Under the Radar: QB Profiles | Tommy Mellott - Montana State

just got done with my interview with Montana State senior quarterback Tommy mot who's just coming off a huge week zero Road win at New Mexico Montana State's first one over an FBS opponent since 2006 and this is a player that is in the top 10 across multiple statistical categories at a school that's been playing football since 1897 at Montana State uh we talked everything from being a small town kid from Montana to the story and the mentality behind The Comeback win against New Mexico this past weekend we also touched on a whole bunch of other things you know Montana State's football Traditions like the Gold Rush game and the brawl of the wild along with life and Boseman and just a few other things and I really could have spoken to him for hours on so many things but it is game week he has quite the class schedule from what I understand so I'm grateful that we got to paint a little bit of a picture of his story and what he's all about along with k every want a glimpse into the taste this state of Montana has for football something that you know I'd bet most people who identify as Avid college football fans likely aren't aware of so they'll be heading to St George Utah to face Utah Tech this weekend and for all the Montana State fans that are going to listen to this I'm sure all of this is going to make you even more proud that he's your guy at the helm and for those less familiar with Montana State and the football culture out there I hope Tommy's story gets you to explore not only his journey as one of college football's best players but also the rich football culture in Big Sky country Montana so hope you enjoy it Tommy mot quarterback Montana State Bobcats coming off first win against an FBS opponent since 2006 congratulations for that and thank you for joining me thank you jge I appreciate it yeah so let's go ahead and get started you know right off the bat you're a small town Montana kid but Montana can you just talk about what life was like growing up when you got introduced to football and when you started playing and all that yeah um I growing up in but luckily enough my uh my grandpa was a a big football influence for me Jee Fogerty he uh he was a coach he was a player um all sorts of things local middle schools uh sports facilities named after him and so he you know he was the biggest culture ball fan growing up um he'd have a yellow uh you know the yellow sheets he'd have all the statistics that he'd write down from books he would read and and he was really my biggest influence uh neither my parents my dad didn't play football my my mom ran track in in middle school but he was my big influence for for athletics and for football specifically and and uh and yeah just going through middle school and middle middle school elementary school both those things I just love sports all of them but football was the top of my list and then when I got to high school had a big influence with my uh the local high school local public high school with the head coach Ary gray I watched back some college game day Clips when they're there in 2022 and a quote really stuck out to me that I think you would agree with in terms of the state of Montana's taste for football between University of Montana and Montana State the quote is we love that our rosters are filled not with future NFL prospects but often Mountain kids Farm kids from communities so small none have more than a single traffic light so I'm sure you can resonate with that quote based off of that can you just describe what football means there at a town like be Montana being the local star because I mean let's face it Montana is not a state that the rest of the country usually looks at to be a football craz community so what what what does it all mean there yeah absolutely I mean yeah growing up it's it's one or the other you uh and I you know I always B bled uh blue and gold growing up so it was just you know my my high school coach he went to MSU uh well two of them did and you know when I got to my junior of high school it was just coming to a realization that you know football would possibly soon be over with for me and that was really the my first first time really thinking about trying to get an opportunity to play at a division one school and and like you said there's not a whole lot of recruiting down out of Montana there's very there's few and far between that go off to any group of five any power five outside of Montana um you know obviously other than the two schools here and uh so yeah you know obviously just doing everything I possibly could to get recruited by by these guys and and uh you know met the world when I got that offer and and I knew I was it was clear and said that I'd be you know coming over to Boseman and uh playing for the blue and gold I did some research on your 247 page only offers that were listed there were Montana State and Montana uh look through your Twitter a little bit looks like you just kind of visited you know even the Montana texts and those smaller schools too went over to Washington State it looks like but when it came to deciding between those two schools first of all were there any other ones you know in the division one level that that had offered you the other thing I wanted to ask was what was the deciding factor for Montana State yeah no so yeah you're right I uh certainly had offers from the local ni schools Montana Tech Western Carol a couple know around the state um and then but the only division one schools that I really ever talked to extensively with you know about an offer a real opportunity to play at their school was U ofm and and MSU Washington State they did give me a you know Junior Day invite and you know we certainly took that opportunity to go check it out but yeah just with the recruiting stuff it was you know sending emails trying to find Opportunities to to see if anybody would give me a shot because at that point my junior year I really wasn't talking to either MSU or U ofm um but