By Colter Nuanez SKYLINE SPORTS
BOZEMAN—It was almost as if Brent Vigen and the Montana State Bobcats heard the whispers: “Tommy Mellott was their whole offense,” and “Last year’s team was once in a generation,” and most recently, “They only beat Mercyhurst by 17 points. When Big Sky Conference play rolls around, the Bobcats are in trouble.”
Regardless of whether Montana State has been paying attention to the noise, the Bobcats responded resoundingly with a record-setting 57-3 win over Eastern Washington on Saturday, Sept. 27, in front yet another sellout crowd on yet another picture-perfect Bozeman day at Bobcat Stadium.
Justin Lamson sliced and diced the Eagles throughout a precise and explosive first half, jolting MSU to a 31-3 lead. Lamson’s frozen rope to the corner of the South end-zone to Jabez Woods was one of the most impressive throws made by a Bobcat quarterback in a decade-plus, both because of the accuracy and velocity of the throw and because it symbolizes the dawning of a new era.
Lamson, a transfer from Stanford, can certainly run. But he’s not Mellott, the greatest running quarterback in the history of the Big Sky Conference. He’s also nothing like Troy Andersen or Chris Murray, a pair of run-first—some would say run-only—signal callers who each rushed for more than 1,000 yards in single seasons during their time quarterbacking the Bobcat offense.
Instead, this Montana State offense features balance, an array of playmakers and a triggerman who’s currently the most accurate passer in the entire Football Championship Subdivision.
Lamson threw for 251 of his 270 yards and all three of his touchdowns during the first-half onslaught to give MSU a four-touchdown lead. After halftime, Montana State got its ground game going, first with punter and placeholder Colby Frokjer, a surprisingly athletic true freshman who turned a fake-field-goal trick play into a 26-yard touchdown burst.
Then Adam Jones turned on the jets on an outside run play while racing for a 37-yard touchdown on a carry that helped him show the form that made him the runner-up for the Jerry Rice Award given to the top freshman in the FCS last season despite his slow start to his sophomore season. He entered the game with 135 rushing yards in four games, but rushed for 72 yards and scored two touchdowns on Saturday.
Those two explosive runs helped Montana State blow open the game and make a statement to the rest of the Big Sky Conference in the process. The Bobcats are still the defending conference champions. And MSU looks very intent on making another run at a league title after dismantling the Eagles like never before.
“Throwing the ball down the field is something we have been trying to work on all season,” Lamson said. “Taking shot plays, we are super-efficient when we throw underneath stuff but when I can go let our guys make plays, we are dangerous.”
Lamson connected with Ryan King for 52 yards. He also hit tight end Hunter Provience for a 43-yard touchdown, Taco Dowler for a 45-yard touchdown and Chris Long for 25 yards, along with the 28-yard touchdown to Woods—all in the first half.
“We have a lot of guys that are capable of making plays,” MSU head coach Brent Vigen said. “It’s not like we have to go after one guy. We can let the opportunities dictate where the ball goes. If we can play that way and not worry about who’s getting the ball, I think we’ll have a chance to be pretty good.
“Justin being timely and accurate, making good decisions is all a big piece to it. It was one of those games where everybody, for the most part, got involved. Certainly, pleased with the fact that we’ve got multiple guys who can make plays.”
Nine different Bobcats caught passes against Eastern Washington. Dowler led the way with three catches for 64 yards, including the 45-yarder during a first quarter that helped the Bobcats race to a 21-0 lead. Provience, a sophomore tight end, also showed off his sneaky speed by taking an inside fade out of the slot 43 yards for a score during that opening stanza blitz.
“Last week, we kind of looked at it as if you have 18-play drives, 15-play drives, that’s great—but if we can flip the switch and score huge touchdowns, we can change the momentum of a game,” Lamson said. “If we can execute like this, we are able to make these big plays and we are going to be tough to beat.”
It all amounted to the most lopsided win over Eastern Washington in the series’ long and competitive history. MSU entered the game having won just 14 of the last 40 matchups with EWU, although Vigen moved to 5-0 against the Eagles with the win. Montana State closes September on a three-game winning streak and should hold steady at No. 4 in the national polls despite losing its first two games of the season—59-13 at FBS No. 6 Oregon and 30-24 in double overtime to FCS No. 2 South Dakota State.
A few weeks ago, Vigen passed Sonny Holland on Montana State’s all-time wins list with his 48th victory. A statue of Holland stands in front of Bobcat Stadium and he is widely considered “the greatest Bobcat of them.”
Saturday, Vigen won for the 50th time as the head coach at Montana State. He is 20 wins behind Rob Ash (2007-2015) for the school record.
More importantly, his team is 1-0 in league play and the slog of last week’s anomaly against Mercyhurst seem a distant memory after the Bobcats boat-raced an old nemesis.
“It’s our expectation to go out and win every week and we have done that the last three weeks,” Vigen said. “To get to that milestone (50 wins), to me, it’s our first conference game THIS year and it’s our third win THIS year. And we need to figure out how to get another one next week.”
Montana State takes on Northern Arizona next weekend in Flagstaff, Arizona.
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.
