ALL-TIME BOBCATS TOP 25: #25 Junior Adams
8/12/2022 5:00:00 PM | Football
A brilliant receiver and return man, June Bug helped jolt the Bobcats into relevance
As we approach the 2022 football season and Gold Rush against McNeese on September 3 we're counting down Montana State's Top 25 football players in history to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the school's first football season. Here is a look at Junior Adams, who Bobcat fans voted the 25th-best player in school history. Adams is a great place to start, because his playmaking helped start the program's resurgence in 2001.
Junior Adams, WR/RS, 2001-02
ALL-TIME TEAM: None previously
HONORS: Honorable Mention All-America and 1st Team All-Big Sky Receiver and Return Specialist in 2002, 2nd Team All-Big Sky Receiver and Return Specialist in 2001
A CLOSER LOOK: Junior Adams stood with Tyler Thomas in a hallway deep in the administrative area of Brick Breeden Fieldhouse, nearly a thousand miles from Corvallis, Oregon, where they had played together for Oregon State just a couple months earlier. Both were ready for a fresh start in January, 2001, and so was Bobcat football coach Mike Kramer.
The Cats needed a major spark. Thomas, the lanky quarterback, and Adams, the electrifying receiver, came to Bozeman to provide it. And man, did they.
Thomas started for a year-and-a-half at quarterback, stabilizing the team's offense before yielding to Travis Lulay in the middle of his senior season. His greatest contribution was creating a positive atmosphere for the true freshman, who, in no small part because Thomas took his role as a team captain seriously, thrived.
The other part of the equation, Adams, became a Bobcat legend. The Bay Area native earned 2nd team All-Big Sky honors as a receiver and return man in 2001 before becoming an Honorable Mention All-America in 2002, when he also earned 1st Team honors as a receiver and return specialist.
Adams electrified with his play and his personality. He caught 40 passes for 652 yards and six touchdowns in an injury-shortened seniorseason, while returning 20 punts for 381 yards and three scores.
When Adams was most desperately needed, he delivered. In the second game of the 2001 season, with MSU mired in a 16-game losing streak, Adams caught five of Thomas' 11 completions for 153 yards and a 51-yard touchdown. And early in the fourth quarter, with the Bobcats clinging to a narrow 19-17 lead, Adams returned a punt 57 yards for a touchdown. That return jolted the Bobcat sideline, injected the entire program with belief that hadn't been present in years.
If that was the beginning of the Junior Adams legend, it was solidified 14 months later at the foot of Mt. Sentinel in blustery Missoula. On the first drive of the second half of the 2002 Cat-Griz game, with the Bobcats holding a 3-0 lead and trying desperately to end years of frustration against their arch-rival Grizzlies, Adams caught a short pass from Lulay (the play call was Empty Left 35 Mix) and bolted through the UM secondary for a touchdown. That play, and a suffocating effort by the Bobcat defense, boosted the Bobcats to a 10-7 win and set off a wild Blue and Gold celebration that stretched from the Washington-Grizzly Stadium playing field to downtown Bozeman to all corners of Montana and literally across the world.
Adams finished his Bobcat career as MSU's fifth-leading receiver in history with 1,635 yards and his eight TD catches in 2002 was sixth-most in a season at that time. His 17.3 yards per punt return, when remains a Bobcat record.
That Alton Adams, Jr., was a Bobcat great is evident in the numbers. That he is a legend is evident in the moments, the times when he brought Bobcat fans to their feet, the celebrations that his play triggered. He offered thrills and excitement, and mostly he and those phenomenal Bobcats of 2001 and 2002 offered hope.
FROM TRAVIS LULAY: "To this day it's so fun to play that June was my first go-to guy. Him and TT were close so that could have gone sour, so it took a little time. I'm sure there were conversations. To Tyler's credit he handled it well in the room with me that year, and I know it wasn't easy for June, too. But he took me under his wing. I remember one day in rookie training camp, and I had no idea I'd be playing a few weeks later, and I threw a TD to Junior on a conversion. I threw it and he thew it accurately and he caught it, and he looked at me and said, 'OK Lu Lu.'
"It's his senior year and he wanted it to go well, and he was always positive. And he made some great plays, too. And June was also like an older brother to me, and that's who he was because he started coaching after that. He was (Travis' brother) Tyler's position coach and he's had a great career. He's a great football coach. I was lucky to play with him."
FROM MIKE KRAMER: "There are too many accolades to be measured. Junior was tough, thorough, slight in build but wired.
