Nathaniel Joseph Montana (born October 3, 1989) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

. After walking-on at Notre Dame as a freshman in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, he transferred to Pasadena City College in 2009, went back to Notre Dame in 2010, transferred to

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

in 2011, and finally transferred to

West Virginia Wesleyan West Virginia Wesleyan College is a private college in Buckhannon, West Virginia. It has an enrollment of about 1,400 students from 35 U.S. states and 26 countries. The school was founded in 1890 by the West Virginia Conference of the Methodist E ...

in 2012. Montana is the son of

Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coa ...

quarterback

Joe Montana Joseph Clifford Montana Jr. (born June 11, 1956) is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons, primarily with the San Francisco 49ers. Nicknamed "Joe Cool" and "the Comeback Kid", ...

Early years

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

, Montana was a reserve quarterback at De La Salle High School in

Concord, California Concord ( ) is the largest city in Contra Costa County, California. According to an estimate completed by the United States Census Bureau, the city had a population of 129,295 in 2019 making it the eighth largest city in the San Francisco Bay ...

, a suburb east of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

College career

After graduating from high school in 2008, he enrolled at Notre Dame and joined the

Fighting Irish The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the athletic teams that represent the University of Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish participate in 23 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I intercollegiate sports and in the NCAA's Divisi ...

football team's coach

Charlie Weis Charles Joseph Weis Sr. (born March 30, 1956) is a former American football coach. He was the head coach for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish from 2005 to 2009 and the Kansas Jayhawks from 2012 to 2014. He also served as an offensive coordinator ...

as a walk-on, with the hope of landing a

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholars ...

as a sophomore. Following Montana's freshman year at Notre Dame, he found himself well down the depth chart at quarterback. In order to increase his playing time, he withdrew from Notre Dame in 2009 and tried out for Mt. SAC's football program but would not be the starting quarterback and later enrolled at Pasadena City College in

southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...

as a

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Entertainment * ''Red Shirts'' (film), a 1952 film about Anita Garibaldi by Franco Rossi * Redshirt (stock character), originally derived from ''Star Trek'', a stock character who dies soon after ...

freshman. Montana re-enrolled at Notre Dame in January 2010. He was the quarterback behind Tommy Rees and

Dayne Crist Dayne Lawrence Crist (born October 9, 1989) is a former American football quarterback. He played college football at Notre Dame before transferring to the University of Kansas. Early years Crist attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, ...

. He played in three games for the Fighting Irish as a junior in 2010, and was 9 for 18 for 116 yards with an interception. On February 14, 2011, Montana confirmed he was transferring to the

University of Montana The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. UM reported 10,962 undergraduate and graduate students in the fa ...

, a top FCS program in the

Big Sky Conference The Big Sky Conference (BSC) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I with football competing in the Football Championship Subdivision. Member institutions are located in the western United States in the eig ...

. As the transfer was from FBS to FCS, he was eligible to play immediately. At Montana, Nate became the only player on the roster with his name on the front and back of his jersey. He transferred to

, an

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

program, in May 2012.

College statistics

Personal life

Nate is the third child and older son of legendary NFL quarterback

and Jennifer Wallace, a model/actress. His two older sisters Alexandra (b. 1985) and Elizabeth (b. 1986) also attended the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...

. His brother

Nick Nick may refer to: * Nick (given name) * A cricket term for a slight deviation of the ball off the edge of the bat * British slang for being arrested * British slang for a police station * British slang for stealing * Short for nickname Place ...

was the starting quarterback at nationally ranked Oaks Christian in

Westlake Village Westlake Village is a city in Los Angeles County on its western border with Ventura County. The City of Westlake Village incorporated in 1981 becoming the 82nd municipality of Los Angeles County.Baker, Pam (2002). ''Thousand Oaks Westlake Vill ...

and was thought to be one of the top prospects in the nation in 2010. Montana was one of eight Notre Dame football players (and 11 total athletes) arrested for alleged underage drinking on July 16, 2010. While living in the state of

in 2011, Nate was arrested in

Missoula Missoula ( ; fla, label=Salish language, Séliš, Nłʔay, lit=Place of the Small Bull Trout, script=Latn; kut, Tuhuⱡnana, script=Latn) is a city in the U.S. state of Montana; it is the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, Missoula Cou ...

on June 3 on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, a charge that was later dropped. However, he was sentenced to 90 days in the Missoula County Jail, all suspended, and ordered to complete a chemical dependency evaluation.

References

External links

Notre Dame profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Montana, Nate 1989 births Living people American football quarterbacks Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players West Virginia Wesleyan Bobcats football players Pasadena City Lancers football players People from Concord, California Players of American football from California Montana Grizzlies football players Sportspeople from Santa Clara, California