Montana State is on the FCS championship stage for the third time in Brent Vigen’s five years as head coach.
The Bobcats are 0-2, losing 38-10 to North Dakota State in 2021 and 35-32 to NDSU last season. They were favorites a year ago, but a slow start and a 21-3 halftime deficit were costly.
MSU is a favorite again heading into the title game, currently favored by 10.5 points against Illinois State.
Two days before the championship bout in Nashville, Vigen was asked at his press conference about lessons learned from previous title game losses.
“You want to learn from history. You want to learn from the past, but you don’t want to lean on it at the same time,” Vigen said. “I think it’s appreciating the opportunity, appreciating all the work, the improvement that’s gone on through the course of the — almost a year now. We met on Jan. 14 for the first time with this team. I think it’s been about this team. Again, learning from history, but not dwelling on it at the same time. I think this group has really done a good job of going after each and every opportunity.”
“I think this is such a new team where I don’t — yeah, there’s a fair amount of motivation from us coming up short last year, but it’s become — it immediately became about this team,” Vigen added. “There were so many new pieces. I think it would be validation for this team of how far we’ve come. We had so many unknowns back at the beginning of it, back mid-January of last year, and these pieces have continued to come together, and this team has come together. That’s players. That’s coaches. That’s the whole thing. I really think it’s about this team, this group of guys, and validating itself, rather than really making right by the previous seasons. The previous seasons were part of the story for sure.”
You can listen to Vigen’s full presser below.
