BOZEMAN — McCade O’Reilly is done learning lessons.
As a kid, the youngest of three brothers, O’Reilly vividly remembers sneaking around the outside of Bobcat Stadium, looking through the fence and watching his hometown team. Sometimes, Payton, Callahan and McCade would all sneak into the stadium through a chain link fence that doesn’t even exist anymore.
During those days, the Bobcats certainly had some landmark wins but also plenty of heartbreak.
McCade himself experienced excruciating heartbreak his senior year of high school as well, suffering a devastating ankle broken and dislocated ankle that cost him his senior year before the season even started. While watching his best friends from the sidelines taught him plenty, it also made him realize how much football meant to him. Luckily, because of an all-state junior year at Bozeman High, the senior-year injury didn’t cost O’Reilly his childhood dream of playing for the Bobcats.
Since O’Reilly has risen through the ranks to become the second O’Reilly brother on his way to All-Big Sky Conference accolades as an inside linebacker, Montana State football has reached new heights of consistency and national prominence. But with lofty expectations also comes gut-wrenching disappointment.
That’s been the story of the last three years for O’Reilly and his teammates. In 2021, the Bobcats caught lightning in a bottle, rebounding from their first loss to archrival Montana since 2015 to rip through the playoff bracket and advance to the national championship for the first time since 1984.
But a busted up defensive front seven found itself mismatched against North Dakota State’s NFL-bound offensive line, making MSU a severe underdog. When Tommy Mellott busted his leg, MSU had no chance and the Bison steamrolled the Bobcats in Frisco, Texas. At that moment, a few of O’Reilly’s classmates were in the rotation but he was still waiting his turn.
The following year, MSU ran the table in conference play and won a few more playoff games to advance to the Final Four of the FCS playoffs for the third season in a row, a program record. But the season came to an abrupt halt when a historically talented South Dakota State team physically dominated MSU on an ice rink in Brookings in December of 2022.
And last season, MSU seemed like a true title contender again. But road losses at Idaho and at Montana derailed Montana State’s early-season momentum. When the Bobcats lost on a blocked extra point in overtime, falling 35-34 to North Dakota State in Bozeman, O’Reilly hoped that was rock bottom for his decorated soon-to-be senior class.

“All of the seniors from my class, we are just so old (laughs) but really, we’ve seen so many people leave over these last six years,” O’Reilly said. “And we have all seen four full seasons end now and none of them have ended well. You see how much it means to these seniors and then it gets ripped away at the end.
“There’s so many lessons learned along the way, from losing in our first playoff game like last year or losing in the semis or losing in the national championship. There’s really no other lessons we need to learn.
“We are done learning lessons. Now we have to finish the deal.”
Finishing the deal has a potential of five more steps if Montana State is going to win its first national championship in 40 years. But everything starts with the hated Griz coming to Bozeman on Saturday afternoon.
Although Montana State has won five of the last seven rivalry games, the Bobcats are overwhelming favorites for the first time in a long time. Not only is MSU a 16.5-point favorite, but the ‘Cats are in the midst of their greatest regular season in program history. Montana State can secure its first outright Big Sky title since 1984 (MSU also shared the 2011 title with Montana before that title was stripped from the Griz for NCAA violations) with a win as well as sewing up the first 12-0 regular season in Big Sky Conference history.
“We have a really humble group who knows how hard it is, who is willing to put in the work to hopefully achieve our ultimate goals, and that’s winning the national championship,” O’Reilly said.

A huge part of that championship pursuit has been the superb play of O’Reilly.
Montana State built leads of at least six touchdowns in six of its first 10 games this season before the third quarter was even over. O’Reilly has played in the fourth quarter of just three of Montana State’s 11 victories.
That reality has skewed the statistics of O’Reilly and very many of the other defensive Bobcat standouts. O’Reilly is the leading tackler for MSU, yet only ranks 31st in the Big Sky.
But his ability to tackle in space, his ability to run sideline-to-sideline and his consistency in operation, particularly since fellow senior Danny Uluilakepa went down with a season-ending knee injury, have caught the eyes of coaches across the league.
“When I watch their defense, the No. 1 player who stands out is No. 43 (O’Reilly) because he is just a sound football player,” Northern Colorado head coach Ed Lamb said.
“No. 43, that’s a dude,” added Portland State head coach Bruce Barnum. “He runs his ass off. He tackles. He’s tough as hell. He’s your typical, tough-ass Montana State middle linebacker.”
It’s been a long time coming for O’Reilly, who lived in his older brother Callahan’s shadow at Bozeman High and then at MSU. Once McCade O’Reilly got on campus, the inside linebacker spots for the Bobcats have been owned by some of the best players in the conference.
Troy Andersen was the captain of the 2021 team that went to the national championship, earning Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year honors before becoming a second-round draft pick of the Atlanta Falcons.

