Bobcats lean into family ties for this year’s captains
By Bill Lamberty MSU ATHLETICS
Players and coaches inside the program often refer to Montana State football as a big family, and that shines through in the six players elected captains by the 2025 Bobcats.
Elected by a vote of their teammates and announced Wednesday by MSU head coach Brent Vigen, three players on both the offense and defense become Bobcat captains for the first time. It marks the first time since 2022 without a returning captain. MSU’s 2025 team captains: DT Paul Brott (sr., Billings), DB Caden Dowler (jr., Billings), DE Kenneth Eiden IV (sr., Bozeman), OT Titan Fleischmann (jr., Pocatello, ID), RB Adam Jones (so., Missoula) and OG JT Reed (sr., San Jose, CA).
Eiden IV joins his father Ken, who was a captain in 1991, as only the second father-son set of Bobcat captains on record. Jay Daly (1979) and his sons Bobby (2008) and Brad (2013) all served in that capacity. Paul Brott’s election makes him and Mitch (2019) the fourth set of brothers to serve as team captains at MSU. They join the Daly brothers, Van (1925) and Joe (1928, elected but did not serve) Dobeus, and Joe (2009) and Caleb (2012) Schreibeis.
Adam Jones gives the Bobcats a team captain from Missoula for the second straight season, after Rylan Ortt in 2024, and he is the sixth Bobcat captain from the Garden City. Brott and Dowler raise the number of team captains from Billings to 17, the most from any community, while Eiden is the 12th MSU captain from Bozeman. Fleischmann is the second Cat captain from Pocatello, joining Jordan Craney (2010). JT Reed becomes MSU’s 11th team captain from California.
Each of this year’s Bobcat captains are accomplished players on the field. Fleischmann is a returning All-America, while Brott, Eiden IV, Jones and Reed have all earned all-conference honors previously.
“Being named a captain is a tremendous honor and carries with it great responsibility,” Vigen said. “We’re excited about these six individuals as our captains but know our leadership extends beyond them. For this team, developing leadership has been a priority and we appreciate how our returners have taken that on and how important the success of this program is to them.”
