BOZEMAN, Montana — Jory Choate dreamed plenty of dreams as the son of a football coach.
How could you not when your dad spends his time surrounded by Division I football players for most of every day?
And you certainly have to dream big to make it as a walk-on at one of the top Big Sky Conference and FCS programs in the country.
Yet in his wildest imagination, Jory Choate never imagined he would be fending off rabid teammates mauling him in celebration after he scored a touchdown as a record-setting Bobcat Stadium crowd roared and the rout of the Grizzlies truly kicked into gear.
“I had a lot of dreams about this game and I can promise you that not one of them included scoring a touchdown,” Choate said following Montana State’s landmark 55-21 drubbing of rival Montana on Nov. 19, 2022.
Montana State ran the ball at will and with authority right out the gates in the 121st showdown with their arch-nemesis Grizzlies. A total of 14 run plays and 155 rushing yards gave the host Bobcats 14-7 lead.
Montana lined up for a punt from its own 30-yard line. UM long snapper Grayson Pibal snapped the ball over punter Patrick Rohrbach’s head. A frenzied pursuit ensued.
Rohrbach got to the ball first but was blasted out of the back of the end-zone by MSU fullback R.J. Fitzgerald.
Montana State’s Ravi Alston and Caden Dowler almost recovered it before the ball finally settled underneath Choate. That touchdown, the first and only score of the Bozeman High product’s career, put Montana State up 21-7.
The Bobcats never looked back. The victory helped avenge last season’s 29-10 loss to the Griz in Missoula and give MSU five wins in the rivalry’s last six years.
“I never expected (the touchdown), but we had a nice block on and I had a nice head start toward the ball and it went over the punter’s head and landed right at my feet,” Choate said. “Man, that was awesome.”
As time wound off the clock, and the big boys from Montana State’s offensive and defensive fronts prepared to hoist the Great Divide Trophy atop their shoulders, Choate was just a few seconds late to being one of the initial hoisters. But once he reached the coveted prize, he made sure to get on the trophy’s handles so he could help carry the 300-plus-pound mass of metal and mettle around the Bobcat Stadium turf one last time.
“That moment was hard to beat,” Choate, a fifth-year Montana State senior, said. “I can’t really describe it in words. But man, it feels good to be back on the right side of this game.”
The rivalry game victory helped Montana State secure a share of the Big Sky Conference championship with an 8-0 mark in league play. MSU’s 10-1 record and first league title since 2012 helped the Bobcats earn the No. 4 seed in the FCS Playoffs. The Bobcats will host Weber State (10-2) in the Round of 16 in the FCS Playoffs.
“As a team, we are so together and we love each other and we play for each other. We are going to get the most out of everybody when you are playing like that. And that’s why we are where we are.”
That unselfish perspective, an ability to performing on special teams and a never quit attitude is what helped Choate reach this point. That part of the tale is like many other walk-ons who transform from small school prospect with potential into memorable Bobcat.
But Choate’s story is different. None of those walk-ons were the son of the “Grizzly Slayer.”
Jeff Choate established a reputation as an unforgettable and sometimes epic figure in Montana State University history. He led Montana State to consecutive playoff appearances in 2018 and 2019 (Jory’s first two years in the program) and a bid in the FCS Final Four in that latter year.
He also earned a deified reputation among the Bobcat faithful for defeating the University of Montana four times in a row, including winning in epic fashion in Missoula in 2016 and 2018.
So when Jeff Choate bolted for a co-defensive coordinator job at the University of Texas in January of 2021, the move could have given Jory pause. Instead, Jory seized the moment to carve out his own name at Montana State.
“I enjoyed playing under him and I’m glad I got the opportunity. But him moving away and doing his own thing, that was awesome for me too, being able to see both sides of it, become a normal student and a normal player on this team that had to earn it on my own again,” he said.
Earn it he has. In 2021, Jory appeared in 12 games as a reserve linebacker and special teams standout and contributed in several ways. And last off-season, after proving himself and his mettle to a new coaching staff, Jory was awarded a scholarship for his final season with the Bobcats.
