BOZEMAN — Since their impressive victory over FBS New Mexico in Week 0, No. 3 Montana State defeated five unranked FCS opponents to garner a 6-0 start to the season.
That was until Saturday night, when the Bobcats had what many considered their first true FCS test of the season. They faced their first ranked opponent in No. 7 Idaho and dominated in a 38-7 win over the Vandals.
A top-10 matchup is definitely a test, one the Bobcats absolutely aced.
"It means a lot. I mean, we answered questions — like, we had questions about ourselves and we answered them," Montana State defensive lineman Paul Brott said. "I think that was our best performance yet, to be able to go out there and do that."
Idaho’s defense came into this game holding opposing rushing attacks to an average of under 100 yards per game.
It seemed no problem for Montana State, which ran for 361 yards and three touchdowns as a team. Two of those scores came from quarterback Tommy Mellott. He led the Bobcats' rushing attack with 140 yards on the ground in the win on Saturday night.
"We’ve purposely tried to limit those opportunities, and we didn’t necessarily do that (Saturday)," Montana State coach Brent Vigen explained. "And, you know, he’s going to get into open space. He’s really tough to deal with. I thought he played excellent."
"I enjoy to run," Mellott said. "That’s part of my skill set. That’s part of what makes me different, so I loved it. We didn’t know what they were going to do — last year they went super wide and wouldn’t let me pull it. You know, we just ran between the tackles. This year they got back and forth because this year we just got after them."
MSU looked complete on both sides of the ball, as the defense didn't let up a score until the final minute of the game. The Bobcats forced two turnovers on an interception from linebacker Danny Uluilakepa and fumble recovery from defensive back Rylan Ortt. Defensive back Dru Polidore recorded five tackles in his first game back from injury this season. Defensive end Brody Grebe and Brott each finished with a sack.
"You know, we got a really good group of leaders, and they all do it the right way, and Danny and Rylan are perfect examples of that," Vigen said.
"I thought that was our best performance yet," Brott said about the defense. "I mean, each day this week, we were going out there with the emphasis on knock back and hustle. And they’re a really good O-line, and I think we did a great job (Saturday)."
The team motto of "going 1-0 every day" seems to be more than just that this season. The team has truly adopted the way of going about their business, and it’s paid off.
"We are just playing the next team in front of us, so to be able to continue to really, truly live in the one day at a time, but one week at a time, one opponent at a time, not get ahead of ourselves, has served us really well," Vigen explained.
"You know, no one’s looking ahead to a different game," Mellott said. "They know the present is the most important thing, so we might have a different perspective relative to last year, that we just cherish these a little bit more. ... I just love our team."
Montana State continues conference play at Portland State this Saturday.
