Oct. 16—One-hundred and seventy-eight total tackles, 20 tackles for loss, 14 pass breakups, 3.5 sacks and four interceptions.
That’s the kind of production that the Bemidji State football team had to replace in the offseason at the linebacker position.
The program lost a triumvirate of seniors — Max Buduris, Spencer Wehr and Cole Sorby — to graduation at the end of the 2023 season, each of whom tallied more than 50 total tackles in their final campaigns.
Buduris and Wehr were especially productive, notching NSIC All-Conference First Team Defense nods last year.
Heading into the 2024 season, it was unclear how the Beavers’ depth pieces were going to perform playing a much more featured role on the defense.
So far, redshirt junior and Bemidji High School alumnus Colton Hinrichs and senior Jacob Drietz have done a solid job ensuring no major drop-off in production from BSU’s linebacker core.
“It’s been a pleasant surprise,” defensive coordinator Joe Ford said. “So far, they’ve had some really good games. I think of open-field tackles, huge in the Sioux Falls game for Colton. And if he doesn’t make that play, that thing goes for 50 yards a few times. Drietz has been really good in the middle, really solid. And it has been a nice little surprise to have those guys produce like they have.”
Hinrichs currently has a team-high 37 total sacks, as well as two tackles for loss. He has 1.5 sacks and one interception. Drietz has 27 total tackles and a forced fumble under his belt.
Before the bye week, Bemidji State lost to Northern State 14-13, thanks to a failed two-point conversion with four seconds left in the fourth quarter. However, essentially the only reason BSU even had a shot to win at the end was a play from a linebacker.
Trailing 14-7 with less than four minutes on the clock, Hinrichs picked off a pass at the Beavers’ 39-yard line and returned it all the way to NSU’s 27. Ten plays later, Bemidji State was in the endzone.
A season ago, Hinrichs had 16 total tackles. This year, he’s making game-altering plays and is currently the most productive linebacker on the team.
“Really just the big difference is a lot more playing time this year,” Hinrichs said. “Last year I was behind Cole Sorby, and I probably got around 15% of the game reps. And this year, I’m getting on the other spectrum, probably 85% of the reps. That’s more of the difference, and then just (another) year of knowing the scheme and doing better at my job.”
Hinrichs also benefited from playing behind the aforementioned program greats like Buduris and Wehr, picking up some information from guys who had been in the program for some time.
“They were all great leaders and great mentors, any question you had they would be there to help you out with it,” Hinrichs said. “It’s nice because they were all three or four years older than me, so my first two years in the program, I got to be with guys who were there for a while prior to that.”
“That’s one of the secret sauces of this program’s success,” Ford said. “These young guys emulate the older guys that are All-Americans, that are player of the year, and so you create these good habits.”
Drietz and Hinrichs’ jump in production isn’t an isolated incident for the Beavers. It’s a feature of head coach Brent Bolte’s program on both sides of the ball — younger players starting on special teams and slowly playing their way into more prominent roles, ready to step up when duty calls.
“We take pride in that in the program,” Ford said. “We can develop the next guy through and have the next guy ready. I guess maybe ‘surprise’ isn’t the right word (for Hinrichs and Drietz), maybe it’s more like you don’t know what you’ve got until you’ve got it. … Saturdays (are) the ultimate test.”
However, Bemidji State didn’t just look in-house for solutions at linebacker this offseason.
Kamron Gothard and Tommy Lujan have also been pieces of the linebacking puzzle and both were portal additions for the Beavers, picked up from Dupage and Adams State, respectively.
The duo has primarily filled in as the nickel back in defensive packages. They’ve combined for 25 total tackles and Gothard has earned three tackles for loss and one sack
“We’re all really confident with each other,” Hinrichs said. “We all talk or we communicate well, so it’s nice — we know we can all play each position, so it doesn’t matter what ends up happening.”
