DILLON — Seeing former quarterback Jon Jund, offensive lineman Noah Danielson and receiver Trey Mounts get an opportunity to participate in Pro Days was a special moment for their former college head coach.
"It's so cool, they're really eager to continue to play," said Montana Western's Ryan Nourse. "They still have football in their blood, those boys always will."
While Jund, Danielson and Mounts are trying to earn an opportunity at the next level, their departure from Western leaves the Bulldogs with some critical roles to fill, especially at the quarterback position.
Jund had been Western's starting quarterback since the 2018 season, amassing over 10,000 passing yards and tossing 100 passing touchdowns over four seasons as the Bulldogs' signal caller. He also piled up 1,448 career rushing yards and 34 rushing scores.
With Western — which went 7-4 overall last season — kicking off a three-week spring camp, finding Jund's successor is at the top of Nourse's list.
"It's really the most important thing for you do, not just for your offense but your team as well," said Nourse. "And it really dictates the direction you're going to go offensively."
Western has three quarterbacks on its roster: redshirt freshman Cameron Kitchens, redshirt freshman Trey Hoveland, and 6-foot-1 redshirt sophomore Michael Palandri.
Palandri saw limited action last season, appearing in four games where he completed 14 passes for 154 yards.
Prepping Jund's replacement may be the highest priority, but there's plenty of positions to shore up, including the vacancies left by Danielson and Mounts.
"We've worked hard with this whole group cause there's so many new guys who are gonna be in the running for different spots," said Nourse. "Offensively, it's just putting them out there and trusting them to go do their thing making the evaluation and seeing who's gonna have this next opportunity."
