BOZEMAN, Montana — As Isaiah Ifanse cruised into the end-zone untouched, looking at himself in the jumbo-tron that sits on the North side of Bobcat Stadium, breaking Montana State’s all-time career rushing record in the process, someone in the press box muttered:
“It would be kind of cool if they scored 52 points to honor Sonny.”
Six days ago, the Greatest Bobcat of them all passed away. Allyn “Sonny” Holland was such a dominant offensive lineman during his playing career at Montana State, his No. 52 was retired right away following his graduation. Twenty years after leading MSU to the 1956 national championship as an All-American center, Holland served as the head coach during Montana State’s run to the 1976 national championship. Holland passed away shortly after MSU’s playoff win over Weber State last weekend. He was 84.
The modern-day Bobcats wore stickers on the back of their helmets on Friday night that displayed the silhouette of the statue of Holland that sits in front of Bobcat Stadium. The sticker also included Holland’s No. 52.
With temperatures in the teens and 14,367 raucous fans on hand, Montana State blew by 52 points with ease. And the Bobcats could’ve scored as many points as they wanted had they kept pouring it on against the over-matched visitors from the East Coast.
Montana State called off the dogs with 20 minutes of game time to go yet still cruised into the FCS Final Four for the third fall season in a row. Ifanse’s record-setting night was only part of a milestone evening that saw fourth-seeded Montana State steamroll William & Mary 55-7.
“This is pretty special and having that be the last game we control in Bobcat Stadium, and having it go out like that, shout out to the crowd, an 8:15 game, cold as hell and that stadium was rocking so to be able to have that potentially be the last game at Bobcat Stadium, that’s pretty high up the list and pretty cool,” Montana State senior captain Callahan O’Reilly said after notching a team-high eight tackles in his 29th victory in 31 home games playing in his hometown of Bozeman.
The Bobcats had 55 points with more than five minutes to play in the third quarter before unloading their bench, putting forth one of the most dominant playoff performances by a Big Sky Conference team in the nearly 60-year history of the league.
Ifanse rushed for 163 yards on just 11 carries, pacing a rushing attack that saw Montana State pile up 328 yards on the ground and 473 yards of total offense despite playing much of the game on half of the field because the hosts controlled the field position, too.
And the Bobcat defense suffocated the Tribe’s powerful offensive attack, particularly in the first three quarters on the way to a thorough, convincing victory that has a program that hadn’t made the Final Four in 35 yards prior to 2019 into the semis for the third year in a row.
“We respect every opponent and we just want to play better and better every week,” O’Reilly said. “We knew it was going to be cold and we knew the field was not going to be perfect but we knew if we came out there and played with fundamentals, we could keep moving on.”
Perhaps it was the memory of Holland — O’Reilly and his fellow captains gifted Holland’s three daughters with bouquets of flowers before the game — and perhaps Montana State has truly ascended. For so long, the Bobcats had success only to suffer heartbreak, often either at the hands of their archrivals from Missoula or in the playoffs or both.
As the program keeps surging, those narratives continue to drift further into the past. Friday night’s victory is Montana State’s 10th straight this season and its 20th in a row at home overall. MSU head coach Brent Vigen moved to 5-1 in FCS playoff games and 24-2 against the Football Championship Subdivision overall.
The Bobcats have come to expect winning, in decisive fashion, no matter the opponent. A year after running all the way to the national championship game behind one of the most talented senior classes in Big Sky Conference history, Montana State is just one game away from returning to Frisco, Texas.
“To be able to win like we’ve won here has been so special,” O’Reilly said. “I was really trying to soak it in tonight. At the start of the game, you have to be focused on flying around. But in that second half, I tried to soak it in because it was pretty cool.”
From the moment Holland walked away from Bobcat football, just a season after leading MSU to the first national championship ever claimed by a Big Sky squad, consistent success eluded Montana State. Sure, the Bobcats had a dream season in 1984 when they went 12-2 and raced to the school’s first and only Division I-AA championship. That unforgettable season was sandwiched between a one-win season in 1983 and a two-win season in 1985.
The doldrums of 1986 to 2002, each season ending with a loss to the hated Grizzlies, were enough to drive the Bobcat faithful to madness.
The ascent has been incremental for the first 15 years of the 21st century, then rapid and impressive over the last handful of seasons.
Montana State has now proven the program is the among the nation’s best despite a disruptive coaching change that allowed Vigen to take over as a head coach for the first time before last season. His steady hand and MSU’s ability to reshape its identity around its personnel has caused many around the FCS to take notice.
Following MSU’s 55-21 win over Montana in Bozeman in November, Montana head coach Bobby Hauck said “They can’t throw it very well, they know that, we know that and we still couldn’t stop them” after the Griz gave up 439 yards rushing.
Two weeks later after Montana State rolled up 388 yards rushing in a 33-25 win over Weber State to advance to Friday’s quarterfinal, WSU head coach Jay Hill (who took the defensive coordinator position at BYU earlier this week) said “everybody in the stadium knew they were going to run it including us and we still couldn’t stop it.”
On Friday night, after his team gave up 328 yards on the ground and nearly eight yards per carry, William & Mary head coach Mike London tipped his hat to the hosts.
