Last week when No. 5 Stanford faced off against then-No. 15 Washington, the Cardinal’s Ty Montgomery didn’t waste much time getting into the end zone. It took him 12 seconds, to be exact.
Montgomery, who starts as both wide receiver and kick returner, brought the game’s opening kick back 99 yards for a touchdown. The return looked all too easy for Montgomery, who went the length of the field untouched.
In reality, he was just getting warmed up. Montgomery finished the game with an additional receiving touchdown and 290 all-purpose yards. He was the difference maker for Stanford in its 31-28 victory over the Huskies, which kept the Cardinal’s BCS Championship hopes alive.
Montgomery is one of a handful of Stanford players who play on special teams in addition to starting on offense or defense. As Cardinal head coach David Shaw explains, for his team, that just makes sense.
“Special teams are about running and hitting,” Shaw says. “You take your best guys at running and hitting and you put them out there. We don’t worry about, ‘Oh, what if a guy gets hurt.’ No. The guys play football.”
In Montgomery’s case, playing a dual role seems to be working just fine. He has the third-most kick return yards of anyone in the country with 436 through five games, and he is no slouch at receiver, with another 383 yards receiving and five touchdowns on 23 catches. He’s also averaging 12.8 yards per carry on five rushes.
It seems the only thing that can slow Montgomery down is fatigue from the sheer volume of plays he is involved in. In the third quarter against Washington, Montgomery had to come out of the game temporarily because both of his legs were cramping up simultaneously. But after stretching out and getting a quick breather, he went right back to work.
Shaw says Montgomery is part of a group of leaders for Stanford whose work ethic pushes the entire team to improve.
“I see guys on this team that aren’t satisfied,” Shaw says. “Guys that achieve great things and turn back around and say ‘I got to get better at this,’ that helps fuel your team. When your best players aren’t satisfied and know they can be better, that helps everybody on the team.”
The Cardinal, which has been to a BCS bowl game in three consecutive seasons, is known for physical and disciplined play. It is among the least-penalized teams in the FBS and has made very few mental errors on its way to an undefeated start.
Montgomery feels that in large part, the success of the team as a whole is because of unity and not individual play.
“We play an 11-man game. It’s not one-on-one,” Montgomery says. “Any success I have comes from my teammates and the foundation we’ve built here. The faith they have in me, I can reciprocate back to them. And that belief gives you a lot of confidence.”
Montgomery and the rest of the Cardinal are certainly confident coming into this week’s game in Salt Lake City against a Utes’ secondary that has given up some big passing yardage on the year. As for the kick return game is concerned, Montgomery realizes that teams might stop kicking to him, but he isn’t overly concerned.
“If they want to kick to someone else, that’s fine,” he says. “I’ll be sure to get my block and try to get that other guy to the house.”