Photo by: Garrett Becker
GAME #1: Bobcats End Long Football Layoff While Renewing Ancient Rivalry
8/31/2021 2:13:00 PM | Football
Montana State plays its first football game in nearly two years, while debuts as MSU's coach in his former home stadium
BOZEMAN, Montana – Six hundred twenty three days.
That's the time that will have elapsed between Montana State football games when the Bobcats line up on Jonah Field at War Memorial Stadium in Laramie, Wyoming, for the opening kickoff of Saturday's2021 season opener against the Wyoming Cowboys. MSU head coach Brent Vigen has been in Bozeman for less than one-third of that time, but he is acutely aware of how ready his team is to play a game.
"It's a long time coming," said Vigen, who leads the Cats into action for the first time on Saturday, "and our guys are the ones that have waited a long time. Us as coaches, it's certainly not about us, we're excited for our guys to go play, excited for the preparation, and excited about the opportunity in front of us."
The layoff that ends Saturday certainly isn't the longest in school history. That occurred during World War II, ending when the Cats lined up on Gatton Field to play BYU on September 28, 1946. The passage of 1,771 days and the world order as it had previously been known marked the time since Montana State lost to Idaho on November 22, 1941. The program also endured a lost season in 1918 due to a global influenza outbreak, and was suspended by the school's faculty in 1906 and 1907.
Adding another twist to an already poignant game is Vigen's status. He coached at Wyoming from 2014-2020, and with current Cowboys coach Craig Bohl from 2003 until last February.
Leading a team after such a long layoff into a game against the school he left just six months ago, Vigen said, is a distinct opportunity. "It's unique for me in my career. We've played people that I've coached with or some of those ideas have overlapped from time to time, but as far as this situation it is extremely unique. The schemes aside, the knowledge of the (opposing) players as individuals, the talent, the ability, is something that whether it's helpful or not we'll try to utilize to the best of our ability. Conversely, they'll have a good sense for what we are schematically. We just have to get our guys out there and let them play and get after it as hard as they can."
While the layoff is not without precedent, the amount of continuity from one side of it to the other is. The Bobcats benefit from eight returning starters on offense and five on defense, including at least one preseason All-America on each side of the ball. Montana State's offense is led by an experienced offensive line, running back Isaiah Ifanse and his 1,838 career rushing yards, and athletic quarterback Matthew McKay who transferred from North Carolina State a year ago. Defensively, All-Big Sky tackle Chase Benson and All-America linebacker Troy Andersen pace the team.
A two-year starting tight end at North Dakota State during his playing career, Vigen remained at NDSU to begin his coaching career as a graduate assistant in 1999. He became tight ends coach in 2001 and quarterbacks coach in 2002. When head coach Bob Babich departed prior to the 2003 campaign, new head coach Craig Bohl retained Vigen as running backs coach. That began an 18-year span coaching together, including 11 years transitioning NDSU from an NCAA Division II power into a Division I FCS dynasty. That portion of their professional relationship ended when Vigen accepted the job as Montana State's head coach in February.
Vigen said he has learned much from Bohl. "Relative to this matchup, (what's important is) making it about the guys. (Bohl has) done a great job of that over the years, getting our players ready to go and not becoming the focal point of much of anything. A prepared team is the one that has the chance to win, the one that has the best chance to be in the game in the fourth quarter."
Vigen is plenty familiar with Wyoming after his time as that school's offensive coordinator for seven years, and he's also plenty impressed. "Certainly experience," he said when asked about Wyoming's strengths, that's the first one. Any of the positions across the board with maybe the exception of punter have all played in games. They've played a ton of football, and they have depth because of that experience, that would be the first thing. Offensively from a running perspective Xazavian Valladay's a tremendous back but there's a couple guys behind them, Trey Smith, Titus Swen. They can run a few guys at you, and the quarterbacks can run. Their O-line, I think the experience there speaks for itself."
"Defensively it'll be interesting. A lot of the guys up front didn't play last year. I know when I was there obviously we were thin up front but those guys that played did a tremendous job, and when you add the guys that didn't play last year I think the front seven in particular will be very fine." Linebacker Chad Muma enters 2021 on the Preseason Butkus Award Watch List for the nation's top linebacker, while Valladay is on the Doak Walker list as the top running back.
From the time long before the game shaking hands with Bohl and the others he coached with at Wyoming to the moments before exiting the stadium he called home for seven years, sharing hugs with players he coached and perhaps recruited to Laramie, Vigen said he will undoubtedly feel emotion not associated with most football games. But he learned from Bohl, and through personal experience, that none of that matters.
"It'll be different," but it's not about me. It's about Montana State right now, and it's about putting our team out there and giving it the best chance."
While Vigen's relationship with the Wyoming program is fresh, Montana State's relationship with the Cowboys is long-standing, if somewhat off-and-on. The first meeting between the two schools in 1919 at Casper High School ended Montana State's year of dormancy due to the Great War and the influenza pandemic. The Cats were transitioning the Rocky Mountain Conference at the time, Wyoming's home league, and over the next 31 years the teams met 17 times. Those games took place in eight different stadiums, including two in Bozeman and two in Laramie, spread across five different towns. The finale in that run, a 61-13 beatdown by one of the best Cowboys teams ever in 1950, opened that school's current home, War Memorial Stadium.
In the last 70 years, the teams have met only twice. And while the programs have landed at different levels – Wyoming in the FBS Group of Five Mountain West Conference, MSU in the Division I FCS Big Sky – those contests have been close. Wyoming won 21-10 in 2003, and edged the Cats 17-9 in 1998. In all, the Cowboys lead the series 13-6, 6-3 in Laramie and 3-0 in War Memorial Stadium.
