BOZEMAN – When the 60 minutes of madness were finally over, Tommy Mellott jogged into the tunnel at the northwest end of Bobcat Stadium a hero.
Mellott has the most famous baby face in Montana (which makes it hilarious to see him draw up a plan to visit Bozeman’s Rockin R Bar with his teammates in the Rockin R’s latest commercial) and when he’s happy, it rounds up in a permanent soft smile.
“Tommy Touchdown,” one small child squealed as he watched his idol in a post-game interview with MTN Sports’ Ashley Washburn. “Tommy (expletive) runs the show,” a man yelled, pulling Mellott into a hug as he stepped away from the sideline reporter.
Meanwhile, maybe 40 yards away in the visitors’ corner of the field, Grant Sands stood alone even in the midst of a group of Weber State Wildcats singing the alma mater to the traveling fans, isolated until his teammates Jake Eichorn and Hudson Schenck came over to stand next to him.
If ever a sports record could be attributed to the gods instead of the players on the field, it would be the two Montana State set on Saturday in their 43-38 win over the Wildcats. On a rainy, soaked, 40-degree afternoon at gray-ceilinged Bobcat Stadium, replete with inaccurate throws and dropped passes, Mellott charged into Weber State’s line again and again for 273 rushing yards, the most ever by a Big Sky Conference quarterback. On defense, the Bobcats forced an NCAA-record four safeties – all of them snapped over the punter’s head and out of the end zone by Sands, untouched by Montana State players.
The home win was Montana State’s record 17th victory in a row at Bobcat Stadium.
“I feel bad for the kid,” Montana State defensive back Ty Okada said. “That’s tough, being put in that situation after it’s happened so many times, and with the weather. My heart goes out to him.
“This is a product of the culture that our guys in the past have built,” Okada continued, referencing that current NFL players and former Bobcats Lewis Kidd, Lance McCutcheon and Daniel Hardy along with former All-Americans Chase Benson and Derek Marks were in attendance Saturday. “That’s a product of the culture that they have set. We don’t lose at home. And the winning culture that we have set, that those guys have set, we continue to build on that.”
It was a surreal way to settle a matchup between two of the top five teams in the FCS – Montana State was No. 3 and Weber State was No. 5 heading into the game – although it’s impossible to say that Mellott’s incredible performance and Sands’ recurring nightmare “settled” the game when Weber State had a potential game-winning drive get inside the MSU 30 and only finally succumbed when Ty MacPherson dropped a fourth-down pass at the Bobcats’ 13-yard line with 25 seconds to go.
Early on, when Sands’ first bad snap looked like a one-off mistake instead of a fatally game-changing flaw, the game was a fascinating punch-counterpunch as Montana State head coach Brent Vigen tried to crack open Weber State’s defense.
The Wildcats won the first skirmish when Eddie Heckard intercepted Mellott’s first pass attempt of the game and took it back to the MSU 12, leading to a Weber State field goal.
Weber State, second in the conference in defense behind only Montana, presents a tricky conundrum: Who do you attack when both starting cornerbacks, Heckard and Maxwell Anderson, are players you want to keep the ball away from?
In fact, the Wildcats’ whole secondary is full of ballhawks, and it was fun to see Vigen using his whole bag of tricks – speed options, sweeps, screens – to get the ball to the perimeter without challenging them.
Of course, that chess match didn’t even last a full quarter before things got really weird. Capably covered in more detail by Tom Stuber, the rest of the first half included a kick return touchdown, a punt return touchdown and a blocked field goal, all by Weber State, but also a muffed punt by the Wildcats that led to a Montana State touchdown and two more wild snaps by Sands, which all added up to the Bobcats, down 24-9 at one point, taking a 27-24 lead to the locker room.
It was chilling to watch Sands’ snaps descend from fluke into farce and then tragedy – the first two wild and outside, nowhere close to punter Jack Burgess, the third at least skimming Burgess’ hand on his desperate leap.
Let’s pick our brothers up, Weber State safety Desmond Williams exhorted the defense as the Wildcats lined up for yet another free kick. Defensive tackle Zeke Birch tried to pump Sands up. Heckard also put his arm around the sophomore snapper at one point. At halftime, the Wildcats sent tight ends Logan Snyder and Davis Rasmussen onto the field, having them snap to each other on the sidelines.
None of it worked. After an incompletion ended Weber State’s first drive of the second half, Sands sailed another snap past Burgess, who could only chase the ball down and kick it out of the back of the end zone for another safety.
Mellott then led Montana State to two more quick touchdown drives – the Bobcats scored TDs on three of the four extra possessions given to them by the safeties – just enough to hold off Weber’s late comeback attempt.
If he doesn’t look like he should be going to the Rockin R Bar, Mellott certainly doesn’t look like he should be carrying the ball 32 times against one of the best defenses in the country. He doesn’t shake defenders out of their cleats or run through them — 273 yards without a single highlight — but he just doesn’t get tired. He didn’t lose yards on a single carry, and 10 of his 32 totes went for 10 yards or more.
It was a standout performance both generally and narratively for the redshirt sophomore quarterback – redemption after his early interception and after Sean Chambers’ recent stellar play while Mellott missed time with an injury had loosened his grip on the starting QB job. As he left the field to cheers and adulation, it was clear the quarterback from Butte, America had regained the place in the firmament.
Part of the reason we love sports is because they elevate athletes, make it easy to see their success, turn them into heroes, uncomplicated and triumphant. It was easy – and pleasant – to identify with Mellott on Saturday, to want to put ourselves in his shoes as he ran off the field, a star again. It’s less pleasant to think about Sands, lost and silent on the sideline, but spare a thought for the long snapper too. The truth of sports is that they contain failure and success in equal measure — for every player running to the locker room with a smile on their face, there’s one standing in shock on the sideline, wondering where it all went wrong. On Saturday, the elements helped show us both.
Photos by Brooks Nuanez and Jason Bacaj. All Rights Reserved.
Photos by Brooks Nuanez or noted. All Rights Reserved.
