BOBCATS BY THE NUMBERS: It's Mitch Brott Days Until Kickoff!
6/29/2019 3:00:00 PM | Football
The anchor of Montana State's offensive line has started 35 straight games
June 29: In addition to a quick look at players wearing the jersey number corresponding to the number of days remaining until Montana State's season opener at Texas Tech on August 31, Bobcats by the Numbers brings you another tidbit or two aligning with that number.
#63
Mitch Brott, OT: The recent lineage of offensive tackles at Montana State is impressive. From Mitch Brott, who enters his senior season in 2019 as a 2nd Team All-Big Sky (yeah, it baffles us too, because he was the best left tackle in the league last year for BBTN's money), the line is not direct but traces a long way back to include luminaries such as John Weidenaar, Mike Person, Peder Jensen, Brent Swaggert and Josh Hausmann. There are many others, but the point is that Mitch Brott appears ready to assume that role. Brott plays with the intensity – some call it playing nasty or playing angry, but it amounts to the willingness to finish every play as hard as you started it – and intelligence, a little attitude, and great pride. The one-time Freshman All-America has started each of his 35 games at Montana State is poised to become the program's next All-America tackle.
63 – Wins by Montana State in the original Rocky Mountain Conference
Montana State played in conferences in the early years of intercollegiate athletics at the school and in the region. Treasure State schools formed a conference for a time, and Montana State also competed in the Northwest Intercollegiate Conference for a short time, but the school's first membership in a full-fledged regional league in 1915. Montana State – a few months from becoming the Bobcats, and playing as a de facto affiliate member that year – played only three Rocky Mountain Conference games in 1915, losing to Colorado College and Denver on an early-season six-day road trip but beating Utah State at home to close the season. The team's only RMC game in 1916 was a tie with Utah State – MSC's primary out-of-state rival before World War II – and in fact the Cats didn't play more than two league games in any season until 1924, when Ott Romney's third squad played three. The 1925 Bobcats finished 1-4 in Rocky Mountain play, but the program's zenith in that conference covered Romney's final two seasons and the team's first two under Schubert Dyche. MSC was 4-0 in the league in 1926, missing out on the conference title only because Utah – who the Cats did not meet – finished 5-0. MSC's string of league wins began with a 6-3 victory over Colorado at Boulder, and included wins over Colorado State College (now Northern Colorado), BYU, and Wyoming (in Casper). "(T)hey cannot win the conference title, due to their inability to schedule more than four conference games this year," the November 29, 1926 Exponent reported. The Cats finished 3-1 in league play in 1927, 3-2 in 1928, and 2-1 in 1929. Those marked the program's only winning league records until after World War II. The 1937 season marked the final season before charter member Colorado and early league rivals Colorado State, Denver, Utah, BYU and Wyoming bolted because membership had drifted to far toward the smaller schools such as Northern Colorado, Colorado School of Mines, Montana State (although the Bobcats played competitive football for most of their membership and proved to be one of the league's best basketball schools), Western State and Colorado College. At a time when gate revenue was the only real source of generated income in college athletics, a geographical outlier with little to offer in terms of population did not fit the designs of schools closer to Denver and Salt Lake City. Montana State remained in the trimmed down Rocky Mountain Conference until after the 1956-57 academic year, when it became an independent until helping to form the Big Sky Conference in 1963.
