BILLINGS — Kasey Byers is running on fumes.
“I am on fumes," Byers admitted to MTN Sports reflecting on his December to January run. "More energy drinks than normal.”
In the last two weeks he’s been on planes, buses and boats. From Seattle to New Orleans, back to Seattle and now in Houston as part of Monday’s College Football Playoff national championship between the Washington Huskies and Michigan Wolverines.
“You go through an entire year’s worth of schedule and now you’re down to one game left, and that one game is for the national championship in January.”
‘Kaseman’ as he’s known to many, has likely logged more miles than an Amtrak train since graduating from Billings Skyview in 2002.
He’s now on top of the world as senior director of creative services for Washington football. Byers and his team are in charge of shooting video, producing hype videos and creating Huskies Football marketing content before blasting it out on social media for the world see.
“The best thing is being able to be here for everyone that depends on me during this crucial time in our football’s history,” Byers said.
You’ll find him on the field, in the locker room, surrounding sideline huddles and in post-game celebrations. Over the last three years, Kaseman has played a crucial role in Washington’s rise to the football summit. Just ask head coach Kalen DeBoer who recently offered this on Adam Breneman's national podcast.
“Just like a coaching staff, you hire the right people – just people who are thinking about it literally every hour of the day and wanting to make it the best they can make it," DeBoer said. "Kasey and his team, just collaboration there, just letting them go to work and be creative.
"And when they have ideas — there are some that are off the wall — you hear them out and a lot of times they know exactly what they’re talking about.”
Byers is the son of longtime KULR-8 TV Sports Director Chris Byers in Billings. Hanging around the television station since he could walk, his first video edit may have been around age 8.
“I think my dad’s enthusiasm for what he does, and always having a child-like personality in what he did for a living was infectious to me,“ he said with deep admiration.
Kaseman also happens to be a Griz grad, working as a student videographer under legendary men's basketball coaches Larry Krystkowiak and Wayne Tinkle. Truth is, Byers has risen to a point where his own work is some of the most legendary to come out of UM’s journalism school – and it’s highly coveted.
Freshly out of college, his first big job was creating web videos and content for the Denver Broncos under Super Bowl winning coach Mike Shanahan. Byers has since been sought out for jobs – among many others — by North Dakota State, the University of New Mexico and Oregon State before Washington called.
“Getting into the college space, I had to oversee video and creative content among all Olympic sports,” he said of the difference between working collegiately and in the NFL.
Byers already has enough national championship rings to nearly fill up one hand.
“North Dakota State, three national championships in football. Oregon State, got a national championship ring in baseball,” he said, hoping the next one arrives with a win over top-ranked Michigan on Monday night at NRG Stadium in Houston.
Through two decades of travel and titles, thrills and content innovations, Kaseman’s biggest moment may have arrived recently in New Orleans as the Huskies prepared to eliminate Texas. There he was — on a Mississippi riverboat and surrounded by the team — on a knee popping 'the question' to his best friend Amy. She said yes.
Who knows where or when the honeymoon will be, but it’ll be hard to beat the one Kaseman has been on since graduating college.
