This Saturday, August 24, college football kicks off its 2024 season in Dublin, Ireland, as the Florida State Seminoles take on the Georgia Tech Yellowjackets beginning 10 AM MST. The first game officially on American soil begins at 2 PM MST in Albuquerque, when the University of New Mexico Lobos host the Montana State Bobcats. ArtwestimageSports.com of Whitefish, has two staff members credentialed for sideline photography at the contest, conducting a feature special highlighting Montana high school athletes. The Bobcats currently have a total of 47 roster players who played for Montana high schools, including quarterback Tommy Mellott from Butte, All-American lineman Marcus Wehr of Billings Central, and Brody Grebe of Melstone/Roundup.
This project follows other features completed by our team, with the most recent being on the Bobcat’s senior tight end Treyton Pickering, who starred for the Sunburst Refiner’s six-man program from 2014-17. That story and highlight photographs appeared in the Cut Bank Pioneer Press newspaper in December of 2022. We’ll publish our highlight imagery from Saturday with an excerpt from our story on Facebook and the entire feature on our ArtwestimageSports.com photography website in early September.
The Lobos have many new contributors under new head coach Bronco Mendenhall, who previously coached at Virginia and BYU. Montana State, under coach Brent Vigen, is entering his fourth year at the helm. Vigen has crafted one of the most successful programs in FCS football, setting a three-year MSU coaching record with 32 wins and includes straight trips to the FCS playoffs. In his first year, Vigen guided the Cats to a berth in the 2021 National Championship game in Frisco, Texas. An ArtwestimageSports.com staffer was credentialed for sideline photography during that game as well!
Montana State enters the 2024 campaign ranked #4 in the FCS coaches’ poll, behind South Dakota State, North Dakota State and the Montana Grizzlies. The Bobcats are picked to finish second in the Big Sky Conference in this summer's media poll, behind the University of Montana.
MSU returns 14 starters off of last year’s 8-4 squad, led by quarterback Tommy Mellott 6-0 210 lbs. who begins his third season as the Bobcat’s first-string quarterback. In 33 total games, Mellott has thrown for 3241 yards, and 24 touchdowns, while rushing for 2474 yards and 24 scores. The Butte High School alum was a second-team All-Big Sky quarterback last season and led MSU to the national title game as a redshirt freshman in 2021. A former Butte Bulldog standout, Mellott passed for over 7,000 career yards and 69 touchdowns, while running for almost 2,500 yards and 31 scores from 2017-2019. He was the Class AA Offensive MVP during his senior season, after leading his squad to the state title game.
In 2023, Montana State was first in FBS in yards per carry rushing at 7.28 YPC and second in the nation in rushing, averaging 261 yards per game over 12 ballgames. MSU scored 41 touchdowns rushing, second only to North Dakota State’s 47 in 2023. Last year's main starter at running back, Julius Davis, is out for the New Mexico game with an injury. Scottre Humphrey 5-11 210 lbs. will start in Davis’s absence, with Adam Jones 6-0 200 lbs. getting carries. The two combined for 492 yards and nine TDs in 2023, with Humphrey gaining a respectable eight yards-per-carry. Jones, who played on two Missoula Sentinel state championship teams, earned First Team Class AA All-State honors in 2022 on both offense and defense.
Starting at wide receiver are Lonyatta Alexander Jr., Ty McCullouch and Billings West’s Taco Dowler. Dowler and McCullouch both started games last year, with the 6-1 185 lb. McCullouch leading the squad with 473 yards receiving and five touchdowns. The 5-9 175 lb. Dowler was Montana’s Gatorade Player of the Year in 2021 while playing for the West High Golden Bears. During that season he was 1st Team All-State as a receiver, defensive back, kick returner and punt returner. He holds Billings West’s career records with 2,752 receiving yards, 30 touchdowns, 149 catches and 4,562 all-purpose yards. He only played four games for the Bobcats in 2023 due to injury, but was one of the nation’s top punt returners in ’22 as a freshman redshirt. After sitting out last year due to transfer rules, Alexander played in 11 games for Washington in 2022, and at 6-3 210, will provide Mellott with another big target. Former Bozeman Hawk tight end Ryan Lonergan and Maine transfer Rohan Jones at fullback are first-time starters, although the 6-4 240 lb. Lonergan was a steady backup in a talented tight end group last season.
Billings Central graduate Marcus Wehr, at 6-4 300 lb. is an FCS All-American, and was previously at right tackle, but has been moved inside to guard in 2024. Titan Fleischmann 6-4 300 lb. holds down Wehr’s old position. Former Bobcat’s starting guard Cole Sain 6-4 300 lb. missed all of the 2023 season because of an injury but is now the first-team center in place of 2023 starter Justus Perkins, who is recovering from a leg injury. JT Reed 6-3 290 lbs. and Red Lodge’s Burke Mastel 6-4 315 lbs. will both play at left guard.
