Like quite a few Covid-era players, Montana State center Cole Sain is in his seventh season of college football. You’d think he’d be a grizzled old veteran with gray hair, a beard and about 30 starts under his belt. What you get is a low-key, hungry player that just wants to be on the field helping his team win games.
Sain is doing just that in his senior season as MSU is off to a 4-0 start going into Big Sky Conference play. Not only did he win the starting right guard spot in camp, but he’s now replacing the starting center thanks to his position versatility from working at center years ago.
“It had been a while since I had played center,” Sain said. “About two years since I was coming off injury that I had meaningful reps. This year I was coming off a soft-tissue injury so I only had about ten days to get ready. (Offensive line coach Al Johnson) was coaching me really hard every day and I just took everything he gave me.”
Sain has gone from an oft-injured journeyman to winning multiple starting positions and this year is thriving at center in place of an All-American captain. He’s not just filling in for three-year starter, captain and preseason All-Big Sky pick Justus Perkins, but he’s taken charge of an offensive line that is widely considered the best in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision.
“It was unfortunate what happened with Justus,” said Montana State second-year offensive line coach Al Johnson. “Cole was working his way back at that point and he’s been a center and a guard. Putting Cole back at center gave us our chance to have our best five on the field at all times.”
That included thrusting Titan Fleishmann into the starting lineup at right tackle, inserting redshirt freshman Cedric Jefferson at left tackle and bumping All-Americans senior Marcus Wehr from right tackle to right guard and sophomore Connor Moore from left tackle to left guard.
The linchpin thus far has been Sain.
“Not ideal,” Johnson said of the reshuffle. “Not how I would’ve told you a few months ago our starting five at New Mexico would’ve looked. But they deserve these wins. They are playing well. They are playing together. And Cole has been a huge part of that.”
After graduating from California prep football powerhouse St. John Bosco, Sain signed on with the University of Montana. After one season there, he transferred to Riverside Community College in 2019, then came to MSU where his first year was the 2020 Covid season when the Bobcats didn’t play any games.
He played sporadically in 2021 due to injury, then started 13 games on the 2022 team that broke numerous MSU rushing records. Last year, he was injured again and missed the season but jumped at an opportunity to return and hasn’t looked back.
“It’s tricky with the injury deal,” Sain said. “Bummer with what happened to Perk and we’re hoping to have him back soon. We had a lot of depth to start the year and maybe we don’t have as much as we’d hoped. I think everyone playing different positions has really helped.”
With all that behind him, Sain is now directing an MSU offensive line that is back to its old tricks of piling up rushing yards but notably he’s also spearheading an efficient and effective passing game. As they have for the past three seasons, the Bobcats lead the BSC in total rushing yards, rushing yards per game and rushing yards per play.
“We just work on that all week,” Sain said of MSU’s run game. “We love running the ball. Just five guys up front running hard and working together and then our running backs just run their butts off, it’s awesome.”
These days the Bobcats are also second in passing efficiency and are tied for the best touchdown to interception ratio in the league at plus-7 with Eastern Washington and Northern Arizona. MSU has been as effective as it has efficient. In three opportunities to perform the two-minute drill, the Bobcats have been highly successful.
Against the University of New Mexico, MSU took over with 1:59 to play and went 89 yards in 11 plays with quarterback Tommy Mellott connecting on 6 of 9 passes for 81 yards. Two weeks later against Maine, Mellott went 2 for 3 for 13 yards to set up a field goal. Finally, in perhaps the short season’s most impressive two-minute drill this past week against Mercyhurst, Mellott went 5 for 5 for 75 yards culminating in a perfectly executed 50-yard scoring play to Adam Jones. The drive started with 1:38 to go and ended with :27 remaining in the half.
Perhaps it could’ve have happened anyway, but with Sain at center the Bobcats have begun evolving from a one-trick pony offense with their vaunted run game to a more multi-dimensional unit behind its pass protection and Mellott’s arm.
“He’s had to call back on past experience. Cole was a center. He was the center before Justus even if he didn’t have a ton of game reps. When Cole has been healthy, he’s been right there as far as playing that position,” Vigen said. “Without last fall, without spring ball, to be thrust into that position, the big thing, for him to be able to do it without any previous experience, it shows the real maturity about Cole right now.
“He’s in his 7th year and he’s been through a lot. He chose to take this seventh year and has his master’s behind him and all that stuff. That maturity, doing all the things necessary since that moment Justus went down that I hoped he would do, he’s done.”
Mellott leads the Big Sky in pass efficiency at 167.6 and his plus-7 touchdown-to-interception ratio is matched only by Sacramento State’s Carson Conklin. He’s also second in the league in completion percentage at 71 percent. His 8.3 yards per pass is a half yard better than the second-best average.
“You look down the list of the guys who have played better each week and he’s at the top of the list,” Vigen said about Sain. “For him, the game rust was significant. He’s done some really good things but he’s missed some things the first week and that carried into the second week. He had a holding penalty. He had a sack. But he’s taken his game to another level and when it comes to this week, that’s the expectation again.”
Sain will lead the Bobcats into their first league game this Saturday at 4:00 in Pocatello where MSU will face Idaho State.
