MSU Notes: Bobcats, Bison return to FCS title game

Three years later, here we are again.

It’s fitting that the 2024 Division I Football Championship, as we officially call the FCS title game, pits the Montana State Bobcats against the North Dakota State Bison.

It’s fitting also that the starting quarterbacks for each team when they met for the 2021 title, MSU’s Tommy Mellott and NDSU’s Cam Miller, are still around. They’ll meet again at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, at 5 p.m. Monday.

In the days of NIL and the Transfer Portal, this seems pretty rare.

“Both of them could have probably left and played power-5 FBS football somewhere,” said Eli Mostaert, NDSU’s standout defensive end.

“It tells how much they care about their program and their university and trying to do this with the guys they came in with.”

Miller was a sophomore in that 2021 title game, but his path is similar to Mellott’s.

During the 2021 spring season he found himself starting two playoff games as a true freshman, ending with a 24-20 loss to Sam Houston in the quarterfinals.

Mellott memorably was named MSU’s starting QB following a 26-10 loss at Montana in the 2021 Cat-Griz game. The Bobcats promptly tore off three playoff wins to punch their ticket to Frisco, Texas.

Miller’s team won, 38-10.

“At the time I was really considered a game manager,” Miller, who was 9 of 13 passing that day for 126 yards and a TD, said Monday. “I wasn’t expected or told to do anything spectacular, other than stay on the field on third down, don’t force the football.

“I think my role has evolved from there to being a play maker and doing everything I can to help my team win.”

Mellott, as Bobcat fans will remember, injured an ankle early on and went to the sidelines having completed 2 of 3 passes for 23 yards, and gained 11 rushing yards on three carries.

“Freshman year was a whirlwind,” Mellott said Monday. “I didn’t know much about football at that point.”

Of the injury in that title game three years ago, he said: “Knowing I couldn’t do anything was an awful feeling.

And I remember walking off the field it was just a feeling of, ‘Are we every going to be able to get back here in the next four years? Was it taken for granted, this moment?’ Every year since has just been motivation to earn the right to go back and play the championship game.”

NFL resumes

Miller remembers something else from that 2021 matchup. “Every single offensive lineman on that (NDSU) team made an NFL roster,” he said.

“When you have that you can run the ball effectively, and that’s what we did.”

The proof is at profootballreference. com. The starters from left tackle to right tackle were: Cody Mauch (starts for the Buccaneers), Cordell Volson (starts for the Bengals), Jalen Sundell (played in 11 games with Seahawks this season), Nash Jensen (started five games for Carolina this season), and Jake Kubas (started two games for the Giants).

Of course the Cats were also well represented: defensive starters Ty Okada (Seahawks), Troy Andersen (Falcons), Daniel Hardy (Rams, then Bears) all made NFL rosters along with O-lineman Lewis Kidd (Saints) and receiver Lance McCutcheon (Rams).

The Thrill and Agony

The Bison, 13-2 this season, have won five straight playoff games against the Bobcats dating back to a 42-17 win in Bozeman in the 2010 playoffs.

Before then, MSU had won 21 of 33 games over NDSU, ending with a 20-17 home non-conference win on Sept. 24, 2005.

The 2010 loss marked the beginning of NDSU’s incredible run. The Bison went 9-5 that year, losing in the FCS quarterfinals; since then they are 185-21 — and nine of those losses have come in the last three seasons. They’ve won nine FCS titles in that span.

This also includes a 16-0 season in 2019; the Bobcats will be trying to duplicate that Monday at Toyota Stadium.

The 2021 game was tough but last year’s quarterfinal home loss, 35-34 in overtime, to NDSU may have been the toughest. It ended with 6-foot-7 backup lineman Hunter Poncius blocking a Bobcat PAT kick.

Poncius is now listed at 6-8; the senior has made the first two starts of his career in the playoffs, at right guard.

Mellott was asked Monday if the Cats have been playing angry ever since.

“I wouldn’t say it’s been angry, like we’ve to get back at all these people,” he said. “I think it’s more for the guys around us. ... The guys that looked themselves in the mirror on whatever it was, Dec. 4, and said, ‘Man, we’re done playing football already, what is going on, we need to figure this out.’ The guys that really stuck it out. ... I don’t think there’s anything that’s going to get in our way of us or cause us to have any doubt in each other. It’s been that way all year.”

QUICK KICKS: MSU senior defensive end Brody Grebe played in the 2022 title game had one tackle for a 2-yard loss. ... NDSU’s CharMar Brown, who the NDSU staff and his teammates call “Marty,” has 227 carries this season. By comparison MSU’s Adam Jones, who lost out to Brown for the Jerry Rice Award, has 173 carries. Both have over 1,000 yards and 14 TDs. ... NDSU is 4-3 against No. 1-ranked opponents, including a 38-31 overtime loss to Eastern Washington in the 2010 quarterfinals. ... Eastern went on to claim the 2010 title, the last by a Big Sky Conference team. ... MSU is seeking its first FCS title since 1984.