Most of the attention this week leading up to Montana State’s FCS title-game clash with North Dakota State has centered on the eerie similarities between the two teams.
It’s impossible to avoid – there’s only one way to succeed at the very top level of FCS football these days, and the Bobcats and Bison embody that blueprint better than anybody. In fact, at times it seems like Monday’s title game will be contested between two teams that are carbon copies of each other.
Both have experienced, productive senior quarterbacks, with Tommy Mellott and Cam Miller expected to finish 1-2 in some order in the Walter Payton Award balloting. Both have dominant offensive and defensive lines, with All-Americans galore setting the tone for their physical style. Even their head coaches, Montana State’s Brent Vigen and NDSU’s Tim Polasek, are adjoining branches of the Craig Bohl/NDSU/Wyoming coaching tree. Heck, the two are so close that when Polasek replaced Vigen as Wyoming’s offensive coordinator in 2021, he bought the Vigens’ old house in Laramie.
Even with all that, the parallels might be most pronounced at running back, where both the Bobcats and the Bison have leaned on redshirt freshmen with freakily similar statlines.
Entering the title game, Montana State’s Adam Jones has run for 1,134 yards and 14 touchdowns. North Dakota State’s CharMar Brown has run for 1,104 yards…and 14 touchdowns.
Brown beat out Jones for the Jerry Rice Award in one of the closest votes ever, finishing with 183 points in the balloting – just five ahead of his competitor from Bozeman.
Listening to their teammates and coaches talk about the dual prodigies only drives home the comparison.
“He’s just been super tough to be a freshman and to carry the ball 10 to 15 times a game,” Miller said about Brown. “And I think what impresses me the most about him is he doesn’t shy away from contact, even late in the game when you know he’s taken some shots. You know, he’s struggled through a little bit of an injury, and he’s back now, but just a super tough kid.”
“I think Adam’s consistency and durability has really impressed me,” Vigen said about Jones. “I think that comes from a kid that understands how to train and take care of his body. That’s usually the last piece to come for those young guys. They’re talented enough to go out there, but their ability to be as durable as Adam has been is typically not there. So I would imagine, you know, for Marty Brown, it’s been much the same.”
Jones, who prepped at Sentinel High in Missoula, is part of the recent wave of Spartan alumni who crossed the Great Divide to play at Montana State. After a redshirt year, the multi-sport athlete – he was also a star baseball and hockey player in Missoula – announced himself in the season opener with 167 yards and a key 93-yard touchdown run in a comeback win at New Mexico, and has since proven himself fully capable of handling the grind of a long season.
After carrying the ball just three times as a true freshman last season, he has 173 carries so far this season, and has added 20 receptions to bring him close to 200 total touches.
That durability and availability have been crucial for an MSU team that led the country in rushing and set a single-season record for rushing yards despite All-Big Sky power back Julius Davis missing most of the season and All-American sophomore slasher Scottre Humphrey being banged up most of the last month-plus.
Jones had a career-high 25 carries and 197 yards in the regular-season finale against Montana and followed that up with 23 more carries for 95 yards and four touchdowns in the quarterfinals against Idaho. Add in his 18 carries two weeks ago against South Dakota, and Jones’ top three career games in terms of carries have all come in the Bobcats’ last four contests.
“I think it’s a testament to what Adam did in the offseason,” Mellott said. “What (strength coach Sean) Herrin has him do, he puts his heart and mind to it. He trains extremely hard, and physically breaking down your body during lifts, during runs, prepares you for the beat down that is a season. He did that all throughout the entire winter and the entire summer, and also did everything he could take care of himself. And so that kind of set a good baseline into the season.”
Like Jones, Brown was a multi-sport athlete (track and wrestling) at Creighton Prep HS in Omaha, Nebraska.
After sitting for his entire true freshman year, he’s been similarly durable for NDSU this season, leading the Bison with 227 carries, and has racked up four 100-yard games, against Towson, Illinois State, Northern Iowa and Missouri State.
At 5-11, 214 pounds, he’s been the hammer for NDSU’s characteristically grinding offense, taking carries from the more experienced Barika Kpeenu and TK Marshall.
“I think that’s probably one position, as we get into this day and age of the portal and so forth, running backs can contribute (as freshmen),” Polasek said. “I think the further away from the line of scrimmage you play, (the more) you got a shot as a freshman. You know, Marty works extremely hard. He runs hard every day. He shows up with a smile on his face. Barika and TK have really helped him, showed him how to practice, and that’s probably what’s allowed him to continue to grow and develop late in the season.”
Regardless of how closely their two storylines have hewn so far this season, they will unavoidably diverge in just a few days. On Monday night, only one of the running backs will be able to call themselves a national champion.
And although they’re not matched up directly against each other, the production of the two prodigies could go a long way towards deciding which way a game between two equal teams will tip.
“They’re not true freshmen, but still, this is their first time going through it,” Vigen said. “To be able to stack up over 15 games, now 16 games, that’s hard. It’s a hard transition, just knowing what that means physically, and you need the right kids, the right young man. I know Adam is that, in our case.”
