BOZEMAN, Montana — Montana State conducted its annual Sonny Holland Classic spring football game on Saturday, April 22, 2023.
A nice crowd of a couple thousand people took in the 99-minute scrimmage that saw the Bobcats run 99 plays, a coincidentally identical number that couldn’t possibly have been intentional.
Quarterbacks junior Tommy Mellott and redshirt freshman Luke Abshire operated the offense for the Blue team, a squad that featured most of Montana State’s most proven returning offensive linemen. Redshirt freshman Jordan Reed and true freshman Chance Wilson guided the White offense. Most of MSU’s top available offensive talent played for the Blue team while most of MSU’s available headlining defensive players played for the White team.
Senior Sean Chambers, a former Wyoming transfer who was the Big Sky Conference Newcomer of the Year last season, was one of a variety of Bobcats who did not participate during the spring game because of varying levels of injury or recovery.
The Blue team saw junior Elijah Elliott score a short touchdown to begin the scoring in an otherwise low scoring affair. The Blue also got a 43-yard interception for a touchdown by Blake Stillwell, a junior college transfer who played last season at the New Mexico Military Institute. The play before Stillwell’s pick-6, Jackson Harmon nearly picked off a Reed pass but dropped it despite having nothing but daylight if he’d snared the interception.
The White’s lone touchdown came during a red-zone situation with Wilson, a hyper-athletic early enrollee, at quarterback. The Bobcats lined up with a heavy formation with no receivers and flooded the short side of the field to the left. Garrett Coon, a former Wyoming Gatorade Player of the Year, leaked out to the right and found himself wide open, walking in for a touchdown seconds later.
After halftime, the lone score came on a 25-yard field goal by freshman kicker Myles Sansted, a walk-on from Alexandria, Minnesota who is also the son of MSU head coach Brent Vigen’s wife Molly’s twin sister.
The final score was 18-7 in favor of the Blue team, although Vigen joked following the contest he was unsure where the phantom 18th point came from.
Here’s some of our biggest impressions following the conclusion of spring football for a Bobcat program working on a streak that’s included FCS Playoffs Final Four appearances each of the last three seasons.
MSU has a plethora of OL who can play and an attitude to once again be one of the best units in the FCS
Last season, one of the biggest points of concern for MSU centered upon replacing exceptional talent along the offensive line. Lewis Kidd was gone to the New Orleans Saints. Two-time All-Big Sky offensive guard Taylor Tuiasosopo exhausted his eligibility. Offensive tackle T.J. Session transferred to Cal. And multi-year starter Zach Redd elected to forego his final year of eligibility.
With no returning starters and no upper classmen, the Montana State offensive line did not miss a beat. In fact, the group was arguably the best in former OL coach Brian Armstrong’s seven seasons leading the unit.
Now Armstrong coaches in the Mountain West (offensive line coach at Fresno State) and the unit has an embarrassment of experience and talent.
Rush Reimer was a sophomore All-America last season while manning the left tackle spot. Center Justus Perkins and offensive guard J.T. Reed were each all-conference selections last season while guard Cole Sain started 13 of 14 games.
The right tackle spot saw Marcus Wehr, Titan Fleischmann and Jacob Kettels all see time as the first two suffered season-ending injuries.
And the emergence of Conner Moore, a 6-foot-5, 300-pound redshirt freshman from Millbury, Ohio, allowed Montana State to try several of those proven stalwarts out at other spots this spring, including Saturday.
The Blue team’s offensive line included Moore at left tackle and Reimer at left guard. Reed played center while Sain played right guard and Wehr, a former defensive lineman who’s up to 300 pounds, played right tackle.
Perkins served as the starting center for the White team while redshirt freshman Burke Mastel played left tackle, sophomore Omar Aigbedion, played left guard, junior Holden Sampson played right guard and sophomore Aaron Richards played right tackle. Kettles and Fleischmann were unavailable while recovering from injuries suffered last season.
“You look at the big picture, offensive line is a position group where we already are deep and we already have most of those guys, seven guys who have played in games, even two guys who were on the other (White) team (Aigbedion, Perkins), so that should’ve been an advantage today,” Vigen said.
“Contrarily, on the defensive line, we are down there, so that should’ve been an advantage there for the Blue team. We wanted to lean on that group and we saw really good progress through the spring with the offensive line. Ultimately, there’s a lot to play out yet.”
Montana State ran the ball 53 times total on Saturday, gaining 201 yards on the ground. Redshirt freshman Jared White, who started a game last season before suffering a broken leg, rushed nine times for a scrimmage-high 41 yards.
