Coach Vigen promises ‘a scene’ for Saturday night when ‘Cats host 7-2 UC Davis under the lights
By Colter Nuanez SKYLINE SPORTS
Montana State has been playing football since 1897. And the Bobcats have been in the Big Sky Conference since the league was founded in 1963. On Saturday, Nov. 8 in Bozeman, MSU beat down a conference opponent like only once before.
Montana State turned all four of Weber State’s turnovers into touchdowns. The Bobcats took advantage of every miscue the visiting Wildcats made. And MSU is poised to explode into the final two games of the regular season with a head of steam like no one else in the Big Sky.
By the time the dust settled on Montana State’s 66-14 victory over Weber, the Bobcats had—for the second time this season—threatened the school record for margin of victory in a conference game. MSU began conference play by stomping Eastern Washington on the way to a 57-3 win that broke a school record that has stood since 2003. And on Saturday, MSU won by 52 points, the second-largest margin of victory by a Bobcat team over a conference opponent of all time. Add in last week’s 55-7 win over Northern Colorado and three of MSU’s four largest margins of victory have come this season.
“We continue to get better, continue to believe we can get better,” Montana State fifth-year head coach Brent Vigen said following his 55th win leading the Bobcats. “That can be the biggest challenge. Complacency is such an easy place to settle into, and this group has been able to play whoever’s in front of us and make it about the opportunity, not the opponent. That’s not easy.
“Human nature sets in all too often for anybody, especially young people. Our ability to hold ourselves to the standard. We got a real appreciative group. A group that works together and works for one another.”
Montana State has now won 35 of the 38 Big Sky games behind Vigen, so to say MSU is a dark horse or is coming out of the weeds as a conference title contender yet again would be melodramatic. But the fact that MSU went undefeated a year ago only to come up just short in a 35-32 loss to North Dakota State in the FCS national title game, and then proceeded to lose the first two games of 2025, has made many around the country focus on other contending heavyweights.
To the east, South Dakota State came to Bozeman on Sept. 6 and held on for a hard-fought and physical 30-24 double overtime victory. The Jackrabbits are the only team still in the FCS who’s won a national championship since 2011—the ‘Jacks went back-to-back in 2022 and 2023—other than North Dakota State. But injuries have derailed SDSU. Saturday, the Jackrabbits lost 24-17 to South Dakota for their third straight defeat.
Of course, North Dakota State has not missed a beat, moving to 10-0 on Saturday and 196-21 since beginning their reign of dominance in 2011, including 10 of the last 13 national titles. Yet the Bison were pushed each of the last two weeks—NDSU had to hold on for a 38-30 win over Youngstown State two weeks ago before needing a late touchdown to rally for a 15-10 win over suddenly-sliding North Dakota in Grand Forks on Saturday.
Tarleton State spent nine weeks looking like the upstart party crasher, climbing to No. 2 in the polls largely on the strength of a zero in the loss column and a win over Army. But the Texans hit a brick wall and lost to Abilene Christian two weeks ago.
The topsy-turvy nature of this season was perhaps best on display the first weekend of November. The Big Sky is one of the largest geographic conferences in the country and varying levels of home field engagement and advantage exist at the 12 member schools. So when all six road teams were victorious on Nov. 1—including Montana State’s 55-7 beatdown over Northern Colorado—it told the story of the conference.
UC Davis was one of the hosts who lost. The Aggies had been undefeated against FCS opponents until falling 38-36 to Idaho State to open up November. That ding knocked Davis from No. 5 in the national poll to No. 10, but the Aggies should climb back inside the top 10 after posting a 28-14 win at Idaho on Saturday, Nov. 8.
And of course, Montana State’s archrival is still undefeated. The Grizzlies of Montana moved to 10-0 with a 29-24 win over Eastern Washington this week.
That’s all to say that most of the narrative around the nation has centered upon North Dakota State’s continued dominance, South Dakota State’s recent slippage, North Dakota’s inconsistency, Tarleton State’s potential imposter syndrome and Montana’s potential return to dominance.
But for those that have been paying attention, the most complete team in the FCS makes its home in Bozeman. And now the Bobcats have a chance to stamp once again why they are still national title contenders.
UC Davis is in Bozeman on Saturday for the final home game of the regular season. Then MSU travels to Missoula for the 123rd rendition of the fiercest rivalry in the West.
“We need a great crowd Saturday night and that should be a scene, and we will make it a scene,” Vigen said. “I know our crowd is ready and raring for a nighttime opportunity late in the season to show what they can do. And so is our team.”
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.