“How tough and resilient is that kid?” Jeff Choate said in a November interview. “I sit my son down and say, ‘Hey, I know we have one of the best teams in the history of the program coming back (coming out of 2019) and we are building this new facility (the Bobcat Athletic Complex) and we are doing all this and oh by the way, Jory, I’m leaving. And I know it wasn’t easy on him, trust me.
“Enter a new staff, that didn’t want to hear about me, and I get it. I wouldn’t want to hear about me either and they are trying to do their thing, which they’ve done a tremendous job of. But how hard would that be to be my son? I think about that every day.
“But to be who he is, to never bitch, to never complain, to be the guy who made them put him on scholarship, made them acknowledge the fact that he is one of the best leaders on the team, made them acknowledge that he is worth putting on the field, I can’t say enough about my son.”
Jeff Choate first started coaching football in the early 1990s at his alma mater, Montana Western. After two seasons there, he dove into the high school ranks in his native state of Idaho. The St. Marie’s product was the head coach at Challis High in 1994 and 1995, the defensive coordinator at Twin Falls in 1996, the head coach at Post Falls High from 1997 until 2001.
In 2002, two years after Jory was born, Jeff Choate dove into the college ranks, becoming a graduate assistant at Utah State. By 2005, Choate began a wild coaching journey that led him to Eastern Illinois, Boise State, Washington State, Florida and Washington. He made six stops in 13 years before becoming Montana State’s head coach ahead of the 2016 season.
“I actually thought it was a lot of fun,” Jory said. “We were Pac 12, Mountain West, SEC, back to the Pac 12. I’ve seen a lot of cool and very different game day experiences and cultures in general. I think the diversity that I was able to experience from moving around that much helped me a lot.”
When the family moved to the Gallatin Valley, Jory was finishing up his sophomore year of high school and starting over once again in many ways.
“I’ve moved a lot and after awhile, you kind of get used to it,” he said . “I always say the first week is the hardest, but after that, you get settled in. You get your crew you hang out with and you get a little more comfortable talking.
“Moving to Montana, you always expect it to be different wherever you go, but moving here wasn’t that hard. The people are great people around here and they are always willing to lend a hand.”
Acclimating to a new environment is always challenging. Jory has always been into fishing and outdoor activities, so once he learned about the blue ribbon fly fishing rivers surrounding Bozeman, he started realizing just how much he wanted the latest move to stick.
“The rivers, that didn’t suck,” Choate said with a chuckle. “Once I found my way around those, I knew Bozeman was going to be alright.”
Jory Choate knew that he wanted to play Division I football. And Jeff Choate knew Division 1 ball was his son’s highest athletic aspiration. But the coach wasn’t about to hand his son an opportunity unless he earned it.
So that’s exactly what Jory did. As a wiry junior at Bozeman High, he had a hard time finding the field. Then, as a senior, he blossomed into one of the top pass rushers in the state of Montana.
Jory led Class AA in sacks with 11 and rolled up triple digits in total tackles on the way to earning first-team All-state honors. That earned him an opportunity to join his father’s Bobcats in the 2018 recruiting class.
“I was really hoping that would be an opportunity and I had to show my worth for it to be an opportunity,” Jory said. “And he told me that. And he felt that I did that. And I felt that I did.”
The December Jory accepted admission to MSU as a walk-on to MSU, Jeff Choate said:
“I’m proud of him. He’s been a coach’s kid his whole life. He knows what he’s getting with his dad. Let me just put it that way: he knows how to steer clear of some things, too.”
In Jory’s first season in the fall of 2018 as an undersized 6-foot-2, 190-pound linebacker, he redshirted. He worked hard enough to earn MSU’s Young Gun award, a coveted honor whose past recipients include Ty Okada, current MSU captain.
In 2019, Jory “emerged as a special teams staple, playing all 15 games” according to MSU’s website. That first season getting playing time was highlighted by making a tackle on the first kickoff of the rivalry game against Montana, setting up Jahque Alleyne’s enormous hit on Samori Toure on the first play of the game, forcing a fumble that Derek Marks recovered and turning Bobcat Stadium — and the rivalry — on its head. MSU rolled to a 48-14 win that seemed so similar to the latest rendition of the showdown, meaning the last two rivalry games in Bozeman for Choate were ones to remember for certain.
