Caden Dowler’s meteoric rise to the top of the Big Sky Conference may not have hit its pinnacle yet. The junior safety for Montana State University has been outdoing himself on a weekly basis over the past three games and the accumulation of all that landed him on top of the Big Sky Conference’s Defensive Player of the Year vote last week.
Against Weber State, Dowler helped himself to an interception that he returned for 54 yards and popped the ball loose from behind for linebacker Neil Daily to recover. He also broke up a pass and had seven tackles. Montana State scored 28 points off of turnovers in a 66-14 win that got Weber head coach Mickey Mental fired.
The next week he intercepted two passes against UC Davis, returning one 83 yards for a score and the other 33 yards to the Aggie 21-yard line to set up another touchdown. He also forced a fumble, broke up a pass and had 12 tackles, including one for a loss in a 38-17 MSU victory.
In the regular season finale and 124th Cat-Griz game, Dowler made the play of the game when intercepted a pass off the fingertips of Montana wide receiver Michael Wortham and took it 34 yards for a touchdown to give the Bobcats a 24-21 lead that they wouldn’t relinquish. He also had six tackles.
Dowler keeps upping the ante and it’ll be interesting to see if he can do it again this week against Yale in the second round of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.
“What he did over the last three weeks; winning Player of the Week each one of those weeks and making the plays he made was an extension of how he had played the first nine games,” MSU head coach Brent Vigen said. “The ball found him obviously in those three games as far as the interceptions go. He positioned himself to win the award. It’s not just about those three weeks. It’s about what he did all season.”
The three-game outburst and consequent BSC POY made Dowler the tenth MSU defensive player to win the award and puts in a club with nine former MSU players, including current linebacker coach Jody Owens, as recipients of the award. It marks the second straight season (Brody Grebe 2024) and third time in five seasons (Troy Andersen 2021) a Bobcat has won the award.
Other winners are Brad Daly (2013), Owens (2012), Dane Fletcher (2009), Roger Cooper (2004), Kane Ioane (2003), Corey Widmer (1990), and Mark Fellows (1984).
“It’s pretty cool,” Dowler said in deflecting most of the credit to his teammates and coaches. “It kind of means everyone around me has been doing their job. From the coaches to the D-line to the linebackers making life easy for me so I can fly around out there. Just really grateful for everyone around me.”
With Yale University coming to Bozeman this week, Dowler isn’t thinking about continuing his streak of sparkling play. He’s just looking for a win to start the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs against the Bulldogs.
The Bobcats entered the season with the secondary being one of the biggest concerns after all five starters from last season either graduated or transferred. The Bobcats have played three freshman, four sophomores, three juniors and no seniors in the defensive backfield in 2025. Plus, Dowler has had a hard time staying healthy for a full season…until this year. But he did and the secondary soured.
“I’m really proud of these guys from being the question mark of the team at the start of the year,” Dowler said. “We knew what we had. We were here in spring ball, and we were here in fall camp, and we knew the talent we had. It was kind of just piecing it together. Showing everyone else what we had and that showed up on Saturdays and I’m just really proud of these guys.”
Dowler was a question mark himself coming into the 2025 season and throughout his career having suffered three injuries since joining the Bobcats, then having to rehabilitate those setbacks for months on end. Dowler was injured in 2023 after the second game of the season at South Dakota State where MSU suffered a heartbreaking 20-16 loss. He went into the 2024 season as one of the starting safeties but went out for the season with an injury in the sixth game of the year against Northern Colorado. In 2022, he played eight games after missing the first three of the season.
“I’ve done a pretty good job of responding and just taking it one day at a time,” Dowler said of all the work he’s had to do in rehab. “Being surrounded by guys I love, guys that love me has been so special. I mean, just showing up to work with these guys every day is so awesome. Just grateful to be out there. Looking back at it after the Cat-Griz game I was a little emotional. That’s just because I’m so happy to be out here.”
When asked about his favorite play of the year, Dowler wouldn’t commit to any of his own plays.
“Honestly, the best part of the last game (UM) was the offense driving for six minutes; milking that clock all the way down, so we didn’t have to go back out there,” he said. “That was huge and that was my favorite part of this season so far.”
Dowler has an uncanny knack for sniffing out what offenses are trying to do before they snap the ball. The 124th Cat-Griz game put a spotlight on that.
With the Grizzlies leading 21-17 late in the third quarter and getting lined up for a third down and four yards to go play – a scenario they had been proficient on all day up to that point for UM – Dowler saw linebacker Cole Taylor lined up across from speedy UM wide receiver Wortham. Recognizing the mismatch of having a linebacker on a wide receiver, Dowler knew it was a matchup the Grizzlies had been trying to create all day. He hedged that way to limit the play from being too big if Wortham made the catch. His intuition paid off as the ball was deflected right to him as he gathered it in and raced untouched to the end zone.
“That’s been a strength since Day 1,” Vigen said of Dowler’s nose for the game. “Thinking back to when he was in high school, that was such a strong selling point for him from his coaches over at (Billings) West. His intelligence, his ability to react appropriately within games and the heat of the battle is who he is.”
Dowler starred with his brother, MSU wide receiver/punt returner Taco, at Billings West and was also defensive teammates with defensive tackle Paul Brott and linebacker Neil Daily, who he lines up with regularly on Saturday’s at MSU. His instincts and work ethic are often referenced by coaches and teammates alike. He was an all-state player at multiple positions for the Bears.
“There’s a lot of film study, but some guys the game comes more natural to than others and I think it does come pretty natural (to Dowler),” Vigen said. “He can make, in a split second, a decision there that might be a little bit outside the framework of his alignment, but he knew we were in trouble with the mismatch, and he was Johnny on the spot for sure the way that played out.”
While his two interception returns for touchdowns stand out, Dowler’s best interception of the season may have been the second one against UC Davis. On the play, the Aggies top wide receiver – Samuel Gbatu – crossed into Dowler’s area and when the pass came Dowler out-positioned and out-battled the first team All-BSC receiver for the ball before returning it 33 yards.
All four of his interceptions have had huge returns following them. He has 204 return yards and no other player in the BSC has more than 100. His first was returned for 54 yards against Weber State, then 83 yards and a touchdown, and 33 yards against UC Davis, and lastly 34 yards and a score against Montana. Only three other players in the conference have an interception return for a touchdown.
Dowler and the Bobcats are awaiting the arrival of the Yale Bulldogs this Saturday at Bobcat Stadium where kickoff is set for noon.
PHOTOS BY BROOKS NUANEZ, BLAKE HEMPSTEAD & JASON BACAJ – ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
