Montana State University

Tommy Mellott (photo by Colter Peterson)

Football
10/17/2024 3:19:00 PM

Bill Lamberty

Tommy Mellott and Dante Chachere face off against brilliant quarterbacks

BOZEMAN, Montana – As Brent Vigen leads his third-ranked Montana State football team on the road for the first time in three weeks, he knows a tough test lies ahead.

“Portland State got their first win last weekend and they are a very dangerous team,” Vigen said. “They’re a team that gave us fits last year, it was a 17-14 game at halftime. They certainly have one of the more explosive players in our league and probably in the country with Dante Chachere at quarterback. He was 200- year old. 200 (yards rushing and passing) plus and accounted for six TDs at Idaho State last week, and they have a very good skill set led by Quincy Craig, who is a running back-slash-receiver type.

Vigen warns that Portland State’s 1-5 overall record (1-2 in the Big Sky) says more about one of the toughest games in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) than it does about the quality of the opponent for Montana State (7 -0, 3-0) on Saturday. The game ranks as Portland State’s second home game after a game against South Dakota was canceled, but the Vikings have already played two Division I Football Bowl Subdivision teams, Washington State and Boise State, along with two nationally ranked FCS foes.

That scheme distorts the most obvious evaluation points, Vigen said. “They have two games, Washington State and Boise, where they gave up 126 points, so it’s statistically difficult to come back no matter what you do,” he said. “But a lot of credit goes to Coach Barnum and the staff for keeping them together. To go out on the road, (against) Idaho State, an up-and-coming team, to go out and pull that out is impressive.”

Chachere’s brilliance at Idaho State, when he threw for 216 yards and ran for 202, led to conference and national player of the week honors. “He’s just a great athlete,” Vigen said, “and his ability to make quick decisions and play positively, the unscripted in his game is significant. The unscripted is hard to practice for, it’s very hard to get into the practice. He throws the ball well, and in addition to throwing the ball to Craig, they have three receivers who are really dangerous.

Craig is an important weapon for the Vikings. He rushes for 43.2 yards per game and is PSU’s leading receiver with 24 catches. Eric Denham’s 328 receiving yards lead the team in that category, Deion Thompson adds punch in the running game with 4.7 yards per carry and 50.2 yards per game.

Vigen said Portland State’s ability to neutralize an offense in a variety of ways presents a challenge. “There are several of them, they are quite an active front,” he said. “If you look at their numbers, it’s not like they set the world on fire, but two weeks ago (UC) Davis is coming off their win against Idaho and going there and (PSU) defending Davis really well. It all came down to on to the last play, and they took Davis’ running game and really made it difficult. Davis probably had to throw it more than they wanted, over 50 times that game if I remember correctly, and it wasn’t on a high note either they can play at a high level.”

Linebackers Michael Montgomery and Peyton Wing lead the Vikings with 51 tackles each, 4.5 behind the line of scrimmage for Wing with four passes for Montgomery. Defensive end Spencer Elliott has one sack, one interception and one forced fumble.

Saturday’s game, with a 2 p.m. MT kickoff, marks Montana State’s third visit to Hillsboro Stadium, where the Vikings moved in 2019. The Cats earned a 43-23 mark there in 2018 and 30-17 in 2021. Excluding those two losses to the Bobcats, PSU is 13-7 there.

The Bobcats enter Saturday’s game with great poise. MSU leads the Big Sky in scoring offense (41.3 points per game), total offense (498.6 yards per game), rushing offense (311.4), passing efficiency (175.71) and fewest passes intercepted (0).

Defensively, MSU continues to deal with a rash of injuries. After losing a starter up front (nose tackle Blake Schmidt) and secondary (safety Caden Dowler) in the previous two weeks, the Cats lost a three-year starting linebacker Danny Uluilakepa last week.

Saturday’s game will air in Montana on over-the-air MTN stations (KBZK Bozeman 7.2, KXLF Butte 4.2, KTVQ Billings 2.2, KPAX Missoula-Kalispell 8.2) and NBC on all platforms in Helena (KTVH 12.1) and Great Falls (KTGF 19.1). For more information, visit mtnmontana.com/findus. The game will also be broadcast statewide on the Bobcat Radio Network.

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