Montana State has had a few of the most explosive and talented defenses in recent memory among its Big Sky Conference peers.
The Bobcat defense has piled up more than 40 sacks in a single season three times since 2019 and has had at least 37 sacks five of the last six seasons. MSU has had more than 100 tackles for loss in two of those seasons. And a trio of players from the 2019-2021 era — Troy Andersen, Daniel Hardy and Ty Okada — are playing in the NFL.
This year’s Bobcat defense defense isn’t on that sort of pace when it comes to high octane plays — MSU has nine sacks, 27 tackles for loss and one interception in five games so far in 2025 — over the course of a game, but it doesn’t give up any either. The result is the Bobcats have the top-rated defense in the Big Sky Conference through the first five games and those five games include a trip to FBS No. 3 Oregon and a home game against FCS No. 2 South Dakota State.
Despite giving up over 500 yards to the Ducks and playing SDSU, MSU is only allowing 296 yards per game on the season, which is just 19 more than a year ago when it played New Mexico, Utah Tech, Maine, Mercyhurst and Idaho State to start the season. MSU has held all of its last four opponents – SDSU, San Diego, Mercyhurst and Eastern Washington – under 300 yards and allowed exactly 1,000 yards combined in those games. The Bobcats allow just 4.8 yards per play, which also leads the Big Sky. During regulation, MSU has allowed just 27 points against the four FCS opponents with seven of those coming in the fourth quarter against the backups of the blowout win over San Diego.
The Bobcats (3-2 overall, 1-0 Big Sky) are second to Northern Colorado (19.4) by just 0.4 in points allowed per game at 19.8. This despite allowing 59 to Oregon and 13 overtime points to SDSU. MSU has allowed just 10 points in the last three games, which is best three-game run in one season since 1938 when the Bobcats allowed seven points over three games.
What makes the Bobcats’ defense so formidable is how sound they are. The unit looks like a synchronistic machine. It likely stems from the attention to detail that allows them to keep leverage in order to make sure-handed tackles and limit mistakes. The Bobcats gave up 26 plays of over 20 yards during the last six games of 2024, including 14 over 30, nine over 40 and five of 55 or more.
Through five games in 2025, they’ve only allowed 13 plays over 20 yards and five of those were to Oregon. MSU has allowed just five plays over 30 yards, one over 40 yards and none over 50 yards. The longest play against an FCS foe is 37 yards by Mercyhurst.
“In the Oregon game, there were some things that got exposed as far as our tackling, our leverage against a phenomenal team,” MSU head coach Brent Vigen said. “Good or bad, right or wrong we learned quite a bit that day. We’ve really taken that to heart. We’ve really tackled well, we’ve pursued fairly well, we’ve been in the right place, the ball hasn’t really got behind us a whole lot. Those have to be hallmarks of our defense. Eleven guys out there doing their job, no one guy more important than the other and I think they’ve bought into that and the more guys you play it feeds into that. We’re getting there in terms of playing more and more guys.”
Entering the season, the hype was about the defensive line, which most pundits nationwide predicted would be one of the best units in the country. There were concerns with the young secondary, which lost five starters to graduation and the transfer portal. The linebackers were expected to be solid but perhaps not deep. Through five games, the Bobcats have looked balanced and deep at all three levels.
One explanation for Vigen’s feeling that MSU is pursuing well and not letting the ball get behind them has been the speed of the secondary and linebackers, where multiple players were stars on the track in high school. Cornerback Jhase McMillan was one of the fastest 100 and 200-meter sprinters in Texas this past spring and safety Caden Dowler was a 100-meter finalist in Montana. Cornerbacks Carson Williams and Seth Johnson were both sub-11 seconds in the100-meters in high school. MSU has begun working a fifth player in at cornerback as Kory Boyd, a 10.48 100-meter sprinter, has seen his snaps increase. Linebacker Bryce Grebe was runner-up at the state meet in the 100 and runs it in the low 11s as does fellow linebacker Neil Daily.
