[CORRECTED VERSION] - Aggies arrive in Bozeman, looking to tame the Bobcats
Big Sky championship, playoffs at stake in Saturday night's nationally televised battle
(A previous version of this story was inadvertently sent out a day early.)
BOZEMAN, Montana - Early in his weekly press conference, UC Davis head football coach Tim Plough said that Montana State was beating other teams by 100 points.
By the end of the 35-minute session, he upgraded that assessment and said that Montana State was beating other teams by a million points.
We’ll learn Saturday whether either of those assessments holds true when the No. 10 Aggies take on the No. 3 Bobcats in a much-anticipated Big Sky Conference showdown.
Game time Saturday in Bobcat Stadium on the MSU campus is 8:30 p.m. (7:30 Pacific) and an overflow crowd of 20,000 is expected.
The game will be televised nationally on ESPN2.
Those who prefer to turn down the volume on the TV and listen instead to the longtime Voice of the Aggies, Scott Marsh, along with analyst Scott Gordon, can turn to Sactown Radio, 1140 AM.
While players and coaches are required by law to stick to the tried-and-true “play ‘em one game at a time,” Aggie fans and Bobcat fans alike have had this one circled since their favorite teams first put on the pads in July.
As evidence of just how certain even TV executives were that this game would be a big one, ESPN2 had it on its calendar before the season even started.
Montana State comes in with an eight-game winning streak, an 8-2 overall record and a share of the league lead with archrival No. 2 Montana. Those two will meet in the regular season finale next Saturday in Missoula in a game that has become known throughout the state as “The Brawl of the Wild.”
The Aggies are 7-2 overall, 5-1 in the Big Sky and finish the season next Saturday at home against Sacramento State.
Aggie wins over both Montana State and Sacramento State, coupled with a Montana State win over Montana, would yield a three-way tie for the championship, provided that Montana beats Portland State today.
An Aggie loss Saturday will eliminate them from title consideration.
Much has been made about both the altitude and potential chill factor in Bozeman, a city that sits at 4,817 feet. Game time temperature is anticipated to be near 38 degrees, dipping to a low of 32.
However, both teams are made up exclusively of athletes of the same genus and species, and the rules of football require that the altitude and field temperature and barometric pressure be exactly the same on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
Neither Plough, nor Montana State head coach Brent Vigen, give much credence to the cold or the altitude being a factor, but both agree that a loud and raucous crowd can indeed play a role.
“Our crowd can definitely be an advantage, but we have to do something positive to get them excited and involved,” noted Vigen, who has been mentioned frequently as a candidate for the vacant head coaching position at Oregon State.
Plough, whose team handled similar crowd noise successfully last season in Missoula, says it’s up to his team to take the crowd out of the game.
At stake in addition to the Big Sky crown are bids and seeding to the 24-team FCS national championship playoff in which both the Aggies and Bobcats competed last year.
Now, about that high-scoring Montana State offense Plough was talking about with just a bit of exaggeration.
Indeed, in their last two games the Bobcats have scored 121 points while holding the opposition to a mere 21. Then again, they might wish they had saved some of that 100-point margin of victory for Saturday’s game.
It’s not that Montana State hasn’t tasted defeat.
The Bobcats were drilled, 59-13, in their season opener at Mighty Oregon and then suffered a rare 30-24 home loss to South Dakota State.
“We shouldn’t have lost that game, but we did,” notes Vigen of the SDSU loss.
Since then, however, the Bobcats have won every game by at least 17 points and most by much more than that.
In order, the victories have come over San Diego, 41-7, Mercyhurst, 17-0, Eastern Washington, 57-3, Northern Arizona, 34-10, Idaho State, 48-14, Cal Poly, 34-17, Northern Colorado, 55-7, and Weber State, 66-14.
“This will be a great challenge for us,” said Plough.
“This will be a great atmosphere and our guys will go out there and do their best and try to win a football game. I believe we still haven’t played our best football and that’s our quest, to see how well we can play.”
Plough was enormously pleased with last Saturday’s bounceback 28-14 win at Idaho after UCD suffered what he described as a “gut-wrenching, embarrassing” 38-36 home loss to Idaho State the week before.
“That’s the best win in my time here,” said the second-year head coach.
“Montana State is the class of the conference and if we don’t play well, they’ll run us out of the building. We’ll have to play our very best just to stay in the game. We need to be the most physical team, the smartest team and be great on special teams. They have the best punt returner on the planet.”
That planetary sensation has an unforgettable name, Taco Dowler, and he burned the Aggies with a 79-yard punt return for a touchdown in last season’s 30-28 win over the Aggies and already has a 90-yard scoring punt return this season.
Asked the best way to contain Dowler, Plough said simply, “Don’t punt.”
Dowler is also the Bobcat’s leading receiver with 51 catches for 645 yards and five touchdowns.
Stanford transfer Justin Lamson out of Oak Ridge High School in El Dorado Hills is a dual-threat quarterback for the Bobcats, much like Aggie quarterback Caden Pinnick.
Lamson has hit 72.2 percent of his pass attempts for 2,026 yards and 18 scores with just two interceptions. He has also rushed for 412 yards and eight touchdowns.
The Bobcats’ balanced offense features two top running backs in Julius Davis (709 yards and six scores) and Adam Jones (593 yards and nine scores).
Pinnick has been sensational in his rookie season, hitting with 70.8 percent accuracy for 1,987 yards and 20 TDs with six interceptions.
Workhorse Jordan Fisher has rushed for 787 yards and five scores, but explosive running back Carter Vargas, with 445 yards rushing, was injured against Idaho State and is done for the year.
Fleet Sam Gbatu leads all UCD receivers with 43 grabs for 742 yards and five scores, followed by Stacy Dobbins with 35 catches for 416 yards and two TDs.
Noted Vigen, “Pinnick can take advantage with unscripted plays and he’s difficult to contain. He’s an impressive guy with a very bright future. You better corral him in some way. You look at him on film and you wonder how he got out of that situation.”
Both coaches are thrilled with the exposure an ESPN2 game will give to their programs and to the Big Sky Conference.
Added Vigen, “These are two programs that have winning mindsets and players who believe they’re going to win every time they take the field. It’s going to be a great atmosphere.”
Montana State players will wear special helmet decals Saturday night to honor Native American Heritage month. The decals were designed by the American Indian Council on the MSU campus.
The decal shows the Bobcat head encircled by several Native American symbols, including a stripe down the middle of the helmet. Together they represent the plains tribes of Montana.
Vigen has embraced the opportunity not only for his team to wear the special decal, but also for the educational value the experience is providing for his players, fans and the MSU community as a whole.
As part of the recognition, on Tuesday the team spent time with the American Indian Council on campus.
“It’s one thing to have a theme game to maybe change your appearance or your look, whether it’s your jersey or your helmet, but do you really understand what you’re representing,” Vigen noted.
“That’s the biggest piece for me. Our state certainly has a strong Native American presence, and it means so much to different places across Montana. For us to shine a light on that heritage and really honor that heritage is what this opportunity is all about.”
Reach Bob Dunning at bobdunning@thewaryone.com