"He was recommended to us by Coach Dennis Erickson. He had great tenacity, great ball to eye to hand deftness, and he was great in big games. Smooth and stylish. He was very good in practice, not at all a 'me' guy, smart and adaptive. He's the best slot receiver in MSU history and in Big Sky history, largely because he was unafraid. He was the quintessential receiver. With that said, he is the best former MSU player in college coaching (he is currently an assistant coach at Oregon), ever, including Coach Erickson. He is one of my all-time top three players."
Junior Adams, WR/RS, 2001-02
ALL-TIME TEAM: None previously
HONORS: Honorable Mention All-America and 1st Team All-Big Sky Receiver and Return Specialist in 2002, 2nd Team All-Big Sky Receiver and Return Specialist in 2001
A CLOSER LOOK: Junior Adams stood with Tyler Thomas in a hallway deep in the administrative area of Brick Breeden Fieldhouse, nearly a thousand miles from Corvallis, Oregon, where they had played together for Oregon State just a couple months earlier. Both were ready for a fresh start in January, 2001, and so was Bobcat football coach Mike Kramer.
The Cats needed a major spark. Thomas, the lanky quarterback, and Adams, the electrifying receiver, came to Bozeman to provide it. And man, did they.
Thomas started for a year-and-a-half at quarterback, stabilizing the team's offense before yielding to Travis Lulay in the middle of his senior season. His greatest contribution was creating a positive atmosphere for the true freshman, who, in no small part because Thomas took his role as a team captain seriously, thrived.
The other part of the equation, Adams, became a Bobcat legend. The Bay Area native earned 2nd team All-Big Sky honors as a receiver and return man in 2001 before becoming an Honorable Mention All-America in 2002, when he also earned 1st Team honors as a receiver and return specialist.
Adams electrified with his play and his personality. He caught 40 passes for 652 yards and six touchdowns in an injury-shortened seniorseason, while returning 20 punts for 381 yards and three scores.
When Adams was most desperately needed, he delivered. In the second game of the 2001 season, with MSU mired in a 16-game losing streak, Adams caught five of Thomas' 11 completions for 153 yards and a 51-yard touchdown. And early in the fourth quarter, with the Bobcats clinging to a narrow 19-17 lead, Adams returned a punt 57 yards for a touchdown. That return jolted the Bobcat sideline, injected the entire program with belief that hadn't been present in years.
If that was the beginning of the Junior Adams legend, it was solidified 14 months later at the foot of Mt. Sentinel in blustery Missoula. On the first drive of the second half of the 2002 Cat-Griz game, with the Bobcats holding a 3-0 lead and trying desperately to end years of frustration against their arch-rival Grizzlies, Adams caught a short pass from Lulay (the play call was Empty Left 35 Mix) and bolted through the UM secondary for a touchdown. That play, and a suffocating effort by the Bobcat defense, boosted the Bobcats to a 10-7 win and set off a wild Blue and Gold celebration that stretched from the Washington-Grizzly Stadium playing field to downtown Bozeman to all corners of Montana and literally across the world.
Adams finished his Bobcat career as MSU's fifth-leading receiver in history with 1,635 yards and his eight TD catches in 2002 was sixth-most in a season at that time. His 17.3 yards per punt return, when remains a Bobcat record.
That Alton Adams, Jr., was a Bobcat great is evident in the numbers. That he is a legend is evident in the moments, the times when he brought Bobcat fans to their feet, the celebrations that his play triggered. He offered thrills and excitement, and mostly he and those phenomenal Bobcats of 2001 and 2002 offered hope.
FROM TRAVIS LULAY: "To this day it's so fun to play that June was my first go-to guy. Him and TT were close so that could have gone sour, so it took a little time. I'm sure there were conversations. To Tyler's credit he handled it well in the room with me that year, and I know it wasn't easy for June, too. But he took me under his wing. I remember one day in rookie training camp, and I had no idea I'd be playing a few weeks later, and I threw a TD to Junior on a conversion. I threw it and he thew it accurately and he caught it, and he looked at me and said, 'OK Lu Lu.'
"It's his senior year and he wanted it to go well, and he was always positive. And he made some great plays, too. And June was also like an older brother to me, and that's who he was because he started coaching after that. He was (Travis' brother) Tyler's position coach and he's had a great career. He's a great football coach. I was lucky to play with him."
FROM MIKE KRAMER: "There are too many accolades to be measured. Junior was tough, thorough, slight in build but wired.
"He was recommended to us by Coach Dennis Erickson. He had great tenacity, great ball to eye to hand deftness, and he was great in big games. Smooth and stylish. He was very good in practice, not at all a 'me' guy, smart and adaptive. He's the best slot receiver in MSU history and in Big Sky history, largely because he was unafraid. He was the quintessential receiver. With that said, he is the best former MSU player in college coaching (he is currently an assistant coach at Oregon), ever, including Coach Erickson. He is one of my all-time top three players."
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