There have been plenty of surprises regarding the Stanford offense so far this young season, but one thing that's been no surprise at all has been the success of Ty Montgomery. He's been one of my favorite players since he burst onto the scene as a true freshman in 2011, but his journey has been anything but smooth.
Much of Montgomery's freshman year was spent adjusting to the college game and building trust with Andrew Luck, but he gave us a glimpse of future greatness in that season's Fiesta Bowl, finishing as Stanford's leading receiver in that game with seven catches for 120 yards and a touchdown.
That success led to high expectations for 2012, but faced with a new quarterback (two of them), a series of nagging injuries that led to a handful of missed games, and problems with dropped passes, Montgomery's sophomore season was forgettable. After finishing his freshman campaign with 24 catches for 350 yards and two touchdowns, he slipped to 26 for 213 and not a single score.
Montgomery returned with a vengance in 2013, however, and quickly became Kevin Hogan's most consistent and most dangerous target. He had three 100-yard receiving games on his way to finishing with 61 receptions for 958 yards and ten touchdowns. Few Stanford fans will ever forget his absolute destruction of Cal. His first four touches that afternoon resulted in scores, and he ended the day with 160 receiving yards and five touchdowns (one of them rushing). Those five scores tied a Stanford single-game record and stood as the most points scored by a Pac-12 player in a single game in 2013.
What I'll remember most about Montgomery's junior year, however, had nothing to do with touchdowns or receptions. Montgomery injured his knee returning a fourth-quarter kick off in the Rose Bowl and was forced to sit out the game's final few possessions. Here's what I wrote at the time:
Montgomery lay on the turf for several minutes after being tackled, then hobbled off the field favoring his right knee. The Stanford offense sputtered its way to a three and out, but my attention was focused on Montgomery. An assistant coach escorted him to a trainer's table behind the Stanford bench and only ten yards from my seat in the third row. Fifteen bench players immediately jogged over to form a phalanx between Montgomery and the prying sideline camera, but our view was unobstructed. We watched as the trainer probed his knee for a while before leaning over and whispering into the receiver's ear. We certainly couldn't hear a word from our seats, but we didn't have to. Montgomery's face told us all we needed to know. One by one his fellow receivers -- Cajuste, Rector, Francis Owusu, Jordan Pratt, and Jeff Trojan -- all walked over to tap his shoulder or touch a forehead to his, but it was little comfort. Now, in the final moments of his team's biggest game, he would be nothing but a spectator.
There are moments in sport that aren't about winning and losing, and for me, that was one of those moments. As Montgomery lay on that bench in the middle of the Rose Bowl, the 2014 season must've seemed ages away. Now that it's here, however, Montgomery has elevated every aspect of his game this year and even added a few dimensions.
While some were concerned that it was a bit risky to send the team's most important player back to the kick return team so soon after two different injuries, Coach Shaw didn't see it that way. "I don't believe in protecting football players outside of the quarterback," he told me last July. "It's football. He's gotta play. I'd hate to take the best kickoff returner in the nation and not have him return kickoffs. That helps our football team. It's the biggest exchange of field position in the game, the kickoff return. He's just phenomenal at it, and he loves it."
Not only did Shaw continue having him return kickoffs, he actually expanded Montgomery's special teams role by making him the team's number one punt returner. We know how that worked out. His first touch of the season (and first career punt return) resulted in a 60-yard touchdown in the season opener against UC Davis.
But that was just the beginning. In addition to those duties and his expected role as wide receiver, Montgomery has taken over Tyler Gaffney's point position in the Wildcat and even harkened back to his high school days and lined up behind Kevin Hogan as a true running back. (He solves the problem of Stanford's lack of a power back, but no matter what Shaw says, I'm not sure it makes sense to use Montgomery as a battering ram.)
All of this -- as well as his obvious improvement at his primary position -- makes Montgomery one of the most dangerous weapons in college football. He's the Full Monty. Stanford's multi-dimensional offense will probably prevent him from earning any individual wide receiver honors, but it wouldn't be surprising to hear his name popping up on the edge of some Heisman conversations, and he's already a front-runner for the Paul Hornung Award, given annually to the most versatile player in college football. (Stanford's Owen Marecic won the inaugural award in 2010.)
As the season progresses, it will be interesting to watch as Montgomery leaves his mark in the Stanford record book. Last week he became Stanford's all-time leader in career kickoff return yardage, cruising past Chris Owusu's former mark of 2,132 yards, and he'll surely be climbing other lists in 2014.
The record that he probably has the best shot at -- and the one that speaks to his versatility -- is Glyn Milburn's single-season all-purpose yardage total of 2,234 yards. Montgomery came close to that with 2,208 yards in 2013, the third-best total in school history, but Milburn's record is clearly in danger in this season.
With Stanford all but assured of at least 13 games on the schedule, Montgomery will only need to average 171.9 yards per game over the course of the season, and he's already ahead of that pace with 364 yards through two games. (An official ruling change from last week's game switched the sixteen yard loss from Montgomery to the team rushing total, furthering his cause.)
You can follow Montgomery's progress as he chases Milburn's record by checking the Monty Meter in the upper right-hand corner of this blog. If he gets there, not only will he be seen as one of the most versatile players in America, he'll also take his place as one of the best players in the history of Stanford football.
