BOZEMAN — As a sea of blue and gold celebrators felled the goalpost in the Sonny Holland endzone, Mac Bignell took one last victory lap around Bobcat Stadium to a standing ovation.
As Montana State’s jubilant players carried the Great Divide Trophy around their home venue for the first time since 2005, Jeff Choate held up two fingers, symbolizing his second straight convincing victory in the most storied rivalry in the Treasure State.
As Chris Murray weaved his way through the thousands of adoring fans, a man wearing a No. 8 jersey for his adoration of Montana State’s electric quarterback screamed “Chris Murray, the Grizzly killer.”
The Grizzly killers, indeed.
Montana State running back Troy Andersen celebrates his first touchdown/by Brooks Nuanez
For the second straight year, Choate, Bignell, Murray, defensive coordinator Ty Gregorak and the rest of the Bobcats played with an elevated bravado spurred on by physically dominating the Grizzlies for the duration of a picturesque Bozeman afternoon in front of 19,907 roaring supporters on Saturday afternoon.
For the second straight season, Montana State rides into the off-season with rivalry momentum after stamping a 31-23 victory over the Grizzlies on Saturday afternoon.
For the second straight season, Montana State entered its rivalry showdown with Montana as the decided underdog playing with nothing to lose. For the second straight November, Montana needed a win over the Bobcats to secure a playoff berth as the Griz desperately try to claw their way back to national relevance.
For the second straight year, the Bobcats are the kings of Montana. Thanks to a signature performance by Nick LaSane on senior day, as Montana State rushed for 322 yards. Behind an inspired defensive effort led by Bignell, local product Brayden Konkol and the breakout performance of true freshman cornerback Tyrel Thomas’ young career, MSU held Montana’s explosive offense in check for most of the game.
“This is a dream come true,” said Bignell, the last in a long line of standouts with his namesake to star at Montana State. “Coming here as a freshman, looking at the schedule, I knew this game was coming at our home stadium. This last year, I knew we could end the streak. It’s been 12 years since we last won here. We ended it today and that’s an unbelievable feeling.”
The victory in the 117th rendition of Montana’s fiercest rivalry means Montana State finishes the season 5-3 in Big Sky Conference play, 5-6 overall. MSU’s second straight rivalry win cuts UM’s all-time advantage to 72-39-5, including 30-24 since the founding of the Big Sky in 1963.
Montana State celebrates a fumble recovery by Gresch Jensen late in the 4th quarter/by Brooks Nuanez
“It’s humbling,” Choate said less than an hour after being doused in water during his team’s celebration. “You realize how important this is to the people in this state. It’s a humbling experience. I’m just the 32nd head coach at Montana State. There have been a bunch before me and there will be some after me. But to know that this game and this fan base — which is as good as any in the country at any level and I’m proud to be able to reward their loyalty. These young men are worth of this support.”
The loss means Montana finishes the season with an identical conference mark as the Bobcats. A year after losing four of five down the stretch to miss the playoffs for just the third time since 1993, the 7-4 Griz will likely be left out of the playoff for the second consecutive year for the first time since 1991 and 1992.
“Definitely a difficult loss,” Montana third-year head coach Bob Stitt said after falling to 21-14 in his career with the Griz. “A lot of adversity in that game, a lot of things early that were not going our way, which makes it difficult to get the ball in the end-zone and get some scores.
“Love the fight in our guys. We battled to the end.”
Because of a technological malfunction, the Montana State coaching staff’s headsets did not work for the first three series’ of the game. After the first series, Choate told the officials, bringing out the rule that Montana had to turn their headsets off as well. The Griz marched 72 yards in 12 plays before the Bobcat defense stiffened to end the game’s first possession by forcing a 20-yard Brandon Purdy field goal.
Montana State running back Nick LaSane evades Montana linebacker Josh Buss/by Brooks Nuanez
“I did a terrible job calling the first series because we gave up three points,” Choate said. “We were able to overcome that just like we were able to overcome a lot of adversity throughout the course of the season and throughout the course of this game.”
