2021 Montana State Bobcats football team

2021 Montana State Bobcats football
NCAA Division I Championship, L 10–38 vs. North Dakota State
Conference	Big Sky Conference
Ranking
STATS	No. 2
FCS Coaches	No. 2
2021 record	12–3 (7–1 Big Sky)
Head coach	Brent Vigen (1st season)
Offensive coordinator	Taylor Housewright (1st season)
Defensive coordinator	Freddie Banks (1st season)
Home stadium	Bobcat Stadium (capacity: 17,777)
Seasons ← 2019 2022 →

2021 Big Sky Conference football standings
v t	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
No. 10 Sacramento State $^		8	–	0					9	–	3
No. 2 Montana State ^		7	–	1					11	–	3
No. 7 Eastern Washington ^		6	–	2					10	–	3
No. 6 Montana ^		6	–	2					10	–	3
No. 17 UC Davis ^		5	–	3					8	–	4
Weber State		5	–	3					6	–	5
Northern Arizona		4	–	4					5	–	6
Portland State		4	–	4					5	–	6
Idaho		3	–	5					4	–	7
Northern Colorado		2	–	6					3	–	8
Cal Poly		1	–	7					2	–	9
Idaho State		1	–	7					1	–	10
Southern Utah		0	–	8					1	–	10
$ – Conference champion ^ – FCS playoff participant Rankings from STATS Poll

The 2021 Montana State Bobcats football team represented Montana State University as a member of the Big Sky Conference during the 2021 NCAA Division I FCS football season. The Bobcats were led by first-year head coach Brent Vigen and played their home games at Bobcat Stadium in Bozeman, Montana.

The Bobcats finished their regular season with a 9–2 record (7–1 in conference), losing only to Wyoming (an FBS team) and Montana.^[1] They were seeded eighth in the FCS postseason tournament and received a first-round bye; they then defeated UT Martin, Sam Houston State, and South Dakota State to advance to the final match of the tournament. In the championship game, the Bobcats were defeated by North Dakota State on January 8, 2022, in Frisco, Texas.^[2]

Previous season[]

The Bobcats opted out of the 2020–21 FCS season, contested during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. During the 2019 FCS season, the Bobcats finished at 11–4 overall, 6–2 in Big Sky play to finish in a three-way tie for third place. They received an at-large bid to the FCS Playoffs where, after a first round bye, they defeated Albany in the second round and Austin Peay in the quarterfinals before losing in the semifinals to North Dakota State.

Preseason[]

On July 26, 2021, during the virtual Big Sky Kickoff, the Bobcats were predicted to finish fourth in the Big Sky by both the coaches and media.^[3]

Coaches poll

Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	Weber State	(7)
2	Montana	(3)
3	Eastern Washington	(2)
4	Montana State	(1)
5	Sacramento State	(1)
6	UC Davis
7	Northern Arizona
8	Idaho
9	Idaho State
10	Portland State
11	Southern Utah
12	Cal Poly
13	Northern Colorado

Media poll

Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	Weber State	(14)
2	Montana	(4)
3	Eastern Washington	(3)
4	Montana State	(3)
5	Sacramento State
6	UC Davis
7	Northern Arizona
8	Idaho
9	Idaho State
10	Portland State
11	Southern Utah
12	Northern Colroado
13	Cal Poly

Preseason All–Big Sky team[]

The Bobcats had two players selected to the preseason all-Big Sky team.

