Quarterback, or the lack thereof, has been a constant hot button issue at Montana State since Dakota Prukop’s infamous graduate transfer to Oregon following the debacle of 2015.
Ahead of Jeff Choate’s first season in the off-season of 2016, the Bobcats brought in a well-traveled, four-star rated signal-caller in Tyler Bruggman and the expectation was that he’d hold down the job for a couple of years as Choate rebuilt the team.
Things didn’t exactly materialize that way…but put a pin in that.
In just the past three weeks, the Bobcats have received two of the best games they’ve had in the past seven seasons from quarterbacks Tommy Mellott and Sean Chambers. Chambers, filling in for the injured Mellott, became just the second quarterback in Big Sky Conference history to pass for over 200 and run for over 200 yards in MSU’s 41-24 win over UC Davis.
Mellott is coming off a game in which he completed 16 of 20 passes for 217 yards and three touchdowns with Chambers complimenting that effort with a TD pass and TD run, in last week’s 37-14 win over Northern Colorado. The two combined to go 18 of 23 for 250 yards and four touchdowns passes; and ran for 81 yards on 18 carries and a touchdown. They accounted for 331 of MSU’s 481 total yards.
During the Choate era, offensive coordinators and quarterback coaches came and went on a yearly basis. A smattering of players, including converted linebacker Troy Andersen in 2018, manned the position. And although Choate led the Bobcats to the FCS playoffs in 2018 and 2019, play at the position from a throwing perspective left much to be desired.
In two years under head coach Brent Vigen and offensive coordinator Taylor Housewright’s leadership, the position has found solid to excellent production despite a fair amount of tumult. Matt McKay led MSU to nine regular-season wins last seasons before abruptly entering the transfer portal, giving way to Mellott. Mellott and Chambers have split time and never missed a beat. Vigen has been proud of solidifying the position.
“It’s evolved considerably,” Vigen said of the quarterback position since he arrived at Montana State less than two years ago. “Think of where we (were) 12 months ago with Tommy still running down on kickoffs and playing receiver and all that kind of stuff. Tommy’s development, first of all, is the thing you gotta look at.
“I think we were able to react appropriately to the fact that Matt (McKay) had already left, Tucker was going to forgo his last year and graduate and then Casey Bauman was most likely going to leave, so that’s where Sean came into play.
“In Sean, we had a guy that started a lot of football games and played a lot of good football and was similar enough to Tommy from a style perspective that if we had to go to him like we did a couple weeks back, we shouldn’t have to change our offense.”
Likewise, when MSU went back to Mellott this past Saturday in Greeley, Colo. the transition was smooth.
“I thought he played pretty well,” Vigen said. “He completed 80 percent of his throws. He missed a couple, but that’s gonna happen. Just his poise back there was apparent. I thought he sat back there and saw things pretty well and he made a variety of throws in that game. I was pleased with him, but I know there’s better to come.”
Stylistically, Vigen recognizes that the way MSU operates on offense needs to be nurtured to avoid having to make adjustments throughout each position group.
“You have an offense, you want to recruit to it,” Vigen said. “Each individual quarterback, their style is little bit different so you can adjust to that, but it can’t bet this drastic ebb and flow like we had in the championship game. I think we’re getting there. I think the play of both Tommy and Sean has continued to evolve this year and that’s a credit to them and a credit to (offensive coordinator) Taylor (Housewright) for crafting a game plan and calling plays that will play to their strengths.”
Dialing it back a few years, Bruggman, who by all accounts was sharp on the practice field, only lasted five games as MSU’s starter. He not only lost his job, but he lost it to 17-year-old true freshman Chris Murray, who’s ability to throw the ball was something no one wanted to talk about, and Murray helped that by having the legs of a gazelle to make up for at least some of his passing inconsistencies.
