BOZEMAN, Montana – Montana State makes its first road trip of the 2022 football season Saturday when the Bobcats play Oregon State in Portland. Kickoff is 6 pm MT in Providence Park.
MSU's first football game against the Beavers comes on the heels of two decisive home victories. The Cats outscored their first two foes 103-30. On the West Coast, Oregon State earned wins against Boise State (34-17 at home) and Fresno State (a 35-32 walkoff road win, eschewing a tying field goal on the game's last play).
Second-year Bobcat coach Brent Vigen sees plenty that impresses him with OSU. "(The Beavers) have a good plan," he said. "They have systems in place as a staff that work well. They look more and more comfortable every game."
Oregon State is 2-0 for the first time since 2014, and the road win at Fresno State was the program's first non-league victory away from Corvallis since 2014. OSU's last game in Portland was a 1986 game against UCLA in Civic Stadium (now Providence Park).
Chance Nolan leads the Beavers offense. He's thrown for 470 yards in OSU's two games, rushing for 19 more. He has three touchdowns with two interceptions. Deshaun Fenwick has rushed for 141 yards in two games, including 102 yards against Fresno State. He scored a touchdown in both games. Defensively, Kyrei Fisher-Morris' 18 tackles, 2.5 for a loss, pace the Beavers. Kitan Oladapo has logged 16 tackles with 1.5 for a loss and 1.0 sacks. Alex Austin, Jaydon Grant and Rejzohn Wright have each intercepted passes.
Vigen labeled last week important in terms of his team capitalizing on the opportunity for improvement from the season's first game to its second. The results satisfied him.
"I was pleased with our week one to week two improvement," he said. "I think our guys took that challenge to heart on Saturday, getting 21 points on the board before we even knew what happened."
Starting quarterback Tommy Mellott threw for a career high 265 yards, an effort punctuated by Sean Chambers' 127 rushing yards. Those two led the way in the wake of MSU's tumultuous situation at running back. Entering the game with the top three running backs out of action, freshman Jared White was lost late in the first quarter. Portland product Elijah Elliott is slated to start this week, with redshirt freshman Garrett Coon available for the first time this season.
While Vigen said his team leans on the "next man up" mentality to deal with situations such as the running back situation arise, he knows one thing about Montana State's game at Oregon State. "I think this game will continue to sharpen our sword."
#GoCatsGo
