Montana State’s versatile safety JJ Dolan had been waiting for his moment to pounce and that time came to fruition at the perfect time as the Bobcats knocked off FBS Nevada on the road 20-7 to get off to a 3-0 start on the season.
Dolan found himself a little out of position, but when fellow safety Colter Petre knocked the ball loose, sending it log-rolling down the sideline, Dolan was there to scoop it up. It all happened with the Bobcats holding on to a 17-7 lead with 4:49 to play. The Wolfpack was driving and had entered MSU territory. Dolan returned the ball 20 yards to the Nevada 38 and a 15-yard penalty during the return put the Bobcats in field goal range.
“(Nevada) just got into tempo and we were a little behind,” Dolan said of the Wolfpack’s hurry-up offense. “They had a cluster backside and Colter Petre and me were all mixed up in the wrong alignments. So me and Petre were running over there pretty late and I saw him punch it out and we were just hoping that the ball didn’t roll out of bounds. Luckily, I was able to come up the sidelines and grab it, but I was so tired my legs weren’t too good.”
Good enough though as MSU wound the clock down to near the one-minute mark before Myles Sansted put the final points on the board.
It was a big night for the Bobcat’ secondary as Dolan’s recovery was one of four turnovers the defensive backs came up with. Freshman cornerback Chris Harris, sophomore cornerback Tim Thomas, Jr. and safety Taki Uluilakepa all had interceptions.
“It’s awesome, especially when you see your brothers succeed next to you,” Dolan said of the big night for the secondary. “It brings emotion and motivates the whole team, the offense, we just bounce off of each other and we just love playing ball together as a whole.”
The 6-foot-1, 186-pound Dolan has been working his way up the ranks over the past two seasons playing primarily on special teams cover units his first few seasons before starting most of the regular season last year. He started working in with the safeties and nickelbacks during the season and was in the main rotation at the end of the year, which ended abruptly for him when he broke a bone in his leg in the regular season finale against the University of Montana.
“JJ’s growth through the course of last year was amazing, honestly,” MSU head coach Brent Vigen said. “He was playing at a real high level when he got hurt over in Missoula. To get him back and have him be able to build off of where he was that’s been a bright spot.”
It was tough on Dolan mentally as well as it was the first injury of his career dating back to high school.
“I’ve never really been injured in my career,” Dolan said. “It was definitely a weird feeling. Took me a while to understand that I’ve got a lot of time left here at MSU. I was rehabbing every day. It took me a couple weeks, but I realized I had to be around my brothers and my teammates to still feel a part of the team and want to be a part of the team. Once I was hanging out with them a little bit more and rehabbing every day, seeing my brothers wanting me back out there and just kept pushing me to rehab my hardest to get back on the field.”
The rehab and desire to get back on the field has made Dolan one of the most versatile defensive backs on the team. Something that has been a pleasant surprise for the head coach.
“He’s played really well these first three games becoming that much more versatile,” Vigen said. “He’s probably a guy that plays all three spots. We don’t want to stretch him too thin but that’s a testament to where he’s at as a playmaker. His knowledge of what we’re doing and his capability to take it on; I never would’ve guessed I would’ve said things I just said looking back at a calendar year ago. He puts in the work, he has some success, he continues to build on it, guys around him build him up, he gets coached like crazy, (safeties) coach (Bryan) Shepherd does a great job with those guys and now he’s in a position to be way more than just a guy out there. A guy that can really be counted on to make plays.”
Dolan was part of dynastic high school program at Missoula Sentinel where he played alongside several current and former Bobcats, including Adam Jones, Dylan Rollins, Zac Crews and Rylan Ortt. He stood out in high school as a sure tackler on the defensive side of the ball.
“If at the top of things you can tackle the football that’s helpful,” Vigen said. “That was what he could do from the start. Now he had to physically develop. His instincts are what you want as a defensive player. The closer you play to the box in high school, those instincts have to prevail or you’re probably not playing close to the box. He’s a rare occurrence of a guy who probably ends up moving back a little bit, but his versatility is because he has the instincts, he can tackle the football really well.”
Like many a Bobcat’ defender before him Dolan cut his teeth on special teams where it was rapidly apparent that he had a nose for the game.
“That showed up on special teams his second year,” Vigen said. “Then last year he had grown into a position where he could do a lot more. We’re asking those guys to not only tackle but they’re having to cover ground, they’re having to cover, they’re having to communicate. There’s a bunch of different layers to playing those positions beyond just being able to tackle. Credit to him for being able to grow within that position.”
The boost MSU is getting from Dolan is coming at the perfect time with last year’s Big Sky Conference defensive player of the year Caden Dowler out with a leg injury. Petre filling in for Dowler as the starter is one thing, but by doing so that opened up a hole in the rotation where Dolan is filling in seamlessly.
Dolan snapped a three-generation run of great players in his direct lineage to play for the University of Montana when he came to Bozeman to play for the Bobcats. His dad, Nate, grandfather Pat and great-grandfather John all played football for the Grizzlies. JJ was on Sentinel’s back-to-back state AA title winners and was named first team All-State at nickelback for the Spartans.
Oddly enough, it would against the Grizzlies where Dolan was sidelined when he took a hit in the first half that relegated him to the sidelines for the remainder of the 2025 season.
Along with the big fumble recovery, Dolan has six tackles, including four solo tackles.
“You look at he and Colter Petre; their development, it’s tremendous,” Vigen said. “They’re not just guys out there playing, they are guys that earn the right to play and those are both awesome stories of guys that walked on here that showed enough in high school – they both did – to warrant that opportunity. They’ve both become players here and that’s what you want are those that when given an opportunity you really feel good that they’re going to do everything they can to make the most of it and that’s absolutely the case with JJ.”
He’ll see plenty of action again this Saturday when MSU plays its first day game of the season when Central Connecticut visits Bobcat Stadium at 1:00.
