By Danny Waldo
With the departure of former Montana State Bobcat quarterback Dakota Prukop shortly after being named the head coach at Montana State, Jeff Choate knew his number one mission to was find a signal caller to guide his new offense in Bozeman.
Enter Tyler Bruggman, the JUCO transfer from Scottsdale Community College who has seen more miles in the past three years than a Hertz Rent-a-Car, thanks to stops in Pullman, WA, Louisville, KY and Scottsdale, AZ. The one-time four-star recruit out of Arizona has had a hard time finding a place to stick during his college career, but thanks to a relationship forged with Coach Choate in Pullman while both were at Washington State, he may have found just that at Montana State.
“I liked the kid and I wanted to see him be successful … I kind of tried to keep track of him,” Choate said of Bruggman. “(When I took the MSU job), I was like, ‘I wonder if Tyler wants to come and play quarterback here.’”
“It’s been a wild ride,” Bruggman admitted. “I certainly never would’ve expected this, but I’m very happy to be here.” Added Bruggman, “I’m proud to be a ’Cat and playing for Coach Choate has been great. I’m excited to be here and continue to improve.”
Early on in spring practices, Bruggman has shown flashes of the ability that earned him high praise and made him a coveted recruit coming out of Brophy Prep in Phoenix. That same ability attracted attention from Tulane, New Mexico, Tulsa and even Texas A&M after throwing for 1,692 yards and 19 touchdowns last season for the Fighting Artichokes of Scottsdale Community College.
So while it is early on in the evaluation process, it is understandable why Choate has named Bruggman the leader, thus far, in the race to replace last year’s record-setting quarterback, Dakota Prukop, but Choate has also made it clear that Jordan Hoy is in the thick of the race as well.
“Jordan has the ability to create outside the pocket; he’s got a little different skill-set than Tyler does,” he added.
Because of that different skill set, Coach Choate and his staff are not ready to name a starter just yet. “How the offense evolves is really going to determine how the competition evolves. We’ve got to continue to have competition at that position … and so we’re not going to announce a starting quarterback until that person has emerged in fall camp.”
MSU will continue spring practices through the middle of April before breaking camp for summer workouts. Fall camp for Montana State will open in early August with the season opener set for September 1st at the University of Idaho in Moscow.
