ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — College football officially kicks off Saturday, and Montana State gets to join the select few playing in Week 0.
The stage is set for the opportunity to take on FBS New Mexico for a standalone nationally televised game on FS1.
"I think the nation is going to see how confident our team is, and going out, how prepared we are, how hard we worked this offseason to make it a special season coming forward," Montana State defensive end Brody Grebe said.
"(A) passionate team, we’re going to be running around," Montana State quarterback Tommy Mellott added to what he wants the nation to see from the Bobcats on Saturday. "We’re going to be making plays. We’re going to be flying around. Most excited to be on the field, those are the things that come to mind. And then, just our acronym, CATS — we’re going to be character, accountability, toughness and state. Those are going to be shown every single day."
New Mexico, part of the Mountain West Conference, finished last season 4-8. But the Lobos have a new look since Bronco Mendenhall was hired as their head coach this past offseason. Most recently, he was the head coach at Virginia from 2015-2021 and before that spent over a decade as the head coach at BYU.
"Their personnel is one side of it, a lot of turnover on the roster," Montana State coach Brent Vigen said. "I think coaching wise, though, you can look at a group for the most part that has been together. I know it goes back a couple years to Virginia. But you can certainly gain something from what they’ve done when they’ve been together before, offense, defense, special teams."
Since the team the Bobcats are facing has some unknowns, Vigen said it's more about his players sticking with one another and focusing on what they can do.
"You’ve got to make it more about how can we play, how can we react in this setting," Vigen said.
Montana State will see a shift in its offensive line to start the season, according to the depth chart Vigen released earlier this week. Since center Justus Perkins is out with an injury he sustained in fall camp, Cole Sain moves into that role, officially back after an injury that sidelined him all of last season.
Marcus Wehr was moved inside to right guard, and Titan Fleischmann is in to start at right tackle. Conner Moore is at left tackle and left guard will either be JT Reed, who is also returning after missing the 2023 season with an injury, or Burke Mastel, a Red Lodge native.
"It’s a long time coming for Cole," Vigen said. "This goes back really to last summer for him. Prior to that, Cole’s an incredibly experienced guy. Both guard spots, playing center, even being able to play tackle at times. To be able to insert him at that spot, that wasn’t the plan. But I think the plan was he was going to be our next man up at center."
Montana State is currently a 13.5-point favorite as of Friday, according to Sports Bet Montana.
"I think recent history, most of the games between our conference and the Mountain West have been competitive," Vigen explained. "I know teams in our league have found a way to win a few of them for sure. Teams in our league schedule these games, because I think that they feel like they can compete. That’s the opportunity we have in front of us."
The Bobcats and Lobos will kick off at 2 p.m. Saturday, and the game will be broadcast on FS1.
