Pick-six by D-lineman Talon Marsh highlights another Montana State road win; Cat-Griz on Nov. 22 looms larger
By Colter Nuanez SKYLINE SPORTS
Brent Vigen was visibly and vocally frustrated by a fourth quarter on Oct. 25 in California that he viewed as substandard for his football team.
If that’s what it took to ignite the Bobcats, consider Montana State football officially on fire. And the final stick of dynamite came this past Saturday, Nov. 1, on a big-man touchdown that set the Bobcat sideline ablaze.
Montana State closed October with a 34-17 win at Cal Poly that Vigen called “methodical, yet messy.” The Bobcats opened November with an utter beatdown of Northern Colorado that was punctuated by Talon Marsh rumbling up the Bobcat sideline as Montana State officially announced they are once again the team to beat in the Big Sky Conference.
Marsh, a 6-foot-1, 285-pound defensive tackle from Helena, picked off a pass and made the earth shake on an almost unbelievable 90-yard sprint to the end-zone. The other 10 Bobcat defenders gave Marsh an escort while the Bobcat sideline burst into a frenzy.
The touchdown—by surely one of the heaviest players to ever find the end-zone for the Bobcats—put MSU up 48-0 with more than nine minutes to play in Greeley, Colorado. The Bobcats pushed the lead to 55-0 and the MSU backups tried their best to secure a shutout before the Bears mercifully got on the board.
Still, the 55-7 win affirmed Montana State as not only the front-runner to repeat as Big Sky champions but also one of the teams to beat in the Football Championship Subdivision. Against Cal Poly, Vigen lamented the lack of a knockout punch. Against Northern Colorado, Montana State landed a pair of knockout punches in the form of a pair of explosive Taco Dowler touchdowns on a day he set a career-high for receiving yards with 138—and the Bobcats kept punching.
“I’m really pleased with the overall effort and that’s a good Northern Colorado team that ultimately fought hard,” Vigen said. “We score in 45 seconds before the half [to go up 20-0] and then we score in just a couple of plays to start the second half and we pushed it from 13-0 to 34-0.
“When we do that and our defense is locked in being hard on them all day, we are going to be tough to beat. That team [Northern Colorado] scored 49 against Idaho so credit to the defense for shutting them down like that today,” Vigen added.
Marsh, a sophomore who prepped at Helena Capital, snared his first interception on a pass tipped by fellow upstart defensive lineman Dom Solano before running alongside one of the biggest escort parties in school history as his teammates surrounded him for the final 40 yards, preventing a Bears’ tackler from catching Marsh. Marsh traveled right down the MSU sideline just to add to the flavor as the Bobcats went ballistic with glee, watching the big man touchdown play out.
“Dom Solano [and I], we always are talking about it if the opportunity ever comes if I get it from him, he’s going to hawk me down and trip me,” Marsh said. “He actually blocked the best for me, so I guess he really didn’t follow through, which I’m really happy for, but that was really special. I caught it and I turned, and I thought I better just turn on the jets. I haven’t run very far in a long time, like in high school in track, so I was pretty pumped about how fast I was going.”
The play was the all the rage among the players after the game as the Bobcats ran their Big Sky record to 5-0 and overall mark to 7-2. Saturday marked MSU’s seventh straight victory.
“That was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my time in football,” MSU quarterback Justin Lamson said after throwing for 336 yards and three touchdowns. “I was kind of in the back, and I saw everybody running and I just joined in on them. We got the [unsportsmanlike conduct] flag, but I think coach Vigen will probably be okay with that one.”
“When you see something like that, that’s exciting,” added cornerback Seth Johnson. “We were all running down the sideline. It was crazy, it was exciting. You don’t really get to see a D-lineman get a pick-six. That’s crazy.”
Bobcats climb the ranks
Montana State vaulted into the driver’s seat not only because of its thorough win in the Centennial State. MSU vaulted because of the pandemonium that played out across the rest of the FCS on Saturday.
In the Big Sky Conference, No. 6 UC Davis lost 38-36 to Idaho State. No. 19 Northern Arizona lost 35-32 in overtime to Idaho. And winless Portland State beat Cal Poly 40-35.
Outside of the Big Sky, No. 1 North Dakota State had to hold on for a 38-30 win over No. 18 Youngstown State. No. 4 South Dakota State lost for the second week in a row, falling 24-12 to Indiana State. No. 8 North Dakota fell 26-21 to resurgent South Dakota.
And outside the FCS Power 2 conferences, unranked Abilene Christian knocked off undefeated and No. 2 Tarleton State 31-28.
It all amounts to Montana State likely taking a Top 3 national ranking and a head of steam into its final two-game home stand of 2025 with the rivalry season finale against Montana in Missoula on Nov. 22 looming larger by the week.
“Our coaches challenged us to play up to our standard this week and we did,” Lamson said. “Now we have to keep building that momentum.”
Montana State hosts Weber State on Saturday, Nov. 8.
