The wheels on the bus go round and round … and that’s what they’ll be doing Friday when Montana State departs Bozeman for the ride past Yellowstone National Park and through eastern Idaho, with the Grand Tetons out the windows for a stretch, on the way to Pocatello to face Idaho State in a key November game for both schools.
At stake for the Bobcats, 9-1 overall and 5-1 in the Big Sky Conference, is the No. 1 seed the NCAA FCS selection committee is projecting for them. The committee released its second regular-season ranking on Thursday with MSU in the top spot. ISU (6-3, 3-3) is in near-desperation mode, with just three games left to make its case to the committee for inclusion in the 24-team FCS playoffs. The field will be selected the Sunday after the final day of the 2026 regular season.
“Yeah, I think those Fridays traveling, whether it’s plane or bus — if you have the right type of team, those moments are really special,” MSU head coach Brent Vigen said. “And everywhere we go, there’s a strong contingent of parents there. For those parents, that might be — well, they get to see the home games, I guess — but it’s the one time a week for sure that they get a chance to spend a few minutes with their kid. And I think that’s special. You go to our hotel on any one of these road trips, it’s a real family affair, and we don’t do that at home.
“So you go on the road, you get a little bit more of that. You go into those road stadiums — we’re fortunate, we’ve got a good following, but there’s definitely more people against you, and I think that strengthens a bond if it’s approached the right way, too. So we look forward to this opportunity. A bus trip always kind of takes you back a little bit, too. We only have one a year, but it does take you back to your roots a little bit, and it’ll be good to hop on the buses on Friday and make our way down to Idaho.”
The Bobcats have a pair of Pocatello natives in brothers Titan and Bruin Fleischmann. The two occasionally line up next to each other, with Titan at offensive tackle and Bruin at tight end. Titan has started the last three seasons for MSU, while Bruin transferred in from the Air Force Academy for his final season.
“I can’t say enough about (Titan) — his resilience, his commitment to this program,” Vigen said. “Honestly, he’s definitely had opportunities to look elsewhere in this world we’re in, and he’s a Bobcat through and through. I know him coming up here from Pocatello, this is an extra special trip back home. It’s been a neat thing to see him and Bruin play together this year, and what that’s meant for both of them. So just a great story, and I think he embodies the spirit of what you’d like to think college athletes should be all about.”
Titan Fleischmann has embraced being a Montanan during his time at MSU. These days, being called anything less than one makes him cringe a little.
“I really wish the word ‘honorary’ wasn’t there,” he said. “I wish I was full-blown Montana. I want to be from the 406. This place is my home now. I love it. Bozeman did a lot of great things for me and my brother (Bruin) — great community, great support system. It helped develop us to get to where we are now. I know for a fact Bozeman has taken me from a good kid to a good young man.
“It will be very fun to go back to Pocatello. There’s a lot of loved ones and friends that’ll be there.”
The Bobcats are on the road for two games (ISU and Northern Colorado) before hosting Montana. The trip to Pocatello covers 248 miles, making it one of MSU’s two regular bus trips, along with the 200-mile jaunt to Missoula every other year. So the drive isn’t anything completely out of the blue for the Bobcats.
The Bengals’ defense is currently the second-best in the Big Sky statistically, behind only MSU’s. The unit not only slows teams down but also has a penchant for taking the ball away, led by Zion To’oto’o.
“Zion is such an energy guy, a guy that everybody on the team feeds off of,” ISU head coach Cody Hawkins said. “He’s someone that everybody really likes, but a guy that has probably never quite found a niche or a role to play as much as he wants.”
To’oto’o had a strip-sack touchdown in last week’s close win over Utah Tech.
“When he scored, I think the entire defense felt like, ‘Oh, we can win this game.’ Because when you have someone like Zion who is so well liked, everybody knew and everybody was going to congratulate him, and part of you is trying to be like, ‘Hey, we gotta go finish the game.’ But people were so excited for that. You felt like you couldn’t do anything right, and then after Zion’s (play), that was when I felt like, ‘All right, we’re gonna win this game.’
“It’s going to be a tall task for our defense, but you know what? We got a great defense and great coaches. I bet that they’re telling their team that this is the best defense they will have played, because that’s what I believe is the case. I love our guys. I’d take them up against anybody.”
Vigen is well aware of ISU’s prowess on defense.
“I think they’re a much more balanced team now,” Vigen said. “They’re not leaning so much on having to purely outscore people. They’re giving up less than 22 points a game, so their defense can be equal on any given Saturday for them, and they can win with defense. The defense scoring a couple times on Saturday was an indication of that. So I think they’re a challenge for sure. And that environment — I anticipate we’ll have a good crowd down there, but I think it’ll feel a little bit different from their side than the last time we were down there, too. So it’s a challenge all the way around, and I know our guys are really looking forward to it.”
Aside from the stout defense and the strong arm of quarterback Jordan Cooke, the toughest part of the visit will be the noisy, tight indoor confines of the ICCU Dome, where the Bobcats have struggled in past seasons.
“I think they’ve continued to grow as a program under Coach Hawkins,” Vigen said. “The first couple years, boy, they were really prolific on offense, but they were still playing catch-up on defense. I thought last year they took another step. I know we played them and (they) played pretty well that day here in the rain in Bozeman, so that score maybe didn’t reflect where they were at, but they continued to get better and better. They were clearly, in my mind, the most improved team in the league last year, and then this year, taking another step — winning that early game against Utah State (29-17) was impressive.”
Back in 2018, MSU was in a position similar to the one the Bengals find themselves in this Saturday. The Bobcats had little room for error at 4-3 overall and 2-2 in the Big Sky. A loss would put them in must-win mode for the remainder of the season, and even that might not have been enough. The Bengals entered the game at 4-3 as well, but with a 3-1 conference record. ISU came out on top 24-17 after building a 24-7 lead and stopping a late MSU rally on downs deep in its own territory. The Bobcats reached the ISU 16 before a sack and a holding penalty set up fourth-and-23, and a Troy Andersen pass to Lance McCutcheon came up two yards short.
The Bobcats won their final three games, including a 29-25 win in Missoula that featured a comeback from a 22-0 deficit. The Bengals won their next game and seemed primed for a playoff spot, only to lose their final two and finish 6-5. MSU finished 7-4, made the playoffs and started its current seven-year run as a playoff team, which has included five trips to the national semifinals, three title-game appearances and one national title.
MSU has been to Pocatello only one other time since 2018, during its undefeated run through the 2024 regular season. That game was arguably the Bobcats’ second-toughest of the year, behind a two-point win at UC Davis in the penultimate game of the season. After falling behind 17-0, the Bengals got a touchdown in the waning seconds of the first half and a field goal early in the fourth quarter to make it 17-10. The Bobcats pulled away and tacked on a touchdown as time expired for a deceptive 37-17 win.
If the Bobcats have had a weakness during the Vigen era, it’s been playing in domed stadiums. Two of the 13 losses in Vigen’s sparkling 69-13 record have come indoors at Idaho, and MSU is just 3-2 indoors overall under Vigen. The Bobcats beat NAU in 2022 on a last-second field goal, 38-35, and again last year, when Taco Dowler sparked the team out of a slow start with a 95-yard punt return touchdown in the second quarter on the way to a 34-10 win.
With the indoor 35-34 loss to Idaho still fresh in their minds, the Bobcats haven’t drifted from their main mantra, according to Vigen.
“Not making any one game too big or too small,” Vigen said. “We’ve taken the approach that every game is a big game.”
The Bobcats and Bengals kick off at 4 p.m. Saturday.
