Montana State put bookends on its season with its four most competitive opponents. The first bookend – Oregon and South Dakota State – has paid off well for the Bobcats as they uncovered some weaknesses and seemed to have addressed those issues. Now it’s time to see if the other bookend will reap dividends.
MSU downed FCS playoff No. 8 seed UC Davis 38-17 in its penultimate regular season game, then finished with a 31-28 win over No. 3 seed Montana. Whether or not those games will sharpen the Bobcats’ sword will be revealed this Saturday when they take on the Yale Bulldogs at Bobcat Stadium.
“We come in more battle-tested than we were say three, four weeks ago,” MSU head coach Brent Vigen said. “We knew those games were sitting there at the end of our schedule all year. I think as a young team our continued growth and not looking ahead through the stretch of the season was really significant but then being able to answer the bell both in the evening against Davis and in the afternoon against Montana at a minimum propelled us into the position we’re in for sure but also from a continued growth perspective about who we are and who we can be has put us in a good spot.”
Yale, similar to MSU, played perhaps its two best opponents over the last two weeks. The Bulldogs took out their biggest rival Harvard, winning 45-28 in front of 52,497 in their season finale at the Yale Bowl. The Bulldogs then battled back from a 42-14 deficit midway through the third quarter at Youngstown State to advance to the second round with a 43-42 win. This marks the first postseason appearance for Yale as the Bulldogs have never played in a bowl game. They won 18 NCAA-recognized national titles from 1874 to 1909, which is the most in NCAA history.
Over the last month, the Bobcats had to take down two of the top three quarterbacks in the Big Sky in Caden Pinnick of UC Davis and Keali’i Ah Yat of Montana. Pinnick was recently named the Big Sky Freshman of the Year while Ah Yat was named first-team all-conference.
The MSU defense allowed Pinnick to go 22 of 36 passing for 234 yards and two touchdowns but they intercepted two of his passes resulting in a passer rating of 122.9. He had a rating of 180.0 during conference play. Ah Yat connected on an impressive 26 of 32 passes but only managed 186 yards and one touchdown a few weeks ago in Missoula. Like Pinnick, Ah Yat allowed a pick-6 to MSU safety Caden Dowler. His rating was 131.4 for the game after coming in with a 155.2 rating in BSC games.
MSU got into a groove after a less-than-impressive 17-0 win over Mercyhurst, which coincided with the start of the BSC season, when they blew out Eastern Washington 57-3 and rolled through its league schedule. The Bobcats pulled away late and downed the Aggies 38-17, while they struggled to put away a scrappy Grizzly’ team that held MSU to its lowest BSC play scoring output and scored more than any FCS team in regulation only to lose 31-28. NAU and Cal Poly both held the Bobcats to 34 points, while no FCS team scored more 17 in regulation (SDSU had 30 in double-overtime).
“A ton,” MSU running back Adam Jones said when asked how much the last two games mean to Montana State’s momentum entering the playoffs. “This team keeps continuing to raise the bar and that’s what we’ve been preaching every single week. I think the confidence that we have in the defense and the special teams and the team as a whole is at an all-time high, which is pretty fun. It’s pretty special to just say that going into the playoffs because you know how it goes, you gotta peak at the right time and the second you let off the gas a little bit there’s going to be a team that can take you down. We’re grateful to be in this moment, but we’re far from satisfied.”
As the season wound down, the Bobcats began to display a complimentary brand of football with all three units – offense, defense and special teams – pulling their weight. Prior to the UC Davis game, MSU took down Weber State by forcing four turnovers and a 77-yard kickoff return by Jabez Woods, while adding three punt returns of 30 yards or more. Against the Aggies, the Bobcats turned a pair of interceptions into points. Lastly, against Montana they got a blocked field goal that led directly to a touchdown and an interception return for a score.
MSU finished the 2024 season against the same two teams, but the scripts were flipped as the Bobcats survived a late rally at UC Davis for 30-28 win before taking out the Grizzlies 34-11 in Bozeman. The wins shot MSU to lopsided wins in its first two playoff games as they downed UT-Martin 49-17, then Idaho 52-19 before taking out South Dakota 31-17 in the semifinals to advance to the national title game. MSU fell in Frisco, Texas 35-32 to North Dakota State.
The Bobcats begin their postseason as the only team with wins over two top 10 teams. They have one loss against a top 10 team in SDSU, which is the No. 14 seed in the FCS playoffs. MSU also beat Northern Arizona, which was No. 13 at the time. This season marks the second straight season that MSU has won 10 straight games. The Bobcats won 15 in a row in 2024.
Yale’s win came as a bit of a surprise as it was playing in the FCS playoffs for the first time and was playing at Youngstown State. Scoring 29 points in the final 25 minutes to take the win was shocking. Most fans gave up on watching at halftime when the Penguins took a 35-7 lead. The Bulldogs showed some signs of life after cutting the lead to 35-14 early in the third quarter. YSU scored again, however, and all seemed lost.
“I turned it off at halftime, honestly, I thought it was going to be over,” MSU safety Taki Uluilakepa said. “They’re a good team, they never quit. I’m looking forward to this one for sure.”
MSU is in the FCS playoffs for the seventh straight season and has won its opening game five times in the last six seasons. The Bobcats have advanced to the semifinals four of the last five seasons.
“We’re at the point now where there’s 16 teams left,” Vigen said. “Everybody has a clean enough slate that you just win and advance. That’s all we’re after. Your record to this point does matter, your seed does matter but at the same time it doesn’t guarantee anything.”
The Bobcats started the year with a pair of losses to Oregon and South Dakota State and the doubters were plentiful considering MSU lost numerous players on both sides of the ball after going all the way to the title game. Three months later, MSU is one of the favorites to win the national championship.
“How we started the year we kind of had to find our identity again with all the new guys, especially running the ball,” Jones said. “We continue to grow each and every week. As far as running the ball, we know we want to run the ball and, in the playoffs, when it gets cold I know that defenses don’t want to tackle, so we’re going to push that line of scrimmage and we’ve got a ton of confidence in that.”
The Bobcats and Bulldogs will go at it this Saturday at noon in Bobcat Stadium.
