2022 Frontier Conference Football Preview: DL

In a mere five weeks, Frontier Conference football will be back. While we're still in the dog days of summer, football is indeed on the horizon, and once again, the Frontier is going to be really, really good.

With that, the Havre Daily News is once again running its annual position by position preview of the upcoming Frontier season, and this year, we start with the top defensive linemen in the league.

The Frontier is always built around strong defenses, and those strong defenses start up front, and in the trenches.

One of those teams that should be really good up front this fall is the Carroll College Fighting Saints, of head coach Troy Purcell. Carroll returns a star defensive lineman in All-Conference standout Garrett Kocab, who had 50 tackles and six sacks last season. Sophomore Garrett Worden is another one to watch for the Saints, after he had 6.5 sacks as a freshman a year ago.

Montana Western brings back a standout defense as well, starting with All-Conference performer Tanner Harrell. He had 42 tackles and 10.5 tackles for a loss last year for the Dawgs. Reese Artz should also be a force in the line for Western.

Another monster up front this season comes in the form of Southern Oregon's Alejandro Sanchez, who had 36 tackles, 12.5 TFL's and four sacks for the Raiders last season, while JoN'Mae Wafford will compliment him up front this year.

Montana Tech's Zach Trumble should be a key stopper for the Orediggers this fall. Last season, he had 33 tackles and 3.5 sacks, while Keyshawn James-Newby and Alaric Greil will help form a strong front.

Some other teams in the league will be pretty young on the defensive line, especially after suffering key losses to graduation. That was especially true at Eastern Oregon and College of Idaho, where both teams lost All-Conference and All-American DL

EOU lost Co-Defensive Player of the Year honorees Sage DeLong and Chase VanWyck, and will look to Gabe Shulke to pick up the slack this season. Keagan McKoy was a huge loss for C of I, so the Yotes will rely on Cole Schmidt to try and shore things up on the front end.

Rocky Mountain College lost some top players as well, but Wes Moeai and Dylan Beridon will be key for the Bears.

And finally, Montana State University-Northern had a really stout defensive line last season with Joe Fehr, Pat Hammond and Justin Pfeifer. That trio was outstanding for the Lights. But, while there will be some new faces on the DL this season in Havre, new head coach Jerome Souers does return Sam Sanders, and Colter Szymoniak, both of whom should be a solid pass rusher and leader for the Northern DL.

Editor's Note: This is the first in the Havre Daily News series on the top returning players by position in the Frontier Conference. In Friday's HDN, we'll take a look at the top quarterbacks in the league.