Big Sky honors UM's Wortham, MSU's Dowler, Eiden
bigskyconf.com | Daily Inter-Lake | UPDATED 6 months AGO
FARMINGTON, Utah — Two Bobcats and one Grizzly took home weekly football awards for the Big Sky Conference Monday after leading their teams to victory Saturday.
Montana’s Michael Wortham was named co-offensive player of the week — along with UC Davis quarterback Caden Pinnick — while Montana State’s Kenneth Eiden IV and Taco Dowler snared the honors on defense and special teams.
Eiden, a senior defensive lineman out of Bozeman, had seven tackles, including 2.5 for a loss, in the No. 5 Bobcats’ 34-10 win at No. 13 Northern Arizona. He also logged half a sack and hurried NAU quarterback Ty Pennington once.
MSU's pass rush, keyed by Eiden, helped hold Pennington to nearly 60 yards below his season average while intercepting him for just the second time in 2025.
The Bobcats were trailing the Lumberjacks 7-0 when Dowler, a junior out of Billings, tore off a school-record 90-yard punt return for a touchdown.
Dowler’s punt return is the longest in the FCS so far this season and was his fourth such TD as a Bobcat. He also rushed for 3 yards and caught two passes for 45 yards.
Wortham, a senior out of North Highlands, Calif., did a bit of everything and did it well in the Grizzlies’ 42-28 shootout win at Idaho State. He totaled 247 all-purpose yards while throwing for a touchdown and rushing for two more
Wortham had 41 yards on the ground, 124 receiving and another 82 on kickoff returns. He hit Josh Gale with a 16-yard touchdown pass and then set his game-winning TD run with a reverse pass to quarterback Keali’i Ah Yat that put the Griz at the ISU 9-yard-line. He scored on the next snap.
Wortham leads the Big Sky and the FCS in all-purpose yards with 883.
Pinnick, a redshirt freshman out of Loomis, Calif., keyed the No. 7 Aggies’ 34-27 win at Cal Poly with a career-high 313 yards on 21 of 26 passing. He finished with 373 yards of total of offense — he rushed for a career-best 60 yards — and four touchdowns, three of them through the air.
Others nominated for the awards included Idaho State QB Jordan Cook, MSU quarterback Justin Lamson, Montana safety TJ Rausch and Montana’s Ian Finch on special teams.