Montana State University once again has a very good football team entering the 2023 season. The Bobcats return a bevy of solid players and have the kind of depth necessary to navigate the typical pitfalls that 11 to 15 football games bring with them.
What isn’t typical is the 2023 road schedule that sees MSU taking on five top 15 teams – based on a consensus of preseason polls. To set themselves up for a postseason run, the Bobcats will need to at least win a majority of those games. That point isn’t lost on the Bobcat players.
In 2022, MSU went 4-2 on the road with the two losses coming from sound beatings at the hands of Oregon State, which had a strong PAC-12 campaign, and South Dakota State, which went on to win the FCS national championship after dropping the Bobcats in the semifinals of the FCS playoffs. Montana State also scraped by at Eastern Washington (38-35) and at Northern Arizona (41-38), which both finished 3-8.
“This year we got everybody, we’ve got Weber State, Sac State, we’ve got all (SDSU, Idaho and Montana) of them,” MSU senior tight end Derryk Snell, a returning first-team All-Big Sky selection, said on August 2. “Shoot, SDSU is our second game. You can’t really overlook any other team, so you try to take it week-by-week and just see what you can improve on.”
A narrow win is certainly better for the psychology of a team than a heartbreaking loss. And Montana State found as many ways to win as any Big Sky team in recent memory on the way to earning its first league title since 2012. Yet there’s still room for improvement if you ask the leaders of this year’s Bobcats.
“The team knows it,” junior defensive tackle and preseason Buck Buchanan Award finalist Sebastian Valdez added. “The team knows that we’re a good team and that we should be doing good. When things don’t go our way, I think we just have to handle adversity better. Especially when bad things happen we have to understand that it’s okay and that we just need to flip that switch and go back to what we do. No specific position group or anything that needs to get better. I just think our team as a whole needs to respond better when things don’t go our way.”
While MSU may have the top running game in the subdivision, last season was a good indicator that the Bobcats will need improvements in other areas if they hope to win the program’s first national championship since 1984. Five games against stiff FCS competition on the road is a whole different animal than last year’s four road games the Bobcats had last season.
EWU, Northern Colorado (which MSU trailed 14-3 early), NAU and Cal Poly combined to go 11-33 last season. This season, MSU plays at the defending national champions in Brookings in Week 2. Montana State opens up league play against Weber State, a team trying to extend a streak of six playoff appearances in the last seven years. Montana State plays at defending Big Sky co-champion Sac State on national TV on October 21 and at preseason darling Idaho in Moscow the following week.
Montana State then finishes its season with a showdown against rival Montana in Missoula. MSU has only lost three regular-season games in Brent Vigen’s two seasons at the helm, including a 29-10 loss to the Griz to end the 2021 regular season.
“We’ve noticed that we have a tough road schedule, but still you gotta take it week-by-week,” tight end Treyton Pickering said. “You gotta take your opponent seriously whether it’s Utah Tech or South Dakota State or whoever. You gotta respect them whether it’s home or away.”
Perhaps the good news about 2023 is that the Bobcats have areas with plenty of room for improvement. A passing game that was hit-and-miss in 2022 has already gotten a big boost with the transfer signings of Ty McCullouch (Colorado State) and Lonyatta Alexander, Jr. (Arizona State, Washington), along with the unexpected return of Clevan Thomas, Jr., a former Kentucky transfer who is back for his seventh season of college football.
Those additions are also bolstered by quarterback Tommy Mellott being at full strength after he was limited in 2022 coming off ankle surgery, while his partner at the position, Sean Chambers, was also bothered all season with leg injuries but is back to being healthy as well.
“From my experiencem it’s been trust,” McCullouch said regarding how to get the passing game in a better rhythm. “That trust between receiver and quarterback, trust between receiver and running back. When the QB needs a play and looks to his right and sees someone he can trust, he’ll throw it. If not, he’s going to scramble around and take a sack, so it’s big for us building that trust that ‘I can rely on this guy’ and we’ll continue to do that.”
Snell hinted that the Bobcats might have some new twists in store for opponents.
“Can’t tell too many secrets, but obviously you try to get those playmakers the ball,” Snell added. “You want to get CT (Clevan Thomas) the ball and Taco (Dowler) the ball, all of them. We are trying to install some things for certain people and I feel like we’re just chugging along.”
The Bobcats return one of the best tight end combinations in the nation with Snell and Pickering, who are roommates. The duo combined for 41 receptions for 635 yards and three touchdowns in 2022 with the most memorable coming in the Cat-Griz game when Snell lined up at tailback, took a handoff and then threw a pass to a wide open Pickering for a touchdown.
“The off-season reflects how the season goes,” Pickering said when talking about how teams improve. “This off-season everyone has attacked every workout, everybody looks good physically. It’s really bringing the team together over the past couple months and really defining what this team’s gonna look like coming into fall camp. I’m excited just because we have a bunch of really good athletes and a lot of good bodies that are looking good coming into camp. I’m just excited for the team and ready for everyone to ball out.”
The Bobcat’ defense, as well, has a number of areas that can be improved upon. The defense ranked sixth in the league in yards allowed per play, sixth in yards allowed per rush, and seventh in pass defense efficiency.
“I feel like we have so much experience this year,” Valdez said. “We have a lot of guys that know what they’re doing. It’s definitely going to elevate our game. There’s no doubt.”
Valdez is coming off a stellar 2022 campaign, but isn’t resting on his laurels as he recognizes there are areas where he can improve his game.
“I feel like my pass rush should be more consistent,” he said. “I had games where I had really high games and really low games. I wish that my pass rush would stay consistent. This whole summer I worked on it and I’m ready to take that next step forward, especially with my pass rush. I feel like my speed and how I finish my pass rush moves and how I set things up are better.
“Last year I was having success with one move and trying to throw that every single time. I need to be mixing it up more. Being consistent, precise with my pass rush moves and setting things up.
“We have some different packages that can put me outside at the end position. I can also be in the zero – head up on the center – for the pass rush. There’s a lot of ways I can line up. It’s always nice to see something different. It’s for sure fun getting moved around.”
Still the MSU run game will most likely be the team’s calling card. Despite being new to the team McCullouch is well aware of that.
“We always pride ourselves on being able to run the ball well,” Snell said. “If you can do that, then you can probably get a decent pass game going. Even if we don’t have the best day passing-wise, we can always rely on those front five dudes blocking for us. Our running backs are amazing, and they’ll find a way to get us yards. That’s our (tight ends) job to help them block and open holes. Just do whatever we can in the tight end room to either be in the passing game or be in the run game.”
The Bobcats started fall camp last week and will continue to prep for the season and the opening “Gold Rush” game against Utah Tech in Bozeman on September 2.
“Just ready to hone in on these last couple of weeks before the season starts and ready to get after it one game at a time,” Pickering said.
