FRISCO, Texas — All year, Montana State had no equal.
The Bobcats stormed to an undefeated record, an outright Big Sky Conference title and the No. 1 seed for the FCS playoffs.
Photos: Montana State comes up short in FCS championship game
Then came Monday night, when MSU finally met its match — despite a furious comeback attempt. Cam Miller and North Dakota State got the best of Tommy Mellott and the Bobcats with a 35-32 win in the national championship game in front of 18,005 fans at Toyota Stadium.
Miller, the runner-up to Mellott for this year’s Walter Payton Award as the most outstanding offensive player in the FCS, completed 19 of 22, threw for 199 yards, rushed for 121 and accounted for four touchdowns.
It’s the second time the Bobcats have lost to NDSU in the title game; the Bison beat MSU 38-10 at the end of the 2021 season.
Montana State (15-1) was a slight favorite as it looked to snap a 40-year national title drought. Instead the Bison (14-2) won their 10th FCS crown in the past 14 years and their first since that 2021 campaign.
"A hard-fought battle," Montana State coach Brent Vigen said afterward. "Obviously want to congratulate North Dakota State. They played better than us, and ultimately (we) dug ourselves a big hole. Guys fought like crazy in that second half.
"We came here with one expectation. I know it stings a lot for these guys, for these seniors in particular, that have laid such a foundation for our program."
Championship press conference: Montana State coach Brent Vigen, players react to loss
The Bison began the game in Bisonesque fashion, putting together a workmanlike scoring drive to take a 7-0 lead. Miller’s leaping 2-yard run capped a 12-play, 75-yard march that took nearly half the first quarter.
After an MSU punt, the Bison benefited from a pass-interference call on third down, then a few plays later Miller busted up the middle on a draw play against an unassuming Bobcat defense for a 64-yard touchdown run to make it 14-0.
NDSU possessed the ball for 10:10 of the opening quarter and went 3 for 3 on third-down plays.
The Bobcats scored their first points with a 32-yard field goal by Myles Sansted, cutting their deficit to 14-3 with 5:38 left before halftime. The Cats had a chance to pare the lead further, but a fourth-down pass by Mellott was incomplete with 59 seconds on the clock.
Miller then marched the Bison 56 yards just before intermission, connecting with Bryce Lance for a 1-yard touchdown pass with 12 seconds left. At that point, NDSU led 21-3. It was Lance’s 17th TD catch of the year.
"I think our offense was a little bit stagnant there in the first half, unfortunately, and we came up short because of it," Mellott said. "But coach (Tyler) Walker got us going. Players started making plays. Guys kept fighting.
"It's very easy down 21-3 to quit, and we came back out there, fought for the seniors, and just came up short."
The Bobcats did what they had to do at the outset of the third quarter, scoring a touchdown on a 1-yard run by Scottre Humphrey to make the score 21-10. After an NDSU punt, Mellott found Ryan Lonergan for 54 yards and then hit Rohan Jones with a 5-yard TD pass.
Mellott hit Lonergan for a two-point conversion and suddenly the Cats were right back in it down 21-18.
Miller, who was voted the most outstanding player of the game, came right back, though, and made a clutch deep throw to Lance for 38 yards on third down to the 2 on the last play of the third quarter. That led to a 1-yard Miller TD pass to Joe Stoffel.
But the Bobcats answered, as Mellott raced 44 yards down the far sideline for his first rushing TD of the night, closing the gap on the scoreboard to 28-25 with 11:25 to go.
The teams then traded punts, and NDSU got a huge third-down conversion throw from Miller to RaJa Nelson with less than 4:00 remaining in Bobcat territory, then a 3-yard touchdown run by CharMar Brown put the Bison back up by 10, 35-25, with 2:41 left.
"They coached and played better than us today, and those critical situations — those third downs — that's where it shows up the most," Vigen said."
Montana State didn’t fold, and Mellott hit Taco Dowler with a pretty 19-yard TD pass toward the corner of the end zone on fourth down to pull the Cats within 35-32 with 1:09 remaining.
However, Brendan Hall’s onside kick attempt was recovered by NDSU’s Lance and the clock ran out on the Bobcats.
"It's our expectation for this program to win this game, and that's hard to do," Vigen said. "It's really hard to get here first and foremost, and the fact that we've gotten here two out of four years I think speaks to our program."
Turning point: Miller’s 64-yard touchdown run on that first-quarter draw play on third down gave NDSU an all-important two-score lead.
Miller received the snap, took one step back and then burst through a humongous hole to run untouched for 64 yards. Miller was seemingly halfway to the end zone before Montana State’s defense knew what was happening.
The Bobcats could never quite come all the way back.
Stat of the game: In spite of Mellott’s efforts, MSU was held well below its season rushing total. The Cats had 198 rushing yards, but came in averaging 301.4 per game. The Bobcats broke 30 points for the 16th time this season, but averaged 41.3 coming in.
Bobcat game balls: QB Tommy Mellott (Offense). Like he was all season, Mellott again was Montana State’s ringleader. In his final game, Mellott had 135 rushing yards, 195 passing yards and three total TDs.
S Rylan Ortt (Defense). While the Bobcats had trouble combating Miller, Ortt was around the football all night long. His 10 tackles led the team. Eight of those were solo stops.
What’s next: It was a dream season for the Bobcats, but now they’ll look to the future with the knowledge that they need to replace Mellott, Brody Grebe and an entire slew of seniors that helped fashion one of the best four-year runs in program history.
But they’ll do so with the knowledge that Brent Vigen will be back as coach after heavy interest from the FBS last month. Though MSU lost on Monday, Vigen is 47-10 in his tenure in Bozeman with only one home loss.
