By Colter Nuanez SKYLINE SPORTS
Build it and they will come.
And once they are accustomed to coming, they will simply expect, yet still revel in, success.
Back in December of 2019, Montana State rode a 196-yard rushing effort by Isaiah Ifanse to a 24-10 win over Austin Peay State on a clear, freezing night in Bozeman in front of 14,017. As the final seconds ticked away, former MSU head coach Jeff Choate let out a feral yell and gave an impassioned fist pump filled with elation and relief all at once.
After the game, Bobcat faithful piled onto the field, soaking in a moment more than a generation in the making. Not only had their beloved football team defeated the hated Montana Grizzlies for the fourth time to cap the regular season —marking the first time since the 1970s when Sonny Holland roamed the sidelines at Reno H. Sales Stadium—but the Bobcats were finally, at long last, among the nation’s elite.
That Austin Peay playoff victory five years ago meant that, for the first time since 1984, Montana State was headed to the final four of the FCS playoffs.
Fast forward to last Friday night, Dec. 13 in Bozeman. As Adam Jones plunged in for his third touchdown on a four-score night, he made sure to pop up with enthusiasm and celebrate to the delight of the raucous student section on hand. His Bobcat peers in the south end zone held signs with various locally famous faces on them to show off to the national television audience.
“There’s nothing like celebrating in the south end-zone with the students,” Jones said, flashing his million-dollar smile. “We have the best fans in the whole world.”
Those fans—a Bobcat Stadium playoff record number of them—stayed to watch the home team bury the Idaho Vandals. Montana State scored 42 unanswered points in the span of less than 25 game minutes, taking Idaho’s poorly timed onside kick attempt before halftime and turning it into an avalanche, posting the statement win of the four FCS quarterfinal games that played out over the weekend.
Idaho head coach Jason Eck said in the days leading up to the game that his team would have to play perfectly and likely steal a possession or two. The Vandals did, snaring an interception early that resulted in a long Jordan Dwyer touchdown. When Idaho tied the game 10-10 and had not yet punted with eight minutes until halftime, it looked like an old-fashioned Big Sky slugfest would ensue.
But an onside kick that didn’t go 10 yards turned into an onslaught. Montana State took advantage of short fields thanks to that mistimed miscue and a forced fumble, resulting in 21 points in the final four minutes of the first half as the clash between Big Sky champion Bobcats and the upstart Vandals turned into a blowout faster than Tommy Mellott sprints up the sideline.
When Mellott took the controls with less than a minute left in the first half and ripped off a 63-yard run to set up Jones’ first touchdown, the record-setting playoff crowd of 18,127 went into a fever pitch. And Montana State did not let off the gas, scoring 21 more points to begin the second half to push the lead to 52-10.
For the final 14 minutes of the game, Montana State stopped swinging the hammer to prevent the score from getting any uglier in what turned out to be Eck’s last game coaching for the Vandals—he accepted a head coaching job at New Mexico the following day. The 52-19 win means Montana State is into the semifinals of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs for the fourth time since 2019, something not even the archrival Grizzlies have ever done.
“When you get into the final eight teams, you are playing the best in the nation and we have been doing that week in and week out here dating back for quite awhile,” Mellott said after his 131-yard rushing and 174-yard passing performance, referring to the recent strength of schedule as Idaho was the fourth consecutive Top 10 team MSU has played after finishing the regular season with wins over No. 4 UC Davis and No. 9 Montana. “I think that our team is resilient and they know things aren’t going to go perfect. We have a lot of trust within our team.”
As the final minutes, and then final seconds wound down, the attitude on the Bobcat sideline and the reaction of the Bobcat faithful was distinctly different than it had been after Choate’s Bobcats defeated Austin Peay. That win on Dec.13, 2019—five years, to the day, prior to Friday’s Idaho win—was a breakthrough, a watershed moment, a culmination of nearly 20 years of rebuilding at the hands of first Mike Kramer, then Rob Ash and then Choate.
This win was business-like. It was one you’d expect out of a juggernaut, not an upstart. And the celebration was tempered, because the victory was expected. Just like Montana State’s 34-11 win over Montana last month. Just like MSU’s 38-7 win over the Vandals on national TV back in October. Just like every day of 2024, the attitude of the Bobcats has not wavered.
“If we do what we do, and we stay within ourselves, we believe that no one can beat us,” senior captain defensive end Brody Grebe said earlier this month.
The game following the 2019 Austin Peay win, Montana State ran into the buzzsaw known as the North Dakota State Bison. NDSU walloped the Bobcats for a second straight season, blasting MSU 42-14 on the way to winning a third straight national title, the eighth in nine years for the Bison, the gold standard of the FCS.
The following year altered our cumulative modern history across the board as a global pandemic impacted everything, including, of course, football in the state of Montana. It also made Choate restless and ultimately led to his departure to become the defensive coordinator at Texas.
Brent Vigen took over ahead of the 2021 season with lofty expectations and plenty of skeptics. Could he continue MSU’s winning ways against the Grizzlies? Could he help Montana State continue to scale the ranks of the nationally elite and close the gap between South Dakota State as well as his alma mater of North Dakota State?
Vigen’s first season was bookended by losses, the opener a narrow loss to former team—he’d spent the previous seven seasons as the offensive coordinator with the Wyoming Cowboys—and the regular-season finale, a blowout 29-10 loss to Montana in Missoula, the latter of which set the fan base on fire.
Sure, nine wins in between those losses in year 1 was impressive and a sign of the progress the program has made. But with Bobby Hauck back at the helm at UM, would the Griz become the unbeatable Death Star that they were in the 2000s? Would the MSU program revert to the dormant years that caused so much consternation for alums across and beyond the Treasure State?
Vigen answered that question resoundingly, inserting Mellott—then a precious freshman—into the lineup at quarterback in MSU’s first playoff game. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Montana State ripped off three straight wins, including beating No. 1 seeded and defending national champion Sam Houston State University on the road in the quarterfinals to advance to the 2021 FCS national title game. The Bobcats beat South Dakota State along the way, topping the Jackrabbits 31-17 in Bozeman in the semifinals. That win serves as South Dakota State’s most recent postseason loss as the ‘Jacks have won back-to-back national titles in 2022 and 2023.
Since losing 38-10 to North Dakota State in the 2021 national title game—MSU’s seasons ended at the hands of the Bison in 2018, 2019, 2021 and last year, 2023—the Bobcats have continued to ascend. Montana State has won 34 of its last 40 games, including 14 straight this year to set a program record. The Bobcats are the No. 1 overall seed and host South Dakota in the semifinals on Saturday afternoon, Dec. 21 at 1:30 p.m.
“When we made the semifinals in 2021, we set a new expectation of where we want to be in this program,” Vigen said after beating Idaho to reach the fourth FCS semifinal in five seasons. “We are not guaranteed that just because we want it. This is our expectation that we are playing deep into the season and we are creating opportunities to play in big games. That’s where we are at right now.
“There wasn’t an empty seat, it didn’t appear. We will need that again on Saturday.”
