I would understand going for it, but I'm fine kicking it.

Thought it was funny the announcers were talking about MSU maybe being affected by the crowd noise considering they played at Oregon and at Montana this year.

Montana St with 7 false start penalties tonight. That's wild.

Tie game with 5:10 left.

Montana St has only had the ball for 17:33 this game. They've got to be getting tired on defense.

Got to hand it to ISU. They’re hanging in this thing and it’s not over yet.

Man that one hurts ISU. You finally score and you give up a 3 play TD drive in 30 seconds and Montana St gets the ball to start the second half. If it gets to 24-7 or 28-7, it’s just about over.

Oh Colorado is a circus for sure. But I don’t know Caden’s economic background so if theyre offering him hundreds of thousands and nobody else is, that would be tough to pass up. Now multiple schools are offering that and Colorado happens to be a bit more (say $800K vs $700K just to throw a couple numbers out there), it’s probably not the best idea to go there.

Two drive overreaction: The clock might have struck midnight on Illinois St.

I would say some of that comes down to how good the player is. Fringe guy looking for more playing time is different from a redshirt freshman QB who just helped lead you to the FCS quarterfinals.

As for Pinnick going to Colorado, let's wait to see how things play out before jumping to conclusions. If he goes to Colorado, then it's either they offered him the most money and/or it's the highest profile FBS team he got an offer from. But this could just be the first visit of a few and he's seeing what's out there. I'm sure there are other more stable FBS programs who can offer him money as well to play.

First drive overreaction: Montana St is too good for ISU this year. A sac and multiple penalties and they got a TD anyway.

Legacy should have nothing to do with a decision on the starter — DrMike

100% agree on this. Pick the best player. Name on the back of the jersey should be irrelevant.

Yeah, if there's one position I want a guy with experience, it's QB. Pretty sure I've heard in the NFL, that the guys who have tended to succeed quickly recently are the ones who started a ton of games in college. This is probably just early round picks since late rounders generally don't start as often. There are exceptions to this, of course. But handing over the reins of the offense to a guy who barely played in high school doesn't fill me with excitement.

Man this one hurts. Don't fault Pinnick one bit for leaving (assuming he does leave) and grabbing the money. But had he stayed, we would have been set for the next couple years. Having a stud QB is the most important thing a team can have. Best of luck to him going forward.

I used to like watching the bowl games, still do sometimes, but they’ve definitely become more irrelevant the last couple years with so many more players sitting out because they’re going in the portal.

Ilinois St defense by game:

SELA: 321 yds, 3 points
NDST: 179 yds, 28 points (thought got a punt return TD, Int return TD and an Int return to the 4 that led to a TD)
UC Davis: 533 yds, 31 points
Nova: 300 yds, 14 points

So ISU allowed 1333 yds so far in the playoffs and we accounted for 40 percent of them. They allowed 76 points in the playoffs and we accounted for 40.8 percent of them. If you take out the two return TDs for NDSt, we scored half the points the ISU defense has allowed.

I’m torn. On one hand, if Illinois St wins, then yes we can say we lost to a finalist. But if they win, especially if they win easily, I’m going to be annoyed because I’ll feel like we could have beaten Nova also.

I would say the same but nobody thought Illinois St would hang with NDSt either.

Pretty crazy swings in this game.

20-3 Mont St
20 straight points for Montana
28 straight for Mont St

I was ready to rag on the Montana St coach for not using his timeouts when Montana had 1st and goal with like 1:40 left. Could have ensured they got the ball back in the 1st half while also getting the ball to start the 2nd half. Didn’t end up mattering though.

For sure. Don't want it to sound like I thought we deserved to win or should have won the game based on how both teams played. On another day we could have. But on that day, the right team won.