THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: National title ties, Palouse ties and other stuff

Montana State was coming off football seasons of 7-5, 8-5 and 5-6 when the Bobcats decided to led coach Rob Ash go after nine seasons, despite an overall record of 70-38 in Bozeman. 

The Bobcats were three years removed from their third straight FCS playoff appearance. Also, Montana State had lost its last three to rival Montana — and lost seven of nine to the Griz under Ash.

Montana State replaced Ash with an energetic assistant who made his niche as a special teams coach — Jeff Choate, the former St. Maries High star who was football coach and athletic director at Post Falls High for a few years before embarking on his college football coaching journey, which would include stops at Boise State, Washington State and Washington. 

In 2016, Choate’s first season at Montana State, the Bobcats finished 4-7. His first game was a 20-17 loss to Idaho at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow, when the Vandals were in their second-to-last season in FBS. 

The Bobcats improved to 5-6 in Choate’s second season. 

In 2018, Montana State finished 8-5, reaching the second round of the FCS playoffs before losing to eventual champion North Dakota State. That season included a 24-23 win over Idaho in Bozeman, in the Vandals’ first season back in the Big Sky. 

In 2019, Choate led the Bobcats to the semifinals of the FCS playoffs, where they again fell to North Dakota State (which went on to win its third straight FCS title, and eighth in nine seasons) and finished 11-4. 

But perhaps most importantly as part of the turnaround in Bozeman, Montana State went 4-0 vs. Montana in Choate’s four seasons there. 

After the Bobcats’ 2020 season was canceled due to COVID-19, Choate moved on to Texas, where he was an assistant for the Longhorns for three seasons, coaching in the College Football Playoff semifinals in 2023. He just completed his second season as head coach at Nevada. 

After Montana State beat Illinois State 35-34 in overtime Monday night in Nashville, Tenn., to win its first FCS championship since 1984, Choate took to social media to salute his former program. 

"Congrats to the Cats!” he posted on X (formerly Twitter). 

Many of the comments to his post were of the variety of, “You started this,” “You changed the culture,” etc. 

So kudos to what Brent Vigen has done in his five seasons since then, taking the Bobcats to the FCS playoffs all five years, and to the championship game three times, culminated by Monday night’s national title. He deserves all the accolades; there’s a reason Washington State, and then Oregon State, were interested in him coaching their football team. 

But credit to Choate, too, for getting Montana State back on the winning track. 

FERNANDO MENDOZA did not play against Idaho when the Vandals played California on Sept. 16, 2023 in Berkeley Calif. 

On that sunny Saturday afternoon, Idaho jumped out to a 17-0 lead before the host Bears came back to win 31-17. 

Mendoza, of course, this year is the Heisman Trophy winning quarterback at Indiana, which will play Miami for the national title one week from Monday. 

But two seasons ago, Mendoza was a redshirt freshman quarterback at Cal, and was the third-string QB early that year. 

Three weeks after that Idaho game, in Cal’s sixth game, Mendoza got his first career start in a 52-40 loss to Oregon State which dropped the Bears to 3-3. 

His first collegiate win as a starting quarterback would come four weeks later, Nov. 11 at home against ... Washington State. 

Mendoza was 14 of 21 passing for 150 yards and two touchdowns in a 42-39 win over the Cougars in Berkeley. 

Mendoza started Cal’s final eight games in 2023, including wins over WSU, Stanford and UCLA to close the regular season, led the Bears to the Independence Bowl (a 34-14 loss to Texas Tech, and a final record of 6-7), then threw for 3,004 yards and 16 touchdowns for Cal in 2024 (another 6-7 record) before transferring to Indiana and ... well, you know the rest. 

(Funny, it was only two seasons ago, but it seems so long ago. Two seasons ago, Jake Dickert was still the coach at Washington State. The Cougars are on their second coach since then. And two seasons ago, a game between Cal and WSU (and Oregon State) counted in the standings in something called the Pac-12.) 

ONE LAST thought. 

Current college football landscape: 

Oregon gets crushed in the College Football Playoff semifinals. 

Reaction: Another disappointing finish for the Ducks. Will they ever win a national title? 

Alabama gets routed in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals. 

Reaction: What a fraud! ‘Bama only got in because it is ‘Bama. Bring back Saban! 

Old college football landscape: 

Oregon doesn’t play for the national title, but wins handily in the Rose Bowl. 

Reaction: What an encouraging finish! Looking forward to next year. 

Alabama doesn’t play for the national title, but wins big in the Sugar Bowl. 

Reaction: OK, it wasn’t a national title, but a nice way to finish the season. Looking forward to next year. 

Perspective. 

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1205, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.