2015-16), Jabarri Johnson (2017), Lance McCutcheon (2018), Kevin Kassis (2019)
SLOT: Everett Gilbert (2010-12), Brian Floetkoetter (2013), Mitch Griebel (2014-15), Kevin Kassis (2016-18), Coy Steel (2019)
TIGHT ENDS: Kyle Begger (2010), Steven Foster (2011), Tiai Salanoa (2012-14), Beau Sandland (2015), Austin Barth (2016), Connor Sullivan (2017-18), Ryan Davis/RJ Fitzgerald (2019)
NATIONAL ACADEMIC HONORS: Tanner Bleskin – CoSIDA Academic All-America 2012-13, Mitchell Herbert CoSIDA Academic All-America 2017
ALL-AMERICA: Elvis Akpla (3rd Team, 2011), TE Beau Sandland (2nd Team, 2015).
FIRST TEAM ALL-BIG SKY: Elvis Akpla (2011), TE Tiai Salanoa (2013-14), TE Beau Sandland (2015).
RECEIVERS COACHES: Brian Von Bergen (2010-13), Cody Kempt (2014-15), Matt Miller (2017-18), Erik Frazier (2019).
TIGHT ENDS COACHES: Dale Ploessl (2010), Erik Link (2011-12), Daniel DaPrato (2013-15), BJ Robertson (2016-17), Brian Armstrong (2018), Nate Potter (2019)
RECEIVERS/TIGHT ENDS
If you want to find the smartest guys on any football team you always start with the… receivers?
Yep… at Montana State, you can start in the receivers room. The decade started with junior Elvis Akpla and redshirt freshman Tanner Bleskin playing receiver for the Bobcats, ended with two-time captain Kevin Kassis, also an academic star, and Travis Jonsen, a one-time Oregon quarterback who played brilliant football as a receiver and Wildcat quarterback at MSU. In between there was Mitch Herbert, like Bleskin a CoSIDA Academic All-America, and many other smart and tough players.
And the receiver position offers at MSU in the past decade offers us great, great stories. Julius Lloyd – "Jumping Julius" made great and important catches during the team's first championship season of the decade… Tanner Bleskin's quiet demeanor belied a fierce, fiery competitiveness, and he was faster than he ever got credit for but took big hits and made brilliant catches and he remains the school's career receiving leader and an Academic All-America… Mitch Griebel was a crafty pass-catcher who could stand as a good working definition of a prototypical slot receiver… Mitch Herbert was another Academic All-America receiver whose productivity far out-stripped his natural ability whose father was a UM athlete and whose brother Justin was a Heisman Trophy finalist… Kevin Kassis came to MSU as not much more than a walk-on and through dogged determination rose from role-playing slot receiver to do-everything pass-catcher.
Kassis and Jonsen are worth another quick look for the disparate paths that brought them to MSU. Current MSU offensive coordinator Matt Miller knew of Kassis while coaching at Boise State, and added him to his new school's recruiting list. Kassis came from near Sacramento area for a partial scholarship, worked his way into the rotation as a true freshman with nine catches, then caught 21 as a sophomore. By the end of that season he had transformed his body, learned and played each of the receiver positions as well as taking a few snaps and throwing a few passes. By the end of his career he was among the top 10 receivers in program history in catches and receiving yards and a two-time captain. Jonsen, as a dual-threat high school quarterback from southern California, ranked ahead of players such as Lamar Jackson. But things didn't work out at Oregon, and after one junior college season he landed at MSU. A broken foot suffered in the off-season set him back, and by the time the 2018 season began he was a receiver. Jonsen took to his new role effectively, but more importantly willingly, catching 83 passes in his two seasons, including a huge catch to set up an important touchdown in the 2018 comeback in Missoula. He also gained tough yards between the tackles as a rusher, and also emerged as an excellent special teams player.
There's really no way to quantify how important the tight end position is in Montana State's offense, especially not catches. That was somewhat less true earlier in the decade, when Tiai Salanoa was one of the most important Bobcats, a two-time all-conference player who caught 43 passes while plowing huge holes as a junior and senior. A year later, in 2015, Beau Sandland joined Blake Wolf (2004) as MSU's only All-America tight ends since Joe Bignell more than three decades earlier by catching 37 passes, nine for touchdowns. Connor Sullivan was a dual-threat tight end for the Cats for a couple of seasons, catching one enormous and memorable pass in Washington-Grizzly Stadium in 2016, but with RJ Fitzgerald, Derryk Snell, Ryan Davis and Jacob Hadley the position has morphed into an amalgamation of fullback/H-Back/traditional tight end. Those four combined to catch just 11 passes, but played a key role in MSU's record-setting ground game.
Here is a look at Montana State's receivers and tight ends during the 2010s…
PRIMARY STARTERS (Those who started the most games at a position for each season from 2010-19)
OUTSIDE RECEIVER: Elvis Akpla (2010-11), Jon Ellis (2012-13), Mitchell Herbert (2014-17), Travis Jonsen (2018-19)
OUTSIDE RECEIVER: Julius Lloyd (2010), Tanner Bleskin (2011-13), Tanner Roderick (2014), Justin Paige (2015-16), Jabarri Johnson (2017), Lance McCutcheon (2018), Kevin Kassis (2019)
SLOT: Everett Gilbert (2010-12), Brian Floetkoetter (2013), Mitch Griebel (2014-15), Kevin Kassis (2016-18), Coy Steel (2019)
TIGHT ENDS: Kyle Begger (2010), Steven Foster (2011), Tiai Salanoa (2012-14), Beau Sandland (2015), Austin Barth (2016), Connor Sullivan (2017-18), Ryan Davis/RJ Fitzgerald (2019)
NATIONAL ACADEMIC HONORS: Tanner Bleskin – CoSIDA Academic All-America 2012-13, Mitchell Herbert CoSIDA Academic All-America 2017
ALL-AMERICA: Elvis Akpla (3rd Team, 2011), TE Beau Sandland (2nd Team, 2015).
FIRST TEAM ALL-BIG SKY: Elvis Akpla (2011), TE Tiai Salanoa (2013-14), TE Beau Sandland (2015).
RECEIVERS COACHES: Brian Von Bergen (2010-13), Cody Kempt (2014-15), Matt Miller (2017-18), Erik Frazier (2019).
TIGHT ENDS COACHES: Dale Ploessl (2010), Erik Link (2011-12), Daniel DaPrato (2013-15), BJ Robertson (2016-17), Brian Armstrong (2018), Nate Potter (2019)
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