SACO — On April 11, Saco native Laytin Erickson announced his commitment to join Montana State football as part of its 2027 recruiting class, making him the third in-stater to commit to the Bobcats so far.
"I've been a Bobcat fan all my life, you know, growing up, watching them," Erickson said Wednesday at Saco High School. "When they first reached out to me, I was pretty excited. Just makes you want to go so much harder than you already are."
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Erickson — who currently plays football at Malta in a co-op — joins Choteau's Dax Yeager and Laurel's Kade Leibrand as the three who have committed to Brent Vigen's team for 2027.
The process started in January, Erickson said, when the Cats reached out to him.
"Went (to Bozeman) for junior day, then I went back for another junior day, (and) after that is when I got my offer. Thought about it for like a week, I knew Bozeman was where I wanted to go," Erickson said. "The staff up there, going in there and talking to everybody. The program they have, it's my dream."
The Erickson name is a familiar one at MSU as well, with Laytin's cousin Teagan playing for the Bobcat women's basketball team. Erickson will also join fellow Saco native Blaine Downing, who plays football for the Cats.
"It makes it a lot easier to go somewhere where you know a few people," Erickson said. "We know how to take opportunities being in such a smaller town. I feel like Malta's a big part of mine and Blaine's success being able to co-op with them and actually play football."
Erickson said he's been compared as a player to Downing since both play defensive line.
"He kind of showed me the ropes coming up," Erickson said. "Freshman year I started wanting to get in the weight room and I had Blaine there to help me. So he's been a really big part of my growing."
Ever since Erickson announced his commitment, there has been all sorts of support, he said.
"Even from Malta, not just Saco," Erickson said. "Everywhere you go there's somebody congratulating you and that's really what helps. You know, what makes a player good is when we go to Malta and we go on road trips, you know, and the community follows you everywhere."
He said that being able to play for the Cats is a big credit to those around him.
"It's way easier when you have teammates like mine to be good, you know, they're in there every day at practice, pushing you to be your best," Erickson said.
"I didn't get a lot of looks ... the only reason I did was because our other D end, Kenan LaBrie, they were always so worried about him. When I first moved down the line, they didn't even know who I was. So that's where a lot of my stats come from was them running the ball away from him."