The rushing numbers come with a grain of salt since MSU employs the quarterback in its spread option rushing attack as much as any team in college football. What is not up for debate is how many talented, tough players the Bobcats have along the offensive line.
“We are trying to create as much position flexibility as we can so the older guys who have played, like Rush, can add another position, that adds to their ability to be on the field,” Vigen said. “Cole Sain snapped today, we snapped JT Reed a little bit while at the same time locking Connor Moore into tackle, continuing to lock Omar into guard, because what we want to do in the fall is to get our best five out there.
“That doesn’t mean we are only going to play five but position flexibility, competition, it’s there and a guy like Connor certainly deserves a look and he’s made a good impression here this spring.”
‘Cat secondary needs several hyped recruits to turn into productive players
Most of the players who participated in the NFL Pro Day on the MSU campus two weeks ago used to play in the Bobcat secondary. It’s a tall task to replace talents like safety Ty Okada along with cornerbacks James Campbell & Tyrel Thomas. Jeffrey Manning Jr. also ate up most of the reps at free safety the last two seasons after transferring to MSU from Oregon State.
Miles Jackson has flashed since coming to MSU out of Central Catholic High in Portland, Oregon. But he’s waffled back and forth between cornerback and safety the last few seasons while waiting his turn.
Saturday, Jackson anchored the secondary for the White that also included several of the most proven players who return this season defensively. All-Big Sky defensive end Brody Grebe plus returning starters defensive tackle Blake Schmidt, linebacker Danny Uluilakepa, safety Rylan Ortt and cornerback Simeon Woodard also suited up in White.
“That’s a group (the secondary) with a lot of new faces, Blake Stillwell being one of those new faces, a guy who has missed a lot of time this spring due to injury but has been back out there the last week, so for him to make a play like certainly bodes well,” Vigen said.
“We have position battles going on in the interior. Rylan Ortt has certainly established himself as our strong safety. But who’s going to back him up?
“At free safety, between (converted cornerback) Dru Polidore, Tyson Pottenger and Blake Stillwell, that’s going to be an ongoing battle. And at the nickel position, between Caden Dowler and Level Price, they have both left their mark this spring. There’s a lot of potential in that group and some big shoes to fill, but I like our progress right now
Jackson had a splash play when he stuffed a halfback pitch play for a loss, one of his six solo tackles, a scrimmage-high. Woodard has been a lockdown corner since emerging as a true freshman two seasons ago. Jackson is one of several talented yet unproven players that will be expected to step up in the Bobcat secondary.
“The corner spots, we will continue to try to shore those up but the emergence of Miles Jackson has been one of those things has probably been one of those things I probably haven’t talked about enough this spring,” Vigen said. “Miles has really come into his own and for the first time since I’ve been here, he’s settled into a position. He has a different confidence about him.
“A ways to go, collectively, for the five positions on the back end but we saw some real good progress.”
Alexander is a big, strong inside receiver, which could add a new element
In Vigen’s first season leading Montana State, Coy Steel and Willie Patterson, a pair of 5-foot-9 players with plenty of grit but not a lot of mass, manned MSU’s H inside receiver position.
Last season, Clevan Thomas Jr. was the primary H for the Bobcats despite fighting a bizarre eligibility issue stemming from his days at Kentucky. Thomas is as chiseled an athlete as you’ll see in any sport. Yet he’s still listed at 5-foot-11, 192 pounds.
Saturday, Vigen confirmed that Thomas would play more on the outside this season in a position group that added Colorado State transfer Ty McCullouch this off-season. Vigen also confirmed that Lonyatta “Junior” Alexander, a former four-star recruit from the Seattle area who spent the last two seasons at the University of Washington, will play H wide receiver.
Alexander is MSU’s biggest receiver at 6-foot-3 and 206 pounds. On Saturday, he gobbled up five catches, matching Christian Anaya for scrimmage-best honors. MSU’s nickelbacks did a good job of taking Alexander down in space, but that size could add a new element to the MSU offense, both in blocking in the box in MSU’s already potent run game and in the ability to exploit mismatches against smaller nickels in passing situations.
“We made the transition later in the year to Clevan playing on the outside and Junior is a guy who’s bigger but we really think can play inside,” Vigen said. “He has a really good feel in there. How you saw him today is how he’s been practicing most of the spring and I think he’s a big-bodied guy who has excellent body control. He catches the ball really well and he has a bigger body type to block inside too.”
