BOZEMAN, Montana — A year ago, many wondered what life after Tommy Mellott might look like.
Montana State won 15 games in a row while Touchdown Tommy became the first Montana State player to ever win the Walter Payton Award.
A heartbreaking 35-32 loss to North Dakota State abruptly ended a storybook season, denying Mellott the storybook ending he deserved. It also left Montana State’s program shrouded in uncertainty. Mellott had been its starting quarterback since an epic 2021 playoff run that culminated in a national championship game appearance in his rookie year, which also happened to be Brent Vigen’s first season at the helm.
Vigen added Justin Lamson to his quarterback stable after Mellott graduated, but Lamson had to graduate from Stanford before he could officially join the Bobcat football team. That meant he did not participate in spring drills.
So when the Bobcats entered fall camp last August, the feeling internally was that Lamson would have the inside track to be the man under center. But outside the walls of the Bobcat Athletic Complex, the fear of the unknown had many wondering if 2025 would be a rebuilding year.
Montana State lost Lamson’s first two career starts, falling 59-13 to No. 6 Oregon (no shame in that) to open the season and – in overtime to South Dakota State, the latter marking the first home regular-season loss for the Bobcats since homecoming of 2019.
Even after MSU evened its non-conference record with an uninspiring 17-0 win over Mercyhurst, it was easy to believe that MSU might be a year away from contending again.
Then Lamson turned a corner in his execution, first-year offensive coordinator Pete Sterbick started to master the weapons at his disposal, and trust among the entire offense grew.
In Montana State’s Big Sky Conference opener against Eastern Washington, Lamson showed the form that made him a 3-star recruit who had offers from Louisville, San Jose State and Wyoming before choosing to go to Syracuse. He showed the savvy and accuracy that would turn him into an All-American.
He completed 11 of his first 12 passes against EWU, staking MSU to a 30-3 halftime lead. He finished the 57-3 blowout with 270 passing yards and three passing touchdowns, marking one of MSU’s most prolific passing days in recent memory.
That was the first flash of what would become one of the most meteoric rises for a Bobcat quarterback in program history. In the span of just three months, Lamson completely erased the question of what Montana State would do in the post-Mellott era. He so thoroughly carved out his own reputation and mystique that, by the time he earned Most Outstanding Player honors in the FCS title game after leading the Bobcats to a 35-34 overtime win, many were asking not about Mellott, but rather whether Lamson belongs on the Mount Rushmore of all-time Bobcat quarterbacks.
“Heading into last season, a lot of people had questions about who our quarterback was going to be, so for Justin to have that sort of season is a testament to the type of competitor he is,” Montana State head coach Brent Vigen said this offseason.
“(Lamson) definitely evolved as a leader last fall,” Vigen said Monday when asked about Lamson being named one of Montana State’s six captains. “Didn’t take anything for granted as we were hitting the home stretch. He was clearly a prominent leader on our offense, if not the team. He really took that to another level in the offseason. His example of how he goes about things, the effort he puts in, the work habits he has speaks for itself. Becoming more vocal and comfortable in that position. He was a fairly obvious choice for a lot of the guys to choose as a captain.”
Lamson quickly became a leader in the locker room. And after a year of working together, Lamson and offensive coordinator Pete Sterbick have built what both describe as strong trust.
That’s helped Montana State diversify its offense and empower a more numerous variety of playmakers entering Saturday’s opener at Utah Tech. For the 3-plus years Mellott served as MSU’s fulcrum, he was an almost quadruple-option quarterback who could operate the zone read out of the shotgun, throw on the run, thrive in the RPO game and rush for 1,000 yards a season.
Because of Mellott’s wheels — he ran a 4.39 in the 40-yard dash on his pro day to earn a sixth-round selection in the NFL Draft by the Las Vegas Raiders — the Bobcats heavily favored chewing up yards on the ground. MSU led the Big Sky in rushing three seasons in a row and rushed for 300 yards per game during that span.
So one notion for Vigen in terms of diversifying and potentially improving the offense was to continue to sophisticate and prioritize the passing game.
Enter Lamson. The sturdily built, 6-foot-2, 220-pounder from El Dorado, California, played particularly well down the stretch last season. Lamson was unflappable in his rivalry game debut, a 31-28 Bobcat win in Missoula over the previously undefeated Montana Grizzlies.
He again thrived in MSU’s – quarterfinal win over Stephen F. Austin. He came through in the clutch in Montana State’s 48-23 win over the Griz in the “Super Brawl” FCS semifinals. And he was named Most Outstanding Player of the FCS title game after throwing for 280 yards and two touchdowns, including a 14-yard money-maker to Taco Dowler for the game-winning touchdown in Montana State’s 35-34 win over Illinois State.
“He has the ability now within a play to be able to do certain things to put us in certain spots,” Sterbick said. “Instead of trying to figure out what the heck the play is or where his eyes are supposed to start, he’s so much down the road, which is really fun to be able to scheme for those kinds of things. Things we are doing already, but now we can push the envelope a little bit and test him. It’s a lot of fun. Having the familiarity from one year to the next, it’s amazing.”
Sterbick said Lamson has an active hand in building the game plan each week, both by communicating what he likes and what he doesn’t like against that opponent’s specific defensive scheme.
“We go over what we are going to run, and I definitely try to gauge that to see how he responds and make sure he’s convicted in what we are doing,” Sterbick said. “Something I think looks good on the board, he needs to be able to execute, and the other 10 guys gotta be able to execute it. I want him to feel comfortable doing what we are doing.
“I’m always OK with taking something out. I think we have enough we can run, but we also try to push the boundaries, so it’s definitely a good question because you want to make sure your quarterback is not overloaded.
“Everything we do is a play off of a play. Everything sort of breeds for itself. And we will get down the road on that, but sometimes, you have to just go back to step one.”
During a whirlwind stretch run of the regular season and into a hectic offseason, Montana State had to fend off suitors for both its head coach (Oregon State) and many of its best players, including Lamson.
A handful of Bobcats did take the money and run off a national championship team into the FBS. And Lamson was certainly offered plenty of cash to make the move back to a power conference.
“Lamson is a very talented quarterback, dual-threat guy and he throws the ball well, but boy, he can really run,” Anderson said. “He runs well, he can buy time in the pocket, he can move the pocket. On offense, Montana State does a very good job of finding ways to run the football, and that sets up so much of everything else they do. The pocket movement throws, the play-action throws — for us defensively, we have to be able to slow down their run game a little bit, and we have to be able to contain Justin Lamson.”
Instead of bailing for big bucks, Lamson gets to be a captain with an opportunity to chase immortality. No Big Sky Conference team has won consecutive national titles dating back to the creation of Division I-AA in 1978.
“To be named captain, it was probably the greatest honor and football accomplishment in my head in my career to this point,” Lamson said. “I’ve always tried to represent myself as a leader, but knowing my teammates consider me that, now I have to go set the bar even higher.”
