BOZEMAN, Montana — Brent Vigen flashed a smile partly because he was proud and partly because of pleasant surprise.
Montana State’s head coach was already down two quarterbacks. Superstar sophomore Tommy Mellott smashed his head off the blood-red turf in Cheney, giving way to a young man Vigen has known for a long time. And Jordan Reed, Vigen’s prized strong-armed freshman with watchtower height, was lost for the season before Vigen’s second campaign leading the Bobcats even began.
So when Sean Chambers was “a little banged up at halftime”, Vigen thought about taking the load off his lone remaining signal caller. With UC Davis fighting like you’d expect a 2021 playoff team that entered the contest 1-3 to fight like, Chambers pulled a second rabbit out of his hat.
The stout yet speedy battering ram of a quarterback, showed surprising speed on his first touchdown run, a 78-yard scamper on Montana State’s second play of the game. Cornerback James Campbell, who might have the claim to the fastest player on the Bobcat roster, teased about just how fast Chambers looked, prodding, “the long run he broke up the sideline, honestly, I was like, ‘He might be up there with speed with me.”
By the time halftime rolled around, Chambers had rushed nine times for 121 yards, marking his third time surpassing the century mark this year. But his first few carries in the second half, including an inside run on a 3rd down with three yards to go that gained zero, made Vigen give pause.
A talented Aggie offense led by Big Sky Conference preseason Offensive Player of the Year Ulonzo Gilliam and slick slot receiver Justin Kraft helped the visitors hang around in their first trip to Bozeman since 2016. Isaha Gomez hit a 40-yard field goal with 6:07 left in the third quarter.
On MSU’s next possession, Chambers sold a play fake to Elijah Elliot on an inside zone read play, then pulled the football, catching UC Davis in a line stunt and out of position. Chambers then beat two defenders to the edge, picked up a few great blocks on the perimeter and basically jogged in for a 65-yard touchdown.
After the play, Vigen couldn’t help but grin. And that ear to ear smile came both because Montana State’s head coach was relieved his stud quarterback remained in good health and because Vigen has first-hand knowledge with just how much being banged up has derailed Chambers’ career in the past.
“I thought he was a little nicked up at halftime, honestly. And that run didn’t show like he was nicked up at all,” Vigen recounted following his 16th win in 20 games as MSU’s head coach.
“I’m so happy for him, this all working out for him to come to Montana State and obviously Tommy’s injury put him on the field like this. But for him to be able to have individual success within our team.
“He’s a team member. And that’s hard when you’ve invested in another place and you leave your friends and everything and you transfer. It’s complicated.”
And now things might be even more complicated for MSU given Mellott’s pending status. But Vigen isn’t worried about that. He’s enjoyed watching his long-time protégé acclimate to his new program.
“I knew once we got to September, we were playing games, I felt like this would happen, this could happen for him. I’m very happy for him and our team,” Vigen said. “You know, our teams really embraced him. There’s no doubt about that.”
Vigen first got to know Chambers when the dual-threat quarterback was standing out at Kerman (California) High School in the Fresno area. He ranked as a 3-star recruit and the No. 44 dual threat quarterback in the nation. He led his team to their first-ever conference title by winning the North Sequoia league thanks in part to throwing for 1,600 yards and rushing 1,687 rushing yards his senior season.
He accounted for over 5,000 passing yards, nearly 4,000 rushing yards and 95 total touchdowns during his high school career, including 34 total touchdowns his senior season. Chambers averaged 140.6 yards per game on the ground and 280.5 yards of total offense per game in 2017.
Vigen helped entice Chambers to Wyoming, where Vigen was fifth season as the offensive coordinator for Craig Bohl’s Pokes. Chambers chose WYO over Boise State, Colorado, Colorado State, Columbia, Fresno State, Hawai’i, Rutgers, San José State and UTEP.
In the fall of 2018, the 6-foot-3, 238-pounder took over as Wyoming’s starting quarterback with four games to play. He rushed for 100 yards in his debut against Utah State, a 24-16 loss in which he came off the bench. He also rushed for 101 yards in a 34-21 win over Colorado State and a career-high 129 yards in a 24-9 win over San Jose State. He went 3-0 as Wyoming’s starter, although Tyler Vander Waal, who has been the opening-day starter for two years in a row at Idaho State, started Wyoming’s final two games of 2018 in front of Chambers.
In 2019, Chambers started the first eight games of the year, rushing for 567 yards and averaging 6.3 yards per carry He had more than 100 yards against UNLV and New Mexico. He led Wyoming to six wins in eight games before getting knocked out against Boise State. The Cowboys lost that game in overtime and went 2-3 without Chambers.
He suffered a season-ending injury before the abbreviated 2020 season. He considered walking way from the game. Then he lost his coach. Vigen took the Montana State head job in January of 2021.
Chambers stayed at Wyoming and once again earned the starting job, partly because of his 11-3 record as the starter.
He added a win to that record in the Cowboys’ opener, leading the Pokes to a 19-16 win over Montana State in the first game of Vigen’s head coaching career. Chambers threw for 196 yards in that game. But that was the high water mark.
Confidence eluded Chambers after the left fibula injury that almost ended his career in the fall of 2020. By the seventh game of 2021, Bohl and new offensive coordinator Tim Polasek benched Chambers.
Instead of walking away from the game for good, he reunited with Vigen.
“He’s a competitor and he did not want to get to the situation he got to, he didn’t want to go to another school and it just the way it worked out,” Vigen said. “And to be fully invested now as a Bobcat and our team to fully believe in him and then for him to make the most of this opportunity, I think, that’s complicated.
“He’s a real genuine person …that’s what transferring should be about. It’s about getting an opportunity to go someplace and continue to write your story. And he didn’t want his story to end at Wyoming. So to have his story continue on here is a neat deal.”
Chambers split time with Mellott during MSU’s 2-1 non-conference slate. He scored two touchdowns in MSU’s 40-17 win over McNeese State. He rushed for 127 yards and two scores while throwing his first two touchdowns as a Bobcat in MSU’s 63-13 win over Morehead State. And he scored all three of MSU’s offensive touchdowns in a 68-28 loss to Oregon State in Portland.
When Mellott hit his head against EWU, Chambers took over midway through the second quarter and started to transform into a quarterback that all of a sudden leads the Big Sky Conference in rushing yards (548) and leads the FCS in rushing touchdowns (12). His 160 rushing yards, including a 13-yard touchdown run to give MSU its final lead, 38-35, helped him gain the praise of his teammates.
“You might as well just call him Mike Alstott,” senior captain fullback R.J. Fitzgerald said.
Chambers’ magical evening Saturday night brought a smile to Vigen’s face and certainly elicited a collective sigh of relief from the 21,000+ fans at Bobcat Stadium with the man Troy Andersen called Touchdown Tommy roaming the sideline in a pink signal caller hat.
The junior ended the game with 227 yards passing and 203 yards rushing. He threw two touchdowns, ran for three more scores and became the second quarterback in Big Sky Conference history (Montana’s Dalton Sneed, 2018) to throw and rush for more than 200 yards in the same game.
That offensive explosion helped Chambers earn Big Sky Co-Offensive Player of the Week and FCS National Player of the Week from STATS Perform.
It also helped the newest star Bobcat earn a feeling of redemption through reuniting with a coach who’s always believed in him.
“Vigen, that’s my guy. We’ve been through a lot together,” Chambers said following his first win as a starting quarterback for the ‘Cats. “Dating back to Wyoming, we’ve been through a lot. And he brought me on here. He didn’t have to. But he did. And I’m just so, so grateful and thankful that he’s in my life. That’s my guy, plain and simple.”
