Photo by: Kelly Gorham
GAME #7: Bobcats Host Powerful Vandals in Strength-on-Strength Showdown
10/11/2024 7:51:00 AM | Football
Montana State hosts showdown of top 10 teams on ESPN2
BOZEMAN, Montana – Brent Vigen hears the noise and acknowledges the hype surrounding No. 7/8 ranked Idaho's visit to Bobcat Stadium Saturday night to face his third-ranked Montana State team in a game televised nationally on ESPN2. He understands the game's significance.
But to him it all comes back to a couple of key points. "Consistency in preparation," he cites as the key to every game week regardless of the opponent, then he puts his finger on the heartbeat of the Bobcat program. "It all starts with line of scrimmage play," he says. "It all comes back to that."
It's strength on strength in Bobcat Stadium beginning with kickoff at 8:20 pm Saturday, when Montana State's Big Sky-leading ground game runs into the FCS' ninth-ranked rushing defense. The Cats have led the Big Sky in rushing throughout Vigen's four seasons at MSU, including this year's 303.5 yards per game. That is the second-most in the FCS entering the weekend, and the team is led by a tandem of young running backs, sophomore Scottre Humphrey (111.3 yards per game) and freshman Adam Jones (73.0).
The Vandals counter with a staunch run defense led by Jaxton Eck, head coach Jason Eck's son. The Vandals allow only 93.3 yards and just over six first downs a game on the ground. Jaxton Eck leads the team with 45 tackles, and is reigning Big Sky Conference Defensive Player of the Week. "Defensively you just look at their numbers," Vigen said. "They've given up less than 20 points a game, less than 100 yards rushing per game, I think they've got 19 sacks. So they've made it really hard on opposing offenses to run the ball first."
Stifling opposing ground games, though, funnels the action into the team's strength. "When they've gotten into those passing situations they really get after the quarterback," Vigen said. "Keyshawn James-Newby in particular has eight sacks to this point, and he's been an absolute menace on third down in particular. What you see on defense is they fly to the football. They're very principled, they're generally in the right place, and they play with great effort."
James-Newby's 7.5 sacks and six quarterback hurries has terrorized opposing offenses this season, creating more urgency than usual to stay out of passing situations. "We have to be good on first down," Vigen said. "We got off to a poor start (at Idaho) last year, we went three-and-out on our first three possessions. We have to be better in those situations."
While the ground game garners much of the attention when examining MSU's offense, the Bobcats have benefited from an efficient passing attack. Quarterback Tommy Mellott completes 68.4 percent of his passes, the 13th-best mark in the FCS, throwing for 1,058 yards in the season's first six games. The Bobcats' quest for offensive balance has led it to rely slightly less on the quarterback run game, with Mellott carrying around six times a game fewer than the previous two seasons.
Idaho's offense has pivoted to Jack Wagner at quarterback after a game one injury to starter Jack Layne. Wagner throws for 117.2 yards a game with seven touchdowns and three interceptions. Vigen says whoever operates the offense from behind center benefits from a talented offensive line and sold ground game.
"They're playing three quarterbacks at this point," Vigen said. "I know Wagner and (Nick) Josifek are playing (now), and they're both doing a good job. They were the two and three (on the depth chart) coming into the season but they've both stepped in and allowed the offense to continue to move. They've got a couple running backs that really do a good job complementing each other, and Jordan Dwyer has emerged as their top receiver. But when you look at them, their offensive line has continued to improve. They were really young as you look a couple years back, and that group has continued to grow up and gain experience and get bigger and stronger."
Dwyer leads the Vandals with 27 catches, 381 receiving yards and four touchdown catches. Running backs Elisha Cummings (408 yards) and Nate Thomas (326 yards) give Idaho a balanced ground game. Montana State's defense enters Saturday's game down a couple of starters. Vigen indicated that nose tackle Blake Schmidt has been lost due to a knee injury, and that safety Caden Dowler may be unavailable, as well. Dru Polidore is expected to return from a season-long injury at safety.
In sizing up the sum of the UI's component parts, Vigen sees a formidable foe. "Idaho's off to a really good start, 4-2, and they've played a challenging schedule to this point. They've found a way to win, they've found a way to hang on. They're a team overall that has the right attitude, they play the game the right way, they're well-coached, they don't put themselves in bad positions, they play complementary football. It's going to take a really good effort from us on Saturday."
While Idaho is "a program that is certainly at the top of our league, a program that has been very consistent with their effort week in and week out over the last couple of years" and has "our full respect," Vigen said, his team isn't in uncharted territory. Montana State hosts its seventh top 10-ranked opponent in Bobcat Stadium in the last four seasons when the Vandals come calling Saturday, but only the second in the regular season.
Montana State and the Vandals share history of playing big games, as well. The Cats have faced 10 nationally-ranked Idaho squads in the Division I era (since 1978), winning two of those. The 1995 Bobcats topped 24th-ranked Idaho 16-13 in Bozeman, but two years earlier upended No. 1 Idaho 40-35 in possibly Cliff Hysell's biggest win as MSU's head coach. The teams met last year in Moscow with each team ranked in the top 10, and No. 9 Idaho beat second-ranked MSU 24-21.
Vigen looks forward to an electric atmosphere after dark in Bobcat Stadium on Saturday. "We're looking forward to playing this game at night," he said. "We had 22,000 plus this last week, but we need 22,000 plus that's in it for the long haul this week. We've played three home games this year when we've been ahead considerably, but we need our fans to be into it and make a difference come Saturday. I urge them all to be there, students and fans alike."
