Dec. 18—Any college football team would be happy with 200 rushing yards in a single game; on Friday night against Stephen F. Austin, the MSU Bobcats did that in a half.
It was the second half, and it powered the Bobcats past SFA 44-28 and into this Saturday’s “Super Brawl,” an FCS semifinal home game against the Montana Grizzlies.
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Adam Jones, the Missoula Sentinel product who’s already had a fine career at Montana State, had 102 of those second-half yards and added a third touchdown to the two he had the first half.
The sophomore’s running and catching have provided a nice counterpoint to bruising tailback Julius Davis.
“The offense is kind of flowing and the ball bounced my way a couple times,” Jones said Monday during a media interview. “I benefitted from a bunch of dudes doing their jobs.”
Especially the second half, though Jones said he felt a big second half was coming against the Lumberjacks.
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“We knew at halftime they were going to have to make some pass adjustments,” Jones said. “They’d had a couple hundred (yards) thrown against them. Julius and I talked. … that it was going to going to come to us at some point. We just had to be patient and stick it out.”
“Adam had a real impactful game,” MSU coach Brent Vigen said. “It was catching the ball, it was blocking.”
Davis ran for another 96 yards.
“They knew the run game was going to break eventually and so I just appreciate their mentality,” Vigen said. “They knew they were going to get their opportunities.”
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Jones’ three TDs gave him seven on the season; he has 18 in his MSU career.
Them, Again
That Montana and Montana State played four weeks ago is not lost on anyone, but Montana coach Bobby Hauck shrugged off its uniqueness.
Citing the SEC rematches that Alabama and Georgia have had, he said, “College teams are doing this now.”
“It’s obviously great for the fans,” he added on Monday. “We haven’t had much time, in fact zero time, to think about that last game. We had to get on to the business at hand, which was South Dakota State. So it’s been kind of fun to get back on this one and start diagnosing it. It’ll be a great game Saturday.”
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Hauck himself had a similar situation during his three years as an assistant at San Diego State.
“We played Wyoming twice in three weeks,” he said. “They had Josh Allen; they were pretty good.”
It was 2016 and San Diego State lost at Wyoming 34-33 on Nov. 19, then went back to War Memorial Stadium in Laramie on Dec. 3 and won the Mountain West title game, 27-24.
5 Yards Short
A week after his postgame emotional outburst, MSU’s Davis had a highlight run go astray when, in the midst of a 69-yard scoring run, he taunted his closest pursuer from Stephen F. Austin.
The officials marked off 15 yards from the spot of the foul, putting the ball at the SFA 20.
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“That was an unbelievable run, and I think in the moment he felt bad,” Vigen said of the senior. “He wanted to finish that in the end zone. I wanted to keep his head up.
“He was disappointed, I was disappointed. We’ve had unsportsmanlikes… what you want from those guys in those moments is to learn from them and also take full responsibility for them, and he did that.”
Jones put the points back on the board with 16-yard scoring run, making it 44-21 with 14:36 left.
“I love Julius,” Jones said. “When he was injured (in 2024) he was my biggest supporter. I love that dude to death. That run he had was probably the best run I’ve ever seen and to see it get taken away for a silly little penalty — I think that was kind of a joke.”
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QUICK KICKS: Kickoff is at 2 p.m. Saturday and the game will air on ABC. … Montana has had a semifinal rematch before: In 2004 the Griz lost at Sam Houston State 41-29, then beat the Bearcats 34-13 in the rematch. … Keali’i Ah Yat has 32 TD passes this season tying him with three other UM quarterbacks: Jordan Johnson (2013), Drew Miller (1999) and Dave Dickenson (1993). … Brian Ah Yat, Keali’i’s dad, holds the single-season record of 42.