I just wanted to see what I could do but yeah I mean just a deciding factor like I said the state's very very divided and and if you see geographically but is really at the middle of it all you know it's it's kind of that you know leans one way or the other it's the cross of I-15 and I90 you know two of the biggest interstates in the country Collide right there and just kind of splits the state almost in half population wise to some extent and uh you know it was I grew up and and one of my RO models Colt Anderson he actually played Safety over at the University of Montana before playing in the NFL ultimately coming back and coaching at bu High my senior year now he's a def you know a special teams coordinator in the NFL so he was a big influence to me but uh ultimately when I was getting recruited uh coach Cho and his staff were here coach BJ Robertson and those guys made a really big impact on me I saw where this program was going you know obviously there's so many different opportunities that they've they've grown uh over at MSU with the Bobcat Athletic Facility the BAC over here B athletic complex and they got the indoor facility coming up uh right behind our Stadium um you know all the additions to the stadium coming up here soon and and just the university in general just thriving academics was a big thing for me like you said uh it's not necessarily future NFL prospects but when I made that decision it was you know I knew that I would be going to Montana State because you know among other things like I said the coaching staff and the facilities and and growing as a football team I'd be getting a great education and ultimately that's my idea when I came here was hopefully at some point I could play but it's kind of few in far between you know that I've ever seen anybody play quarterback at from Montana go to Montana state would actually play so I've certainly had that aspiration but it was you know education was the biggest thing and and you know I'd give everything I possibly could to have an opportunity to play on a Saturday so I wasn't going to ask about this but I feel like I have to you did mention academics Financial engineering I have never seen that major before can you just quickly explain what that what that entails because I almost thought that was like written wrong or something in the bio no it sounds it's definitely a little bit condescending that the name of it it's you know most universities they call it quantitative Finance but essentially it's just more the numbers based statistics based a lot of simulation a lot of trials with computer science and general economic theory there's very few universities that have that as an actual undergrad program but they decided to you know take it on here at Montana State and I didn't ultimately come here because of that major but I knew I wanted to do something math stem based that was you know likely somewhere in engineering and that was a great one that was able to work it with my schedule of football you know at the time The Saturdays you don't really have them off so uh those group projects you know mechanical engineering civil engineering they're they're tough to find you know time to really meet with your uh groupmates whatever it might be for a project but Financial engineering is a lot more you know based by yourself and so just kind of the crossroads of you know math economics computer science uh statistics nice yeah we are opposites in that department I'm I'm a writer I'm reading comprehension and no math uh so you know recruiting all that you make your decision you get to Montana State 2020 you guys aren't playing football so I imagine you know we could go down a whole rabbit hole on that a lot of lifting probably a lot of meetings and probably just really weird times but 2021 comes around I read that your playing a little bit of special teams you're getting in some receiver work and then you get your first start at quarterback in the FCS playoffs first games against University of Tennessee Martin and it's just like this meteoric rise to success you know I even think I saw that against Sam Houston in those playoffs you scored a rushing touchdown a passing touchdown and a receiving touchdown in like the first 15 minutes of the game so happened quick for you and you were the Local Hero you're the hometown Montana kid I mean I'm seeing that they started selling the touchdown Tommy t-shirts all over Boseman was it overwhelming did you take it well how can you just describe what that was like yeah um like you said all those different positions it was overwhelming for sure throughout majority of the Season you know trying to figure out how to play uh wide receiver how to go out and and run down on special teams and make plays where I really haven't done those things since middle school um I was always you know I was really just a one-way guy even through high school and so but you know just my athletic abilities and what the coaches saw fit you know they wanted to give me an opportunity to see the field and that's where they saw it at and then ultimately yeah I had an opportunity to play that very first my very first started quarterback was the very yeah the the playoff game and I remember it was like 35 m per hour wins you know it was very unfavorable situation with that but um you know they just the coaching put me in a good position with with that game and and ultimately to be honest with you the the wind really probably gave um Sam Houston a pretty awful Scout on me because the 35 mile per hour wins I think we threw for like 50 yards that game because it was just like the worst conditions ever and so when we went down to Sam Houston I'm sure that they were like yeah this guy can't throw they they're just going to run the ball we're gonna play man we played man all year long we got the best corners we got the best nickels and you know best man- on- man matchups and we just had receivers go out there and make plays the entire time is what I remember Lance McCutchen Nate Stewart those two guys