The rest of the first quarter turned into a battle for field position, a fight Montana State won. A Jered Padmos punt pinned Montana at its own 10 with the Sonny Holland end-zone to the Grizzlies’ backs. Back-to-back false starts inspired of the significant noise pushed Montana up against the goal line. After UM’s second straight punt, MSU took over on the Griz 42.
The Bobcats’ dominance in the run game then ensued. Last season in MSU’s 24-17 win over UM in Missoula, Murray rushed for 142 yards and two touchdowns to spark a 368-yard rushing day. Montana’s defense Saturday keyed on Murray in the zone-read option game, taking him away early on. Murray’s first 11 carries netted -3 yards.
Because of that extra attention paid to Murray, LaSane and true freshman Troy Andersen were able to get loose. MSU ran a speed option to its own sideline on which Andersen, a 6-foot-3, 225-pounder from Dillon, showed his impressive speed on an 18-yard gain. Five plays later, Murray executed the same speed option to the left, perfecting timing his pitch to Andersen on a two-yard touchdown run. The hosts would not trail again.
“I knew today that they were going to take the ball away from me in the read option plays and there were plays here I got impatient,” Murray said. “They forced me to give the ball on read plays and that’s fine with me because we have Nick and Troy (Andersen).”
Montana State defense stuff Montana running back Alijah Lee run/by Brooks Nuanez
The bulk of LaSane’s 121 yards came on a 71-yard touchdown run on a third down with 21 yards to gain. Montana State ran a standard “power” play into the face of UM’s safety blitz, getting the Griz out of their gaps before LasSane raced the length of the field for a score that put Montana State up 14-3.
“That’s what we do, that’s our DNA,” Choate said. “We are always going to run the ball around here and we are always going to be as good as we can at stopping the run. If you can run the ball, you can do everything.”
Montana’s seven-play, 61-yard drive following MSU kicker Gabe Peppenger kicking high intentionally to keep the ball out of Jerry Louie-McGee’s hands cut MSU’s lead to 14-10. But the Bobcat run game continued punishing the Griz.
On the ensuing drive, MSU ran the ball six straight times, capped by a toss play to Andersen in which he looked like the 200-meter champion he was in high school as he rounded the corner and sprinted 19 yards for a touchdown that put MSU up 21-10.
The Bobcats rushed for 185 yards in the first half alone. Despite having negative yards on his first 11 carries, Murray finished with 99 yards, including an impressive 30-yard scramble on a third down and 36 to go and a seven-yard burst on the subsequent fourth down.
Facing that fourth down and 5, MSU lined up in an offensive swinging gate formation, called a timeout and came out lined up in it again. Choate said Murray was supposed to look to the sideline for a thumbs up or thumbs down in regard to snapping the ball. Instead, Murray ran the play himself, excuting a quarterback sweep, lowering his shoulder on converting a crucial fourth down.
Montana wide receiver Jerry Louie-McGee breaks loose on a kick return/by Brooks Nuanez
“Coach Choate told me to look back at him and if he gave me the thumbs down, we’d take the delay of game, the thumbs up we were going to run it but I didn’t look at him,” Murray said to the uproarious laughter of the most well attended press conference of the season at Bobcat Stadium. “I honestly forgot.”
That conversion preceded a 30-yard strike to senior Mitch Herbert that set up Peppenger’s 20-yard field goal. That scoring drive lasted 16 plays, 80 yards and 8:54 to begin the second half and gave the hosts a 24-13 lead.
“We’ve been tough all year,” said Herbert, who finished with four catches and 55 yards. “That’s been our mantra: never give up. We’ve had a lot of close games throughout the course of the year. We’ve been in the fourth quarter all year long but haven’t executed or had the ball roll our way.
“All of us love Coach Choate, all of us know what he’s doing with this program and we all trust him.”