“That’s a very good football team, Montana State, well coached, very physical and I see why they were last year’s runner-up,” London, who led Richmond to the FCS national title in 2008, said. “That’s a complete football team…they did a good job of getting after us and we didn’t do enough.
“This is the type of rarified air we want to be in. We want to be a team like Montana State that is year in and year out in the playoffs and trying to compete for championships.”
William & Mary’s front seven, a unit led by sophomore All-American linebacker John Pius (11.5 sacks, 19.5 tackles for loss entering the game) and hulking junior defensive end Nate Lynn had a difficult time finding any footing against MSU’s bruising run game.
“It was about our inability to get off blocks because they engulf you and you have to get off blocks sometimes,” London said. “Their quarterbacks did an outstanding job. They have a good scheme that works for the talent that they have.”
The Tribe came to Bozeman with a monstrous offensive line, an athletic and intimidating defensive front and an 11-1 record. William & Mary rushed for 277 yards a game this season, the fourth-best average in the FCS.
Montana State erased that run game, particularly early, forcing W&M to punt on seven of its first eight possessions, including starting the game forcing five consecutive 3-and-outs. After the fourth 3-and-out, Tribe sophomore quarterback Darius Wilson came off the field visibly frustrated, slamming his helmet on the sideline right in front of the heated benches the Tribe had borrowed from the University of Montana.
Senior running back Bronson Yoder entered the game with 1,132 rushing yards this season. He finished Friday with 26 carries for 122 yards but 91 of those yards came after Vigen put in his backup defense and then the third string.
MSU held W&M to 135 yards rushing, less than half its season single-game average. Wilson also struggled all night to find any rhythm, completing just 7-of-18 passes for 62 yards and throwing an interception to MSU sophomore cornerback Simeon Woodard.
Montana State also brought pressure from different levels of its defense, totaling three sacks, including one by O’Reilly, another by fellow captain nickleback Ty Okada and one by reserve cornerback Miles Jackson.
“One of the things they really did well was they ran to the ball,” London said. “They did a great job of showing up and when you do things like that, it can hamper your efficiency.”
After a stalemate first quarter that included Montana State’s first string of punts in a month and no scoring other than Blake Glessner’s 30-yard field goal, MSU exploded over the last 93 seconds of the first frame to start the avalanche.
Ifanse jolted for gains of 20 and 26 yards on MSU’s initial scoring drive, foreshadowing what was to come.
Ifanse’s 14-yard rip set up Tommy Mellott’s 42-yard lofting pass to Tight end Treyton Pickering, which then led to Mellott’s 22-yard touchdown rip, helping MSU go 83 yards in four plays and one minute, 33 seconds as the first quarter came to a close.
“We knew stylistically how we were built and how they were built, it was going to be a matter of just how that first quarter would play out from a physicality perspective and I thought defensive, we set the tone right from the get go,” Vigen said. “Offensively, I thought it took us a little while to get going but hats off to our guys.”
Less than two minutes into the second quarter, Ifanse ripped off a 68-yard touchdown run, the longest TD jaunt in MSU playoff history, and all of a sudden, Montana State was up 17-0. An eight-yard Mellott run on a broken play pushed the lead to three scores and Glessner’s playoff-record 50-yard field goal with 18 seconds until halftime gave MSU a 27-0 lead.
Coming out of halftime, Montana State’s Marqui Johnson ripped off an 87-yard kick return but was chased down before he could reach the end-zone. On the very next play, Ifanse ran over at least three William & Mary defenders on an 11-yard touchdown rumble and the rout was on.
“We challenged our guys to have that 0-0 mentality at halftime and they were hungry to go out here and keep on playing,” Vigen said. “I was pleased with the relentless nature of how we went about it tonight.”
Mellott scored his third touchdown of the game (and 12th of his sensational sophomore season), Clevan Thomas caught a 17-yard touchdown pass from Mellott and freshman Taco Dowler took a punt 79 yards to the house to stake Montana State to a 55-0 lead with 5:03 still remaining in the third quarter.
No one would disagree that it would’ve been kind of cool if the Bobcats scored 52 points in honor of Holland. But Montana State could’ve scored 70+ if the hosts wanted to on this night. And regardless of the final total, the man they called “The Chief” was on their minds as they surged into the FCS Final Four again.
“To have a lot of Sonny’s former players out there, his daughters here, I hope it meant a lot to those people,” Vigen said. “For our guys, I think to have the ability to touch the people that Coach Holland touched, that’s really meaningful.
“He has earned the respect and all the praises that have been given him. He was such a great player, a great coach, but a much better man. And that’s apparent by all the people this means something to. To keep winning for him, he’s certainly on our minds, I know that.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
Montana State senior Ty Okada chases down William & Mary QB Darius Wilson 
Montana State quarterback Tommy Mellott 
Montana State freshman punt returner Taco Dowler 
Montana State quarterback Tommy Mellott 
Montana State sophomore defensive tackle Blake Schmidt 
Montana State senior inside linbacker Callahan O’Reilly 
William & Mary quarterback Darius Wilson 
Montana State senior cornerback Tyrel Thomas 
Montana State defensive line coach Shawn Howe 
Montana State head coach Brent Vigen
