Bobcats, Sun Both Shine During MSU's First 2023 Spring Scrimmage

Taco Dowler

Photo by: Garrett Becker

Bobcats, Sun Both Shine During MSU's First 2023 Spring Scrimmage

4/8/2023 8:09:00 PM | Football

Montana State passing game proves productive

By: Bill Lamberty

BOZEMAN, Montana – Montana State's first football scrimmage of the spring produced one factor that pleased third-year Bobcat head coach Brent Vigen.

"The first observation is it looked like football," he said after the 90-play session that lasted a few ticks under 90 minutes. "We blocked, we tackled, made some plays."

The Bobcats threw for 319 yards on 22-for-35 passing on a sunny Saturday in Bobcat Stadium, with two touchdowns and no interceptions. Much of that came from the arms of starting quarterback Tommy Mellott (6-for-10 passing, 137 yards, one touchdown) and Jordan Reed, who earned backup honors last summer before a leg injury ended his season. Reed completed 12 of his 14 pass attempts for 153 yards and a touchdown.

"One thing walking off the field that stands out is that we threw the ball well," Vigen said, "in particular with Tommy and Jordan Reed. On the other end of those throws Taco had a couple big plays, Ty McCullouch had a couple."

MSU's pass game impacted the scrimmage almost immediately. On the day's third day, a third-and-seven from the 28-yard line, Mellott found Taco Dowler open on an intermediate route, and the sophomore scampered about 50 yards for the touchdown. He also caught passes of 32, 25 and 16 yards, finishing with 145 yards on four catches. McCullouch, a Colorado State transfer, caught a 35-yard touchdown from Reed, and also a 16-yarder. Eight different players caught multiple passes.

Vigen liked what he saw from his quarterbacks, particularly Mellott and Reed. "I think both of them really delivered the ball on the money. I'm talking a handful of plays, but there were some impressive balls by both of them. They got the ball down the field a little bit."

Mellott's presence as a third-year starter anchors the Bobcat offense, but Vigen said he has plenty to work on. "Standing in the pocket, for Tommy as he goes through the spring and is not live (for tackling), is an emphasis not to take off and run. His pocket awareness and ability to hang in there is continuing to improve. We're doing a lot of things to work on that. The long touchdown to Taco was a play that he stood in there until the last moment and got the ball out."

Several Bobcat defenders made impact plays during the scrimmage. Brody Grebe, Kenneth Eiden IV, Danny Uluilakepa, Ryan Krahe, Nick Korom, Jace Fitzgerald and Eli Aby all recorded sacks, and Aby posted two other tackles-for-loss. While Vigen opted not to single out individuals, the team element that showed on Saturday pleased him.

"Today's a day where defensively I'd probably be remiss to throw names out at this point," he said. "We've got to play together on that side of the football, we've got to sacrifice player gap, all that stuff, and I thought a lot of runs were bottled up. That's because the guys up front are doing their job, the second level guys, linebackers and safeties, are filling in the right positions. And that's with a lot of guys that haven't played a lot on Saturdays out there. We certainly have some really good returners, but on defense it's so much about guys that haven't seen the field that will continue to fortify our depth and challenge for starting positions."

The Bobcats return to practice on Tuesday and Thursday, with another closed scrimmage set for next Saturday. The Sonny Holland Spring Classic closes the session on April 22.

RUSHING: Elijah Elliott 12-57-0, Jared White 13-53-0, Chance Wilson 8-38-0, Garrett Coon 6-22-0, Marqui Johnson 8-7-0, Jordan Reed 2- -3-0, Tommy Mellott 1- -11-0, Sean Austin 2- -4-0.
PASSING: Tommy Mellott 6-10-0, 137, 1; Jordan Reed 12-14-0, 153, 1; Luke Abshire 2-3-0, 18, 0; Chane Wilson 2-4-0, 11, 0; Sean Austin 0-4-0.
RECEIVING: Taco Dowler 4-145-1, Clevan Thomas Jr. 2-6-0, Derryk Snell 2-15-0, Ty McCullouch 2-51-1, Christian Anaya 2-16-0, Aidan Garrigan 2-18-0, Elijah Reynolds 3-42-0, Elijah Elliott 1-6-0, Jared White 2-10-0, Noah Smith 1-10-0.

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