After a comeback for the ages gave the Ivy League its first ever Football Championship Subdivision victory, the most unlikely of opponents ventures west to Bozeman to begin the latest December slate for the Montana State Bobcats.
Yale entered the FCS playoffs with a head of steam. The Bulldogs (9-2) won six games in a row, including slaying archrival Harvard 45-28 to spoil Senior Day for the Crimson and secure the first-ever automatic bid for the Ivy League to the postseason.
Being an Ivy League comes with the expectation of the Bulldogs being a smart, disciplined and well-coached team. MSU head coach Brent Vigen concedes to that.
“I think you naturally assume that,” Vigen said of Yale’s reputation as a top-notch educational institution. “You flip the film on and that’s how they play. The one thing that’s clear is they believe. You don’t rattle off seven wins in a row without believing. You look at their last three, that Princeton game was 13-10 and that could’ve gone either way. That puts them in a position to be playing for the (automatic qualifier) against Harvard.
“Then to come out of halftime last week with enough belief that if we can stack a few things up, we’re right there. Well, there’s a lot of things to stack up in that game, in that second half. A lot had to go right for them.”
Saturday in Youngstown, Ohio, the Bulldogs looked completely out of gas, falling behind 35-7 at halftime to a Youngstown State squad led by the most explosive offensive player in the country in quarterback Beau Brungard.
But in a rally reminiscent of when Montana came back from down 48-21 late in the third quarter to South Dakota State in the 2009 playoffs, Yale reemerged to make history. Back in 2009, the Griz rallied for a 61-48 victory over SDSU in a game that is widely considered the greatest comeback in FCS playoffs history. That is, until Saturday.
Trailing 35-7 at halftime, 42-14 midway through the third quarter and 42-22 entering the final frame, Yale forged a comeback to remember. The Bulldogs scored 29 unanswered points in rallying for a 43-42 victory to advance to take on No. 2 Montana State.
Yale cut the deficit to 42-29 early in the fourth, then watched a long YSU drive end with a missed field goal attempt. A 72-yard drive aided by a targeting call and a 27-yard heave from Dante Reno to Lucius Anderson set up a short touchdown to cut it to 42-36. And after Youngstown went for it on its own 24-yard-line on fourth down only to come up short and turn the ball over on downs, Yale landed the deciding knockout punch. On the play right after the turnover on downs, Josh Pitsenberger ripped off a 56-yard touchdown run to put the Bulldogs up for the first and last time.
“Yale brings in a very resilient team,” Vigen said. “Those types of comebacks that they had on Saturday don’t come about for the faint of heart. So, how they got it done and how they put that together at the core had to be a ton of belief. Then making plays one play at a time both offensively and defensively.
“Awfully impressive to win that game and going back a couple weeks awfully impressive for them to beat an undefeated Harvard team to win the Ivy.”
Pitsenberger is one of the best running backs in the country. He has rushed for 1,478 yards and 18 touchdowns this season. He is the team captain. Nico Brown is the Bulldogs’ leading receiver. He had 60 catches for 978 yards and 10 scores.
“He’s 220 (pounds) and he looks all of that,” Vigen said of Pitsenberger. “The announcers kept referring to him as an NFL guy, so I’m sure those guys aren’t just making that up. He’s got that workhorse type of body and he can go, too. The long run at the end he ran away from Youngstown, so he’s got it all. He’s certainly got instincts, it’s hard for the first guy to bring him down. He’s got good patience and good acceleration all at the same time. He’s right up there with the best that we’ve seen.”
Defensively, the Bulldogs held Brungard to just 51 yards of total offense in the second half. A fumble with 2:32 left in the third quarter gave Yale the ball 37 yards from the end-zone and the momentum down 42-22.
Inumidum Ayo-Durojaiye is the leader of the Bulldog defense. He has 104 tackles to lead the Yale defense as a senior linebacker. Junior defensive end Ezekiel Larry has 10.5 sacks and 11.5 tackles for loss.
“They’re holding teams to under 20 points,” Vigen said. “Youngstown had some success, but they got the stops when they needed them. They play a lot of guys up front, and they were playing without their best defensive end Larry in that game. It was impressive how they did without him. Their linebacking crew has three of their top tacklers and they’re very active, so defensively they do some really good things, and it does start with the way they can roll guys in up front and make things difficult. We’re going to have to play well, that’s the charge this time of year is to keep upping out game.
“Beyond, I’d say, the intelligence piece, they’re a team that’s going to fight and scratch and claw,” Vigen said. “We’re going to get everything they got. I know they gotta feel like they’re playing with house money at this point, so I know we’re going to get their best shot. They’ve got ability, and they’ve got a winning attitude for sure that they’re going to bring to Bozeman.”
The win is Yale’s first in the post-season and the first by an Ivy League team since 1945. Since the FCS was founded as Division I-AA in 1978, the Ivy has participated in the subdivision but never in the playoffs. Yale beating Harvard this season helped the Bulldogs secure a share of their 19th conference title, including its 11th in the Division I-AA/FCS era. Yale claims 27 national championships, the most recent coming in 1927, among its rich and storied history. The Bulldogs have had 100 consensus All-American players and have 29 College Football Hall of Famers.
And now a historic win means Yale gets to travel from New Haven, Connecticut to take on one of the most physically intimidating teams in the West in the No. 2 Montana State Bobcats. MSU is into the second round of the playoffs thanks to a bye that the ‘Cats secured with a 31-28 victory in an instant classic over Montana in Missoula on November. That win helped Montana State sew up its third Big Sky Conference championship in the last four seasons and helped MSU clinch homefield advantage throughout the playoffs.
Tony Reno has been the head coach of Yale since 2012. He has led the Bulldogs to five Ivy League titles and has an overall record of 83-48. His son Dante Reno is the starting quarterback for the Bulldogs after transferring to Yale from South Carolina. Dante Reno has 2,300 yards passing and 20 touchdowns after throwing for 260 yards and three scores against Youngstown State.
“Success for them starts on offense,” Vigen said. “Dante Reno is a really good quarterback. He’s capable of making all the throws. Being a coach’s son I’m sure plays into his decision making in how he orchestrates their offense.
“The receiver corps is a really dynamic group, and they were without their top receiver this past Saturday in Nico Brown. A lot of ways to threaten you on offense and it starts with the quarterback.”
Through a university spokesperson, Yale coaches and players declined all interview requests from Skyline Sports this week.
Brown has 60 receptions for 978 yards and 10 touchdowns on the season. He’s joined on the flanks by Jaxton Santiago, who has 50 catches for 687 yards and five touchdowns.
Yale has lost just two games this season. The first was to Patriot League champion, and undefeated No. 5 seed Lehigh, 31-13. They lost again in their next game 17-16 to Ivy League rival Dartmouth on a 51-yard field goal as time expired.
Montana State has been to the national championship game twice since 2021 and the semifinals three times in the last four seasons. The Bobcats have 17 FCS playoff wins all-time, including eight under head coach Brent Vigen.
The Bobcats and Bulldogs will kick off their second-round game at noon at Bobcat Stadium in Bozeman.
