‘Nothing is guaranteed’ against red-hot Redbirds on a bracket-breaking run
By Colter Nuanez SKYLINE SPORTS
BOZEMAN—The energy of one of the most electric nights in Bobcat Stadium history still hovered in the air. The triumphant win over the hated archrival was less than an hour old.
Yet head coach Brent Vigen was already thinking about the future.
Two wins in 28 days over the Montana Grizzlies has the Montana State faithful thinking big. Most analysts of the Football Championship Subdivision considered the Dec. 20 rivalry rematch to be the de facto FCS national title game.
But Vigen, who’s been a part of three national title teams during his time as an assistant at North Dakota State and who has been on the wrong side of national title game losses in two of his prior four seasons as the head coach at MSU, knows there’s no such thing as a coronation. At least not until the Bobcats take care of business this week in Nashville, Tennessee.
The stoic 50-year-old persistently made sure to add “We are not done yet,” and “there is still more work to do” within every quote and sound bite following his team’s 48-23 avalanche over No. 3 Montana.
Two rivalry wins in the scope of a season has not been done since 1913 and a playoff rivalry game has never occurred in the 128-year history of the fiercest rivalry in the West. So bragging rights certainly ran thick after Montana State ended Montana’s season a few days before Christmas.
But those bragging rights and the scope of a season as a whole will ring hollow if Montana State can’t get it done against Illinois State on Jan. 5 in the FCS title game in Nashville.
And Vigen knows it.
“This has happened three times—we have hosted a semifinal, we have won each of them but you can’t take these moments for granted,” Vigen said. “You want to take them all in. As a coach, you want to think ahead.
“We have been through this transition. I want guys to do everything we can to finish the job the way we intend to. We aren’t finished yet.”
Montana State has had six head coaches since Dave Arnold led MSU to its last national title in 1984. The Bobcats have had dozens of All-Americans and plenty of triumphs, including winning or sharing nine Big Sky Conference championships.
But playoff success largely eluded MSU. That is, until Vigen arrived.
Since he has taken over, Vigen has helped Montana State reach new heights. MSU has won three Big Sky titles in four seasons. The Bobcats are 37-3 in league play over the last five seasons and 60-12 overall. Eleven of MSU’s 23 all-time playoff wins have come under Vigen’s direction, including 11 of the 20 at the Division I level.
Earlier this season, Vigen checked one of the two remaining boxes that remained open on his resume when he led the Bobcats to a 31-28 win over Montana in Missoula. The only box left to check, other than beating North Dakota State, is to win the national title. He can check that final box against Illinois State on Jan. 5.
How the Redbirds got here
ISU is the first team in FCS playoffs history to win four straight road games to reach the title game. The Redbirds stumbled to a 4-3 start with losses to Oklahoma (35-3), NDSU (33-16) and Youngstown State (40-35) only to rip off four straight wins and put themselves in position for a potential seed. Instead, ISU laid an egg in its season finale, losing 37-7 at home to No. 24 Southern Illinois.
The unranked Redbirds launched this epic tournament run by beating Southeastern Louisiana 21-3 in the first round in Hammond, Louisiana. The following week, Illinois State broke the bracket. Despite senior quarterback Tommy Rittenhouse throwing five interceptions, ISU shocked the FCS world by beating No. 1 North Dakota State 29-28 in Fargo.
The upset marked the first time since 2016 and the second time ever as a Division I football team that NDSU lost at home. It also marked the first time in NDSU’s D-I playoff history that the Bison failed to advance to at least the quarterfinals.
“It’s not that they found lightning in a bottle; they found a way to win in Fargo. Going up to Fargo and finding a way to win, that can be a catalyst in so many different ways and especially the way they won,” Vigen said. “I don’t think that game could’ve been replayed that way once if you played it 100 times. It was such an odd game. But they won that game and took a huge amount of confidence out of that game.”
Rittenhouse has leaned into throwing it up to senior receiver Daniel Sobkowicz, who’s on an unreal hot streak. He’s caught 29 passes for 405 yards and eight touchdowns in the playoffs alone. Running back Victor Dawson has also been a revelation, averaging 128 yards per game in the playoffs alone. And defensively, a unit led by junior All-American linebacker Tye Niekamp (155 tackles, 14.5 tackles for loss) has found its stride since Nov. 1.
The Redbirds would be the most unlikely FCS national champion since at least 2008 when unseeded Richmond won the crown. The Bobcats are determined to not let that happen.
“I’m so thankful to be able to play this great game with my brothers,” MSU senior captain Paul Brott said. “Since we’ve been here, we have been checking off all the boxes on our to-do list. And now we get the opportunity to check the last box. Nothing is guaranteed. But we have the chance.”
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.
