Saturday, October 14
BOZEMAN
6 pm
Montana State University
5-1 , 3-0
59
vs
19
Cal Poly
2-5 , 0-4
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
F
Cal Poly
6
7
6
0
19
Montana St.
21
17
7
14
59
Sean Chambers rambled 64 yards for a touchdown
Photo by: Garrett Becker
BOBCAT REWIND: Quotes and Notes from Montana State's 59-19 Win Over Cal Poly
10/14/2023 11:58:00 PM | Football
BOZEMAN, Montana – Montana State rolled up 578 yards of total offense, returned one punt for a touchdown and blocked another that led to a field goal, beating Cal Poly 59-19 in Bozeman on Saturday night.
Montana State's offensive explosion marked the return of quarterback Tommy Mellott, who hadn't played since an injury suffered in the second game of the season at South Dakota State. The junior completed seven of his nine passes for 92 yards and two touchdowns, connecting with Derryk Snell on a 12-yard pass early in the second quarter and Jared White later in that period from 17 yards out. White's catch was a spectacular back-of-the-end-zone snag. The Cats led 38-13 at halftime.
"I think there was plenty of good," Bobcat coach Brent Vigen said, "plenty of big plays made by a lot of different guys, offense, defense and special teams. I know what we're after and at times it maybe didn't look like we wanted it to, but I appreciate the effort by our team."
Sean Chambers, who led the Bobcats to wins in the three games Mellott missed, ran for 91 yards and three touchdowns on four carries while throwing for 151 yards on 7-for-15 passing. Jared White rushed for 93 yards on 14 carries, while Ty McCullouch caught four passes for 119 yards.
"I thought he looked like a quarterback out there considering he's been out five weeks," Vigen said. "I thought when he was out there he functioned really well and at the same time we were able to keep it somewhat limited in terms of the situations we put him in. But that was a step for us in his return, and I thought it went well."
Cal Poly answered McCullouch's punt return touchdown with a touchdown pass from Sam Huard to Giancarlo Woods, but Rylan Ortt blocked the extra point and MSU never trailed. Chambers scored from eight yards out on MSU's next possession, then dashed 64 yards just over two minutes later. Mellott then threw a couple of touchdown passes, sandwiched around Brendan Hall's 44-yard field goal.
Montana State led 38-13 at halftime, and controlled the game throughout. Montana State's defense held the Mustangs to 306 total yards and 15 first downs. Ben Seymour and Blake Schmidt each logged sacks for the Bobcats, who had five other tackles behind the line of scrimmage, as well.
Montana State raises its record to 5-1 on the season, 3-0 in Big Sky play, while Cal Poly is 2-5, 0-4. Montana State visits Sacramento State for a top-five showdown next Saturday at 8:30 pm MT.
QUOTES FROM BOBCAT COACH BRENT VIGEN
On Sean Chambers: "He only carried it four times, but all kinds of production. Obviously there was the big long run in there, and I thought he did somereally good things in the downfield passing game, and then he missed a few throws as well. With him we have big-play ability, I know we do with Tommy as well, and now that we have them both back healthy we can shift gears a little bit as we move forward. It was a good effort by both them. That's what we needed, we needed the quarterback play to be good."
On Tommy Mellott: "He's a guy that can run away from people. They had nine guys or eight guys down in the box consistently, so you're leaving Ty matched up one-on-one. We got him behind the defense a couple times, we got him running across the field away from the defense a couple times. He's got that extra gear and it was great to see him make that last one in particular because that was a contested catch. I was pleased to get a more out of him both on the receiving side of things and with the big punt return to get things going."
On MSU's special teams: "On special teams, the punt return game was all over the map. We return one for a touchdown, we block another one, but we couldn't field a whole bunch of them at the same time. You like to say you take the good with the bad, but we can't do that. We can't have a turnover on a punt return."
QUOTES FROM TY McCULLOUCH
On the big game as a receiver: "Coach House (Taylor Housewright, MSU's offensive coordinator) and Coach (Justin) Udy, the whole offensive staff, prepared us so well this week. We expected a lot of one man, cover three looks, which is great for one-on-one matchups. We knew this week if we were going to do something it's now. I'm glad we were able to execute the way we did and we got to spread the ball out a lot so I'm happy for everyone."
