Montana State has been a steady contender at the FCS level for most of the last 15 years. And with that comes one of the best backhanded compliments a team can get: a target on their backs.
“We’ve been consistently at the top now for a few years and our environment when we play at home is what you want to play in,” MSU head coach Brent Vigen said. “So these opposing teams, they feed off of that like our teams do. We hope it has an impact negatively on them, but there’s this positive impact it has on a young man coming in here on a team saying, ‘this is what it’s all about.’”
There may be no other team in the Big Sky Conference that is in that mode of operation than the University of Northern Colorado. The Bears have not won yet under second-year head coach Ed Lamb and have been waiting for a victory since the final game of the 2022 season. After an 0-5 start, playoff chances are finished for the Bears, but they still could play spoiler.
The Bobcats reached the national semifinals three straight seasons when you exclude the Covid season that they didn’t participate in. That run ended last year in forgivable fashion as MSU was dealt one of the most difficult regular season road schedules any team has ever faced. Still, no one counted the Cats out until they were knocked out by a blocked extra point by their playoff nemesis North Dakota State.
Aside from a few hiccups against the University of New Mexico, MSU has cut through its 2024 road schedule like a hot knife through butter and that’s a big reason why the Bobcats are one of just three teams – Delaware and Mercer are the others – from FCS autobid conferences with undefeated records entering October. Throw in the two home wins plus a Week 0 game and Montana State is the only 5-0 team in the FCS.
The Bobcats have qualified for the FCS playoffs nine times since 2010. MSU has won or shared four Big Sky titles during that span. The team plays in an elite stadium by FCS standards and the game day experience has gained enough traction that, well, ESPN College Game Day chose to attend ahead of the 2022 rivalry game against Montana.
The popularity of Montana State football and the prestige of the program means very many of MSU’s opponents, including presumably the otherwise downtrodden Bears, will give the Bobcats their best shot most Saturdays.
“We’ve talked about it a lot this year,” Vigen said. “Don’t let your perception dictate your performance. You can get caught up in this wave from looking at film or watching scores and looking at stats and come up with a perception of this team isn’t this or that.
“Whatever you see as this team’s best, that’s what you gotta expect. In this instance (vs. Northern Colorado) you can point to one game. The Abilene Christian game. What you see there expect that (UNC narrowly lost on a last second field goal). That doesn’t mean don’t watch the other games, but expect their best.”
The Bobcats have had a much easier schedule so far this season than they experienced a year ago so there’s all the more reason to keep their collective eyes on the ball.
Montana State enters Saturday’s game averaging 39.2 points per game, the ninth-best in the FCS. The Bobcats’ starting defense has given up a total of seven touchdowns and a field goal in five total games, amounting to about 10 points per contest.
Northern Colorado has played five different quarterbacks this year – no, that’s not a typo — and the Bears are averaging just 12 points per game. Last week, UNC scored seven points in a 28-7 loss to Cal Poly. The last time Montana State played Cal Poly last season, the Bobcats won 59-19. The year before, MSU beat Cal Poly 72-28.
Vigen said his team is determined to not think of anything like those transitive property analysis.
“We talked about that a few weeks ago against Mercyhurst,” Vigen said. “All of a sudden they’re playing in front 20,000-plus that’s gonna bring something different out of them.
“I think just continuing to be real about those conversations and what this team we’re facing can do and expect that.”
Vigen also points out that the Bobcats still need to concentrate most of their focus on themselves.
“On the flip side we gotta keep finding a way to bring our best,” he said. “You want to make it more about that ultimately, but to expect a team to show up and play is what we do.”
MSU continues to prep for its homecoming game against Northern Colorado which kicks off at 2:00 on Saturday.
