BOZEMAN — After Montana State’s 42-19 victory of Sam Houston State on Saturday, every Bobcat fan has to be feeling sky high even on a Monday. On Monday, MSU head coach Brent Vigen spoke to the media at his weekly presser.
“(Our guys) had complete confidence and things really fell into place early for us, scoring offensively, getting the takeaways and being able to open up that lead against a real good team," Vigen said of their victory over SHSU. "They kept coming after it and made it interesting but we were able to tack on a few more scores.”
Montana State went out and dominated from the get go. They played one of their most complete football games as a collective unit this year.
“It was all three phases," Vigen said. We aimed to out-rush them and we did that. We needed to win the turnover margin and we were plus three. Explosive plays, they had a few, but I think by and large we limited them and made some ourselves.”
As for unseeded South Dakota State, Vigen has lots of history going against them in his time at as an assistant coach at NDSU. John Stiegelmeier is the head coach of the Jackrabbits and started coaching SDSU when Vigen was senior playing for the Bison in 1997. South Dakota State defeated Villanova 35-21 on the road to book a ticket to Bozeman this Saturday.
“Back and forth quite a bit with NDSU," Vigen said of his time with the Bison facing off against Stiegelmeier. "He’s continued to raise their profile in the last time since I have been gone. We got our hands full. They lost some games and their seeding didn’t end up happening for them, but it’s not surprise to me that they’re a semifinal team or in the final four for just how they’ve been able to play over the years and at times how they’ve played this year. This is where they belong I think.”
Kickoff is at noon on Saturday and will be broadcast on ESPN2.
