Montana State football has a pair of new coordinators, a new scoreboard, a new parking lot and soon-to-be-new indoor practice facility this season. But the biggest change from last season isn’t any of those things; It’s – by far – the road schedule.
A year ago, the Bobcats played five road games against five teams that were ranked in the top 10 at one time or another during the 2023 season. The first was the consensus No. 1 team all season, reigning and eventual national champion South Dakota State. Next came Weber State, a second-round FCS playoff competitor the year before. Then MSU played at Sacramento State, the three-time defending Big Sky Conference champions, a 2022 quarterfinalist and 2023 second round team. Then came an Idaho team that would narrowly lose at home in the 2023 quarterfinal. And lastly the eventual national runner-up Montana Grizzlies in Missoula.
When asked about the road schedule a year ago, Treyton Pickering and Sebastian Valdez both just shrugged and said that they couldn’t look past the first opponent (Utah Tech) as they exhibited their focus to the short-term.
To their credit, this year’s squad has been repeating the mantra of going 1-0 not just every week but with every decision they make.
“It’s just not looking ahead,” senior quarterback Tommy Mellott said. “Just day in and day out getting better. That’s what the motto is going to be this year.”
“It’s taking things where your feet are,” senior linebacker Danny Uluilakepa said. “Just going day by day. We’re not focused on the end. We’re focused on what’s coming up.”
The last two weeks of the 2023 season have played big a role in keeping the players focused.
“I just feel like everyone is hungry,” Uluilakepa said, referring to the collective mentality of the Bobcats after ending 2024 with consecutive losses to UM and North Dakota State. “Everybody was ready to get back into the weight room, everybody was ready to get back to spring ball. I feel like the tensions are high and everyone is coming out to compete.”
Realistically, a 3-2 mark coming out of those games would’ve been a positive outcome. The Bobcats lost in controversial fashion to SDSU (20-16) before whipping both Weber State (40-0) and Sacramento State (42-30). Needing a split to hit 3-2, MSU lost in dramatic fashion to Idaho (24-21) before being overwhelmed by a red-hot Griz squad (37-7).
This year’s road schedule features just one top 25 team (UC-Davis, 7-4 in 2023) compared to the five top 10 clubs from the previous year. The Bobcats also have what should be considered a tough road opponent in FBS University of New Mexico, although the Bobcats are currently favored by 4.5 points per the Vegas sports books heading into that Week 0 opener.
MSU’s other four road opponents are Utah Tech (2-9), Idaho State (3-5 Big Sky, 3-8 overall), Portland State (4-4, 5-6), and Eastern Washington (3-5, 4-7).
The Bobcats beat Utah Tech (63-20), PSU (38-22) and EWU (57-14) last season. All three games were at Bobcat Stadium. MSU beat ISU (37-6) and UC Davis (41-24) in 2022 in Bozeman. MSU struggled on the road in 2022 with a humiliating 68-28 loss to Oregon State and narrow wins over sub-.500 EWU (38-35) and NAU (41-38) before being trounced by eventual champion SDSU 39-18 in the national semifinals.
MSU isn’t the only team to face a tough road schedule recently. In 2022, UM’s final three regular season road games were at playoff-bound Sacramento State (31-24, OT), at Weber State (24-21) and at MSU (55-21) and all three were losses. The Grizzlies went from 5-0 to 7-4. In 2021, SDSU had to go on the road for second-round, quarterfinal and semifinal games in the playoffs and the Jackrabbits proved the road can toughen a team up. South Dakota State beat Sacramento State and Villanova before finally losing at MSU.
Playoff seeding is of vital importance and the selection committee may weigh the strength of schedule, but it isn’t too sympathetic about road losses vs home losses.
Over the last three years, the Bobcats haven’t gotten many gimmes in the playoffs. The last time MSU faced a non-top 10 team in the playoffs was its first game in 2021 when it took on UT-Martin in the second round. Since then, MSU has played at No. 1 Sam Houston State, No. 10 SDSU at home, No. 1 North Dakota State at a neutral site (Frisco, Texas), No. 9 Weber State at home, No. 5 William & Mary at home, No. 1 SDSU on the road and No. 9 NDSU at home. MSU is 5-3 in the playoffs since 2021. The only teams MSU has lost to in the playoffs since 2015 are NDSU (4) and SDSU (2).
The key to a lighter postseason setup is based on the regular season. MSU hasn’t been one of the top two seeds in the playoffs since the I-AA/FCS was formed back in 1978. The side effect of that is having to play on the road or facing higher seeds early at home. Both Weber State (2022) and NDSU (2023) were considered the de facto No. 9 seeds even though only eight teams are seeded. This year, 16 teams will be seeded, which means the top two seeds will either play their first playoff game against the No. 15 and No. 16 teams or teams that weren’t seeded. Giving teams that much more incentive to finish as high as possible.
MSU continues its preseason camp in preparation for its season-opener against the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque on August 24.