Schedule[]

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 4	2:00 p.m.	at Wyoming*	No. 12	War Memorial Stadium Laramie, WY	ESPN+	L 16–19	30,007
September 11	6:00 p.m.	Drake*	No. 11	Bobcat Stadium Bozeman, MT	SWX	W 45–7	19,797
September 18	1:00 p.m.	San Diego*	No. 13	Bobcat Stadium Bozeman, MT	SWX	W 52–10	19,107
September 25	3:05 p.m.	at Portland State	No. 13	Hillsboro Stadium Hillsboro, OR		W 30–17	4,095
October 2	1:05 p.m.	Northern Colorado	No. 11	Bobcat Stadium Bozeman, MT	SWX	W 40–7	20,127
October 9	2:00 p.m.	Cal Poly	No. 10	Bobcat Stadium Bozeman, MT	RTNW	W 45–7	19,847
October 15	8:00 p.m.	at No. 19 Weber State	No. 9	Stewart Stadium Ogden, UT	ESPNU	W 13–7	6,323
October 23	1:00 p.m.	Idaho State	No. 8	Bobcat Stadium Bozeman, MT	SWX	W 27–9	19,297
November 6	2:00 p.m.	at No. 5 Eastern Washington	No. 4	Roos Field Cheney, WA	SWX	W 23–20	6,981
November 13	1:00 p.m.	Idaho	No. 3	Bobcat Stadium Bozeman, MT	SWX	W 20–13	19,447
November 20	12:00 p.m.	at No. 7 Montana	No. 3	Washington–Grizzly Stadium Missoula, MT (rivalry)	RTNW	L 10–29	26,856
December 4	2:00 p.m.	No. 16 UT Martin*	No. 7	Bobcat Stadium Bozeman, MT (NCAA Division I Second Round)	ESPN+	W 26–7	15,237
December 11	6:30 p.m.	at No. 1 Sam Houston State*	No. 7	Bowers Stadium Huntsville, TX (NCAA Division I Quarterfinal)	ESPN+	W 42–19	7,565
December 18	12:00 p.m.	No. 11 South Dakota State*	No. 7	Bobcat Stadium Bozeman, MT (NCAA Division I Semifinal)	ESPN2	W 31–17	20,457
January 8, 2022	10:00 a.m.	vs. No. 3 North Dakota State*	No. 7	Toyota Stadium Frisco, TX (FCS Championship Game)	ESPN2	L 10–38	18,942
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from STATS Poll released prior to the game All times are in Mountain time

^[4]

Roster[]

