Bobcats’ Dowler wins defense award; Weber fires coach

FARMINGTON, Utah — Caden Dowler, whose two takeaways led to touchdowns Saturday for the Montana State Bobcats, was named the Big Sky Conference defensive player of the week Monday.

Sacramento State running back Rodney Hammond and Northern Arizona kick returner Kolbe Katsis took home the awards for defense and special teams.  

On back-to-back possessions Dowler, a junior safety out of Billings West, forced a fumble and picked off a pass in No. 3 Montana State’s 66-14 out of visiting Weber State. 

The forced fumble, his first, came at the end of a 36-yard Wildcat run and led to Adam Jones’ 2-yard TD run, at the end of a 67-yard drive. 

Dowler took the interception, the second of his career, back 56 yards to the Weber State 20, setting up a touchdown pass to Rocky Lencioni that put the Bobcats up 28-0 midway through the second quarter. 

Dowler also finished the game with seven tackles, three of them solo, and a pass breakup. 

Hammond, a senior out of Norfolk, Va., rushed for 191 yards on 17 carries in Sac State’s 52-24 win over Portland State Saturday. His day included touchdown runs of 87 and 41 yards, with the 87-yarder tying a school record.  

Hammond has now run for over 100 yards in five of his last six games with nine touchdowns in that span. He finished Saturday with 240 all-purpose yards.  
Katsis, a senior out of Owasso, Okla., returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown in NAU's 49-10 win over Northern Colorado.  

The kick return TD was the first by a Lumberjack since 2017. After Northern Colorado scored a touchdown to trim NAU's lead to 21-10 right before the half, Katsis' return shifted the tide back to the Lumberjacks, who wound up scoring 28 unanswered points.  

He had 194 all-purpose yards. 

Others nominated this week included Grizzlies Michael Wortham on offense, Drew Deck on special teams and Kellen Detrick on defense. Montana State had no nominees on offense or special teams. 

Cats, Griz get first-place votes 

While the top four spots in both FCS polls stayed the same Monday —North Dakota State, Montana, Montana State and Lehigh — both Montana and Montana State landed a single first-place vote. 

Montana got one in the AFCA Coaches Poll, out of 24 first-place votes; Montana State took one away from the Bison in the Stats Perform Top 25, with NDSU getting the other 55. 

UC Davis, which visits MSU this coming Saturday, moved up two spots to No. 10- in the AFCA poll, and up two spots to No. 9 in the Stats Perform poll. 

Northern Arizona is ranked No. 24 by Stats Perform, and is unranked in the coaches poll. 

Both polls can be found in Scoreboard. 

Weber, Mental part ways 

OGDEN, Utah —Mickey Mental, who fell to 13-20 in his third season as Weber State’s football coach with the 66-14 loss at Montana State, was dismissed by the school Monday. 

The school announced the move in a press release at 12:32 p.m. Monday; Brent Meyers, associate head coach who has been at Weber since 2014, will take over the head coaching duties for the Wildcats’ two remaining games this season.  

“We want to thank coach Mental for his efforts and the passion he put into our football program," Weber State director of athletics Tim Crompton said in the release. "We wish nothing but the best for him and his family in the future." 

Mental spent one season as Weber’s offensive coordinator under Jay Hill, then was elevated when Hill left to be associate head coach at BYU. 

Hill was at Weber State for nine seasons from 2014-22, going 66-39 with a 50-19 mark in Big Sky Conference games. Mental’s teams went 8-14 in Big Sky play; the Wildcats are 3-7 this season, 1-5 in league games. He was the 11th coach in program history, which began in 1962; Weber State joined the Big Sky as a charter member in 1963.