Tommy Mellott was the superhuman signal-caller who led the Montana State University Bobcats to a 15-0 undefeated season and the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) national championship game Monday.Unfortunately for Bobcats fans, it was only for one half.
While “Touchdown” Tommy had a huge final two quarters, North Dakota State University quarterback Cam Miller stole the show. He overshadowed Mellott, completing 19 of 22 passes for 199 yards and winning yet another national title for the Bison, 35-33.
Mellott came into the championship game the recent recipient of the Walter Payton Award, which spotlights the FCS offensive player of the year. But Miller wasn’t having any of that. He dropped the Bison offense into gear in the first quarter and squealed his team’s tires all over the Bobcats, accelerating ahead to a 21-3 lead at halftime.
The second half was a different story, with Mellott leading the Bobcats back to within striking distance.
With 75 seconds left in the fourth quarter, it was suddenly “Taco Time” again on a pass from Mellot to wide receiver Taco Dowler in the end zone.
Dowler was a favorite target for Mellot, and the late score put the Bobcats within just three points, 35-32. But an onside kick attempt didn’t return the ball to Montana State and for the seventh straight time, NDSU ended the Bobcats’ season.
Bobcat Dens
Around Bozeman, the regular Bobcat watering holes were full of optimistic fans by kickoff at 5 p.m. They all thirsted for an end to the 40-year drought since MSU’s last national championship in 1984.
That’s the year Tino Woodburn was born.
He remembers seeing Mellott on campus when he was finishing up his Ph.D. in quantum materials. On Monday, Woodburn wore his favorite Bobcat T-shirt that read: “Return of the cat. Party like it's 1984, right?”
In 1984, the Cats beat Louisiana Tech for a national championship. Woodburn wanted to celebrate at Spectator’s sports bar, which is just a few football fields away from Bobcat Stadium in Bozeman.
“Everybody knows each other here,” said Woodburn, skillfully throwing up his hand for a high five. It was still early. There was still hope.
A Grizzly Punching Bag
Welcome to the Bar-muda Triangle, a collection of three bars near Main Street in Bozeman — The Scoop, Molly Brown and Haufbrau.
Of the three, perhaps the least likely place to catch a Bobcat game is the Haufbrau, where cook and MSU alum Brandon Werholz said he was witnessing football history.
“The two quarterbacks, both of them are bound for the NFL,” said Werholz, giving a nod to Mellott and Miller.
Better known as a local music venue, the Hauf had one small television broadcasting the game to patrons.
Just a few fans seemed to care. The scene looked like an impossible hybrid moment, combining the look of a typical Montana living room in 1984 — complete with tiny television — and a snapshot from a college town dive bar in 2024.
The poor first-half play by MSU put Werholz in a frustrated state of mind. Like a true Bobcat, Werholz took out his angry feelings, naturally, on the arch rival University of Montana Grizzlies.
This is a common college football fan coping mechanism. When down to a totally different team, the diehard fan can always turn to a rival and throw a few punches.
For Werholz, this meant grinding his ax over some alleged behavior by Montana Grizzlies fans.
It’s Mr. Werholz’s contention, as a Montana Bobcat “my whole life,” that Grizzly fans have not shown enough respect to the Bobcats for the team’s achievements this year.
The Bobcast came into the championship game 15-0. Werholze is just saying, throw us a bone.
“When one team is winning, we're both Montana for f***’s sakes, you better root for the f***ing home team even if it's not in your hometown,” he said, channeling the collective disappointment felt across the Bar-muda Triangle. “And I've been to Missoula and felt like I was going to get killed because I had Bobcats gear on. It's bad dynamics.”
The Haufbrau, one of three bars in Bozeman’s “Bar-Muda Triangle,” became an unlikely sports bar Monday night. (David Madison, Cowboy State Daily) 
A taxidermied wolf perched above disappointed Bobcat fans, who retreated to the gambling machines and poker tables as Montana State’s shot at a championship slipped away Monday night. (David Madison, Cowboy State Daily)
Bozeman Is A Football Town
ESPN's College GameDay made history by visiting Bozeman for the first time in 2022 to cover the 121st Brawl of the Wild between Montana State University and the University of Montana. This marked the show's first trip to a Big Sky Conference campus.
“Not having a pro team in Montana makes all of our games more, I don’t know, people are more invested. This is kind of our pro team,” said Hayley Scott, a business student at MSU, who posted up at the Cat’s Paw bar in Bozeman to watch the championship game. The Cat’s Paw is the most Bobcat partisan sports bar in Bozeman.
When asked how to describe the personality of the MSU football team and its fans, Scott thought about it for a moment, then said, “Eager.”
“I did see someone streak across a field. It’s always funny to see the football game have to stop,” said Scott, remembering a previous home game and shrugging about the nudity-related game delay. “To each his own.”
Even with the loss Monday to NDSU, Scott sees Montana State benefiting from an ongoing sense of momentum. The football team remains stacked with talent. The university continues to grow. Bobcat pride remains.
“I came here in the fall of ’21, and every class since has beat out the enrollment the prior semester,” said Scott. “I think it’s a reality that we’re going to become a bigger school, and with that comes more opportunities. But I don’t see it changing from how it is right now.”
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