“(Eastern Washington) is the first game that the second wave has played as much as the first wave,” Vigen said of the defensive line. “The second wave of guys are continuing to come into their own and that’s ultimately what it takes to become as successful as possible. We have eight guys we can continually throw out there. For that group it’s for whatever four guys are out there, they’re doing their job and being able to do it at a high level. That’s where that depth comes into play where if we can throw a fresh bunch out there time after time after time, I like our chances. It’s really about how their O-line and our D-line are matching up more than it’s the quarterback but ultimately having our D-line affect the quarterback is the bottom line.”
The lack of individual superlatives and big plays may be a testament of how good the Bobcat’ defense is from top to bottom and its depth. MSU has forced just five turnovers on the season, which is seventh in the Big Sky, and is tied for sixth in sacks with nine. Only three players rank in the top 50 in tackles-for-loss. Sophomore linebacker Cole Taylor is 12th with 4.5, senior end Hunter Parsons is 16th with 4.0 and Caden Dowler’s 3.5 puts him at 25th. A Bobcat doesn’t show up in the sack list until the 15th spot, where Parsons and Alec Eckert both have two. Only one other player is in the top 50 and that’s Zac Crews with 1.5 sacks.
“Turnover margin in any of these games – that on paper are going to be tight – is so critical,” Vigen said. “We haven’t turned the ball over a lot on the offensive side, but we haven’t taken it away a ton either. I know we have a little bit more as of late, so hopefully that trend continues.”
MSU lost starting inside linebacker Neil Daily and starting safety Taki Uluilakepa early in the Oregon game and neither has been back. That has opened the door for Taylor and safety Bryant Meredith, and both have filled in seamlessly. Those player losses have allowed for inside linebackers Ryan Krahe and Xavier Ahrens, along with safeties JJ Dolan and Colter Petre to get more time. Krahe came up with an interception in the end zone to put away Mercyhurst. Petre was the leading tackler against EWU with five and Dolan had four stops. Meredith forced a fumble against EWU that was recovered by cornerback Jhase McMillan.
The Bobcats turned the San Diego and EWU games over to the backups around the midway point of the third quarter and the reserves have allowed just seven points during that time, which equates to about three quarters.
Another area of sound play is the lack of penalties the defense commits. Since being hit with a 13-yard pass interference penalty in the first overtime against SDSU, the Bobcats have only committed one penalty. That foul came in the fourth quarter in a 41-7 win over San Diego and occurred during the only touchdown drive the Bobcats have allowed since playing SDSU in the second game of the season.
Offensively, Northern Arizona (3-1 overall, 1-0 Big Sky) might be the biggest threat that the MSU defense has seen since Oregon. The Bobcats were stout during regulation against South Dakota State allowing just 297 yards to a Jackrabbit’ team that is averaging 408 yards per game. That game, however, was in Bobcat Stadium where MSU has the benefit of 22,000 fans disrupting opponent’s offenses. Still, the best drive SDSU could muster was its game opening 11-play, 68-yard push that resulted in a short field goal. MSU held running back Julius Loughridge, who is averaging 5.5 yards per carry in his other three games, to just 3.6 yards per carry and sacked quarterback Chase Mason four times and allowing him to get just 7.6 yards per pass well below his season average of 9.4 against SDSU’s other three opponents.
“(Pennington) poses a lot of challenges because he can throw well and he’s a very good decision maker and he runs it well enough to be a real threat there,” Vigen said.
The last time the teams met was in Bozeman and the Bobcats waltzed to a resounding 45-21 win in 2023. It was a different story a year earlier in Flagstaff where the Walkup Skydome presents its own problems in terms of noise and its 7,000-feet altitude, but Vigen is more concerned with Pennington and NAU’s players.
“I don’t recall the noise as much as how hot their quarterback (RJ Martinez) got,” he said of his only visit there in 2022.
Martinez, who shares a lot of characteristics with Pennington, brought the Lumberjacks back from a 17-0 first quarter deficit to the cusp of winning as he lit up the Bobcat’ defense with his arm and legs. The gunslinger finished with 452 yards passing and three touchdowns. He also ran for score.
“I’m excited about how we’ve played, and this will be a big test in front of us, but I think the discipline that we preach has played out a little bit more on the field and that’s a sign of a defense that’s starting to believe more and more in itself,” Vigen said. “At the same time not taking any short cuts in its preparation.”
