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Dec. 25—Montana State coach Brent Vigen wasn’t completely on board Saturday with comparisons between his current 15-0 football team and the one that surged into the 2021 FCS title game in his first season.
But he gets it.
Tommy Mellott was the quarterback both years, and the Bobcats won both their semifinal games by 31-17 scores — over South Dakota Saturday and over South Dakota State in 2021.
“We were a No. 8 seed, coming off a loss, changing quarterbacks,” Vigen said of 2021, when Mellott take over for Matthew McKay after MSU fell 26-10 in the Cat-Griz Game. “We kind of got on a run there, and I think this team — we’re just in a different place as a program.”
Mellott tended to agree. He remembered it dawning on him in 2021 after beating SDSU that he and the Bobcats were in fairly uncharted territory. Their previous trip to the FCS title game came in 1984, when they won the championship.
“We kept having crazy unrealistic plays, over and over again and we kept winning,” the senior out of Butte said. “When I sat there and finally realized we were going to the national championship, it was overwhelming.”
Now, not so much. The Cats have been in the hunt ever since, and now they’ll play Northe Dakota State for the title at 5 p.m. on Jan. 6 in Frisco, Texas.
“I think that team changed our expectations; that we can make it all the way,” Vigen said. “But I think this team is different. This team is better equipped for this time of year.”
Touchdown Tommy Time
For the second straight week Mellott had the game-breaking play. Against Idaho it was a 63-yard scramble that set up a touchdown right before halftime, giving the Cats a 31-10 lead in a game they won 52-19.
Saturday it was a 41-yard touchdown run off a fumbled snap that put the Cats up 31-14 in the third quarter.
“He made something out of a broken play,” USD coach Bob…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/fcs-notes-cats-better-equipped-140100803.html
Author : Daily Inter Lake, Kalispell, Mont.
Publish date : 2024-12-25 14:01:00
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