Mellott is throwing it better because his lower body is healed
Much has been made in regard to how much Montana State runs the ball and how much Montana State runs its quarterbacks. On one hand, MSU set the school single-season record for rushing yards in a season and ranked second in the FCS by rushing for 312 yards per game last season. And Mellott & Chambers combined to rush for nearly 1,800 yards and scored 30 rushing touchdowns between the two of them.
On the other hand, though, Mellott has missed time each of the last two seasons, including getting hurt in the national title game as a freshman in 2021. Chambers also missed time with injury last season and was unavailable in MSU’s FCS playoff semifinal loss at South Dakota State to end a 12-2 campaign.
Conventional wisdom suggests that a more prevalent passing attack could ease a lot of Montana State’s offensive question marks. But like former MSU head coach Jeff Choate used to say, “if we can run the ball for 300 or 400 yards per game, why do we need to pass?”
Mellott completed almost 60 percent of his passes for 1,433 yards and eight touchdowns. The Bobcats threw for 175 yards per game and had 17 passing touchdowns compared to 45 rushing scores.
But Mellott can throw better than most give him credit for, especially when he’s healthy. The leg injury that knocked him out of the national championship game against North Dakota State required surgery. Although Mellott was available to begin last season, he did not have the stability in his lower body to throw the ball with the authority he wants.
Now he’s fully healthy, and confident, heading into his junior year.
“I think I had a good spring, I was consistent through everything,” Mellott said after completing 10 of 16 passes for 78 yards. “Accuracy, I don’t ever think it’s been an issue, it’s just been more or less consistency, so that’s what I’ve been working for. It’s also never been an arm talent sort of thing, it’s just kind of mentally understanding everything and I’ve continued to grow in that way. That’s what the spring is all about and that’s what we did.”
Coming into last year, the question on the national level was could Mellott replicate the magical run he had as a freshman who replaced a forlorn starter only to lead his team on one of the great playoff runs in school or Big Sky Conference history?
Now Mellott enters his junior year with an elevated sense of a maturity and a target on his back as one of the most recognizable names in the FCS.
“It’s a growth mindset, like always,” Mellott said. “Taking it day by day, trying to grow and I think I had a great spring, worked on a lot of things, worked on throwing a lot and we have to grow that aspect of our offense. I think we took a step in the right direction this spring.”
Montana State’s offense will score points in bunches. Can the defense once again have role players turn into stars to spark another deep playoff run?
You could argue that the defensive units won the day on Saturday given that only 25 (24?) points were scored. But Montana State’s offensive line will be bullish and elite.
Neither Derryk Snell or Treyton Pickering, arguably the most talented tight end duo in the conference, participated on Saturday, which will help bolster the offense, as will the presence of Kaegun Williams, a San Diego State transfer who was expected to play a huge role last season before missing the campaign with a neck injury.
The Bobcat offense was also without Chambers, Thomas, electrifying wide receiver Taco Dowler, Fleischmann, Kettles, and wide receiver Aidan Garrigan, all who will play roles next season if healthy.
That’s all to say that the cupboard is stacked full offensively for a team that averaged nearly 42 points per game last season.
Over the last two seasons, the Bobcat defense has seen stars like Troy Andersen and Daniel Hardy get drafted, while also seeing safety Tre Webb get an NFL (and now CFL) shot. Okada might be the next Bobcat to get drafted and he plus Campbell might be the next from the MSU defense to get NFL shots.
Only one player outside of Grebe — junior defensive tackle Sebastian Valdez, who like Grebe was a a first-team All-Big Sky returnee but who did not play on Saturday — could be considered a proven star from the Bobcat defense. But plenty of other Bobcats, including Ortt & Woodard along with linebackers like Uluilakepa, junior McCade O’Reilly and senior Nolan Askelson have star power. They just need to prove it.
Can Ortt and Woodard go from nice pieces to All-Big Sky talents? Can Schmidt continue his ascension to become an elite Big Sky player? Is Jackson ready to rise? Will someone else steal the spotlight?
Montana State’s program is rolling. The Bobcats are hoping to make the playoffs for the fifth year in a row. A fourth straight semifinal appearance would be unprecedented. Montana State has the offense to compete with anyone. Can they get enough stops to contend once again for a Big Sky championship and make an FCS title run? Time will tell.
“The spring went well, we made a lot of steps toward what we are working toward, which is a national championship,” O’Reilly said. “We have to keep growing as a team and growing that bond, which will ultimately help us achieve our ultimate goals.”