Kickoff is 2 pm Saturday. The game is not televised, but it streams live on gowyo.com, the Wyoming Athletics and Wyoming Football Facebook pages, and the Mountain West Conference digital network as themw.com/watch.
#GoCatsGo
That's the time that will have elapsed between Montana State football games when the Bobcats line up on Jonah Field at War Memorial Stadium in Laramie, Wyoming, for the opening kickoff of Saturday's2021 season opener against the Wyoming Cowboys. MSU head coach Brent Vigen has been in Bozeman for less than one-third of that time, but he is acutely aware of how ready his team is to play a game.
"It's a long time coming," said Vigen, who leads the Cats into action for the first time on Saturday, "and our guys are the ones that have waited a long time. Us as coaches, it's certainly not about us, we're excited for our guys to go play, excited for the preparation, and excited about the opportunity in front of us."
The layoff that ends Saturday certainly isn't the longest in school history. That occurred during World War II, ending when the Cats lined up on Gatton Field to play BYU on September 28, 1946. The passage of 1,771 days and the world order as it had previously been known marked the time since Montana State lost to Idaho on November 22, 1941. The program also endured a lost season in 1918 due to a global influenza outbreak, and was suspended by the school's faculty in 1906 and 1907.
Adding another twist to an already poignant game is Vigen's status. He coached at Wyoming from 2014-2020, and with current Cowboys coach Craig Bohl from 2003 until last February.
Leading a team after such a long layoff into a game against the school he left just six months ago, Vigen said, is a distinct opportunity. "It's unique for me in my career. We've played people that I've coached with or some of those ideas have overlapped from time to time, but as far as this situation it is extremely unique. The schemes aside, the knowledge of the (opposing) players as individuals, the talent, the ability, is something that whether it's helpful or not we'll try to utilize to the best of our ability. Conversely, they'll have a good sense for what we are schematically. We just have to get our guys out there and let them play and get after it as hard as they can."
While the layoff is not without precedent, the amount of continuity from one side of it to the other is. The Bobcats benefit from eight returning starters on offense and five on defense, including at least one preseason All-America on each side of the ball. Montana State's offense is led by an experienced offensive line, running back Isaiah Ifanse and his 1,838 career rushing yards, and athletic quarterback Matthew McKay who transferred from North Carolina State a year ago. Defensively, All-Big Sky tackle Chase Benson and All-America linebacker Troy Andersen pace the team.
A two-year starting tight end at North Dakota State during his playing career, Vigen remained at NDSU to begin his coaching career as a graduate assistant in 1999. He became tight ends coach in 2001 and quarterbacks coach in 2002. When head coach Bob Babich departed prior to the 2003 campaign, new head coach Craig Bohl retained Vigen as running backs coach. That began an 18-year span coaching together, including 11 years transitioning NDSU from an NCAA Division II power into a Division I FCS dynasty. That portion of their professional relationship ended when Vigen accepted the job as Montana State's head coach in February.
Vigen said he has learned much from Bohl. "Relative to this matchup, (what's important is) making it about the guys. (Bohl has) done a great job of that over the years, getting our players ready to go and not becoming the focal point of much of anything. A prepared team is the one that has the chance to win, the one that has the best chance to be in the game in the fourth quarter."
Vigen is plenty familiar with Wyoming after his time as that school's offensive coordinator for seven years, and he's also plenty impressed. "Certainly experience," he said when asked about Wyoming's strengths, that's the first one. Any of the positions across the board with maybe the exception of punter have all played in games. They've played a ton of football, and they have depth because of that experience, that would be the first thing. Offensively from a running perspective Xazavian Valladay's a tremendous back but there's a couple guys behind them, Trey Smith, Titus Swen. They can run a few guys at you, and the quarterbacks can run. Their O-line, I think the experience there speaks for itself."
"Defensively it'll be interesting. A lot of the guys up front didn't play last year. I know when I was there obviously we were thin up front but those guys that played did a tremendous job, and when you add the guys that didn't play last year I think the front seven in particular will be very fine." Linebacker Chad Muma enters 2021 on the Preseason Butkus Award Watch List for the nation's top linebacker, while Valladay is on the Doak Walker list as the top running back.
From the time long before the game shaking hands with Bohl and the others he coached with at Wyoming to the moments before exiting the stadium he called home for seven years, sharing hugs with players he coached and perhaps recruited to Laramie, Vigen said he will undoubtedly feel emotion not associated with most football games. But he learned from Bohl, and through personal experience, that none of that matters.
"It'll be different," but it's not about me. It's about Montana State right now, and it's about putting our team out there and giving it the best chance."
While Vigen's relationship with the Wyoming program is fresh, Montana State's relationship with the Cowboys is long-standing, if somewhat off-and-on. The first meeting between the two schools in 1919 at Casper High School ended Montana State's year of dormancy due to the Great War and the influenza pandemic. The Cats were transitioning the Rocky Mountain Conference at the time, Wyoming's home league, and over the next 31 years the teams met 17 times. Those games took place in eight different stadiums, including two in Bozeman and two in Laramie, spread across five different towns. The finale in that run, a 61-13 beatdown by one of the best Cowboys teams ever in 1950, opened that school's current home, War Memorial Stadium.
In the last 70 years, the teams have met only twice. And while the programs have landed at different levels – Wyoming in the FBS Group of Five Mountain West Conference, MSU in the Division I FCS Big Sky – those contests have been close. Wyoming won 21-10 in 2003, and edged the Cats 17-9 in 1998. In all, the Cowboys lead the series 13-6, 6-3 in Laramie and 3-0 in War Memorial Stadium.
Kickoff is 2 pm Saturday. The game is not televised, but it streams live on gowyo.com, the Wyoming Athletics and Wyoming Football Facebook pages, and the Mountain West Conference digital network as themw.com/watch.
#GoCatsGo
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