‘The Oregon game wasn’t going to make or break us. We gotta right the ship’
By Colter Nuanez SKYLINE SPORTS
The Oregon Ducks have a football payroll that roughly equates to the entire athletic department budget for the Montana State Bobcats.
Sure, after the House settlement went through earlier this summer, power conference schools are allowed to offer about $23 million apiece in roster subsidization. But you include booster and third-party NIL money, and financial distribution abilities for Oregon are profound. Some estimate that Oregon’s football roster will make $35 million this fall.
Montana State is a Football Championship Subdivision powerhouse who played for the national championship last season. But the MSU athletic department operates on a budget of between roughly $26 and $28 million annually.
On Saturday, Aug. 30, the No. 7 Ducks looked every bit like FBS national championship contenders in dismantling Montana State in a 59-13 runaway in front of a sellout crowd at Autzen Stadium.
When you take into account that Oregon has had the No. 1 or No. 2 recruiting class in the country the last three years, and that Nike co-founder Phil Knight has openly stated that UO has no limit for the NIL money he will contribute to the cause of winning a national title in football, you may start to wonder just what there is to take away from MSU’s most lopsided loss since 2008.
“On a talent scale, I think they match anybody in the country,” Montana State fifth-year head coach Brent Vigen said. “That’s big talent, long, small talent, quickness, explosion. We needed them to probably be a little off to be able to gain traction that you need.”
It’s nothing new for Oregon to have talent. In 2019, the last time Skyline Sports traveled to Autzen, the Ducks soundly beat University of Montana, 35-3. That UO team was quarterbacked by Justin Herbert, the future No. 6 pick in the NFL Draft, and its defense led by Kayvon Thibodeaux, a former national high school player of the year who went on to be the No. 5 overall pick by the New York Giants in the 2022 draft.
The differences now center upon the sheer number of elite players Oregon—and likely the rest of the Top 12-15 teams in the FBS—has compared to the rest of college football. Basically every player that’s playing for a Power 4 conference team is getting paid some form of NIL stipend or roster stipend. That’s particularly true at UO, a school with one of the most prominent—and richest—boosters in Knight.
South Dakota State has been one of the most prominent and steady pillars of success in the FCS over the last 10 years. But they certainly will not compare to the Ducks in terms of sheer size, athleticism and, ahem, salary when they come to Bozeman on Saturday evening, Sept. 6, for Montana State’s annual “Gold Rush” home opener.
The Jackrabbits have made it to the semifinals of the FCS playoffs for six years in a row dating back to 2019—there were no FCS playoffs in 2020. Only three teams have claimed FCS national titles since 2010: North Dakota State has won 10 of the last 13. James Madison, who is no longer in the FCS, won the title in 2016. And South Dakota State broke through for consecutive titles in 2022 and 2023. SDSU lost to North Dakota State in the semifinals last season before NDSU beat Montana State 35-32 in the FCS title game for the second time in four seasons.
The Jackrabbits ended Montana State’s season in the semifinals in 2022. The pseudo-rivals have played almost annually since Leon Costello took over as Montana State’s athletic director almost 10 years ago. The last time the two programs squared off, Montana State built a 10-0 halftime lead only to fall in a heartbreaker in Brookings, South Dakota, 20-16, in the second game of the 2023 season.
“We certainly have history with them over the last four years, playing them three times,” coach Vigen said. “They’ve been at the top. Two-time champion, four-time semifinalist in just the last four years alone.”
SDSU is under the direction of new head coach Dan Jackson, who was an assistant on John Stigelmeier’s staff from 2012 until 2019 and served as the defensive coordinator at Idaho last year. The Jacks look to be salty on defense after allowing just seven first downs in a 20-3 win over No. 15 Sacramento State last weekend.
Montana State is in the midst of a new era from a personnel standpoint. Stalwarts like Walter Payton Award-winning quarterback Tommy Mellott, three-time All-American defensive end Brody Grebe and two-time All-American offensive lineman Marcus Wehr graduated from last year’s squad.
But the roster is flush with talent, particularly from in state. Junior reciever Taco Dowler, a Billings product, looked like an early All-American candidate after catching 12 passes—the most in a game by a Bobcat since 2006—for 107 yards in Eugene. Sophomore running back Adam Jones, the preseason Big Sky Offensive Player of the Year, scored MSU’s lone offensive touchdown on Saturday.
And despite the graduation of Grebe and Wehr, Montana State’s offensive and defensive lines are expected to be among the best in the conference and the country. Offensive lineman Titan Fleishmann is an All-American candidate and will be an NFL prospect by the time his career at MSU is finished. Senior defensive tackle Paul Brott is wearing Montana State’s legacy No. 41 jersey this season while representing the team as a captain. Bozeman native Kenneth Eiden IV is coming off an all-conference junior year and is also a captain entering his senior season.
The “Gold Rush” marks the first time since 1984 that two Top-three teams have squared off at Bobcat Stadium. SDSU leapfrogged MSU in the rankings this week and come to town at No. 2 while the Bobcats held steady at No. 3.
Saturday also marks the first real and realistic test of the season for the Bobcat football team. And Vigen is looking forward to it.
“We’re really looking forward to a chance to play at home,” Vigen said. “Gold Rush is always a scene. It’s an event and beyond that it’s going to be a tremendous game.
“The Oregon game wasn’t going to make or break us. We gotta right the ship and a game like this is really going to help us sort out who we are. It’s our hope that our performance against Oregon isn’t who we are.”
Colter Nuanez has covered the Big Sky Conference for 19 seasons and has directly covered Montana State since 2011. His work can be found at skylinesportsmt.com and he can be reached at Colter.Nuanez@gmail.com.
