Montana State defense looks to recapture dominant form against NDSU
Games, seasons and careers all ebb and flow and that’s no different for this year’s version of the Montana State Bobcats, who have seen their season, along with some games, bob up and down.
As a team, the Bobcats were on the rise even after a controversial road loss to No. 1 ranked and reigning NCAA FCS champion South Dakota State. MSU rolled to a 6-1 start before faltering in a 24-21 loss to Idaho – a game that signaled a defensive downswing that carried through landslide home wins over Northern Arizona (45-21) and Eastern Washington (57-14), and then a humiliating 37-7 loss at rival Montana.
The turn of events seems to have its axis on the fortunes of Montana State’s passing defense. MSU ran through the first seven games as either the statistical leader or the No. 2 defense in the Big Sky Conference in almost every category. The Bobcats have slipped a couple notches over the past four weeks – an ominous sign with FCS powerhouse North Dakota State coming to Bozeman on Saturday.
“There’s a lot there on the table to prepare for,” MSU head coach Brent Vigen said. “They’ve found a lot of different ways to spread the ball around. They use more personnel groupings than we see and that keeps defenses off the scent so to speak. At the end of it you have a lot to defend.”
MSU was once the league leader in pass efficiency defense – a statistic that quantifiably measures completion percentage, yards per attempt, and ratio of interceptions to touchdowns among other things. The Bobcats were around a 112 rating, which reflected a low percentage of completions around 55%, low yards per attempt around 6.0 and nearly as many interceptions as touchdowns, which is a rarity in today’s college game where many quarterbacks have 5-to-1 touchdown to interception ratios if not better.
When the Bobcats fell to Idaho, Vandal’s quarterback Gevani McCoy riddled a worn down MSU defense for 229 yards on 22 of 29 passing and two touchdowns. MSU’s effort was somewhat excusable considering they spent nearly 25 of the 30 first half minutes on the field and the exposure took its toll. Plus, McCoy is the best quarterback in the Big Sky Conference and earned first-team all-league honors to affirm that.
Still, the inability to stop McCoy was a little startling as a week earlier, against another of the Big Sky’s top passers in Sacramento State’s Kaiden Bennett, MSU had the upper hand. It held the sophomore sensation, who just took apart North Dakota in the first round of the 2023 FCS playoffs, to just 24 of 42 passing for 224 yards, allowing just one touchdown pass and snaring two interceptions (100.3 rating), one of which was returned for a TD by cornerback Jon Johnson.
Bennett stunned the FCS prognosticators with a sterling performance against the Fighting Hawks as he hit on 17 of 22 passes for 207 yards and a TD (171.3 rating). He added another 126 yards rushing on 13 carries with two more scores to advance the Hornets (8-4) to a second round game against University of South Dakota, the No. 3 seed in the bracket
MSU ended up allowing a passer rating of 155.8 over the final four games of the season. The huge change can probably be attributed somewhat to external factors, but the core of the problem is probably internal as MSU’s pass rush does not appear to be getting the amount of pressure it once was, while several key players in the secondary and middle support have been out of action due to injury.
McCoy was the BSC’s first team selection at quarterback, EWU’s Kekoa Vesparis was the league’s lone honorable mention pick and UM’s Clifton McDowell was the league’s Newcomer of the Year. MSU was solid against the NAU combo of Flores and Daniel Britt, but the other three riddled the Bobcat’ secondary.
Earlier in the season, the Bobcats had to replace nickelback Caden Dowler, who was splitting time at the position with senior Level Price, Jr. Cornerback Simeon Woodard – one of the league’s top shutdown players at the position – has been in and out of the lineup all season.
Woodard, a junior, appears to still be ailing as he’s listed as the backup at field corner behind true freshman Andrew Powdrell this week. Safety Dru Polidore wore a huge pad on his wrist for several weeks before finally being shelved. He returned last week against the Grizzlies but only saw limited time behind JC transfer Blake Stillwell. Cornerback Miles Jackson was injured coming out of preseason camp, but he’s been replaced by Johnson, who has held down the spot admirably.
Once Jackson healed up, he was inserted into the backup nickel spot and would eventually get a few starts as Price was lost for three weeks due to an injury. The only secondary member to start every game this season has been safety Rylan Ortt. If nothing else, the returning players should allow MSU’s defensive coaches to keep the secondary fresh.
Aside from Dowler, everyone in the secondary is back on the depth chart. However, whether they are 100% healthy is unknown. The Bobcats were also without the services of linebacker Danny Uluilakepa, who was injured in the first series of the Sacramento State game. He returned last week and is listed as the starter this week.
While getting back to full strength is a plus for MSU, having to face one of the top quarterbacks in the FCS in NDSU’s Cam Miller is not. He leads the Missouri Valley Football Conference with a 173.0 passer rating and has also gained 625 yards rushing at 5.8 yards per carry. His backup Cole Payton is a 6-3, 230 pound sophomore who has run for 488 yards on just 64 carries this season. He had 104 yards and two TDs last week against Drake. He also ran for over 100 yards against Eastern Washington.
“They’re different styles,” Vigen said of Miller and Payton. “The runs they have with Miller are different than when Payton’s in there. He’s a strong sucker that just gets downhill in a hurry. That stretches the things you have to defend.”
MSU’s run defense caught a lot of flack from fans and media last week after UM had a pair of sustained drives to start the game that were aided by poor tackling. Despite that, MSU rebounded and kept the Grizzlies in check aside from a huge 64-yard TD run late in the game by running back Nick Ostmo. Other than that, MSU held UM running backs to just 69 yards on 24 carries, but quarterback McDowell ran for 74 yards on 9 carries after sacks were eliminated.
The Bobcats have seemed vulnerable to quarterback runs all season. Portland State’s Dante Chachere had 16 carries for 83 yards and a pair of touchdowns in a game that saw the Vikings within a field goal at halftime. SDSU’s Mark Gronowski hit MSU with a 20-yard touchdown run, Bennett (17) and McCoy (14) have broken off decent runs, and NAU backup Britt had a 31-yard jaunt late in the game.
MSU is allowing just 3.8 yards per carry on the season and while that number has slipped a little the Bobcats have been solid the past four weeks in that area. They lead the league in sacks with 37 after getting three against UM last week.
MSU has a daunting task of beating the Bison despite this being considered a down year for the perennial power. NDSU has only lost four games in the playoffs since 2010 and is 45-4 with a chance to set the FCS playoffs win record.
MSU has been on the wrong end of four of NDSU’s playoff wins as they’ve lost to them in second round in 2010 and 2018, the semi-finals in 2019 and the championship game in 2021.
“I think there’s a respect that naturally comes from all their success,” Vigen said. “I know we’re a season removed from the last time we played them but obviously that game in Frisco did not go our way. Recognize how far some of our individuals have come since then. Look at it as a great opportunity as compared to the flip side of ‘how are we going to do this?’ We need to go after it. A fine line to what that means to you mentally. You respect, but you gotta hold nothing back.”
Montana State is set to host North Dakota State this Saturday at 1 in the second round of the playoffs.
