George Ferguson said:
kemajic said:
Your "rather" is your privilege; I'd rather be competitive in DI football. What's HARD and rare is finding Montana kids that can play at that level. The idea that you can be competitive in DI football with mostly MT kids is naïve. Even the NAIA programs use a lot of out-of-state players. Just about every FCS program lives off the leavings of the FBS programs.
Yup.....
I respectfully disagree, lets look at ex griz players in the NFL and where they are from. Colt Anderson, Dan Carpenter, Brock Coyle, Marc Mariani, Chase Reynolds, Jordan Tripp all Montana boys. Tru, Holmes, and Jimmy Wilson non Montana guys.so many guys from our state have two things that get overlooked by other teams. They don't have the national exposure, so they aren't on anyone's radar and secondly they have a chip on their shoulder the second they get to Missoula. Not to mention the above mentioned Montana kids were all model citizens and have done an EXCELLENT job representing our program and state. Not to mention they are excellent role models for other kids coming up in Montana football as an example of hard work dedication and grit can get you to the NFL no matter if you play football in Drummond or Missoula. I'm not meaning this as a knock on Tru, Holmes, and Jimmy they obviously took an opportunity at Montana and made something of it as well, but it just seems over time a majority of our program's best players have been instate talent and I get that we can't just have a team full of local kids, that wouldn't work. But I think the secret sauce to Montana's success is finding those instate kids with a chip on their shoulder and understand the history and tradition of Montana football sprinkled in with a few out of state guys that will learn this when they arrive is what we need. Congrats to Tru for his contract and continued success in the NFL though, this is a great recruiting tool for us and I hope to see Tru come back to Missoula and give back to our young Montana football players and be someone for them to look up too.