Chronology: Herb Roberts (1956), Bob Grine (1957), Phil Schneider (1959), Phil Schneider (1960-61), Larry Jones (1963-64), Stan Szczepanczyk (1965), Mike Volmer (1966-69), Phil Rubert (1970), Larry Stevenson (1971), Paul Klaboe (1972-73), Tim Nixon (1974-76), Tim McVicker (1977-79), Tim McVicker (1980), Eric Smith (1982), Dave Kuchar (1983-84), Pete Fusang (1985), Pat Harmon (1986), Corey Widmer (1987-90), Jeff Corbett (1991), Duff Wall (1992), Clay Allard (1993), Ty O'Connor (1994-98), Phil Espinoza (2000), Ben Smith (2001), Rory Canfield (2003), Sean Neil (2004-07), Neil Boyce (2008), Kyle Godecke (2011-15), Mitch Brott (2016-)
Other #63 Notes: After Corey Widmer and Ty O'Conner brought fame to #63 as 1990s era defensive linemen, that jersey number has resided on the other line of the scrimmage for most of the last decade at Montana State. Since reserve defensive lineman Sean Neil, a US Air Force veteran and excellent student, vacated that number in 2008 it has been occupied by a key offensive line cog every season but one. Kyle Godecke and Mitch Brott have held that number down with distinction since 2011… When life returned a new normal in the years after World War II, the dynamic of life on college campuses changed drastically, where the integration of military veterans back into mainstream life became a focal point. Beginning with what was officially called the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, the GI Bill addressed a wide range of issues pertaining to the re-integration of men and women who had helped the world persevere against the evils of Nazi Germany and the Axis powers. Part of that program, signed by Franklin Roosevelt, was an education provision that remained in effect for more than a decade (first providing free education to veterans, then insuring loans into the 1960s). Montana State's football program revived in 1946 on a jolt of returning military men, as the Cats reached their first ever bowl game, and a year later snapped a long losing streak against the Grizzlies. The success waned temporarily, but throughout the 1950s Montana State offered veterans the opportunity to play football while gaining their degree. One of those players was Herb Roberts. The Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, product was part of Coach Tony Storti's pipeline to the upper Midwest, and after 40 months as a U.S. Marine – which included time playing on service football teams – Roberts grabbed starting left tackle honors based on work done in pre-fall practices. Noted for his 'squat frame' and maturity in MSC publicity material, Roberts earned Third Team All-Rocky Mountain Conference honors as a true freshman, but "likes guard best and asked if he couldn't go back to that position" for the 1954 season. The change took, and the Cats finished 8-1 that season for the most wins in program history, the only blemish coming in controversial fashion in Missoula. Roberts' four-year starting career culminated with the Bobcats' 1956 National Championship, but there was a time when his career appeared in jeopardy. Roberts suffered injuries in an auto crash during the winter before his junior season that left him in a body cast all winter. But his presence stabilized the Bobcats in 1955 and during the championship run he was part of a senior class that helped integrate a sensationally talented group of freshmen that included future MSU Hall of Famers Sonny Holland, Charlie Jackson and Dave Alt.
#63
Mitch Brott, OT: The recent lineage of offensive tackles at Montana State is impressive. From Mitch Brott, who enters his senior season in 2019 as a 2nd Team All-Big Sky (yeah, it baffles us too, because he was the best left tackle in the league last year for BBTN's money), the line is not direct but traces a long way back to include luminaries such as John Weidenaar, Mike Person, Peder Jensen, Brent Swaggert and Josh Hausmann. There are many others, but the point is that Mitch Brott appears ready to assume that role. Brott plays with the intensity – some call it playing nasty or playing angry, but it amounts to the willingness to finish every play as hard as you started it – and intelligence, a little attitude, and great pride. The one-time Freshman All-America has started each of his 35 games at Montana State is poised to become the program's next All-America tackle.
63 – Wins by Montana State in the original Rocky Mountain Conference
Montana State played in conferences in the early years of intercollegiate athletics at the school and in the region. Treasure State schools formed a conference for a time, and Montana State also competed in the Northwest Intercollegiate Conference for a short time, but the school's first membership in a full-fledged regional league in 1915. Montana State – a few months from becoming the Bobcats, and playing as a de facto affiliate member that year – played only three Rocky Mountain Conference games in 1915, losing to Colorado College and Denver on an early-season six-day road trip but beating Utah State at home to close the season. The team's only RMC game in 1916 was a tie with Utah State – MSC's primary out-of-state rival before World War II – and in fact the Cats didn't play more than two league games in any season until 1924, when Ott Romney's third squad played three. The 1925 Bobcats finished 1-4 in Rocky Mountain play, but the program's zenith in that conference covered Romney's final two seasons and the team's first two under Schubert Dyche. MSC was 4-0 in the league in 1926, missing out on the conference title only because Utah – who the Cats did not meet – finished 5-0. MSC's string of league wins began with a 6-3 victory over Colorado at Boulder, and included wins over Colorado State College (now Northern Colorado), BYU, and Wyoming (in Casper). "(T)hey cannot win the conference title, due to their inability to schedule more than four conference games this year," the November 29, 1926 Exponent reported. The Cats finished 3-1 in league play in 1927, 3-2 in 1928, and 2-1 in 1929. Those marked the program's only winning league records until after World War II. The 1937 season marked the final season before charter member Colorado and early league rivals Colorado State, Denver, Utah, BYU and Wyoming bolted because membership had drifted to far toward the smaller schools such as Northern Colorado, Colorado School of Mines, Montana State (although the Bobcats played competitive football for most of their membership and proved to be one of the league's best basketball schools), Western State and Colorado College. At a time when gate revenue was the only real source of generated income in college athletics, a geographical outlier with little to offer in terms of population did not fit the designs of schools closer to Denver and Salt Lake City. Montana State remained in the trimmed down Rocky Mountain Conference until after the 1956-57 academic year, when it became an independent until helping to form the Big Sky Conference in 1963.
