Things aren’t always as they appear.
Montana State appeared on the verge of winning its 28th straight home game when it led North Dakota State 28-21 with under three minutes to play last December in the second round of the FCS playoffs.
Then North Dakota State scored. The Bobcats still appeared set to extend the home streak when Sean Chambers was dashing toward the end zone…but then the senior captain stepped on the out of bounds line. Despite that, MSU was close to streak-extending field goal range only to hit the skids as the game went into overtime.
Scottre Humphrey looked as if he’d sent the game into a second overtime with a 25-yard dash to paydirt. However, NDSU made a play that will live in infamy for Bobcat fans for quite some time when a backup Bison offensive lineman blocked the extra-point to not only snap the win streak but end MSU’s season.
The Bobcats make their not-so-triumphant return this Saturday in the annual Gold Rush game when they take on the University of Maine at 6 p.m.. The Bobcats still have a 21-game regular season home win streak to extend, but their eyes are most likely – as they’ve stated numerous time since the NDSU loss – on going ‘1-0’ this week.
“We’re excited to be home for Gold Rush week,” MSU head coach Brent Vigen said. “After being on the road for two weeks, dealing with the heat and a different environment, it’s great to be back home. We look forward to a great home crowd this Saturday.”
The Bobcats have the Maine Black Bears to deal with and they have a recent knack for having seemingly other worldly things – like NDSU’s streak-snapping blocked extra point – occur out of nowhere.
Against New Mexico in Week 0, the Bobcats saw the Lobos return not one, but two, fumbles for touchdowns – a football anomaly that few teams recover from. Yet MSU found a way to rally from a 10-point defecit with five minutes to play to earn a 35-31 FBS win.
A week later MSU’s offense was hit with three holding calls – all in the first quarter – as they saw the first two drives stall. It’s been awhile since MSU has had what anyone would call a clean game. Yet MSU is 2-0 before even playing a home game. The ‘Cats enter Saturday’s “Gold Rush” with a No. 3 national ranking.
While MSU has won 21 straight home regular season games, that’s probably amongst the last things the coaches and players have on their collective minds as kickoff approaches. If anything, MSU is guarding against letting the roll it’s been on invade the deep cortexes of their minds.
Since dropping the 2023 finale to NDSU, the Bobcats erased two 17-point deficits in its first of two season-opening road wins over New Mexico. A week later the Montana State’ defense obliterated a Utah Tech offense that couldn’t muster a first down through the first three quarters as it succumbed to eight straight three-and-outs.
From the time it was down to UNM 17-0, the Bobcats have outscored their first two opponents 66-21 (35-14 over UNM and 31-7 over Utah Tech) with seven of those 21 points coming off a miscue by the MSU offense. They out-gained UNM and UT by a combined 978-364 in total yards in that same time span. Since the first drive of the second half against the Lobos, the MSU offense has had only one three-and-out.
“We’re really excited to get in front of Bobcat Nation,” senior defensive end Kenneth Eiden IV said. “We’ve got some of the best fans in the FCS and one of the best home atmospheres in the FCS.
“Starting out on the road definitely gets those road jitters out of the way. Playing on the road is obviously harder than playing at home, just staying in the hotels, travel, different environment, but definitely I think big things are coming this Saturday. It’ll be a good show to watch.”
You have to go back to 1957 to find another time MSU won it first two games of the season on the road. That year, the Bobcats beat South Dakota State 13-6 and then Fresno State 27-14. They finished the season 8-2 with a loss at Idaho State midway through the year. That was MSU’s first loss in 15 games, but they won the next three before falling to Arizona State in the finale.
Since 1957, the Bobcats have opened with two straight road games eight times. The last time MSU opened with it first two matches on the road was in 2001 when it fell to the University of Alabama-Birmingham, then beat Weber State the next week. MSU’s first season of football in 1897 saw the Bobcats open with road games against Butte High and Montana.
The last time MSU made the postseason after opening with two road games was in 1964. It beat SDSU 46-14 before losing to Wichita State 21-6. The Bobcats won the Big Sky Conference title and were invited to the Camellia Bowl in Sacramento where they defeated Sacramento State 28-7. The Hornets are the last team to beat MSU in a regular season game played in Bobcat Stadium when they downed the Bobcats 34-21 on October 12, 2019 – nearly five years ago.
The Gold Rush game has served as MSU’s season opener since 2011. That year the Bobcats donned gold jerseys over their gold pants. Most of the jerseys were left over from the season before when MSU requested to use them during the 2010 Cat-Griz game in Missoula. The Grizzlies, who had plans to wear a black gimmick uniform of their own, rejected the request, so MSU wore them against UC Davis and kicked off the tradition with a 38-14 win.
Since then, the Bobcats have dominated the Gold Rush games albeit against mostly overmatched opponents. They’ve taken 11 of the 12 games usually in convincing fashion. MSU has lost just once – 31-27 in 2017 – to SDSU in one of the most exciting games of the series. Quarterback Chris Murray had one of his best passing days in his two years with MSU as he threw for four touchdowns and 311 yards. The following year, quarterback Troy Andersen willed the Bobcats to a 26-23 win with 145 yards rushing and a pair of third quarter touchdowns.