The other side of the ball could be a Bobcat strength, with another All-American, Brody Grebe at 6-3 250, coming back at defensive end. The Melstone native was 1st Team All-Big Sky and was a Buck Buchanan Award finalist in 2023. He led the Cat’s last season with 55 tackles, including a team-high 13.5 for loss, and 10 sacks. Bozeman High’s Kenneth Eiden IV starts for the first time in his college career at the other end. Eiden, at 6-1 245 lbs., was the 2019 Class AA Defensive MVP and was a First Team Class AA All-State tight end. Eiden’s Hawks beat Butte with Tommy Mellott at quarterback, 49-28 in the 2019 Class AA title game. He racked up over 40 career sacks with the Hawks. Washington State transfer Alec Eckert at 6-2 280 lbs. and returning senior starter Blake Schmidt 6-2 300 lbs. holds down the tackle spots. Schmidt has started 25 games over three seasons for the Cats.
Several returning starters highlight a talented backfield corps, with cornerback Jon Johnson 6-0 185, strong safety Rylan Ortt 6-1 210, free safety Blake Stillwell 6-1 180 and middle linebacker Danny Uluilakepa 6-1 225 leading the way. A Missoula Sentinel product, Ortt threw for 2,098 yards and rushed for 750 yards and 14 touchdowns for the Spartans in 2018. At nickel safety, Billings West’s Caden Dowler 6-0 200 lbs. and Miles Jackson 5-11 190 lbs. will alternate, as will cornerbacks Simeon Woodard 5-10 180 lbs. and Andrew Powdrell 5-10 185 lbs. All four of those players started at least one game for the Cats in 2023.
Taco Dowler is the punt returner and Marqui Johnson 5-8 180 lbs. begins his third season as the kickoff return specialist. Casey Kautzman returns as the starting placekicker, and Brendan Hall comes back as the starting punter and kickoff specialist. Kautzman was a four-year letterman for Butte High, and was a 1st Team Class AA All-State kicker twice, and scored 191 career points, coming on 125-135 on PATs, and 22-31 on FGs. He was 4-7 on field goals and 19-22 on PATs in six games for the Cats last year. Hall was a first-team All-Big Sky punter with a 46.1 average. He also handles kickoffs, getting touchbacks on 72 of 86 attempts in 2023.
The Lobos new mentor Bronco Mendenhall, has an overall record of 135-81 in 17 seasons as a head coach. He was hired earlier in the year to lead the program after Danny Gonzales completed his fourth year with just 11 wins in 43 games. Mendenhall has only experienced two losing seasons on his college head coaching resume, and his teams only missed being bowl eligible once. Jason Beck and Nick Howell are in their first seasons as offensive and defensive coordinator, respectively, but both have assisted in Mendenhall’s system for a total of 26 years.
Mendenhall does have some experience at the most critical position on the squad, in quarterback Devon Dampier. Damper, a 6-0 198 pound dual threat quarterback, passed for 525 yards and ran for 328 yards and ten total touchdowns during nine games for the Lobos in 2023. The Lobo offense was 65th in the FBS in points per game last season but did manage a top 20 rushing attack which buoyed their four wins in 12 games. Eli Sanders, at 6-0 200 lbs, looks like a likely starter at running back. The Iowa State transfer ad 102 carries for 477 yards, and four TDs last season for the Cyclones. Sanders will combo with an experienced and quicker option in halfback Andrew Henry who averaged 6.2 yards per carry on 52 attempts for New Mexico last year.
The top returning pass catcher is Caleb Medford, who at 6-3, 197 presents a tall target on the edge. His 30 catches for 551 yards and two scores were tops on an anemic Lobo aerial attack. At 6-4, 200 lbs. Isaiah Jones provides an even bigger target for Dampier downfield, but had only 9 catches for 166 yards and two touchdowns last season. Redshirt junior wideout Luke Wysong 5-10 165 lbs. returns to the Lobo offense after missing much of the 2023 season due to injury. Wysong had led the Lobos in both 2022 (34) and 2021 (24) in receptions and was the Gatorade High School Player of the Year in New Mexico for both football and track. The Bobcat’s will need to be wary of him, as a receiver and as a kick and punt returner, where he led his squad in total attempts and yards per carry.
No returning starters return on an offensive line, which will be a work in progress for the Lobos and should be susceptible to getting gashed by blitzers on the Bobcat defense in their first game of the season.
On defense, cornerback Noah Avinger appears to be the Lobo’s best outside cover guy, but didn’t play in ’23 due to injury. He was good for San Diego State in 2022 but will need to stay healthy on a group that was 83rd in passing yards against and 106th in total yards allowed last season. 6-1 270 lb. USC transfer Je’von Benton looks like the foundation piece in a young New Mexico interior defensive line. New Mexico’s biggest threat at defensive end is 6-3 250 lb. Gabriel Lopez, who had six tackles for loss in his 26 total tackles in 2023.
Leading the defensive secondary will be Dimitri Johnson, an experienced 6-3, 231 lb. linebacker, who total 48 tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss last year. At safety, Christian Ellis at 6-2 208, had 59 tackles in the Lobo’s 23’ campaign and will be his team’s enforcer over the middle. The New Mexico defense surrendered 35 points per game in 2023 and was one of the worst groups in the nation, finishing at 123rd in scoring defense overall.