Montana State shifted its run game out of neutral and into high gear in the second half of its 31-21 Big Sky Conference title-clinching win over Northern Colorado on Saturday in Greeley, Colo., moving head coach Brent Vigen into the top spot on MSU’s all-time wins list with his 71st victory.
“We’ve had a good run here,” Vigen said of his accomplishment. “Tremendous support, great players, great coaches. Way bigger than me. Just glad to be doing it during this stretch.”
The Bobcats, now 10-1 overall and 7-1 in the Big Sky, went from gaining just 56 yards on 16 carries in the first half to rolling for 171 yards on 22 carries in the second half. Jared White ran for 112 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries, Adam Jones added 65 yards and a touchdown on 17 totes and quarterback Justin Lamson rumbled for 51 yards and a pair of scores on seven carries.
“We were in the 50s at halftime without a lot of attempts,” Vigen said. “It was going to be about us being able to establish it in the second half. I thought we did that. We imposed our will, I thought, in the last drive when Jared ultimately scored, and that’s what we need to be able to do in those moments.”
Lamson knew the Bobcats would be throwing the ball a little more than running it to start the game.
“Going into the game, we knew we were going to have some opportunities in the air, so that’s probably why we didn’t lean on the run game as much,” Lamson said. “I think some split zone opened up for us and we were able to keep running the rock. Adam and Jared did a helluva job running really hard in the second half. The offensive line did their thing. I thought they protected me well the whole night as well. I caught myself in two sacks that really shouldn’t have been sacks. They were challenged this week to be more physical and I thought they did a great job of that.”
But it was the overall play of Lamson that led the way for MSU. He showed great poise all night as the offense struggled to find its footing, finishing 24 of 28 passing for 246 yards.
“His running touchdowns are situations where they’re playing man coverage, and when you play man and you bring the extra guy (on the pass rush), there’s no one to defend the quarterback, so his ability to recognize that and his athleticism to be able to finish those runs off was big in those moments,” Vigen said.
Lamson went over 5,000 career passing yards in less than two seasons with the Bobcats. No other quarterback has thrown for more than 5,000 yards in just two seasons at MSU. Jones surpassed 3,000 career rushing yards, passing Don Hass and Steve Kracher for fifth place on the school’s all-time list. He is five rushing touchdowns shy of the school record of 47, held by Cody Kirk.
“Adam’s a really good player,” Vigen said. “I appreciate him. He’s such an unselfish guy for a guy that plays that position. Our guys up front that have played in front of him for all these years obviously deserve a lot of credit, but Adam’s a durable, reliable, hard-nosed back and we need that in our offense.
“I thought Justin hung in there. Things didn’t always go our way. I know we had a couple drives we didn’t finish off. The fourth-and-one, the field goal. He’s a competitor. I mean, he ran the dude over on the sideline and I hate to even see that, but that’s just who he is, and, ya know, we’re gonna always get his best, I know that. He’s gonna keep fighting, and when you got a guy playing that position that plays that way, you can do special things.”
“It was good,” Lamson said of running over the UNC defensive back. “I don’t know if he let up because he thought I was running out of bounds, but Dane’s (Steel) always on me. He’s run over and I didn’t throw it to him, and he let me know about that after, but it was pretty cool along our sideline.”
Steel, a wide receiver, was Lamson’s top target, hauling in eight passes for 91 yards.
The win capped a bizarre couple of days for the Bobcats and numerous other college football teams that had to endure Friday’s stoppage of air travel, which delayed MSU’s arrival in Greeley by about nine hours. The game was moved from its original noon kickoff to 5 p.m. to accommodate MSU’s travel delays. It was also the second straight road game for MSU, which closes the regular season with its annual rivalry game against Montana.
The title gives the Bobcats 19 Big Sky championships, tying Montana — at least for this week — for the most in league history. The Griz, who beat Idaho State 38-30 on Saturday night, can still claim a share of this year’s crown and their 20th league title — retaking the record — by winning in Bozeman next Saturday.