you know come to mind for sure Willie Patterson all three of those guys you know I think every single 5050 ball was more like a a 9010 you know I think we completed 90% of them somehow throughout the entire playoff series um a lot of that success you know it was absolutely incredible um and now that I look back at it it's it's uh very improbable you know certainly you know our defense and and the wide receivers and the those guys really made a bunch of plays to make it easy for me um but no it was it was you know really one of the most uh yeah was it was a one of the most insane times of my life you know with all those things going around bosan selling shirts and and everybody super excited about what I'm doing and what our offense is doing and uh you know at that point I was just running around trying to make plays I didn't know anything about our offense I didn't know other than just to throw the ball and give those guys a chance you know I didn't know much so so it was uh it was really just throw the ball up in the air and go make a play really a lot of what I'm fascinated about about football there in Montana is it's like a whole Hidden World of crazy fandom and worship like they love the Grizz and they love the Bobcats out there I mean during that time was it hard to just go to the supermarket and get some groceries did you have to was it hard to just go out and get get something to eat out in town like what was that like in terms of the whole celebrity aspect of it yeah no like you said uh Montana is a state without a professional football team so as student athletes we really get to feel almost That Celebrity Status which is certainly unreal but you know when you have these communities that really all they do is Farm all week over in the eastern Montana they want to come down and enjoy their weekend and go watch the Bobcats play and so you have the opportunity to let those guys relax and enjoy a Saturday afternoon and and uh you know they they rever you for it to some extent and so no yeah I was certainly going around to all the different uh everywhere I went you know there's there's people coming up to me and congratulating me and uh talking to me whatever it might be and they're small towns and so uh and I've you know obviously lived here my entire life so you know people people know who I am they they come up to me no matter how much or how little I might know them and uh you know give me a a speech really tell me what they think about what we should be doing on offense or you know what they think about anything really so no absolutely yeah everywhere I went there's people people tapped me on my shoulder asking me how things are going yeah no I'd imagine that to be the case I mean you even got a nice little Shout Out by Pat McAfee on game day I saw that but so I do have an interesting situation that I want to address with you in terms of the last two years there because this person is on the staff now Sean Chambers everyone talks about it whether it be pro football or college football a a two quarterback system if you got two quarterbacks you got none you guys the two seasons before that made it work in I mean he was extremely productive and you have been extremely productive during those Seasons so you kind of debunked that whole saying what were the factors that made that work and what's it like having someone that you were so closely tied to the last few years right back working with you as a quarterback's assistant on the the team right now and Sean Chambers yeah um you know him and I had different skill sets so to some extent the plays were separated with what he was comfortable with what I'm comfortable with and so that you you know made our offense Dynamic unpredictable and then also just when we were both in there together that was the necessity because of injury really that wasn't much of a plan at all but we had we had like our fourth or fifth string running back at the time because everyone else was hurt so we had to find a way to get those guys a break and so we had the two quarterbacks out there at one time you know to figure it out because obviously you're both pretty dynamic in the Run game but yeah I mean both both years the game plan stuff like that just super creative offense was made it super exciting with the two quarterback system and and uh with him coming back this year I think you know he just has such a love for the game and and and the details with it he just wants to invest into the guys that are still here and uh you know find a way to to win with his coaching staff you know he had that connection with Coach vegan back at Wyoming he had his own experiences with him and you know he was just a guy he wanted to work for whether that be playing or coaching obviously and so um he just made the decision to come back to Montana he loves his place back up to Boseman and and uh you know work for Coach vegan and try to have an opportunity with the the coaching career some you guys should put on like a master class on how to do that working with two quarterbacks like that I think that was awesome to read about and then finally in terms of Montana State stuff just quickly quickly I'm not asking you to give me a preview on what these games are going to be like this year mind's on Utah Tech I know that but what is you know what do the gold rush and brawl of the wild mean to you those are two huge Traditions at Montana state that again not a lot of people know about can you just speak to what those weeks are and what that day is like as someone who's a veteran and has experienced multiple yeah uh absolutely I mean Gold Rush it's always just the first home game of the year uh they pack out the entire stadium in Gold certainly we don't have 100,000 fans like Penn State's wide out but uh you know to see a gold out there that you could open the VAC doors um you know to to Metallica blaring um and just you know a bunch of crazy fans um super excited to to watch some Bobcat football you know I think it just brings a bunch of energy it's we