BOZEMAN — The linebacker position is one with a rich legacy at Montana State, and this season the room is young but prepared to maintain the high standard that comes with it.
Two Treasure State natives, Neil Daily of Billings and Melstone's Bryce Grebe, had valuable experience last season that prepared them for expanded roles this year.
When Danny Uluilakepa went down with a season-ending injury last year, both Daily and Grebe had to step into more prominent roles alongside McCade O’Reilly.
"It gives them confidence," Owens said about the reps the duo got last year. "To me, confidence is cash. When those guys are confident, they can move around, they fly around, they can be in the right spots, so the experience they got last year was invaluable."
"Danny goes down, I’m his backup," Grebe said. "I was nervous, I’m not going to lie. But it was time for me to step up and make my move. I feel like the experience was tremendous. It’s really going to help me going into this year."
Daily has gotten a couple nicknames, "Thriller" from defensive coordinator Shawn Howe and "ChatGPT" from his teammates.
"There was a couple times in that first year here, I remember we’re all together, and we’re like, ‘Who is that right there?’ And it’s just this flash of a human being flying across the field, an athletic player," Howe said about how he started calling Daily "Thriller."
"His confidence is at an all-time high level right now too. In that room he gets a tremendous amount of respect because of his knowledge of the game. I think they call him 'ChatGPT' or something like that because when you ask him a question he can spit it right out."
Grebe laughed when asked about Daily's nickname.
"He knows everything," Grebe said about Daily. "Coach Owens will be like, ‘Oh, Chat, what time are we done?’ He knows, he knows everything. It’s kind of crazy."
Owens moves from safeties to linebackers coach this season and brings a plethora of experience. He’s not only coached numerous positions throughout his career, but is a hall of fame linebacker for the Cats.
"You can sense that passion when he walks in," Daily said of Owens. "He’s excited to be here every day. These coaches, they’re here a lot longer than us in fall camp. They’re running on less sleep, and they’re still going to show up and get us going every camp and watch a lot of film and just get us ready for the season. It’s contagious."
In recent years, the Cats have used a three-man rotation at linebacker. Owens is aiming to have as many as four prominent players able to rotate this season, and gave insight into who is standing out beyond Daily and Grebe.
"Cole Taylor is one of the guys that comes to mind," Owens said. "The dude is having an unbelievable fall camp, he’s taking the next step. Ryan Krahe is another guy that has done a really excellent job of trying to take that next step and really push Neil and Bryce."