On catching the deep ball: "I was a bit antsy, it probably showed the way I was playing, but it was very exciting."
On the punt return touchdown: "I'd just fumbled the Z around on the first play and I was still upset with myself. I just said, 'I'm going to take this no matter what and score.' Thankfuly I did. It was very exciting."
BOBCAT NOTEBOOK
* Montana State won its 24th consecutive home game, extending its school record and the longest streak in Division I football
* The sellout crowd of 21,997 extended the program's string of regular season sellouts to 18
* The victory was Montana State 200th in Reno H. Sales/Bobcat Stadium since the structure opened in 1973
* Ty McCullouch's punt return for a touchdown was MSU's first this season
* Sean Chambers has six runs of at least 25 yards this season, two longer than 60
* The Cats averaged 9.8 yards per play on Saturday
* MSU has rushed for at least 300 yards in four straight games and five of this season's six outings
#GoCatsGo
Montana State's offensive explosion marked the return of quarterback Tommy Mellott, who hadn't played since an injury suffered in the second game of the season at South Dakota State. The junior completed seven of his nine passes for 92 yards and two touchdowns, connecting with Derryk Snell on a 12-yard pass early in the second quarter and Jared White later in that period from 17 yards out. White's catch was a spectacular back-of-the-end-zone snag. The Cats led 38-13 at halftime.
"I think there was plenty of good," Bobcat coach Brent Vigen said, "plenty of big plays made by a lot of different guys, offense, defense and special teams. I know what we're after and at times it maybe didn't look like we wanted it to, but I appreciate the effort by our team."
Sean Chambers, who led the Bobcats to wins in the three games Mellott missed, ran for 91 yards and three touchdowns on four carries while throwing for 151 yards on 7-for-15 passing. Jared White rushed for 93 yards on 14 carries, while Ty McCullouch caught four passes for 119 yards.
"I thought he looked like a quarterback out there considering he's been out five weeks," Vigen said. "I thought when he was out there he functioned really well and at the same time we were able to keep it somewhat limited in terms of the situations we put him in. But that was a step for us in his return, and I thought it went well."
Cal Poly answered McCullouch's punt return touchdown with a touchdown pass from Sam Huard to Giancarlo Woods, but Rylan Ortt blocked the extra point and MSU never trailed. Chambers scored from eight yards out on MSU's next possession, then dashed 64 yards just over two minutes later. Mellott then threw a couple of touchdown passes, sandwiched around Brendan Hall's 44-yard field goal.
Montana State led 38-13 at halftime, and controlled the game throughout. Montana State's defense held the Mustangs to 306 total yards and 15 first downs. Ben Seymour and Blake Schmidt each logged sacks for the Bobcats, who had five other tackles behind the line of scrimmage, as well.
Montana State raises its record to 5-1 on the season, 3-0 in Big Sky play, while Cal Poly is 2-5, 0-4. Montana State visits Sacramento State for a top-five showdown next Saturday at 8:30 pm MT.
QUOTES FROM BOBCAT COACH BRENT VIGEN
On Sean Chambers: "He only carried it four times, but all kinds of production. Obviously there was the big long run in there, and I thought he did somereally good things in the downfield passing game, and then he missed a few throws as well. With him we have big-play ability, I know we do with Tommy as well, and now that we have them both back healthy we can shift gears a little bit as we move forward. It was a good effort by both them. That's what we needed, we needed the quarterback play to be good."
On Tommy Mellott: "He's a guy that can run away from people. They had nine guys or eight guys down in the box consistently, so you're leaving Ty matched up one-on-one. We got him behind the defense a couple times, we got him running across the field away from the defense a couple times. He's got that extra gear and it was great to see him make that last one in particular because that was a contested catch. I was pleased to get a more out of him both on the receiving side of things and with the big punt return to get things going."