obviously going down to St George this week but we we'll come back up here um and and have our Gold Rush game that following weekend and obviously just a first home game everybody's excited you know anticipation super high but uh ultimately the biggest game of the year certainly the braw of the wild uh year after year and like I said it's a it's a one or the other here in Montana you're very split you know you're 100% one way or the 100% the other way and it's a super bitter rivalry for sure and uh you know I think that that game means a lot to us as a program it means you know a lot to to them as a program um you know fans uh fans look at that game and you know really if you lost every single other one and and you won that one they'd be okay with it if you won every single other one and you lost that one you know the fan base would not not be okay with it and that's truly how it is but it's it's awesome um you know it's just a bunch of Montana kids on both sides of the ball that are certainly fighting for breaking rights to have the opportunity to go back to their home communities likely with a player from the other team in that same community and uh you know just have guys you know patting them on the back rather than you know having to go hide in the so no it's year after year it's the biggest game of the year it's a t of anticipation typically very high stakes there because it's always the last last game of the season it's also right before Thanksgiving so again if you guys you have a buy it's either have a you know buy or you have a playoff game or you're down with the season and likely that game in the past has really dictated all those three situations so you know it really has almost everything writing on it you know Conference Championship really you know I think every single year this so far it's it's decided that for us definitely want people to know a little bit more about those Traditions so quickly you know starting to to wrap some things up the New Mexico game this past weekend on FS1 National Television uh we Z at a few points in the game you're down 17 fourth quarter you're down 17 one quote I got from you uh in one of the postgame press conferences was it was a hostile environment with the weather that we weren't expecting to be dealing with and you kept mentioning the Heat and the wind which one kind of affected you more between those and how was it affected you how was it affecting you and I mean how did you manage it yeah I mean we certainly knew that there there was going to be a lot of heat you know the altitude be a little bit higher uh but it was just it's it was as hostile with that sun beating down um certainly would have to say the Heat played a bigger role than the wind the wind obviously probably almost helped the the the heat a little bit so how how do we deal with it I mean we did you know practice in the afternoons uh try to get it because we have this about the same altitude here up in Boseman um and we practice you know in 80 degree weather 85 degree weather but just at a 2 pm kickoff you know UV is maxed out Sun's blaring on you there's no overcast at all um and all obviously that first game of the year adrenaline's going and and you're uh trying to find any way to just stay hydrated for all four quarters and uh you know just to figure out how to deal with some adversity there um not only with the conditions uh but obviously with play as well just gave us great opportunities to go and and make a story of it that's certainly what we did it was a game full of adversity it was a back story you took some shots I mean we had the two sack fumbles in that game and again another quote I like I really liked from you was it's unfortunate how those things turn out sometimes I just believe that's part of what the story was going to be today and it was that part of I believe that's part of what the story was going to be today is that something you tell yourself often because I love that you know when you're in a situation like that is that something you learn from a coach in high school cuz that's that's a great thing to preach to younger quarterbacks too yeah no absolutely you know I earlier in one of the interviews and I talked about it but you know it was just a lot of disbelief in in my teammates for sure but there's just a belief in you know my Lord and Savior that there's a plan out there that was going to play out and when those things happen like I said I can only just stay positive and just believe that those things are going to be part of ultimately what the story is going to be today you know whether we we WI or lose that was part of what was supposed to happen but you know I always believed we were going to win like that's you know bare none and so it was just if that's if that's what happened you know it's going to be it's going to be a great a great story a great comeback story uh it sets up a great opportunity for us to you know do something really special here today um to come back uh against an FBS program show you know the kind of character we have as a team and and you know I just believe that the entire time and you know I certainly do think that it's a great thing for you know I wish someone would have told me that when I you know first started my you know first game against UT Martin when those 35 m per hour winds were whipping out there I was thinking gez this is the most unfortunate you know tournament events possible like this is just awful and at that point you know it did become part of the story like I said it was a we threw for 50 yards I think I ran for 200 some yards but that's what Sam Houston saw that was the story they got to see and so you know after all this experience that I've had playing here for three and a half years you look back and you think well that that's that those were all part of my story leading up to now and and this is just going to be a continuation of it and then finally wrapping stuff up on the New Mexico game you know another thing I'd heard you say I I was just C and I believed in