Purdy, a Kalispell Glacier product, hit his third field goal of the game and 15th of he season with 10:44 left to cu the ‘Cats’ lead to 24-16. But Montana State responded again. Murray engineered an eight-play, 75-yard drive that included a 36-yard Murray sprint and capped by Murray’s 10th rushing touchdown of the season to give Montana State a 31-16 advantage with 6:20 left.
A spirited Griz rally highlighted the final six minutes despite the fact that Montana State hit UM quarterback Gresch Jensen so frequently, his throwing motion became altered. Bignell (8.5 tackles, 2 tackles for loss) and sophomore linebacker Brayden Konkol (12.5 tackles) blitzed more than usual, drilling Jensen over and over.
Montana wide receiver Keenan Curran catches a pass on Montana State cornerback Bryce Alley/by Brooks Nuanez
Despite the abuse, Jensen helped Montana march 67 yards in three plays, including a 32-yard touchdown strike to Keenan Curran to cut the lead to the final margin.
Montana got the stop it needed and took over with 3:41 let. Two plays into that possession, Jensen — who could not feel his right throwing hand because of a hit to his elbow the play prior — lost the grip on the football on a throw attempt, a slip that resulted in a fumble and MSU possession.
The Bobcats could again not run out the clock, giving Montana possession with 2:08 left. Jensen dumped the ball to Louie-McGee and Jeremy Calhoun for 17-yard gains to move the Griz into Bobcat territory. A nine-yard strike to Curran, who finished with seven catches for 109 yards, got UM to the MSU 28.
Three plays later on fourth down, Jensen looked for Curran, who was blanketed by Thomas. The Bobcat true freshman jumped the route and broke up his third pass of the day. Thomas sprinted the length of the field after forcing a turnover on downs, surely the biggest play of his young career.
“I can’t even explain it man, I saw that ball and went to drive on it and I couldn’t stop running,” Thomas said. “It shouldn’t have been a pick but I couldn’t stop running. This experience is unbelievable.”
“Whenever you make a play like that to win the game, you will be remembered forever,” Bignell said. “I don’t know if he knows that but that was an incredible performance by him. To make that play to win the game, he’ll be remembered forever.”
Saturday’s finale caps a trying season for the Bobcats that saw Montana State rise its level of competitiveness yet finish with just one more win than in Choate’s first campaign. The Bobcats played seven ranked teams, losing six of those games. MSU strung together a two-game winning streak in to close October only to lose by two points to Big South champion No. 25 Kennesaw State and by one point because of a failed two-point conversion at Northern Arizona.
Montana State averaged 25.3 points per game and surrendered 25.0. The ‘Cats lost by four to No. 4 South Dakota State, by eight to No. 18 Weber State, by 11 to No. 10 Eastern Washington, by two to Kennesaw and by one to NAU. But for the second straight season, MSU altered its narrative entering the off-season with a memorable win over the rivals.
Montana State celebrates with the Great Divide Trophy/by Brooks Nuanez
“This doesn’t take away the sting of some of those losses,” Choate said. “I think this group of young men is a very resilient group as I’ve said many times. I think we are one of the top 30, 35 teams and if you look at it, that’s probably what we are. That doesn’t do a lot for those seniors but we sent them out on top. First time since 2005 that we have been victorious in this great rivalry here in Bozeman. That definitely takes some sting off some of those tight losses.”
Pending a completely shocking at-large bid to the FCS playoffs, 16 Griz played their final games on Saturday. Fourteen Bobcats celebrated senior day. MSU will have to replace Bignell, Herbert, LaSane, strong safety Bryson McCabe, left tackle Dylan Mahoney, cornerback Bryce Alley and safety Khari Garcia from its starting lineup but returns Murray, four starters up front, and the entirety of its defensive front seven for Choate’s third season next fall.
“We have a good football team and that’s evidence in game in and game out throughout the course of the season, every game we played went into the fourth quarter except games we won by two scores or lost to Washington State,” Choate said. “I think we know we have a ton of guys coming back. We have a lot of young talent. We have to go put some pieces in to the recruiting class. We have good momentum. I think the 2018 Bobcats are going to be a good outfit.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
