What now seems like eons ago, Weber State was one of Montana State’s main obstacles on the way to the Big Sky Conference crown. Just a few years ago, the Wildcats were ranked in the top 10 of the FCS polls. They took MSU to the wire with late comebacks – one in the regular season and another in the postseason – in 2022. And Weber succumbed to the Bobcats in 2021 in one the most physical, defensive battles either team has played since then when MSU won 13-7 in Ogden.
Following a 40-0 loss at home to the Bobcats in 2023, the Wildcats went 4-3 the remainder of the year to finish at 6-5 and out of the playoffs for the first time since 2015. There was no bounce back for the Wildcats, who saw their head coach Jay Hill – a coach whose area of expertise is defense – leave for an assistant job at Brigham Young University the season prior. Hill was 68-39 with four consecutive Big Sky titles to his name during his nine seasons with WSU and is widely considered the greatest coach in school history. He led the team to the Football Championship Subdivision semifinals in 2019 and to the quarterfinals in 2020-21 and 2021. He only had one losing season and that was his first year with the Wildcats.
“Just attention to detail,” WSU defensive coordinator Joe Dale, who worked with Hill from 2018-2022, said of the qualities he passed on. “Everything matters. The little things become big things if you don’t focus on them. Just how to prepare the right way week in and week out regardless of the opponent. You earn the right to be proud and confident and perform well with your work throughout the week. Those are a few of the things I’ve carried over along the way.
“It’s different now. I have the voice in that defensive staff room. Not having that defensive presence and having a more offensive minded coach. It gives us our freedom and lets us do our thing. Let’s us put together a great game plan to go out and execute. Just not having that constant voice and having that defensive mind in coach Hill, there is the biggest difference.”
Under new head coach Mickey Mental, the WSU capped a 3-3 start to last season with a stunning overtime win at Montana. Looking prepared to make another playoff run, the Wildcats then lost their next five games and finished a disappointing 4-8. Northern Colorado snapped its 18-game losing streak against Weber the week after the Wildcats won in Missoula.
Saturday, Weber comes to Bozeman for the first matchup between the two teams since Mental took over in Ogden.
“We’re playing Weber State, a team that within 20 games in ’21, ’22 and 23 we played four times,” MSU head coach Brent Vigen said. “And now in the last 30+ games we haven’t played them. I think they’re really a team that has had some misfortune with injuries this year. In particular, they’ve run through quarterbacks, and they’ve run through running backs as of late.
“Defensively, they certainly had some breakdowns in that game (vs. Montana) on Saturday (a 38-17 UM win last weekend). Wide open guys running here and there. They’re capable of playing better defense than that and that’s what we’ve got to anticipate.”
Dale has a lot of respect for the MSU offense. The Bobcats enter the game averaging 228 rushing yards and 221 passing yards per game to go with a scoring average of 35.8 points per contest. If Weber looks unfamiliar to MSU, the Bobcats certainly look familiar to Dale and the Wildcats.
“It doesn’t matter if we play Montana State every other week or every four years, we know it’s going to be a war,” Dale said. “We know they’re going to be well coached, going to be disciplined. It’s going to be physical. Regardless of how long it’s been, we have guys that have never played them, but they understand what that program is all about and what it’s going to take to get the job done. So, whether it’s been a long time or a short time, we understand who they are and what they’re about and what type of task we’re up against.
The 2025 season hasn’t been any kinder to the Wildcats as they’re all but eliminated from the postseason at 3-6. The only thing keeping them alive is a pair of losses to quality Football Bowl Subdivision teams 7-1 James Madison and 5-3 University of Arizona. That would effectively give them a chance to get to 6-6 and possibly on the playoff bubble with a three-game winning streak. That feat is not promising, however, considering the Wildcats will need to beat MSU in Bozeman this week, then win at Idaho State and beat Northern Arizona at home. The Wildcats have played two of the top three teams in the BSC in UC Davis and Montana and three of the top four offenses in the aforementioned and Sacramento State.
The key against Montana State, according to Dale, is to get good play from the WSU safeties and keep MSU’s offensive weapons in front of them.