my teammates Poise to me is the biggest thing for a quarterback to have it's like the number one quality I think they should have you know you hear a lot of quarterbacks before you know right before a game or a big Drive they have some sort of process in place you hear and Rogers talk about these box breathing Tech techniques or anything like that some have some sort of mon do you have any sort of specific process in place before a big drive like that last one in New Mexico that helps you stay calm and poised yeah um I mean I we uh read a book this last winter Relentless solution focused and and the author has a couple other books that I've read but uh he he calls it a lock in drill and uh we had a colonel work with us back when Cho was here and he still does Colonel cornu I think he's in Portland over in Portland now but he yeah it's just as drill yeah as a breathing component to it there's a self affirmation No statement followed by visualization and uh you know just subtle cues to prepare you for the game and you know those are things I do every single day to try to just make sure I'm as as gauge as possible and just believe in myself and and see things you know being successful and uh just a product of that is that you know when when the games come and it comes down to that that situation that you know you've already you've already visualized it um you already believe that you can make these different throws and really just run an offense you know protect yourself find find ways to get in good you know the best situation you possibly can given what they're running against your look and and you know we've had a lot of two-minute drills through all of camp and you know through my three and a half years now here you know I was just going up and down the sideline just telling everyone believe believe believe because we going to win this game and uh you know even with the the penalty that brought us back to the 11 yard line rather than whatever it was like the 35 after the big punt return we were about we're going to be at the 35 or 40 and um a holding call that I haven't looked at at all on special teams brought us back to the nine or I think the 11 yard line so we had to go 89 yards in a minute or I don't know two minutes a minute 30 something minute so yeah it was it was uh the situation you know we We've ran through it you know multiple times and and uh just guys you know believe in now just some quick hitter questions just to get to know you a little bit better maybe get to know Boseman so real quick I always think it's it's really really cool to get a look into what a quarterback's pregame routine is I think it says a lot about them as a football player any sort of little ritual you go through I know you just described a few things but like specifically the pregame maybe the night before anything specific you kind of go through yeah I mean I just kind of knocked on it there um throughout the entire week you know certainly practice is is rigorous but there's components that are visualization you know seeing the stadium you know hearing the fans uh seeing the play call get called in thinking through your you know your thought process of your reaction to it you know it's a situation does your heart drop because you you know get nervous or do you force yourself you know to see the positive and see the opportunity with it and making sure that that's every single play you know there shouldn't be a one that it's called and you're thinking oh you know this is not what I wanted to see um you know ultimately then on Saturday you wake up and you get a lock in drill before you go out there for the game that I just described you know the breathing technique followed by the the self-affirmation statement the visualization and the cues uh to success uh and then following up with one last breathing technique um you know it just takes you know five minutes and then you're you're locked in and really just that you know a couple breathing techniques throughout the game to make sure that you're you know you're you're where you want to be your mind's got to be where it's you know supposed to be and then finally just some questions around Boseman I'd ask you what your hobbies are outside of the building but just want to kind of get to know what's the most Montana hobby you're doing when you're outside of the football building hiking fishing you got to have something you're a Montana kid yeah absolutely I mean I do love hiking you know we have so many different places over here in Boseman fishing I'm really I'm not really too big of a fisherman or Hunter I know a lot of guys are and I want to go out with them but uh you know hunting for sure is just few and far between during football season you don't really got the opportunity unless you want to go out on a Sunday with the body it's not feeling too good so uh so uh yeah maybe a little bit of fishing over the summer hiking you know camping and I've uh been just starting to try to figure out how to play golf uh this football game is not going to be forever and I'm going to be competitive my entire life so figure out how to do that so I'm not not completely awful yeah but there's some nice golf hes out here oh I'm sure there are I'm sure there are and then finally you know when I'm eventually in Boseman because I'm definitely going to catch a game out there at some point in my life what's the go-to Food Spot or spot in general there in town that I got to check out in bosan that's uh unique to bosan let's think here I am a huge breakfast guy so there's so many different places around town uh Western Cafe Storm Castle Main Street over easy and jam those are all four great breakfast places I just love breakfast so any of those Western Cafe gives you more of a Montana feel for sure but all those all four of those places are are pretty good awesome awesome well I appreciate your time today Tommy this is going be a huge year for you guys pulling for you guys you got Utah Tech coming up and I'll be keeping tabs thank you appreciate you