As if it wasn’t already hard enough to keep up with the Bobcats as a whole, now they’ve gone and made it even more difficult by adding new players to the mix just one game into the season.
Down in St. George, in its season opener against Utah Tech, Montana State introduced safety Brendan Ross, who snared an interception and returned it for a score. Former quarterback Jordan Reed, who took over a starting wide receiver position seemingly out of nowhere, made his debut, as did defensive end Blaine Downing, a former Class B star who started making a name for himself last spring when he forced a safety in the Sonny Holland scrimmage. And MSU got good returns from center Aidan Kaplan, who more than held the offensive line together in his first start
Guys like tight end Carter Curnow, wide receiver Carter Dahlke, and defensive tackle Josiah Asuega all came into the game with elevated expectations, and they didn’t disappoint the coaching staff, either. Curnow made his first career catch. Dahlke caught his first career touchdown. And Asuaga had a fourth down tackle for loss, one of two TFLs for the hulking defensive tackle in his first career start.
“Both Carter’s I think we anticipated are going to do what they did and had really good first games,” MSU head coach Brent Vigen said. “On defense, Josiah…expectations be that he would have an impact and he did. Up front you got Blaine Downing playing his first action and even a third-year guy Hudson Weins, who hasn’t played any meaningful snaps, those guys both showed up alright.”
Downing didn’t get many snaps in 2025 but was thrust into the backup role at defensive end and had two tackles and a half tackle for loss. Dahlke snared two passes, including one from backup quarterback Patrick Duchein for a 25-yard touchdown. Curnow did most of his damage blocking, but he also had a catch for six yards.
“Offensively, we scored with our second group,” Vigen said. “Even a guy like Patrick Duchein, Patrick had some time last year but every time he gets out there it’s so important and that was by far the best he’s executed. The most comfortable he’s felt.”
Kaplan led an offensive that wasn’t whistled for a single penalty after being called for nine false starts in MSU’s 35-34 overtime championship game win over Illinois State. Asuega filled in for starter Talon Marsh and came through with a pair of tackles for loss, including one on fourth down.
MSU had three fresh cornerbacks in its rotation on defense, and the Bobcats were able to get every defensive player that made the trip – 36 of them – plenty of playing time in the 54-0 rout.
“Certainly, our cornerback position is really full of that (youth) minus (senior) Takhari Carr,” Vigen said. “Those guys for their first game were really steady. We have the opportunity to get a lot of guys significant roles through the course of the (game), and I think we performed really well on that side of things with a lot of guys seeing their first action.”
Getting playing time and reps has definitely paid for the Bobcats during Vigen’s five-plus years at the helm. Having the backups get game reps helps solidify their trust in their own skills and gives them a taste of what competition outside of their own practices is like.
“So, it’s one of those games where you come out of it and you say for the most part, we passed all the tests and one of those tests was getting guys in the game, those guys performing,” Vigen said. “Certainly playing 36 guys on defense – and we don’t give up a point – and (the Trailblazers) were still trying and they had their starters out there, they switched quarterbacks, but they had their starters out there at the end, but we still stopped them. So, a pretty good list of guys that were out there and I only covered some of them, so that’ll continue to happen and we’ll continue to step up into their roles as the season goes along.”
A couple guys Vigen didn’t mention were 6-0, 200-pound freshman cornerback Kayden Steptoe, who had a nice open field tackle late in the game and running back Cale Breslin, who had four carries for 15 yards and ran twice in succession on the final possession for nine yards to get MSU into a third-and-one situation.
When offensive guard Burke Mastel went out with a lower leg injury, Dylan Rollins stepped in and finished the game. Rollins was in a hotly contested battle for a guard position with Everett Carr and that competition probably set him up to do well against Utah Tech.
The Bobcats only gave up three plays over 10 yards until Utah Tech’s final three drive late in the game after MSU had built a 40-0 lead.
MSU comes into this week’s matchup against Butler with virtually the depth chart it had last week, but after a sluggish performance from the bread-and-butter of the team over the past decade – the run game – there’s an expectation that things might elevate not so much from an individual but the entire offensive line and backfield. The Bobcats managed just 140 yards rushing in the game at a 4.0 yards per carry clip, which was well below last year’s averages of 226.2 yards per game and 5.7 per carry.
“It was okay,” Vigen said with a shrug at Monday’s press conference after displaying some displeasure early in the Utah Tech game. “Honestly, I thought that’s one area we could play better. Utah Tech did some things that made it challenging when it’s the first time you’re going against that for real. We did everything we could to scout that up and emulate it in practice, but you’re out there for real and Utah Tech’s got some formidable guys up in the front for sure. Our guys come in this morning and watch the film and own it and say, ‘what can we do better?’ Just because a team moves, we shouldn’t be handcuffed because of that. We should take their movement and exploit it.”
Vigen, obviously, wants his unit to answer the bell the week but realizes that Rome wasn’t built in a day and that’s often the case for offensive lines, which rely heavily on cohesion that can’t be fully achieved without game reps and some trial and error.
“There were a couple plays that honestly, we missed,” Vigen said. “I can think of two-three plays in the run game that should’ve been big hitters. We only had one explosive run the whole game. That’s rare for us and it’s not on the running backs that’s on everybody else generally speaking. We need to give our running backs opportunities to get out and be on the unblocked player and we didn’t do that enough.”
The struggles can’t just be hung entirely on the line and running backs as Vigen pointed out the other team is going to do their best to disrupt everything the Bobcats are doing.
“That’s some credit to Utah Tech, but I think it’s an area we can improve on, and I know (offensive line) coach (Jason) Smith recognizes that, and we’ll get them coached up. We’re seeing another front that has multiplicity to it and I’m sure they’ll look and see some of the things that Utah Tech had success with and probably follow suit with that, so playing O-line and coming together is not easy. It rarely in game one looks the way it’s going to look in the fourth or fifth game let alone the end of the season so I’m okay with where we’re at the guys played hard and all that but can we take a step forward this week is the question I have and we need to.”
The Bobcats hit the field Saturday evening at 6:30 to take on Butler in the annual Gold Rush game at Bobcat Stadium.
