If Sheridan (Wyo.) High fans weren’t terribly excited by their fifth straight win back on Friday, November 4, 2022, they can be excused. That same night their running back, current Montana State running back Colson Coon, ran for 517 yards on 29 carries and propelled his team to the state 4A title game.
Nearly four years later, Sheridan High had run that five-game streak out for another 54 games. But the night before Coon was set to make his first start for the Bobcats, the Broncs finally lost after 59 consecutive wins. Coon would attempt to make his prep schools’ fans forget that loss a night later as he rumbled for 199 yards on just 18 carries as MSU downed Northern Arizona 28-14 for its 19th straight victory. It was a game fans across the country, including Wyoming, could watch on a nationally televised broadcast.
“All credit goes to the offensive line,” Coon said. “(Offensive line) Coach (Matt) Smith got them dialed up and (offensive coordinator) coach (Pete) Sterbick putting us in the right positions and giving us great play calls. Really just doing my job and reading my blocks and cutting; making the right cuts and trusting the O line and trusting the quarterback and trusting the coaches and doing the work throughout the week and relying on our training to go out there and get the job done.”
Coon and the Bobcats turned in what was one of the most memorable wins in MSU history. They found out during the run-up to the game that starting quarterback Justin Lamson and starting wide receiver Taco Dowler, both All-Americans and team captains would be out. They knew that All-America running back and captain Adam Jones was limited and might not play. They were already without All-America safety and team captain Caden Dowler along with starting defensive end Dominic Solano and starting inside linebacker Neil Daily.
Jones left the game early on and his job was assigned to Coon. He’d be getting the ball from another first-time starter in quarterback Patrick Duchien, while true freshman Carter Dahlke did his best Taco Dowler imitation. Duchein would produce 204 passing yards on a stellar 16 of 20 performance, while adding another 77 yards on nine carries. Dahlke would haul in seven passes for 117 yards and touchdown all in the first half.
It wasn’t just the offense and its newcomers that pushed the Bobcats over the top as Coon noticed the defense making its share of big plays, including three goal line stands and pitching a shutout in the second half.
“Definitely the defense standing strong was huge,” Coon said. “That’s a big accomplishment there giving up zero points in the second half, especially against a team with so many stars.”
But it was Coon who captured the fans hearts.
Midway through the fourth quarter, every time he’d be handed the ball the Bobcat Stadium crowd would yell, “COOOOOOOON!” as he cut up the field. He carried the ball seven times for 91 yards in the quarter, including 60 yards on the first three plays of MSU’s game-clinching 95-yard touchdown drive.
“I don’t know if I thought maybe 200 yards,” Coon said of what his expectations were going into the game. “I think I was confident in myself, but I don’t know about 200 yards. That’s pretty awesome. Like I said, the O line did a great job and coach Sterbick put me in an amazing spot.”
He was in on one of the most exciting, if not funniest plays, in quite some time when he was lead blocking for Duchein on designed running play for the quarterback. Duchein would end up scoring on a 15-yard run but he got help from Coon, then tight end Rocky Lencioni and center Aiden Kaplan, who shoved their quarterback into the end zone.
“I made my block and honestly right after I hit the guy I turned around and Patrick was running me over,” Coon said with laugh. “I just kinda rolled back and let him keep going. Then I stood up and he was getting pulled into the end zone, so that was pretty exciting.
Coon not only benefited from the offensive line but also the passing game, which brought balance to the offense as the run and pass units had nearly identical production prior to the final drive when MSU kept the ball on the ground for its entirety.
“Colson had an amazing game on the ground, obviously, and so being able to play off each other really helped us and opened up the field,” Dahlke said.
While his opportunities have been limited over the years, his teammates are well-aware of the skills Coon possesses.
“We all knew Colson’s a dog,” safety Colter Petre said. “We all knew that for a while. He just took his chance and took his turn when it was next man up.”
Coon’s prep highlights aren’t limited to just that 517-yard game. A week later he scored all his teams points in a 34-22 championship game win over Cheyenne East, Coon rushed for 248 yards and 3 touchdowns, kicked two field goals, had an interception return for a touchdown pick-six and kicked four extra points.
He was crowned the first two-time Gatorade Player of the Year in Wyoming after gaining 3,842 yards rushing and scoring 56 rushing touchdowns during his junior and senior seasons. He single-handedly scored 300 points in his senior year between touchdowns, field goals and extra points.
He helped Sheridan to its first state wrestling championship in 33 years by winning the individual crown at 181 pounds. He also finished fourth and was runner-up twice in his career. He also had 14 goals and 10 assists for the soccer team his senior year and helped them to a second-place finish in 2022 and third place in 2023.
“Within the Sheridan program there’s just a lot of really great coaches who try to ingrain great leadership,” Coon said. “Just great people within the program. Not just football players but amazing people who are accountable and real and just make them work hard every single day. It’s all to the coaches in Sheridan and obviously the athletes working really hard but the coaches, I think, set a standard there and definitely set us up for success.”
Coon, as is the theme throughout Bobcat’ football, is a team-first guy and recognizes not only his role but how and why the squad operates the way it does.
“The team as a whole has a next man up mentality and always being ready when your number is called,” Coon said. “Everybody did a good job during the week focusing on their role and accepting it and really embracing it. We put the work in and the coaches put us in the right spots, we just went out there and performed and did what we needed to do.”
Coon recognized the play of Duchein and took it with a grain of salt after having worked with his fellow fourth-year senior over the past three-plus seasons.
“We have all the confidence in the world in him,” Coon said. “Patrick’s an amazing athlete, he’s an amazing leader, an amazing quarterback. He gets people to want to follow him and He’s a great football player and its awesome to be following his lead.
“It just more so helped us be comfortable,” Coon said of he and Duchein’s work together with the backups through the years. “We kinda know how each other work with handoffs and stuff, and exchanges. We know what’s going on and getting all those reps in practices. So, it was nice to all kind of move up at the same time and go show what we can do together.”
The Bobcats have the unenviable task of having a short turnaround after playing a late game Saturday and then traveling approximately 400 miles for a game this Friday night in Moscow, Idaho home of the University of Idaho. The Bobcats will stay in Lewiston, which is about 40 minutes south of Moscow. The last time MSU played in Moscow was in 2023 and they lost a 24-21 decision after a missed field goal late in the game.
That was the only time MSU played Idaho in Moscow since the Vandals returned to the Big Sky Conference. Idaho left the BSC after the 1995-96 academic year. The two teams played just twice during the time Idaho was in the Big West and later Sun Belt conferences with both games in Idaho. The Bobcats haven’t beat the Vandals in Moscow since 1990.
Kickoff is scheduled for 8:30 Mountain Time and 7:30 locally.
