Two plays into Montana State’s FCS quarterfinal game at Sam Houston on Saturday, Bobcats quarterback Tommy Mellott floated a long pass up the left sideline towards Lance McCutcheon.
The early deep shot is a staple of Montana State’s offense. With star running back Isaiah Ifanse, a great offensive line and season-long questions at quarterback, the Bobcats’ game plan all season has been simple – run, run, run, then chuck the ball deep. They don’t want teams keying on Ifanse too much, and when they do pass, they want a big gain against a defense that’s focused on stopping the run.
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Inconsistency – both with former starting quarterback Matt McKay’s touch and the guys he was throwing to – often led to those passes falling incomplete. This time, though, McCutcheon outfought Sam Houston defensive back Zyon McCollum for the ball. A facemask penalty on McCollum gave the Bobcats 15 more yards to the SHSU 27. Four plays later, they were in the end zone, taking a 7-0 lead that propelled them to a wire-to-wire 42-19 win over the spring season’s national champions.
“It just gives the whole team momentum and energy whenever we’re given the opportunity to go down the field and catch the ball,” said McCutcheon, a first-tea All-Big Sky selection this season after leading the conference in receiving yards during his senior year. “Tommy throws a nice ball, he gave us opportunities, gave us chances to go up there and catch it. Whether we get in the end zone or not, we’re just providing a spark for this offense and the rest of this team.”
On a day when MSU’s defense intercepted Sam Houston quarterback Eric Schmid three times but the BearKats held Ifanse under 65 yards until a very late 42-yard touchdown run, the early Mellott-to-McCutcheon connection gave the Bobcats’ offense the blueprint it needed.
Not even three minutes later, Tre Webb’s interception gave the Bobcats great field position and Mellott hit a streaking Willie Patterson, dropping the ball in the bucket for a one-play, 31-yard touchdown drive. In the blink of an eye, Montana State was up 14-0 on the defending national champions.
Later in the first quarter, Mellott and Nate Stewart hooked up for a 25-yard gain on third-and-10 to set up Montana State’s third touchdown, and after the BearKats closed to 28-12 early in the third quarter, McCutcheon again beat McCollum on a deep ball and then shed him after the catch for a 68-yard catch-and-run touchdown that all but sealed the game.
“Lance has made plays over and over again. So Lance makes it, Nate makes it, it becomes contagious,” Montana State head coach Brent Vigen said. “We needed all those guys, and yeah, I think it was evident that Tommy’s got confidence. I thought he threw the ball really well. It wasn’t like those had to be circus catches. He put the ball where it needed to be and those guys made plays.”
Those four plays accounted for 154 of Montana State’s 169 passing yards and four of Mellott’s six completions in the freshman’s second-ever start behind center. Mellott, a true freshman from Butte, started the season as a project with an uncertain future at quarterback.
Montana State experimented with him in a wildcat package, but also had him covering kickoffs in preparation for a potential move to defense, where his 6-0, 195-pound frame, good speed and Treasure State toughness could have made an impact right away. He looked to be following the path of Garrett Graves and Carson Rostad, successful Montana high school quarterbacks who now play safety and linebacker, respectively, for MSU’s in-state rival Montana Grizzlies.
On offense, the Bobcats used him as little more than a gimmick. In eight regular-season games, Mellott ran the ball 36 times and attempted just four passes. When he replaced an injured McKay in MSU’s penultimate regular season game against Idaho and ran for three scores, earning him the nickname “Tommy Touchdown,” he attempted just two passes, completing one for a total of two yards.
The coaches named him the starter going into the postseason, pushing McKay, a former backup at North Carolina State, into the transfer portal. He completed 8 of 20 passes for 51 yards in the second round against Tennessee-Martin, but also ran for 180 yards and two scores.
That performance didn’t seem to affect Mellott against Sam Houston. The touchdown to Patterson was perfectly thrown, and on the other long completions he did at least enough to give his receivers a chance.
“We thought we were able to go Cover 0, you know, just press them and make (Mellott) throw those 50/50 balls,” Sam Houston head coach K.C. Keeler said. “And those guys came down with some 50/50 balls over top of our guys.”
Mellott’s ability to hit the deep ball exposed Sam Houston’s defensive game plan of stacking the box to stop Montana State’s running game. The BearKats consistently played without any safety help, giving MSU’s receivers one-on-one matchups. That included McCollum, an all-WAC first-team selection and NFL prospect, against McCutcheon, Montana State’s leading receiver.
On two of the biggest plays of the game, McCutcheon won that battle.
The 68-yard touchdown, his longest play of the year, gave him the sixth 1,000-yard receiving season in Montana State history and the first since Elvis Akpla in 2011.
The 6-foot-3 senior grew up in Bozeman and went to Bozeman High School. He had just 31 catches in three years before 2021. This year, he has 53 grabs for 1,015 yards.
“It feels amazing,” McCutcheon said. “I didn’t think we’d have the chance to go back and play in Bobcat Stadium. To have everything shape up the way it did and us getting this huge win tonight, it’s a great feeling to go back to Bozeman.”
McCutcheon has been a consistent deep threat for the ‘Cats dating back to the second game of the season, when he had seven catches for 121 yards against Drake.
For most of the season, the Bobcats’ receiver room was a one-man show. Patterson struggled with drops and inconsistency and had 28 catches for 361 yards and three scores going into the Sam Houston game.
That made him Montana State’s second-leading receiver. A running back (Elijah Elliott) and a tight end (Derryk Snell) were third and fourth.
That made Stewart’s emergence all the more crucial. A grad transfer from Akron who had 529 yards and three touchdowns for the Zips in 2019, he returned from an injury in early November and has had at least one catch in each of the Bobcats’ five games since then.
His 25-yard catch against Sam Houston was his longest reception of the season – and also his only one of the game, although he also drew a crucial pass interference penalty on MSU’s first drive.
If he builds on that – and Patterson keeps making catches like the one on his touchdown – McCutcheon finally has some help, and the Bobcats will line up two rangy, physical outside receivers and a burner in the slot to chase Mellott’s deep balls in their semifinal game this week against South Dakota State.
Montana State’s offense is shaped around Ifanse’s and now Mellott’s running – but it lives or dies on the deep shots that pounding opens up. Just like against Sam Houston, the SDSU game could swing on a few “50/50 balls.”
With what Mellott and the receivers showed in Texas last week, the Bobcats will be confident taking that chance.
“It just goes to credit the wide receivers,” Mellott said. “(They saw) a lot of man this week, and I gave them a couple of chances and they went and made plays for me.”
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