“Our safety group; we got some guys back there that are talented and capable,” Dale said. “Angel King and BJ Carey, Kao Hansen and Trevian Tribble and they’ll be asked to do a lot this game. We gotta limit explosive plays and we’re gonna have to stop the run. To do that we gotta be great tacklers. This will have to be one of our best tackling games of the season if we’re gonna come get it done.”
WSU was primarily known for its prowess on defense during its run from 2016 to 2022. In 2024, the Wildcat’ defense finished sixth in points allowed per game, yards per game and pass defense. That was a drop from being fourth, fifth and fourth, respectively, in those categories in 2023, which was a drop from being first in all three of those categories in 2022. They find themselves eleventh in points allowed (37.2), seventh in yards allowed (425.2) and eighth in pass defense efficiency (137.8) in 2025, while those numbers are skewed greatly by lopsided losses to JMU and Arizona, WSU is far cry from where it was in 2022.
“Defensively, it’s certainly a similar system,” Vigen said. “They’re a younger outfit just in general. I know they’ve gone that way and they’ve gone the transfer route. That mix. They’ve lost guys. I would say size-wise they’re not what they maybe were those first couple years (2021, 2022). Highlighting the athleticism in the secondary, they certainly have the ability, but they had these experienced guys back there and that’s a piece that’s lacking right now.”
“Our man coverage,” Dale said when asked what his defense’s strength is. “We’re a man team, that’s what settles us down. That’s what we lean on to get to our comfort zone. Then just getting back to our fundamentals. If we’re one rep at a time defense – like the last game (vs UM) things snowballed in the first half – we were able to settle down in the second half and just focus in on our assignments and fundamentals and technique one rep at a time, our man defense helps us do that.”
Eliminating the numbers from the two FBS losses, would move the Wildcats up to eighth in scoring, fifth in yards allowed and fifth in pass defense, which are decent numbers, but not nearly enough to offset an offense that has been ninth in scoring, and next to last in both total yards and passing this season. The special teams have also been a letdown as Weber is last in punting and has allowed multiple long returns in the punt game to set up scores.
Two weeks ago, against Eastern Washington, the WSU special teams muffed a reception on a punt to give EWU the ball on the two-yard line. Then the Wildcats had a bad snap on a punt that ended up as a safety. A week later they fumbled on the first play from scrimmage and Montana turned that into a quick touchdown as the Grizzlies darted off to a 28-3 lead just minutes into the second quarter. The Wildcats were able to calm down, slow down UM’s offense and cut the lead down to 31-17 before falling 38-17.
The Weber State offense overall hasn’t been its calling card over the years. They’ve been known for their offensive line more than anything and have put several players in the NFL over the years. This year, that unit sits at sixth in the league in terms of rush yards per game at 165.3 and seventh in yards per carry at 4.3.
“They’re a little younger (on the OL), a little lighter than they’ve been,” Vigen said. “They’ve always had – in my mind – one of the bigger O-lines. One of the older lines in the league and now we haven’t played them in a while. Pretty athletic group. I know for us that’s certainly where it has started for us defensively is to play very disciplined, very disruptive up front. That needs to continue to happen.”
Dale recognizes that MSU is a slightly different operation, offensively, than it was the last time he saw the Bobcats. Justin Lamson has emerged as one of the most accurate quarterbacks in the country and a slew of receivers have gotten involved.
“The quarterback plays a little different, obviously, with Tommy (Mellott) being gone, but they still have the ability to run the quarterback,” Dale said. “Tremendous backs (Julius Davis and Adam Jones). Two of the best in the conference. They have contact balance, great patience and vision. The offensive line is well coached, and they use the tight ends well in the run and the throw game. You got Taco (Dowler) in the slot that’s a matchup problem. They have the personnel to be effective, and we just have to play our game and know where those guys are and do what it takes to get them down when the ball’s in their hands and limit their touches as much as we can.”
The game is slated for a 1:00 start this Saturday at Bobcat Stadium. The game is part of Military Appreciation Week at Montana State, which coincides with Veteran’s Day, which is Tuesday, November 11.