“All that we want is in front of us,” Vigen said. “We’re down to one regular-season game. One that means more than the others. We gotta get ourselves geared up to play better football. There’s moments in that game where we rose to the occasion, but there was moments that we didn’t. That’s the way football goes sometimes.
“(The Bears) are getting better. You know, I know their record doesn’t reflect that, but (UNC head) coach (Ed) Lamb has got them on the right track, and they play hard and they’re physical.”
MSU took the opening kickoff and drove 75 yards, capped by a Jones touchdown run, but the Bears punched right back with a 68-yard touchdown pass on their third offensive play. From there, the game turned into a physical battle for the rest of the first half before Lamson scrambled 16 yards for a score to give the Bobcats a 14-7 lead with 27 seconds left in the half. MSU then stopped the Bears to start the second half and got a 37-yard field goal from Myles Sansted.
The Bears answered with a quick five-play, 75-yard drive to make it 17-14, but the Bobcats responded with back-to-back drives of 89 and 86 yards to put the game out of reach at 31-14 with 3:36 to play.
“We responded well for most of the second half,” Vigen said. “They were out here fighting. It was Senior Night for them, and we got a really good effort from Northern Colorado. We knew it would be a little bit of a grind. Our ability to slow their running game down and establish ours took a little bit of a while. They hit the long pass off RPO and that was their one score of the first half. I wish we could get that back. We did enough in that second half to ultimately open up the lead to three scores. I hate to see them score at the end.”
The Bobcats have now given up a touchdown in the final minute of five games this season. Four of those were all but meaningless; the other handed MSU its lone loss of the year. MSU has also allowed a touchdown on a fumble return and another on a kickoff return. Of the 217 points MSU has allowed this season, 50 have come on those plays.
MSU converted 10 of 13 third downs a week after going 4 of 16 at Idaho State.
“I thought Justin did a good job of managing those third downs,” Vigen said. “Our receivers were good ball catchers, I guess, making the plays. After missing that short-yardage play in the first half on fourth-and-one, we were able to pick up one later on. Third-down play, a lot of times, comes down to your quarterback.”
Lamson noted the improvement on third down from the Idaho State game was crucial.
“Third-down battle was really important,” Lamson said. “You saw it last week. We were four of 16 and not up to our standard. We emphasized it in an offensive unit meeting last night. We gotta be great on third down. As long as you can stay on the field, it keeps drives rolling. We’ll say that we probably need to put ourself in third-and-manageable rather than third-and-long more often.”
Vigen also gave a nod to Montana State’s athletic programs as a whole when asked about his own accomplishment.
“It’s been a really good stretch of athletics for us at MSU,” Vigen said. “It’s not just football. It’s everything we do. We’re really trying to achieve at a high rate, so the level of support we have at the university level and our fan support is tremendous. Our expectations are as high as they can be, and with that, wins are supposed to come. Ultimately, to get this, I’m grateful to all the great young men we’ve had the chance to work with, the coaches that have come through, and we’re not finished yet this year.”
“It’s special,” Lamson said of Vigen’s milestone. “It was kind of weighing on me going into the game. I don’t know why, but I just really wanted this game for him. I didn’t talk to him about it or anything, but I think we all felt it in the room that it was at stake, and just to get that done, it’s a weight lifted off the shoulder a little bit. We just gave him the game ball in there, and he’s happy, but he’s not satisfied.
“He’s the greatest coach I’ve been around. He’s a legend, and people at Montana State are going to remember him forever. I’ve never had a relationship with a head coach like that. I’ve been over to his house for Easter, and like, I feel like I can go to him with any type of problem. I feel like a lot of the guys in the locker room feel the same way. He’s so supportive of us, and he’s one of the most loyal coaches I’ve been around. He’s turned down so much to be here, and I would die for that man on that field. I respect him so much as a man and coach.”
Montana State and Montana kick off next Saturday at noon at Bobcat Stadium.