#GoCatsGo
But to him it all comes back to a couple of key points. "Consistency in preparation," he cites as the key to every game week regardless of the opponent, then he puts his finger on the heartbeat of the Bobcat program. "It all starts with line of scrimmage play," he says. "It all comes back to that."
It's strength on strength in Bobcat Stadium beginning with kickoff at 8:20 pm Saturday, when Montana State's Big Sky-leading ground game runs into the FCS' ninth-ranked rushing defense. The Cats have led the Big Sky in rushing throughout Vigen's four seasons at MSU, including this year's 303.5 yards per game. That is the second-most in the FCS entering the weekend, and the team is led by a tandem of young running backs, sophomore Scottre Humphrey (111.3 yards per game) and freshman Adam Jones (73.0).
The Vandals counter with a staunch run defense led by Jaxton Eck, head coach Jason Eck's son. The Vandals allow only 93.3 yards and just over six first downs a game on the ground. Jaxton Eck leads the team with 45 tackles, and is reigning Big Sky Conference Defensive Player of the Week. "Defensively you just look at their numbers," Vigen said. "They've given up less than 20 points a game, less than 100 yards rushing per game, I think they've got 19 sacks. So they've made it really hard on opposing offenses to run the ball first."
Stifling opposing ground games, though, funnels the action into the team's strength. "When they've gotten into those passing situations they really get after the quarterback," Vigen said. "Keyshawn James-Newby in particular has eight sacks to this point, and he's been an absolute menace on third down in particular. What you see on defense is they fly to the football. They're very principled, they're generally in the right place, and they play with great effort."
James-Newby's 7.5 sacks and six quarterback hurries has terrorized opposing offenses this season, creating more urgency than usual to stay out of passing situations. "We have to be good on first down," Vigen said. "We got off to a poor start (at Idaho) last year, we went three-and-out on our first three possessions. We have to be better in those situations."
While the ground game garners much of the attention when examining MSU's offense, the Bobcats have benefited from an efficient passing attack. Quarterback Tommy Mellott completes 68.4 percent of his passes, the 13th-best mark in the FCS, throwing for 1,058 yards in the season's first six games. The Bobcats' quest for offensive balance has led it to rely slightly less on the quarterback run game, with Mellott carrying around six times a game fewer than the previous two seasons.
Idaho's offense has pivoted to Jack Wagner at quarterback after a game one injury to starter Jack Layne. Wagner throws for 117.2 yards a game with seven touchdowns and three interceptions. Vigen says whoever operates the offense from behind center benefits from a talented offensive line and sold ground game.
"They're playing three quarterbacks at this point," Vigen said. "I know Wagner and (Nick) Josifek are playing (now), and they're both doing a good job. They were the two and three (on the depth chart) coming into the season but they've both stepped in and allowed the offense to continue to move. They've got a couple running backs that really do a good job complementing each other, and Jordan Dwyer has emerged as their top receiver. But when you look at them, their offensive line has continued to improve. They were really young as you look a couple years back, and that group has continued to grow up and gain experience and get bigger and stronger."
Dwyer leads the Vandals with 27 catches, 381 receiving yards and four touchdown catches. Running backs Elisha Cummings (408 yards) and Nate Thomas (326 yards) give Idaho a balanced ground game. Montana State's defense enters Saturday's game down a couple of starters. Vigen indicated that nose tackle Blake Schmidt has been lost due to a knee injury, and that safety Caden Dowler may be unavailable, as well. Dru Polidore is expected to return from a season-long injury at safety.
In sizing up the sum of the UI's component parts, Vigen sees a formidable foe. "Idaho's off to a really good start, 4-2, and they've played a challenging schedule to this point. They've found a way to win, they've found a way to hang on. They're a team overall that has the right attitude, they play the game the right way, they're well-coached, they don't put themselves in bad positions, they play complementary football. It's going to take a really good effort from us on Saturday."
While Idaho is "a program that is certainly at the top of our league, a program that has been very consistent with their effort week in and week out over the last couple of years" and has "our full respect," Vigen said, his team isn't in uncharted territory. Montana State hosts its seventh top 10-ranked opponent in Bobcat Stadium in the last four seasons when the Vandals come calling Saturday, but only the second in the regular season.
Montana State and the Vandals share history of playing big games, as well. The Cats have faced 10 nationally-ranked Idaho squads in the Division I era (since 1978), winning two of those. The 1995 Bobcats topped 24th-ranked Idaho 16-13 in Bozeman, but two years earlier upended No. 1 Idaho 40-35 in possibly Cliff Hysell's biggest win as MSU's head coach. The teams met last year in Moscow with each team ranked in the top 10, and No. 9 Idaho beat second-ranked MSU 24-21.
Vigen looks forward to an electric atmosphere after dark in Bobcat Stadium on Saturday. "We're looking forward to playing this game at night," he said. "We had 22,000 plus this last week, but we need 22,000 plus that's in it for the long haul this week. We've played three home games this year when we've been ahead considerably, but we need our fans to be into it and make a difference come Saturday. I urge them all to be there, students and fans alike."
#GoCatsGo
Players Mentioned
S/N
/ Football
RB
/ Football
RB
/ Football
QB
/ Football
S
/ Football
DL
/ FootballLeon Costello Press Conference: Kennedy-Stark Athletic Center
Thursday, July 31
A Conversation with President Dr. Waded Cruzado | Montana State Athletics
Monday, May 19
Big Cats, Little Trucks - Willie Patterson
Wednesday, May 03
Matt Houk Introductory Press Conference
Wednesday, May 03
