FOOTBALL: Whitefish's Nagler inks with Montana
<p>Whitefish senior Jed Nagler signs a letter of intent on Wednesday to play football at the University of Montana. (Matt Baldwin/Whitefish Pilot)</p>
MISSOULA — Whitefish all-state wide receiver, state champion sprinter and state high jump champion Jed Nagler officially signed his National Letter of Intent to join the Montana Grizzlies football program on Wednesday at Whitefish High School.
One of the stars of Whitefish’s Class A state championship run last fall, Nagler was one of seven wide receivers and 31 total players signed Wednesday by second-year Grizzlies coach Bob Stitt.
Stitt, who spoke in Kalispell on Wednesday night at an event hosted by the Flathead Chapter of the Grizzly Scholarship Association, raved about the 6-foot-4 Nagler’s rare combination of size and athleticism.
“You’ve got a tall guy that has great ball skills running a 10.9 (second), 11-flat 100 meters, with a 6-6 high jump,” Stitt said. “You just don’t find a kid that can do that (who’s) that big.”
“To be able to put him on the outside as a wide receiver, it would be tough to play man-to-man on him because he’ll just be a physical mismatch with a corner.”
Nagler caught 40 passes for the Bulldogs in his senior season and came up huge in the state championship game. Against two-time defending state champion Dillon, Nagler hauled in seven passes for 132 yards to secure a 17-13 win and the school’s first state title since 1979.
Each of the last two years, Nagler was a first team all-state pick at wide receiver. In 2015, he added all-conference honors as a linebacker.
Physically, Nagler is ready for the college game, listed at 6-4 and 207 pounds by the Griz. However, Stitt still envisions a redshirt for his young wideout this fall.
“(Freshmen) are going to be better in five years than they would be playing at 19 years old,” he said. “We want (Nagler) to be good enough that we could put him in there (as a freshman) if we had to but we don’t want to.”
Nagler will join his former Whitefish teammate Gage Smith in Missoula. A 2014 Whitefish grad, Smith is entering his redshirt sophomore season at linebacker for the Griz.
Stitt announced the signing of the 31 recruits to his program on Wednesday, including five in-state players.
Twenty-two of the recruits are from the high school ranks while eight are transfers from other colleges.
Recruits from Montana included Nagler, defensive lineman Trace Bradshaw of Bozeman, linebacker Trase LeTexier of Boulder, linebacker Jace Lewis of Townsend and defensive lineman Cole Rosling of Helena.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.