Chronology: Herb Roberts (1956), Bob Grine (1957), Phil Schneider (1959), Phil Schneider (1960-61), Larry Jones (1963-64), Stan Szczepanczyk (1965), Mike Volmer (1966-69), Phil Rubert (1970), Larry Stevenson (1971), Paul Klaboe (1972-73), Tim Nixon (1974-76), Tim McVicker (1977-79), Tim McVicker (1980), Eric Smith (1982), Dave Kuchar (1983-84), Pete Fusang (1985), Pat Harmon (1986), Corey Widmer (1987-90), Jeff Corbett (1991), Duff Wall (1992), Clay Allard (1993), Ty O'Connor (1994-98), Phil Espinoza (2000), Ben Smith (2001), Rory Canfield (2003), Sean Neil (2004-07), Neil Boyce (2008), Kyle Godecke (2011-15), Mitch Brott (2016-)
Other #63 Notes: After Corey Widmer and Ty O'Conner brought fame to #63 as 1990s era defensive linemen, that jersey number has resided on the other line of the scrimmage for most of the last decade at Montana State. Since reserve defensive lineman Sean Neil, a US Air Force veteran and excellent student, vacated that number in 2008 it has been occupied by a key offensive line cog every season but one. Kyle Godecke and Mitch Brott have held that number down with distinction since 2011… When life returned a new normal in the years after World War II, the dynamic of life on college campuses changed drastically, where the integration of military veterans back into mainstream life became a focal point. Beginning with what was officially called the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, the GI Bill addressed a wide range of issues pertaining to the re-integration of men and women who had helped the world persevere against the evils of Nazi Germany and the Axis powers. Part of that program, signed by Franklin Roosevelt, was an education provision that remained in effect for more than a decade (first providing free education to veterans, then insuring loans into the 1960s). Montana State's football program revived in 1946 on a jolt of returning military men, as the Cats reached their first ever bowl game, and a year later snapped a long losing streak against the Grizzlies. The success waned temporarily, but throughout the 1950s Montana State offered veterans the opportunity to play football while gaining their degree. One of those players was Herb Roberts. The Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, product was part of Coach Tony Storti's pipeline to the upper Midwest, and after 40 months as a U.S. Marine – which included time playing on service football teams – Roberts grabbed starting left tackle honors based on work done in pre-fall practices. Noted for his 'squat frame' and maturity in MSC publicity material, Roberts earned Third Team All-Rocky Mountain Conference honors as a true freshman, but "likes guard best and asked if he couldn't go back to that position" for the 1954 season. The change took, and the Cats finished 8-1 that season for the most wins in program history, the only blemish coming in controversial fashion in Missoula. Roberts' four-year starting career culminated with the Bobcats' 1956 National Championship, but there was a time when his career appeared in jeopardy. Roberts suffered injuries in an auto crash during the winter before his junior season that left him in a body cast all winter. But his presence stabilized the Bobcats in 1955 and during the championship run he was part of a senior class that helped integrate a sensationally talented group of freshmen that included future MSU Hall of Famers Sonny Holland, Charlie Jackson and Dave Alt.
Players Mentioned
OT
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