r/fcs • u/Technical334 UC Davis Aggies • California Golden Bears • Jan 06 '26

Analysis Takeaways from FCS Title Game

One of the craziest college football games I have watched and I have seen a lot of them. Here are my four takeaways on the game.

  1. Special Teams Matter. They matter a lot. We saw what happened with the field goal attempt (should have gone for it on 4th and 1) and the PAT. Never underestimate their importance.
  2. Montana State blew it. Until they didn’t. Illinois State fell apart in the end on special teams and that final play. Tommy Rittenhouse played the game of his life and I feel for him. Apart from special teams, the blitz on fourth down was deja vu to the Texas-ASU playoff game last year. That DB on the prior play who dropped the title clinching INT is going to have nightmares about this game.
  3. To be a good winner, you really have to win ugly sometimes. 9 false starts is unacceptable in the national title game. Nearly choking the game away in regulation is unacceptable. However, thanks to Lamson and Taco Dowler’s heroics, Montana State prevailed.
  4. Taco Dowler. The Man. The Myth. The Legend. I have watched him tear up my team and he’s something else. He should never have to buy another beer in Bozeman again.

That is all folks

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u/lazyjk Montana State Bobcats Jan 06 '26

I love our Oline but I think they'll be looking hard in the off-season at what SFA and this game were so bad false start wise. The nice thing is we were really good all season penalties wise so I don't think it's something that's not fixable

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u/Technical334 UC Davis Aggies • California Golden Bears Jan 06 '26

Agreed. What happened today are mistakes that can be rectified fairly easily.