Not many teams have taken away Montana State’s run game in recent history. But when a Bobcat opponent can, good things usually happen. The University of Tennessee-Martin has leaned on its run defense all season and the Skyhawks will be banking on it in hopes of pulling off an upset over then top-seeded Bobcats on Saturday in Bozeman.
The Skyhawks are fifth in the FCS allowing just 84.9 yards per game and 11th in yards per carry at 3.27. The Bobcats counter with the No. 1 rush offense in terms of per game average (317.9) and per carry (6.94).
“Defensively, I know the number that jumps out is they’re giving up less than 85 yards on the ground per game,” MSU head coach Brent Vigen said. “Anytime you can do that over the course of a 13-game season that is going to jump out at you. That’s a mark of consistency, that’s a mark of eliminating that facet of another team’s offense week in, week out.
“Our rushing numbers and their yards given up is certainly going to be a piece to how this game is decided.”

Taking away MSU’s run game doesn’t mean completely shutting it down but limiting it to some extent. A year ago, three teams (South Dakota State, Idaho and Montana) all did that and each team came away with a win. The previous year, MSU was stuffed by SDSU in a semi-final game to end its season.
“Our (offensive line’s) ability to know that the No. 1 priority for that team is to limit our run game,” Vigen said. “We might see some things that we haven’t seen on film. Now that we have 12 games under our belt we probably haven’t seen quite everything, but we’ve seen quite a bit.”
The UT-Martin front line is massive with five of the six players that rotate in and out of the game weighing in at over 300 pounds.
“They have a big front,” Vigen said. “Their linebackers are big. I’m very impressed with their defense. Their three-man front is similar to some of the fronts we’ve seen. Probably most similar to (UC) Davis going back a few weeks. For us the saving grace has been we’ve had a chance to go up against some odd fronts.
“They’re all a little bit different with the nature of theirs being a size oriented front and will certainly be a challenge for us to contend with.”
Montana State has seen the injury bug bite its backfield the past two games as Scottre Humphrey was injured against UC Davis and gave way to Julius Davis, who ran for nearly 100 yards in the second half. Against UM in the regular-season finale, Davis started but was out of the game late in the first half, while Humphrey made one rush attempt and didn’t return.

Humphrey, a first-team All-Big Sky performer with 1,223 yards and 13 touchdowns, is fourth in the nation in yards per carry at 7.37 and is listed as the starter this week. If he can’t stay in the game, freshman Adam Jones, who’s the Big Sky Freshman of the Year, has 928 yards rushing and is third in the nation in yards per carry (7.42) will take the majority of the carries.
Jones filled in for that duo in MSU’s 34-11 season finale win over UM and came up with 197 yards on 24 carries with two touchdowns. Vigen confirmed on Monday that Davis, an All-Big Sky performer in 2023, will be out this week because of the injury suffered against the Griz. MSU will most likely turn to Colson Coon and Jared White as a third running back.
“They are a tremendous running football team,” UT Martin head coach Jason Simpson said on Monday. “You know it’s coming. You know the outside zone is coming. And nobody has been able to stop it.”
The Skyhawk’ defenders are a highly decorated bunch per the Big South/Ohio Valley Conference as they landed six players on the first team and they’re evenly dispersed at each level. Defensive linemen Charles Perkins and Christian Dowell, linebackers Jaylen Sharp and Devon Shipp, and defensive backs Oshae Baker and JaMichael McGoy, Jr. represent UTM on the team. They also put linebacker Chris Hunter, Jr. on the second team.
“If you look at the back half of our conference schedule, in particular between Eastern Washington, UC Davis and Montana, I think what Martin presents is maybe this combination of maybe all three of those. I think all three of those at times gave our run game some challenges there’s no question about it.
Sharp was second in the league in tackles-for-loss with 14.5. McGoy, Jr. led the league in passes defended with 21, while Baker had 11. The Skyhawks’ biggest weapon was their ability to intercept passes, which was aided by their propensity to stop the run. Hunter led the league with five, while Baker, McGoy, Jr. and Shipp all had three and Sharp and LaMarian Pierce each had two as they led the league with 19 as a team.
“They take the ball away well,” Vigen said. “Nineteen interceptions jump out at you. They get after the quarterback. They’re really big, they play a bunch of guys in their three-man front and five or six of them weigh over 300 pounds.”
The Skyhawks played arguably the best game of all the first round competitors as they went on the road and blew out New Hampshire with the only touchdown they allowed coming on a game-opening kickoff return. The final score was 41-10.
Now UT Martin will look to stand in the way of the down bound train that is the MSU rushing attack.
“We pride ourselves on our rush defense but we obviously haven’t seen a rushing attack of this magnitude,” Simpson said. “You try to stay in your gap. You get some knock back, create some vertical seams. But some teams are good at the point of attack, some teams are good on the back side. They are good at both. They get the back side cut off. The are great at double teams. They roll you out of there and get displacement on the ‘backers.
“The backs are good and make great cuts. It’s certainly a challenge. They don’t keep you guessing. They say ‘here it comes, can you stop it.’ It will be a good challenge for us. We feel like the strength of our team is our front seven on defense. If they play well, we will have a chance to hang around.”