On MSU's special teams: "On special teams, the punt return game was all over the map. We return one for a touchdown, we block another one, but we couldn't field a whole bunch of them at the same time. You like to say you take the good with the bad, but we can't do that. We can't have a turnover on a punt return."
QUOTES FROM TY McCULLOUCH
On the big game as a receiver: "Coach House (Taylor Housewright, MSU's offensive coordinator) and Coach (Justin) Udy, the whole offensive staff, prepared us so well this week. We expected a lot of one man, cover three looks, which is great for one-on-one matchups. We knew this week if we were going to do something it's now. I'm glad we were able to execute the way we did and we got to spread the ball out a lot so I'm happy for everyone."
On catching the deep ball: "I was a bit antsy, it probably showed the way I was playing, but it was very exciting."
On the punt return touchdown: "I'd just fumbled the Z around on the first play and I was still upset with myself. I just said, 'I'm going to take this no matter what and score.' Thankfuly I did. It was very exciting."
BOBCAT NOTEBOOK
* Montana State won its 24th consecutive home game, extending its school record and the longest streak in Division I football
* The sellout crowd of 21,997 extended the program's string of regular season sellouts to 18
* The victory was Montana State 200th in Reno H. Sales/Bobcat Stadium since the structure opened in 1973
* Ty McCullouch's punt return for a touchdown was MSU's first this season
* Sean Chambers has six runs of at least 25 yards this season, two longer than 60
* The Cats averaged 9.8 yards per play on Saturday
* MSU has rushed for at least 300 yards in four straight games and five of this season's six outings
#GoCatsGo
Team Stats
CPM
MSU
Total Yards
306
578
Pass Yards
233
243
Rushing Yards
73
335
Penalty Yards
50
55
1st Downs
15
25
3rd Downs
1
2
4th Downs
1
0
TOP
31:12
28:48
1st Quarter
CPM 0, MSU 7
MSU - McCullouch,Ty 65 yd punt return (Hall,Brendan kick)
CPM 6, MSU 7
CPM - Woods,Giancarlo 16 yd pass from Huard,Sam () 5 plays, 36 yards, TOP 01:32
CPM 6, MSU 14
MSU - Chambers,Sean 8 yd run (Hall,Brendan kick), 5 plays, 55 yards, TOP 02:15
CPM 6, MSU 21
MSU - Chambers,Sean 64 yd run (Hall,Brendan kick), 2 plays, 69 yards, TOP 00:39
2nd Quarter
CPM 6, MSU 28
MSU - Snell,Derryk 12 yd pass from Mellott,Tommy (Hall,Brendan kick) 6 plays, 84 yards, TOP 03:07
CPM 6, MSU 31
MSU - Hall,Brendan 44 yd field goal 4 plays, 3 yards, TOP 01:05
CPM 13, MSU 31
CPM - Burkhart,Evan 41 yd pass from Huard,Sam (Serna,Noah kick) 4 plays, 60 yards, TOP 02:10
CPM 13, MSU 38
MSU - White,Jared 17 yd pass from Mellott,Tommy (Hall,Brendan kick) 6 plays, 87 yards, TOP 02:03
3rd Quarter
CPM 19, MSU 38
CPM - Fairly-Diyem,Tyrece 23 yd pass from Huard,Sam () 8 plays, 65 yards, TOP 02:51
CPM 19, MSU 45
MSU - Chambers,Sean 9 yd run (Hall,Brendan kick), 8 plays, 76 yards, TOP 03:13
4th Quarter
CPM 19, MSU 52
MSU - Elliott,Elijah 10 yd run (Hall,Brendan kick), 10 plays, 76 yards, TOP 05:58
CPM 19, MSU 59
MSU - Jones,Adam 49 yd run (Hall,Brendan kick), 3 plays, 60 yards, TOP 01:48
Game Leaders
CMP
7
TD
0
YDS
151
INT
0
CMP
7
TD
2
YDS
92
INT
0
Players Mentioned
QB
/ Football
P/K
/ Football
WR
/ FootballQB
/ Football
DB
/ Football
DL
/ Football
DE
/ Football
TE
/ Football
RB
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