Elijah Elliott teased Montana State fans during his first off-season in 2021 when he electrified scrimmages with his speed and agility. He did so again when he ran for 107 yards on just 11 carries against Northern Colorado midway through the 2021 season. Recently, with essentially every running back on the team injured, Bobcat’ fans were becoming bewildered.
But Montana State head coach Brent Vigen continued to emphasize Elliott wasn’t getting carries because of game plan reasons, the scope of the action against Oregon State (a 68-28 loss) and the reads MSU’s two running quarterbacks are making in the read option.
Last Saturday it all came to fruition for Elliott, and his fans, when he tore up Roos Field aka “The Inferno” in Cheney, Wash. with a career-high 156 yards on just 18 carries (8.7 avg.) in helping MSU to its second win in as many seasons on EWU’s inhospitable surface. Eastern has only lost nine times on the red field. And never to visiting teams in consecutive years.
“I feel like we felt like Elijah is capable, it just so happened he was on the depth chart where he was,” Vigen said. “Last week was last week. There wasn’t a lot of rhythm to get him going. He’s worked hard. He hasn’t pouted. He has waited his turn and his turn has come up and he had a really good game today.”
The Portland native’s 45-yard touchdown gallop in the first quarter knotted the score and his 15-yard run during MSU’s last possession all but sealed the Bobcats’ roller coaster 38-35 win. He ran for 29 tough yards the possession prior to MSU’s touchdown – a 13-yard run by backup quarterback Sean Chambers – to reclaim the lead with 3:26 to play.
While the drive preceding the score didn’t bear any points due to an interception, it did get the team in position to score moments later. That’s because the Bobcats would get the ball one play later when linebacker Callahan O’Reilly forced a fumble with an assist from defensive tackle Sebastian Valdez and it was recovered by safety Ty Okada to set up the final score of a wild game that had six lead changes.
“Elijah is such an amazing kid and he’s all about the team,” MSU offensive coordinator Taylor Housewright said. “He was down on the depth chart again, but he kept showing up and he kept playing and keeps getting better.”
Housewright pointed out that the 5-10, 195-pound sophomore’s reactions to his playing time isn’t the norm.
“That’s the unique part,” he continued. “You don’t see guys doing that in today’s day and age, right? If they aren’t the guy right away, they leave and say, ‘I’m going to try somewhere else.’ He keeps playing and waiting for his opportunity.”
Luck wasn’t on Elliott’s side last season as he was banged up for most of the latter part of the season and could never get back to full strength. That, along with junior Lane Sumner also being injured for most of 2021, led to heavy workload on All-America running back Isaiah Ifanse, who set MSU’s single-season rushing yards record but had to have multiple knee operations in the off-season
Elliott recognized Ifanse’s plight and dedicated himself to getting bigger and stronger in order to take some of the burden off the now sidelined senior.
“He has a unique skill set,” Housewright added. “I think he has worked really, really hard this off-season to get stronger, which you saw in the way he ran on Saturday. He just cares about his teammates. He has had a rough life and I think him being here and being a part of this team and being a part of helping us win, that’s all he wants to do.”
Following his big game against Northern Colorado last season, Elliott’s production began to wane. His per carry averaged dipped below four yards in a stretch of four games then he was he forced into action against Idaho and came through with 49 yards on a scant six totes. That game saw Ifanse injure his leg and be unavailable for the second half. Elliott ran for 35 yards in the third quarter but was banged up and had no carries in the fourth quarter of the narrow 20-13 win.
Elliott was the third-leading rusher for the Bobcats with 319 yards, which included a 5.1 yards per carry average. He was also fourth in receiving with 16 receptions for 163 yards.
While the Bobcats will be relying on Elliott for the next few games as Ifanse and Sumner work their way back from injuries, they will also spread the carries around to Chambers at quarterback and a bevy of receivers with good running ability to alleviate the strain on just one running back.
“I was so happy for him to do what he did,” Housewright said of Elliott. “We have a great running backs coach in Jimmy Beal. He’s coached a lot of guys that are very, very talented. NFL guys. We want to be a program where you plug and play. We want the backup to be just as good as the starter and we can put him in there and he knows what to do. That’s what Elijah did.”
The Bobcats have successful at Housewright’s ‘plug-and-play’ goal so far this season. Along with Elliott’s big day Saturday, MSU also got a huge game from Sumner in the season opening 40-17 Gold Rush win over McNeese State. Sumner burned the Cowboys for 176 yards on 24 carries that day.
To date, MSU has had four different players run for 100 yards. Along with Elliott and Sumner, Chambers has done so twice (Morehead and EWU) and Tommy Mellott (Oregon State) has one 100-yard game.
The Bobcats host UC-Davis in a key Big Sky Conference matchup Saturday night at 8:15. The game will be televised nationally on either ESPNU or ESPN2.
