By Colter Nuanez SKYLINE SPORTS
BOZEMAN—The Bobcats finally washed the bitter taste of defeat out of their collective mouths. And they did it in a fashion that’s a bit different than what Montana State fans have become accustomed to the previous eight seasons.
MSU advanced to the semifinals of the FCS playoffs every season since 2019 save 2023, when a blocked extra point in overtime broke MSU’s collective hearts against omnipresent FCS juggernaut North Dakota State.
The key, at least offensively, to the Bobcats winning two of the last three Big Sky Conference championships and playing for the national title two of the last four seasons has been a complex, powerful run game that has been among college football’s best.
Saturday, Sept. 13 in front of another sellout crowd of 21,917 on a sun-kissed afternoon at Bobcat Stadium, Montana State certainly had a more than serviceable run game. MSU averaged 5.2 yards per carry and rushed for 218 yards against a San Diego squad that packed the box, making Julius Davis, Adam Jones and company work for their yards.
For most of the last eight years, MSU had averaged between 275 and 315 yards rushing per game, averaging an incredible seven yards per carry or more for most of that stretch. Most teams would be thrilled with more than 200 yards on the ground and more than five yards per carry. Yet some in Bobcat Nation have been wondering, “What happened to Montana State’s rushing attack? Did Tommy Mellott make that much of a difference?”
In first-year offensive coordinator Pete Sterbick’s first three games, MSU has taken to the air more than in previous seasons. And quarterback Justin Lamson, a Stanford transfer, has shown he can make a difference as well, albeit in a different fashion than Tommy Mellott, a beloved star with almost folk hero status after growing up in Butte and transforming into the 2024 Walter Payton Award winner as the top player in the Football Championship Subdivision.
On Saturday, Lamson was a model of consistency and accuracy, making almost perfect decisions throughout the afternoon on the way to a career day. He completed 23 of his 26 pass attempts for 293 yards and three touchdowns as Montana State rolled to a 41-7 victory, the first of the season for the Bobcats after a brutal start to 2025 in terms of the prowess of their schedule.
“I think some of the numbers today were a function of how San Diego plays defense,” MSU fifth-year head coach Brent Vigen said. “They are packed in there. They have one more in the box and if they have one more than we have, our ability to break out runs is going to be challenging.
“We want to be able to be balanced for sure, so there’s a philosophy there but ultimately, it’s still to take what the defense gives you, whether it’s a run-pass where we come off the ball like a run and it turns into a pass, that’s still a run-first thought. We still have to establish the run game but if a team is going to give us the perimeter and allow us to throw the ball to our receivers, I think we are better equipped for that than we would’ve been the last three years.”
Receiver Taco Dowler continued his torrid start to his junior season with another career outing. The former Montana prep Gatorade Player of the Year out of Billings West High School hauled in eight passes for 116 yards and two touchdowns on Saturday. His 45-yard touchdown catch less than six minutes into the game ignited the sellout crowd and put San Diego on its heels. His 16-yard catch-and-run for a score pushed MSU’s advantage to 31-0 as the Bobcats scored 38 unanswered points to begin the game.
“When you get targeted as much as I got targeted today, you should have big numbers,” Dowler said. “Trust my quarterback, really good quarterback. Trust my O-line, trust my teammates. And if you turn on the tape and look at that second touchdown, the receivers are blocking their guys into the end-zone. It’s not too difficult when you have that type of effort.”
Montana State’s defense looked fearless, tough and hard-hitting in its first two games of the season. But those intangibles were not directly reflected in the statistics. MSU gave up 59 points to Oregon. The following week, the No. 5 Ducks scored 69 points before the third quarter was over against Oklahoma State.
On Sept. 6, Montana State’s defense allowed 10 points to South Dakota State’s offense before the game went to overtime tied 17-17. The other SDSU touchdown came as a result of a blocked punt. MSU eventually lost in double overtime, 30-24, falling to 0-2 for the first time since 2016.
On Saturday, MSU again looked like a national championship contender, dictating the game on both sides of the line of scrimmage and using its electrifying talent on both sides of the ball to turn heads and ignite the crowd.
A total of 21 Bobcats made tackles and more than two dozen played meaningful snaps defensively. Caden Dowler, a safety and team captain who is also Taco’s twin brother, notched his first career sack to add to his standout start to his first healthy season in a few years.
“We played two teams that are really great teams, but you’d rather have that early in the season to test yourselves and I’m happy we had those two games early to start out tough,” Taco Dowler said.
“We are three games in and I told the team this after the game, we are not a young team anymore,” Vigen added. “You get the experience we’ve had, those guys are different players. What you see is a group that has played some really excellent teams and that creates a resilience within us.”
