Montana State football has averaged nearly one special teams return for a touchdown per year since 2001. That’s not counting returns that set up a short field, blocked punts, field goals and extra points. Doesn’t include stops on 2-point conversions or recovered and covered onside kicks. The Bobcats have had plenty of those too. Then there’s long field goals, kickoffs for touchbacks, punts downed inside the five-yard line. They seemingly have been excelling in every phase of special teams, especially during head coach Brent Vigen’s time at the helm.
In just the last three games, MSU has blocked an extra point, blocked a field goal, blocked a punt, returned a kickoff for a touchdown and seen Taco Dowler set the school record for punt return yards – he’s about to break the FCS and Division I records, as well.
The Bobcats are the top-ranked team in the nation with fans, pundits and opposing coaches all pointing to MSU’s running game and defense when discussing the strengths. That’s just fine with Vigen, who could’ve been talking about the entire special teams’ units when he mentioned Dowler’s big effect.
“Special teams-wise I know he’s more than made his mark returning the ball on punts over time, but teams continue to wanna kick to him, that’s great,” Vigen said after MSU 51-24 win over Butler this past Saturday.
As in, yes, spend all your time trying to figure out that run game and finding holes in the defense. There’s nothing else to worry about.
As Montana State heads to Reno to take on former head coach Jeff Choate’s Nevada Wolfpack, the special teams are what has the former MSU skipper most worried.
“For as much tim as we have spent talking about the offense and the defense for Montana State, the special teams might be the best unit,” Choate said in his weekly press conference on Monday.
To put MSU’s return dramatics into perspective, just look at how a couple of other Big Sky Conference teams are doing in that area. UC Davis joined the Football Championship Subdivision in 2006, and the Aggies have just one kick return touchdown over that time. Portland State has had just one punt return touchdown since 2005. MSU has had 13 punt return touchdowns, and six kickoff return touchdowns in the past 25 years.
While the timing of returns can be random, the ability to affect the game can be a constant. Some returns, like Dowler’s 95-yard punt return last season against Northern Arizona sparked MSU’s offense after it failed to score in the first quarter and trailed 7-0 on the road, can ignite a team. The same can be said for Jabez Woods’ 100-yard kickoff return against Butler, which turned a 3-3 game into a 37-3 game.
MSU has had a plethora of return talent over the years. Corey Smith still holds the school record for punt return scores, but his kickoff return in the 2003 Cat-Griz was one of the most memorable plays in Cat-Griz history. He took the opening kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown, which accompanied by one of the greatest radio calls of all time when Kris Attebury noted that, “…this place is off the hook!” when describing the fan reaction.
Logan Jones, Shawn Johnson, and Gunnar Brekke are a few of the others, but the Bobcats are also known for their coverage teams, which have featured some of the best defensive players on the the team since Jeff Choate started coaching at MSU in 2016. Both Choate and Vigen know the value to their team as well as the players in getting them on the field for kickoffs and punts. Troy Andersen, Ty Okada, Daniel Hardy, and Dane Fletcher were all stars on the cover teams, and by doing so, they got their feet in the door at the next level.
“Daniel’s senior year, my first year here, he was our most impactful kickoff guy,” Vigen said. “That’s not all he did but he did that to the best of his ability. I know we kept Ty running the punt return much like we are with Caden. Ty came up with a punt block and he was directing traffic. So, you have that mindset as a football player, ‘I want to do whatever I can to the best of my ability, and it doesn’t matter what it is.’”
The blocking is also a key and Woods’ return against Butler featured a lot of that. It was running back Jared White that delivered the most eye-catching blow when he leveled the Butler kicker to set Woods loose for the final 50 yards. Woods, however, noticed more than that block.
“You see (safety) Brendon Ross as I’m finishing my run, he’s still finishing his block and making that guy is no where near me,” Woods said. “I think it’s just everybody being bought in, but, I mean, that feeling was surreal.
“The guys that were blocking for me, they were all in the right spot. The kicker wasn’t too fond of kicking the ball deep, so we knew were going to have at least one opportunity to actually take one out, so once we figured out that he was kicking against the wind, (special teams) coach (Marcus) Monaco told me to just be aggressive and 90% of the time we’re going to try to hit that one.”
Kicker Myles Sansted is on pace to break two records at MSU. He’s currently tied with Jason Cunningham (2008-11) for the most 40 yards or more field goals with 14 and he trails Cunningham by 82 points for the all-time scoring record. He needs 11 more field goals to move into second place with 35, but Cunningham’s record of 69 appears safe.
The Bobcats haven’t been perfect – they allowed UC Davis to recover an onside kick during the Aggies frenetic comeback in 2024, but McCade O’Reilly saved the day when he intercepted a two-point conversion pass to keep the game from going into overtime. Missed field goals cost MSU a game in 2023 at Idaho and that season ended when the Bobcats saw old nemesis North Dakota State block their extra point in overtime of a second-round playoff game in Bozeman.
Overall, however, special teams have been a plus for the Bobcats over the last quarter century. Perhaps Corey Smith’s second most dramatic play was his recovery of an onside kick back in 2003 against NAU. The Bobcats trailed 17-7 late in the fourth quarter when Travis Lulay scored a touchdown to cut the lead to three. With time winding down MSU had to try an onside kick and the ball freakishly rolled like a log toward the sideline where Smith recovered and Lulay worked his magic and scored again for a 21-17 win at Bobcat Stadium.
With what might their stiffest test of the season coming up this Saturday night in Reno against the University of Nevada, it might be good timing for one of those special teams plays to jolt the Bobcats to what would be their second straight win over a FBS team – they beat New Mexico 35-31 in 2024. That day the special teams got some help from a fierce wind that blew a pair of UNM field goal attempts wide of the goal posts as the Bobcats made a dramatic comeback by scoring 21 unanswered points in the final quarter.
The Bobcats will be facing former MSU head coach Jeff Choate, who now has the same title at Nevada. Choate was no stranger to special teams success during his four years at MSU. In the 2018 Football Championship Subdivison playoffs, MSU’s Nolan Askelson, currently a Bobcat assistant coach, blocked a punt punt that was returned for a score by Travis Jonsen en route to a 35-14 first round win over Incarnate Word. The next season, the Bobcats blocked a punt that rolled out of the end zone for a safety in their second-round playoff game that led to a rout of Albany 47-21.
MSU will look for their 17th straight win when they kickoff at 8:30, local time, against the Wolfpack in Mackay Stadium.
