GAME #1: Bobcats Visit New Mexico for Earliest Season Opener in Bobcat Histor - Montana State University Athletics (2024)

Third-year starting quarterback Tommy Mellott

Football 8/23/2024 10:38:00 AM Bill Lamberty

Montana State, Lobos get together for first time since 1947

BOZEMAN, Montana – The last time Montana State opened the season at a Mountain West Conference school, things were quite different.

When the Bobcats took the field at Wyoming's War Memorial Stadium to open the 2021 season, Montana State hadn't played a football game in 21 months and Brent Vigen had never led a team as a head coach. The Cats lost to a team with tremendous stability that day, a Cowboys program that Vigen had helped build as an assistant to long-time head coach Craig Bohl, but in the ensuing three seasons MSU has won 32 games and advanced to the FCS Playoffs every year.

This Saturday, in the program's first week zero game, the Cats open Brent Vigen's fourth season as the school's head coach at New Mexico. Kickoff is 2 pm, and the game airs on FS1 and nationally on SiriusXM channel 385 and on the Gridiron Radio Network. Montana State faces a Lobos team led by veteran head coach Bronco Mendenhall in his first game at UNM, and featuring 42 transfers.

"Obviously there's a big-time opportunity in front of us on Saturday to play against a Mountain West team that I suspect is going to be very much ready to go," Vigen said, "and for us to get back onto that game field. It's always a lot of anticipation that goes into these opportunities, whether it's week zero or week one. This team started putting everything together back in January, and I've appreciated the deliberate nature of how we went about our business."

The opportunity is obvious. Montana State hasn't beaten an Football Bowl Subdivision team since 2006, when the Cats knocked off Colorado. The challenge is obvious, also. New Mexico's crop of transfers include 29 players from FBS programs. "It's a talented team," Vigen said, "and we know they're hungry."

Montana State enters 2024 with an experienced squad led by 20 returning starters. Third-year starting quarterback Tommy Mellott and All-America offensive lineman Marcus Wehr pace the MSU offense. Much of New Mexico's experience resides on the defensive side of the ball, where six returning starters includes three defensive linemen and both safeties.

The MSU defense, featuring two-time All-America defensive end Brody Grebe and a secondary built on four returning starters, tangles with an energized Lobos offense. While New Mexico returns only two offensive starters, but quarterback Devon Dampier, brings dynamic playmaking ability to that unit. He completed 62.5 percent of his passes last season while throwing six touchdown passes without an interception.

Mendenhall brings experience and success to the Lobos sideline. His 135 FBS wins is seventh among active head coaches. He is mindful of Saturday's place in Lobos football. "This is the beginning of an era Saturday," he said, "but it doesn't define an era."

The veteran head coach is impressed with the Bobcats. "I think when you're talking about Montana State you first need to frame it as you're talking about a football program and not a football team," he said. "There are teams that flash in and out, there are teams that are consistent or not consistent. Once a team becomes consistent year in and year out it starts moving toward a program. Montana State's done a really nice job of establishing a football program."

Vigen has appreciated his team's approach to preparing for the season. "We've talked a lot about one day at a time, winning that day, one-and-oh," he said. "Guys have really stuck to that through the course of the winter, the spring and summer, and now fall camp."

The Bobcats play the earliest game in program history on Saturday (August 27, 2014, was the previous earliest game), and also one of its most visible. MSU and the Lobos have the afternoon time slot to themselves, and the game airs nationally on FS1 and also on SiriusXM satellite radio. The matchup is the third between the two teams. Montana State closed its 1923 in Albuquerque on Thanksgiving Day, topping the Lobos 34-7. Almost a quarter century later, the teams tied 13-13 in the Harbor Bowl on New Year's Day, 1947.

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