It sure never seemed like this would happen three years ago, but for the first time in his incredible career, Tommy Mellott enters the season as “the” starting quarterback for Montana State University.
He isn’t picking up the job going into the playoffs as he did in 2021 when he led the Bobcats with savant-like quarterback play to three straight wins over UT-Martin, defending champion and No. 1 seeded Sam Houston State on the road, and powerhouse South Dakota State, helping Montana State book its first trip to the FCS title game since 1984 in the process.
Butte’s favorit son isn’t splitting time – as part of perhaps the most formidable two-QB system in FCS history – with Sean Chambers as he has the past two seasons.
No, this time, it’s all Touchdown Tommy, all the time.
In his final season with MSU, Mellott will guide the Bobcat ship from stem to stern. No one ever thought that would be the case when the 2021 season concluded. At that point, it looked like the Bobcats had found their man.
And to a great extend, they had. But Chambers, a dual-threat with formidable strength and speed to came to MSU from Wyoming, played both out of necessity and prowess the last two seasons both when Mellott was available and when Mellott was banged up.
During the offseason following a 38-10 national title game loss to North Dakota State, Chambers became available, and his talents were too tough to pass up. Chambers would, at a minimum, be a high-quality backup. As it turned out, he was more than that.
The MSU coaching staff wasted little time getting Chambers worked into games as his size and strength on short yardage were invaluable. Not only was he effective, but he also took part of that burden off Mellott.
That was the good news. On the contrary, no one really ever got to see what Mellott could do as the guy, save a few examples, like his most recent start, a 35-34 overtime playoff loss to North Dakota State to stamp last season’s disappointing finish.
“I do think there’s something to that,” MSU head coach Brent Vigen said when asked about Mellott being the sole quarterback leader for the 2024 Bobcats, “It’s interesting how that all came about in ’22. Our running back room went sideways with health and it became apparent that we had to play both guys and that became a monster unto itself.
“His continued emergence and understanding to know what ‘game flow’ means is something that, obviously, he’ll be experiencing in its truest form for the first time. (Mellott has) continued more and more to develop from this really good athlete to a more complete ballplayer/super intelligent guy and now into a quarterback. It’s certainly our hope that the best is yet to come and there’s no reason for us not to believe that.”
The closest Mellott has gotten to getting into the flow was the last game of the 2023 season when he got two weeks of prep for North Dakota State and Chambers was clearly injured. In just two-and-a-half quarters Mellott gave fans a big look at what might be in store for them this season.
The Bison, long known for their defensive prowess, allowed just 186 yards passing per game for the season and intercepted 21 passes while allowing just 16 touchdowns. Mellott threw for 204 yards on 13 of 17 passing, two TDs and one harmless – a desperation heave in the waning seconds of the first half – interception. He left the game midway through the third with a lower leg injury.
The biggest threat to Mellott’s time on the field in 2024 isn’t the play of other quarterbacks. Instead, it’s his availability. Mellott suffered a game and season-ending injury on the first drive of the 2021 championship tilt against NDSU. He suffered a concussion in Week 4 of the 2022 season at Eastern Washington and in 2023 he injured his leg against SDSU before exiting the NDSU playoff game with another lower leg injury.
That’s four significant injures in just over two seasons at quarterback.
“I hope that in Tommy’s continued maturation and his understanding of preservation that he understands that he is the guy,” Vigen said. “There isn’t the option that Sean is there and can come in and do the same things and do it as effectively.
“Just make ordinary plays as much as possible. He’s going to make some extraordinary plays, but the five-yard completion and the underneath completion that the receiver can run for five yards are invaluable. We need more of those plays within the grand scheme of things of our offense and I do think that has showed up here in fall camp.”
Of course, too much corralling Mellott could limit his improvisational abilities.
“The one thing we can continue to emphasize is that you are going to get out of pocket,” Vigen said. “Those are probably the plays, more than the designed runs, that create the chaos (for opponents). When that happens (he needs to) train himself to run away from as many guys as possible, avoid as many hits as possible and maybe step out of bounds. I can still think of a couple plays last year where he was turning it back inside on a big time scramble, and I’m like, ‘just step out of bounds’ those extra 3-4 yards aren’t super valuable. When it does come to designed runs, we need to make it more about his speed than his power. But there’s going to be times this year when his legs are going to have to make plays and how that play finishes we gotta be as smart as possible.”
Mellott has been nothing short of spectacular over his career. He started out as a receiver and special teams ace, while also getting progressively more reps at quarterback his freshman year. After starter Matt McKay stumbled in a 29-10 loss in the Cat-Griz game, MSU had time to groom Mellott to start the first playoff game after a bye week.
From there he has become one of the best players in MSU history. Mellott is third in career rushing touchdowns with 29, seventh in career rushing yards with 2,474, tenth in passing yards (3,241) and 100-yard rushing games (11).
Mellott has more playoff wins than any quarterback in school history with five. In MSU’s second round win (his first start) in 2021 over UT-Martin he ran for 180 yards and two TDs. In the quarterfinal road win over Sam Houston State, Mellott ran for, caught and passed for a touchdown in the first 16 minutes. A week later he accounted for nearly all of the Bobcats’ offense when he ran and passed for 388 (155 rushing, 233 passing) of the team’s 409 total yards.
A year later, he ran for 167 yards against Weber State in the second round, then in the quarterfinals he threw for 109 yards and a TD on just nine passes and ran for three touchdowns. His best passing game was last year, as previously described, against NDSU.
While Mellott has done a lot of things while at Montana State. One thing he hasn’t done is take full control of the helm for the Bobcat’ offense.
The Bobcats will get to showcase their new, yet old, look at quarterback Saturday at 2:00 when they face the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
