Touchdown Tommy times 4; Bobcats dominate Tennessee-Martin

BOZEMAN — Behind a career day from Tommy Mellott, unbeaten Montana State rolled past Tennessee-Martin 49-17 in a second-round FCS playoff game at Bobcat Stadium Saturday.

On an unseasonably warm afternoon, Mellott showed why he is the Big Sky Conference offensive player of the year, passing for a career-high 300 yards while matching his career best with four touchdown passes. 

The senior from Butte tossed a pair of scoring passes in the opening quarter, first to a wide open Hunter Provience from 24 yards out. Provience saw extra action due to an injury in MSU’s previous game to tight end Rohan Jones. 

Later in the quarter, Mellott threaded the needle on a 12-yard scoring pass to Taco Dowler. With 1:30 left in the first half he evaded a strong pass rush and hit Ty McCullough for 39 yards and a 28-10 MSU lead. Mellott finished 22 of 25 passing in front of 17,017 fans. Dowler and Ty McCullouch each caught four passes and Ryan Lonergan hauled in three for 90 yards. 

“I felt like we’d have to throw it a fair amount just by the way they played,” said MSU coach Brent Vigen, whose Bobcats will host either Idaho or Lehigh in the quarterfinals. “And Tommy had probably, from a numbers perspective, his best day as a passer.  

“Whatever it’s taken, each and every week this season, he’s been able to do. There were some real opportunities there play-action wise. I thought how he operated right before the half —  he evaded the rush a couple times and that touchdown to Ty was a heck of a play. 

The win put the top-seeded Bobcats at 13-0. After winning its previous five road games, UTM finished the season 9-5. 

McCullouch opened the second quarter scoring when he took an end-around 6 yards into the end zone behind a trio of key blocks by Adam Jones, Rylan Schlepp and Lonergan. That made it 21-0 before UTM even had a first down.  

The Skyhawks would get on the scoreboard later in the period with a 37-yard field goal from Jaren Van Winkle and a sparkling 78-yard catch and run from quarterback Kinkead Dent to Trevonte Rucker. That was the longest play given up by MSU’s defense this season; Dent finished with 167 yards, completing 15 of 29 passes. 

In the third quarter, a 40-yard punt return by Dowler set up a 36-yard touchdown dash by Scottre Humphrey to make it 35-10. Humphrey, back healthy after getting one carry in the Cat-Griz game, finished with 102 yards on 11 attempts.  

Midway through the third quarter, Dowler took a Mellott pass in the right flat and danced past a would-be tackler for a 29-yard score. In the fourth Jones added a 30-yard dash that featured a fine spin move to elude one tackle and a key downfield block by Aidan Garrigan. That made the score 49-10 with 11:27 left.  

Rylan Ortt led the MSU defense with seven tackles while Bryce Grebe and Paul Brott were in on six each. Brody Grebe and Kenneth Eiden combined for three sacks and Brott and Dominic Solano record one apiece. 

And Mellott ran his season TD pass total to 26 against just one interception. 

“He continues to do all we ask and then some,” Vigen said. “To put up 300 yards and four touchdowns, that’s an exclamation point on that.”