BOZEMAN — No. 5 Montana State is coming off its bye week ready to get back to action as it heads to San Luis Obispo, Calif., to take on Cal Poly this Saturday.
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The Bobcats are simple in the approach to this latter half of the regular season: The team just wants to keep getting better.
"Especially over this past weekend, just watching football, you see a lot of teams that are doing this," Montana State running back Julius Davis said, moving his hand in a wavy motion to show how some teams lack consistency throughout a season.
"Coach (Brent Vigen) hit it right on the head after practice, we want to try and be a team that's not dipping so much. If anything, just kind of staying at the same and trying to get better."
Vigen further explained that notion.
"Opportunities to play the college football game are minimal," Vigen said. "You’re playing once a week. You want to be able to pour everything you can into it. You want to show up with a consistent team and a proven team each week. I think we’ve done that certainly through the conference season, and now the charge is to continue to do that, to go on the road after a bye week, to utilize that bye week to get better."
Vigen expanded on how he tries to find players able to uphold that mindset in recruiting.
"They want to be coached, and they want to become their best," he said about qualities he emphasizes in the recruiting process. "That’s a constant battle to have them think that way. That’s something hopefully in recruiting that you find guys that see that what they are now is a far cry from what they can become."
Cal Poly took down Sacramento State, which was ranked at the time, earlier this season, and overall has played some solid teams closely.
The Mustangs have played two quarterbacks between Ty Dieffenbach and Bo Kelly, so MSU is preparing for both.
"You got a (6-foot-6) kid that can throw it around, but still pretty athletic in Dieffenbach," Vigen said. "Kelly is 6-0 and has played a bunch, has been a backup but played a bunch in his time there, and (is) more of a run-around guy than a drop-back guy.
"So two different styles. I don’t know that their offense is quite different between the both of them, but their strengths are certainly different."
The game kicks off at 6 p.m. Mountain time Saturday and will be broadcast on CBS affiliates across Montana.