“I’ve never considered myself to be the most physically gifted person but I always try to work as hard as I can,” Choate said. “I believe in the short you get what you get, in the long run you get what you deserve.”
During the dog days of fall camp practices, Montana State’s multimedia team puts a standalone camera by the locker room entrance with a sign that signals the question of the day.
One day, the question centered upon what teammate each Bobcat would choose to lead them on an outdoor excursion or get lost in the wilderness with. Running back Lane Sumner of Huntley Project and Jory Choate were the most popular answers.
The understated, yet affable linebacker showed the work ethic required to have a spot on a Division I roster. Still, when Jeff Choate first flirted with leaving MSU for the Boise State head job and then ultimately left to become the defensive coordinator at Texas, one couldn’t help but wonder what Jory’s role on the Bobcats might evolve into.
Even through the coaching change, his teammates never questioned his value and his status as a stalwart for the Bobcats.
“He’s always doing the right thing every single time,” MSU senior captain fullback R.J. Fitzgerald said. “He’s a guy you can count on. He’s always going to be in the right position and you know that in any situation. He’s worked extremely hard to become the player he is today
“It’s hard for anybody to have your dad as your coach but I also think he loved it. It was awesome to see those two together and then once coach Choate left, nothing really changed for him. He just came to work the same as he always has.”
Jeff Choate’s departure rocked Bobcat Nation. After a tumultuous off-season that witnessed a transfer of power to head coach Brent Vigen, who ultimately maintained the upward momentum of the program — Jory contributed to one of the greatest runs in school history.
Vigen said earlier this season that he remembered his first conversation with Jory. He said he could tell that “he was really excited to keep moving forward with his opportunity at Montana State” and he was “happy for his dad to get that new opportunity.”
Last season, Jory made enough of an impact on special teams to earn a scholarship heading into this season.
“I think the season he has had is very unheralded but he’s been solid,” Vigen said.
“He’s been as steady as anyone. It goes unnoticed the things he’s doing. I know I really appreciate it. And I know he’s a favorite amongst his teammates because of how he goes about his business.
“When he got put on scholarship this fall, that was a big deal for his teammates. That was a big deal for Jory, but an even bigger deal for his teammates. I know they recognize the work he’s put in. “
The father, from afar, has been impressed by the son’s fortitude.
“My boy is one tough SOB and he doesn’t need anybody to tell him anything because he knows how to work hard, he knows when he’s doing right, he knows what he’s doing wrong, he’ll correct it and he has earned every damn thing he’s gotten from Montana State and in his life,” Jeff said. “I’m super, super proud of him.”
On Saturday, Montana State hosts Weber State for a regular-season rematch between two of the Big Sky and FCS’ best teams.
Jory Choate can see the end of his college football career nearing. He will earn a degree in business management in the next few weeks. The Bobcats, who made the Final Four of the FCS playoffs in 2019 and made a run to the national title last January, are contenders once again.
“I think him making it to the end speaks to his mental resilience,” Okada said. “He comes from a great family, a very tough-minded guy in coach Choate and that’s been passed on to (Jory) and he’s shown that same mental fortitude.”
The younger Choate, as one of his most memorable Bobcat moments, references when the band Alabama’s “If you want to play in Texas, you better have a fiddle in the band” roared in Bobcat Stadium after MSU’s 31-17 win over South Dakota State in last season’s FCS semifinal.
And his perseverance has helped him reach these memorable weeks, which are giving him extended opportunities to make memories he won’t soon forget.
“Just keep fighting,” Jory said. “Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do anything. Just keep doing your thing. Keep chasing your dreams.”
Even if you never dreamed it in your wildest imagination, it might come true.
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. Editing by Jason Bacaj. All Rights Reserved.
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Montana State linebacker Jory Choate (32) tackles linebacker Chad Kanow (54)/by Brooks Nuanez -
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