From GoGriz.com: "Who to watch for in 2016"
Jerry Louie-McGee :: Redshirt freshman :: Football
Jerry Louie-McGee's first step toward realizing his dream of playing college football -- a goal he and his older brother, Tucker, first came to share before they were 10 -- was when his family left the Coeur d'Alene Reservation town of Worley (population: 360; football: eight man) and moved 30 miles north.
It wasn't until they enrolled at Coeur d'Alene's Lake City High that everything started coming together.
The Timberwolves were coached by Van Troxel, whose son Matt played at Montana with Mike Ferriter and later coached with Ferriter at Idaho State, which recruited and signed Tucker, who will be a redshirt sophomore at ISU this season.
When Ferriter, who coaches the team's inside receivers, joined Bob Stitt's staff at Montana in early 2015, it didn't take long for him to reach out to Tucker's younger brother.
"When I got this job, Jerry was a guy I really wanted to get into the program," Ferriter says. "I thought he was a pretty dynamic player who would give us the type of Z receiver that Coach Stitt likes in his offense."
Louie-McGee -- 5-foot-9, 170 pounds, but pound for pound one of the team's strongest players -- redshirted last fall and had a quiet first scrimmage in the spring, finishing with two catches for 14 yards, but he turned out to be a revelation as practices and scrimmages continued.
In the team's second scrimmage he caught nine passes for 109 yards, including a 44-yard touchdown from Reese Phillips.
He saved his best performance for the spring game. He returned the opening kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown, part of his 279 all-purpose yards. He also caught six balls for 175 yards, with 71- and 67-yard touchdown strikes from Phillips.
"He was very solid this spring. His pure athleticism and ability to make plays after the ball gets into his hands is different than most people I've seen," says Ferriter.
"He's a little undersized, but he has a two-trait combination not a lot of guys have. He is very quick, but he also has top-end speed, which you don't have a lot of times with smaller guys. So he can make people miss, and at full speed he's running away from people."
Louie-McGee is expected to split time with Caleb Lyons at their position, an impressive turnabout for someone who joined the team last fall as a preferred walk-on, and even then, not until the first day of class, putting him weeks behind his new teammates.
"He's a great story," says Ferriter. "He's done everything right. A walk-on who works his tail off and probably earns a scholarship. We expect big things out of him."
Catch him: When Montana opens the season against Saint Francis under the lights at Washington-Grizzly Stadium on Sept. 3.
Jerry Louie-McGee :: Redshirt freshman :: Football
Jerry Louie-McGee's first step toward realizing his dream of playing college football -- a goal he and his older brother, Tucker, first came to share before they were 10 -- was when his family left the Coeur d'Alene Reservation town of Worley (population: 360; football: eight man) and moved 30 miles north.
It wasn't until they enrolled at Coeur d'Alene's Lake City High that everything started coming together.
The Timberwolves were coached by Van Troxel, whose son Matt played at Montana with Mike Ferriter and later coached with Ferriter at Idaho State, which recruited and signed Tucker, who will be a redshirt sophomore at ISU this season.
When Ferriter, who coaches the team's inside receivers, joined Bob Stitt's staff at Montana in early 2015, it didn't take long for him to reach out to Tucker's younger brother.
"When I got this job, Jerry was a guy I really wanted to get into the program," Ferriter says. "I thought he was a pretty dynamic player who would give us the type of Z receiver that Coach Stitt likes in his offense."
Louie-McGee -- 5-foot-9, 170 pounds, but pound for pound one of the team's strongest players -- redshirted last fall and had a quiet first scrimmage in the spring, finishing with two catches for 14 yards, but he turned out to be a revelation as practices and scrimmages continued.
In the team's second scrimmage he caught nine passes for 109 yards, including a 44-yard touchdown from Reese Phillips.
He saved his best performance for the spring game. He returned the opening kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown, part of his 279 all-purpose yards. He also caught six balls for 175 yards, with 71- and 67-yard touchdown strikes from Phillips.
"He was very solid this spring. His pure athleticism and ability to make plays after the ball gets into his hands is different than most people I've seen," says Ferriter.
"He's a little undersized, but he has a two-trait combination not a lot of guys have. He is very quick, but he also has top-end speed, which you don't have a lot of times with smaller guys. So he can make people miss, and at full speed he's running away from people."
Louie-McGee is expected to split time with Caleb Lyons at their position, an impressive turnabout for someone who joined the team last fall as a preferred walk-on, and even then, not until the first day of class, putting him weeks behind his new teammates.
"He's a great story," says Ferriter. "He's done everything right. A walk-on who works his tail off and probably earns a scholarship. We expect big things out of him."
Catch him: When Montana opens the season against Saint Francis under the lights at Washington-Grizzly Stadium on Sept. 3.