Callahan O’Reilly led Montana State in tackles two out of three years and was an All-American as a senior. He’s currently playing in the United Football League for the St. Louis Battlehawks.
Last year, O’Reilly was the third man in MSU’s three-man inside linebacker rotation while captain Nolan Askelson had a first-team all-conference senior year and Uluilakepa probably would’ve also been all-conference if he didn’t miss four games due to injury.
Now, O’Reilly has become THE man in the middle of the MSU defense with Uluilakepa on the shelf and sophomore Neil Daily along with freshman Bryce Grebe still finding their way.
“First of all, I watch this league very closely and I get a chance to watch the other linebackers in this league, and there is no doubt in my mind that McCade is the best linebacker in this conference,” Montana State defensive coordinator Bobby Daly said earlier this month. “His stats might not be there, but if you look at the amount of time he’s actually on the field, there’s only been three games where he played a full game. I hope people don’t hold that against him.”
The 6-foot, 220-pound O’Reilly is built like the all-state running back he was at Bozeman High. He rushed for 1,275 yards and 14 touchdowns as a junior.
He has never had the length that would indicate the range of several of his inside linebacker predecessors. But Daly says that O’Reilly’s pure athleticism is actually one of his best gifts.
“This might sound outlandish, but I believe it’s true: the only comparison I have for McCade’s athleticism is Troy Andersen,” Daly said. “He runs to the football and has elite speed. He doesn’t have the length Troy has, but he eliminates explosives by his effort, his speed, his ability to tackle in space. Those three things separate him.”
Because O’Reilly had to wait in the wings — at least compared to Andersen and Askelson, who were heavily in the rotation as freshmen, and Callahan O’Reilly, who started beginning in his sophomore year — it might seem like he’s come out of nowhere.

Instead, he’s been steadily working for a chance to embrace elevated opportunities when they came his way.
“The thing about McCade is that he went up through the ranks doing everything in the dark when nobody was watching him and just rose to a different level, kept grinding, kept grinding and didn’t get to play because of the guys in front of him,” Montana State All-American defensive end Brody Grebe, a team captain from Melstone, said last week. “Then he got to play a little bit last year. And now, this is the time to show what he’s doing and you can see all the work he’s put in, all the time he’s spent watching film and training.
“It shows what a good teammate he is because he was willing to do that and he never complained about it, never went about his business differently. He’s been the same guy ever since he got here and I’m happy for him that he gets to show all the work he’s done and how it’s accumulated.”
Although O’Reilly was working behind the scenes and waiting his turn, his emergence as one of the top linebackers in the conference and FCS has also been spurred on by plenty of cerebral development and time spent grinding on his craft.

“McCade is a far more detailed football player right now than he’s ever been,” Daly said. “That matters to him, not that it didn’t before, but there’s a maturing process kids go through. I was watching the Eastern Washington game from last year and I thought McCade had a good year last year, but I was blown away by just how much better he is now than what he was.
“When you have a kid who turns the corner like that in his senior year, it’s film study, it’s hard work in the off-season, and it’s a kid who took criticism from me, in particular. A lot of kids shy away from things maybe they didn’t do well and maybe they want to stick to the things they do well. McCade and I talked about his open-field tackling and his ability to tackle in space and we worked on it all off-season and that’s been his strength this year. It’s a true credit to him.”
O’Reilly frequently talks about trust when breaking down his football team and his experience with his coaches. He also acknowledges he’s simply learned to trust himself.
“It’s the same aspect of trust, trusting my eyes, when I see a play, I know I am going to be able to go in there and make it,” O’Reilly said. “That comes from experience. There were certain elements of my game last year that I felt I struggled with that I was able to focus on a lot this off-season, work on those all through spring ball, all through fall ball. Then we had the New Mexico game and I was able to capitalize on some of the opportunities and that propelled my confidence to be able to make those sorts of plays.”
That came to fruition last week as O’Reilly snared an interception of a UC Davis 2-point conversation attempt to seal MSU’s 30-28 win and secure at least a share of MSU’s second Big Sky title in three seasons.
On the day before his final fall camp as a Bobcat started, O’Reilly got a bit nostalgic when addressing the press on MSU’s media day. He was asked about how he’d seen Bobcat Stadium over the years.
He told a story about coming over to the stadium and spying through the fence before the Sonny Holland south end zone was even built. He remembers coming down to games even if he didn’t have tickets and hanging out with Callahan and their oldest brother Payton, who went on to play at Miami (Ohio) after an impressive Bozeman High career.
Saturday’s rivalry game features 19 players from Bozeman, including 14 from Bozeman High. A total of nine former Hawks play for the Bobcats. O’Reilly has been an ambassador for his prep program as well as his home town.
“We are fortunate to have the Bozeman influence and some legacies of parents who have gone here, parents who have played here,” Vigen said. “I think that all really matters, if you have enough guys who see this opportunity as the one they dream about.
“That is McCade O’Reilly. He has pride in his family, the high school program that made him and in his hometown.”
Callahan helped pave the way for McCade, as did his cousin, Grant Collins, who was the first player to wear Montana’s vaunted No. 41, a legacy jersey with a tradition that has gained steam as time has gone by.

Being around family has also provided McCade with plenty of stability throughout his college football career.
“I go to breakfast on Sundays with the family and Grant is there, Callahan is there, my grandpa who’s a die-hard fan is there and it’s just like I’m another one of the guys now,” O’Reilly said with a laugh. “It’s fun to have my turn.”
Montana State will certainly be a playoff seed with an accompanying first-round bye no matter what happens in Bozeman on Saturday afternoon. A national championship run is not out of the question even with a rivalry loss – just ask the 2021 Bobcats.
But Montana State wants history and O’Reilly certainly understands the magnitude of the moment.
In the end, that’s been his favorite part. The wins have been great, the accolades have been gratifying. But it’s the individual moments with his teammates, the memories in the locker room, the chance to etch out his own reputation as one of the top players for a championship team, that will stay with O’Reilly.
“Enjoying being in the moment. The thing I’ve learned most about myself is, I love to be immersed fully within a situation, whether that’s fall camp or the season,” O’Reilly said. “I love the day in and day out, you have a routine, you are grinding. I have a laser focus on perfecting my craft. It’s so much fun to have nothing else on your mind than football.
“I can’t wait to see this all come together and to see where we can go.”
