By Colter Nuanez SKYLINE SPORTS
FRISCO, Texas—For the first time here, particularly against a Big Sky Conference opponent, the Bison of North Dakota State seemed vulnerable.
After a thorough, edgy effort led by stellar senior quarterback Cam Miller, however, the Bison continue to reign supreme. And the Big Sky’s best continue to wonder what it will take to get over the top against the mighty powerhouse from Fargo after NDSU led from stem to stern to earn a 35-32 win in front of 18,005 fans here on a chilly Monday evening.
“I think we came here with one expectation: to win this game,” Montana State head coach Brent Vigen said in the postgame press conference. “I know it stings a lot for these guys, for these seniors in particular that have laid such a foundation for our program. They’ve certainly built upon the seniors before them, but the success they’ve had, been through a lot of ups and some downs.
“Obviously this is a low point. You end up rattling off 15 victories and you can’t finish it off, this is not how we wanted this day to end. But I know the program’s much better for their efforts. I know they’re much better off for being part of Montana State’s football program. So I can’t thank them enough. We’re going to miss them, I know that.”
NDSU had a first-year head coach in Tim Polasek, a man who had been an assistant during four national championship runs, but had never been a head coach in the FCS title game at Toyota Stadium.
The North Dakota State program has been the subject of much tumult in recent years, from getting poached by Power 5 programs in the NCAA transfer portal to the perception that the standard had slipped. And how could that perception not creep in for a team that went 142-9 during the fall seasons between 2011 and 2021?
The Bobcats came to Frisco with an unblemished record and a run of excellence that had seen them dispatch of every single opponent save one by multiple touchdowns, including No. 4 South Dakota in the FCS semifinals to punch a ticket back here, the place where 2021’s magical yet unlikely run came to a crashing halt when the freshman version of Tommy Mellott suffered a game-ending injury on MSU’s first possession of the game. The Bison rolled to a 28-0 halftime lead and cruised to a 38-10 win.
But this Bobcat team seemed different, not just than the MSU teams before it but different than the other Big Sky teams who had tried their hand against the unbelievably dominant Missouri Valley champions whose names end in “Dakota State.”
MSU has one of the best offenses the subdivision has seen, a freight train running attack that averaged more than 300 yards per contest entering Monday night. The Bobcats finally had a quarterback, a Montana-made work horse from Butte, America who had blossomed into one of the best dual threats in college football in Tommy Mellott. The Bobcats brought a salty defense to Toyota Stadium that had a penchant for getting off the field on third downs. And they had a few of the best special teams specialists in all the land in 6-foot-9 senior punter Brendan Hall and superstar sophomore punt returner Taco Dowler.
On Monday night, although the Bobcats nearly rallied for a comeback for the ages, instead, the story remained the same.
And as the final punt of the evening settled to the turf allowing the final seconds to tick off the clock, a sea of green and gold flooded the field.
It didn’t matter that Montana State fans seemed to outnumber NDSU fans two-to-one. It didn’t matter that Mellott went crazy in the second half, throwing two touchdowns and ripping off a 44-yard rushing score to cut what was a 21-3 halftime deficit to 28-25 with 11:25 left.
All that mattered were the Bison were the Bison. And the Bison had Cam Miller.
Less than 24 hours after Mellott earned the Walter Payton Award as the top offensive player in the Football Championship Subdivision, Miller took home the Most Outstanding Player of the FCS title game.
Miller rushed for nearly 100 yards in the first half alone, scoring a tone-setting short touchdown on a play where he got hit so hard his helmet came flying off and then ripping off another 64-yard score that broke the game open before Montana State even got a chance to find its footing.
Miller finished the game 19-of-22 for 199 yards, winning his 45th game as the starter at NDSU in the process. He helped the Bison convert 8-of-12 on third downs and he spearheaded NDSU’s run game with 121 of the Bison’s 202 rushing yards.
“I think Cam is one of one for sure,” said NDSU sophomore wide receiver Bryce Lance, who continued his breakout season with nine catches for 107 yards and his FCS-best 17th touchdown of the season.
“Obviously he didn’t win that award that our whole team knows he should have, and I think he showed that today. I really don’t think you can compare the two people because it’s different journeys, but Cam is that guy.”
Mellott can relate. The 6-foot burner from Butte didn’t have a quarterback coach growing up in the Mining City. He just learned how to compete by “going and playing.” Vigen embraced that creativity and also acknowledged how analytical Mellott can be.
Through patience, development and Mellott’s renewed commitment to staying healthy, it culminated in one of the great quarterback seasons in Big Sky and FCS history.
In the first half, Mellott found no flow as dropped passes and non-conversions thwarted MSU’s offensive efforts. In the second half, he took control of the game, engineering a swift 11-play drive right out of the halftime locker room to cut the deficit.
After a quick stop, Mellott hit senior tight end Ryan Lonergan for a 54-yard gain inside the 10, then fellow tight end Rohan Jones for a five-yard touchdown. When Lonergan, a sixth-year senior who was one of 15 Bozeman products playing in the game for the ‘Cats, caught a two-point conversion—MSU’s first of the season—a game that looked destined for a blowout turned into a tight affair in an instant.
“I think that our offense was a little bit stagnant there from the first half, unfortunately, and came up short because of it,” Mellott said. “[Offensive coordinator] coach Walker got us going, players are making plays, guys kept fighting. It’s very easy, 21-3, to quit in a national championship game, it is, and we came back out there, and we had a group of guys that fought for this team, fought for the seniors, and just came up short.”