Murray began showing improvement in the pass game up until he was academically ineligible after just two seasons with the Bobcats. Enter Travis Jonsen in 2018, a five-star quarterback who started his career with the perennial power Oregon Ducks. He didn’t even make it as far as Bruggman. Jonsen fell behind in the competition when he slipped on ice and broke his foot, allowing Andersen to back door his way to the starting job in 2018. Tucker Rovig, a three-star recruit from Boise, started a few games in 2018 and then most of 2019.
Rovig performed to mixed reviews in 2019 but managed the team well as the Bobcats advanced to the national semifinals. A COVID-19 season, and coach later, saw MSU moving in yet another direction with the arrival of McKay, a four-star rated quarterback from North Carolina State.
McKay, at least through the first half of the season, got the Bobcats moving in the right direction. He started the season with a solid showing against FBS Wyoming and had MSU in position to win before the Cowboys scored twice in the final quarter to avoid the upset in their home opener. McKay then cruised through an easy schedule putting up solid numbers along the way and being among the top-rated passers in the Big Sky Conference.
Despite scoring the lone touchdown and picking up key first downs in a game-sealing drive as part of a huge 13-7 road win against Weber State, his aerial game seemed to start to degrade that night. He only threw for 76 yards on 12 of 19 passing. He was sluggish again the next week in a 27-9 win over Idaho State but bounced back with a solid game on the road against Eastern Washington throwing for 253 yards and scoring on a 56-yard run. It would be his last hurrah. He barely threw for over 100 yards in consecutive games against Idaho and Montana to close out the regular season and was replaced by Mellott.
After a rough passing outing on an extremely windy day in his first start, which coincided with the FCS playoffs, Mellott has eased his way into becoming one of the best passers in the Big Sky Conference to go along with his running ability.
After leading the Bobcats to wins over UT-Martin, No. 1 seeded Sam Houston State, and South Dakota State in the FCS semifinals on an economy of passes, Mellott has gone from throwing only 15 passes per game to a little over 20 this season. And this season he’s been complimented by Chambers, who declared his intention to transfer from Wyoming to MSU just two days after the Bobcats lost 38-10 to North Dakota State in the FCS national championship game.
Over the course of four seasons MSU has gone from having a starting quarterback (Andersen) with a 101.6 rating to one (Rovig) with a 135.1 rating to one (McKay) with a 151.6 rating to one (Mellott) with a 163.6 rating. The kicker being that Mellott, who is second in the BSC in that category, is backed up by Chambers, who has a 139.1 rating. That’s just one behind Eastern Washington gunslinger Gunner Talkington.
Not only are things trending in the right direction over the more recent years, but the numbers within the numbers are trending up for Mellott and Chambers, who had an up-and-down career marred with injuries at Wyoming.
Mellott has steadily improved over his brief career at MSU. While he has started in nine games, he has only finished seven and one of those was against a very solid FBS program in Oregon State. In the six FCS games he’s started and finished Mellott has been given a heavier workload in the passing department over time and his accuracy has improved all but once over those games.
“I don’t like the fact that Tommy only completed 11 passes,” Vigen said after the McNeese State game. “That number’s gotta go up.”
And go up it has. Mellott completed 16 passes the next week and connected on the same number in his first game back since being injured against Eastern Washington.
Chambers is coming off a 2021 season at Wyoming that saw his passer rating drop all the way down to 107.5 and he threw more interceptions (7) than touchdowns (6). This year not only is his rating significantly higher, but he has thrown six touchdowns to four interceptions. On top of that, he leads the Big Sky Conference with 622 yards rushing and his 16 rushing touchdowns are the best in the country.
With a steadily improving, if not strong, passing game, the Bobcats still feel they’re capable of becoming stronger offensively. No. 3 ranked MSU will get a chance to prove that this Saturday afternoon when they host No. 5 Weber State in Bozeman at 1:00 p.m. at Bobcat Stadium.
Photos by Brooks Nuanez and Jason Bacaj. All Rights Reserved.