2021 Montana State Bobcats football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class WR 0 Cam Gardner So WR 3 Coy Steel Jr WR 5 Charles Brown Fr QB 7 Casey Bauman So TE 8 Derryk Snell So WR 9 Jamahd Monroe  Fr WR 10 Nate Stewart GS WR 11 Willie Patterson Jr QB 12 Tucker Rovig Jr RB 13 Elijah Elliott Fr TE 14 Peyton Thornton Fr QB 16 Tommy Mellott Fr WR 16 Tanner Trafton  Fr WR 17 Jaden Smith  Fr QB 18 Sean Austin Fr RB 18 DeMareus Hosey  Fr RB 19 Jaharie Martin Fr RB 22 Isaiah Ifanse Jr RB 24 Lane Sumner So WR 25 Andrew Patterson Fr RB 29 Jaalen Rening Fr RB 38 Garrett Coon Fr TE 42 R. J. Fitzgerald Jr TE 48 Ryan Davis Sr TE 49 Dyse Shepherd Fr OL 51 Taylor Tuiasosopo Sr OL 56 Cole Sain So OL 58 Aaron Richards Fr OL 59 Zach Redd Jr OL 60 Dontae Myrick Fr OL 61 Cole Snyder Fr OL 62 Dylan Porter Jr OL 63 Rush Reimer Fr OL 65 Justus Perkins  Fr OL 67 Joe McElroy So OL 70 Holden Sampson  Fr OL 72 T. J. Session  Fr OL 73 Titan Fleischmann Fr OL 74 Conor Reitler Fr OL 75 Jacob Kettels Fr OL 76 Lewis Kidd Sr OL 79 Jack Harlow  Fr TE 80 Treyton Pickering So WR 81 Tayvian Williams So TE 82 Elijah Reynolds Fr WR 83 Logan Kleinhans So WR 84 Peyton Hanser Jr WR 85 Aidan Garrigan Fr WR 86 Lance McCutcheon Sr TE 87 Ryan Lonergan  Fr TE 88 Jarrett Kessler Jr	Defense Pos. # Name Class CB 0 Tyrel Thomas Sr DB 1 Eric Zambrano So DB 2 Tre Webb GS DE 3 Amandre Williams Sr CB 4 James Campbell Jr S 5 Jeffrey Manning Jr Jr DB 6 Miles Jackson Fr DB 7 Ty Okada Jr CB 8 Level Price Jr. So CB 9 Simeon Woodard Fr DE 10 Brody Grebe Fr LB 11 Kenneth Eiden IV Fr DB 12 Devin Davis Fr DB 13 Jackson Harmon Fr LB 15 Troy Andersen Sr LB 17 Tadan Gilman Jr S 18 Kendric Bailey So DB 20 Tyson Pottenger Fr OLB 23 Aidan Parks Fr DB 25 Eli Aby Fr DB 26 Rylan Ortt  Fr DB 27 Connor Ryan Fr S 28 Jake D'Agostino Fr LB 30 Danny Uluilakepa Fr LB 31 Jace Fitzgerald Fr ILB 32 Jory Choate So DT 33 Blake Hehl So LB 34 Nolan Askelson So ILB 40 Alex Johnson  Fr DT 41 Chase Benson Sr LB 43 McCade O'Reilly Fr DE 44 Daniel Hardy Sr LB 45 Hunter Parsons Fr DL 50 Zack Black Fr LB 53 Luke Fedyk Fr LB 54 Cooper Thomas Fr DT 55 Tua Areta  Fr DL 57 Tyson Regimbal  Jr DL 90 Marcus Wehr  Fr DE 91 David Alston So DL 92 Blake Schmidt  Fr DL 93 Kyle Rygg Jr DL 94 Byron Rollins Jr DL 95 Sebastian Valdez Fr DL 96 Paul Brott Fr DL 98 Ben Seymour So DL 99 Trey Yates Fr	Special teams Pos. # Name Class K 35 Luke Pawlak Fr P 37 Bryce Leighton Fr K 39 Blake Glessner Fr LS 71 Tommy Sullivan Fr	Head coach Brent Vigen Coordinators/assistant coaches Taylor Housewright (OC) Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt Roster

Game summaries[]

at Wyoming[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 12 Bobcats	7	0	0	9	16
Cowboys	0	3	0	16	19

Drake[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bulldogs	0	7	0	0	7
No. 11 Bobcats	9	15	7	14	45

San Diego[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
Toreros	0	0	7	3	10
No. 13 Bobcats	21	14	10	7	52

at Portland State[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 13 Bobcats	3	6	14	7	30
Vikings	10	0	7	0	17

Northern Colorado[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bears	0	7	0	0	7
No. 11 Bobcats	17	10	13	0	40

Cal Poly[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
Mustangs	0	0	7	0	7
No. 10 Bobcats	7	28	7	3	45

at No. 19 Weber State[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 9 Bobcats	7	0	6	0	13
No. 19 Wildcats	7	0	0	0	7

Idaho State[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bengals	3	0	3	3	9
No. 8 Bobcats	0	10	3	14	27

at Eastern Washington[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 4 Bobcats	7	9	0	7	23
No. 5 Eagles	13	0	0	7	20

Idaho[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
Vandals	0	10	3	0	13
No. 3 Bobcats	7	6	0	7	20

at No. 7 Montana[]

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 3 Bobcats	3	0	0	7	10
No. 7 Grizzlies	10	6	10	3	29

Ranking movements[]

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking.
NR = Not ranked. RV = Received votes. т = Tied with team above or below. ( ) = First place votes.

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
STATS FCS	12	11	13	13	11	10	9	8	6	4	3	3	7	2
Coaches	11	13	13	12	12	11	9	8	6	4	3	3 (1)	9	2

References[]