Cats hope to run over top-ranked Jacks in FCS semifinal rematch

For the second straight season, the road to an FCS national championship involves the Montana State Bobcats and the South Dakota State Jackrabbits.

Unlike last year, though, when the Cats knocked off the Jacks in the FCS semifinals in Bozeman, the scene will shift to Brookings, South Dakota, as third-seeded MSU (12-1) visits top-seeded SDSU (13-0) Saturday afternoon with a trip to Frisco and the FCS title game on the line. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m. inside what is expected to be a frosty Dana Dykhouse Stadium.

"Going back to January, the immediate thought was to get right back where we were down in Frisco, Texas," MSU head coach Brent Vigen, said to MTN Sports recently.

"To go after a national championship you've got to believe it, you've got to think it, you've got to see it."

The Cats sure can see it. After getting oh so close back in January to winning their first national championship since 1984, the Bobcats can do something no team in program history has done, win a semifinal game for a second consecutive year, and that would give the Cats another shot at the title.

And the way they're playing right now, the Cats look like a team that should win the national championship.

In last Friday night's quarterfinal, MSU rushed for over 400 yards against William & Mary, the CAA champion, in a game that was never close.

The Cats come into Saturday's semifinal averaging over 44 points and 380 rushing yards per game. The running attack, is, of course, led by sophomore quarterback Tommy Mellott, and junior backup QB Sean Chambers, as well as veteran Elijah Elliot. Now however, the Cats have back Isaiah Ifanse, who went off against the Tribe last Friday. Ifanse missed the entire regular season with a knee injury, but now healthy for the playoffs, he bolsters an MSU offense that is seemingly impossible to stop.

And really no one has stopped it. Not Montana, not Weber State, not William & Mary. However, SDSU does, in fact, have the No.1 rushing defense in the FCS, so it's the Jack's turn to try.

Before last Saturday's quarterfinal win over Holy Cross, no one had rushed for 200 yards against the Jacks this season, not even defending national champion North Dakota State. That said, the Cats haven't rushed for under 200 yards since the 2021 Cat-Griz game in Missoula. And combined, Mellott and Chambers have rushed for over 2,000 yards this season.

So, with a trip to the championship game on the line, it looks as though the only thing that stands between MSU and a shot at the chipper is the Jackrabbit's rushing defense. And if SDSU can't stop MSU, just like no one else has been able to do this season, then it will be on to Frisco in January.

Montana State will face South Dakota State Saturday at 2 p.m. in Brookings. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN2. The winner will meet either North Dakota State or Incarnate Word, who play tonight, in the FCS championship game Saturday, Jan. 8 at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas.