“Cats continue to deal with injuries after Uluilakepa is ruled out for the season – Skyline Sports.”

It wasn't a walk in the park for the Bobcats as Montana State prepares to visit the City of Roses where MSU will face Portland State this Saturday at Hillsboro Stadium. The Bobcats have been hit by what seemed like an unusual amount of injuries since last spring, but have been able to keep going.

Despite losing three defensive starters in the last two weeks and adding a few all-conference seniors on offense, Montana State enters PSU with its first 7-0 record since 1978.

The Bobcats lost safety Dru Polidore and running back Julius Davis during spring practice and received more than adequate contributions from Caden Dowler, returning from nickelback at safety, and Scottre Humphrey, who ran for over 100 yards in all but one game in 2024. Humphreys Explosive start to his second season was determined in part by an offensive line that was successfully reshuffled with the addition of All-American center Justus Perkins.

With recent injuries to defensive tackle Blake Schmidt, safety Dowler and linebacker Danny Uluilakepa, MSU will need more players to step up. The trio suffered season-ending knee injuries in consecutive weeks, including Schmidt getting injured at Idaho State, Dowler against Northern Colorado and last Saturday night when Uluilakepa fell in MSU's big 38-7 win over then-No. 7 Idaho after intercepting a pass. The officials stopped short of announcing the play dead after one of them accidentally blew the whistle and the return – which injured Uluilakepa – which went almost to the Idaho 20, was moved all the way back to midfield

“It’s always hard to lose guys like that,” nickelback Miles Jackson said. “They are great leaders who produce for us. We have a lot of young guys in the games this year and I feel comfortable with those guys. We have depth at every level.”

Things look promising when it comes to tackling and safety, as MSU has good depth. At tackle, junior Paul Brott, sophomore Lec Eckert and sophomore Zack Black have all played impressive snaps this season. Freshman Hunter Sharbono has been impressive throughout camp, but hasn't had much playing time due to MSU's four-man rotation and is expected to continue to get much of the vacated reps. Another freshman, Talon Marsh, has expressed interest in the position, as has senior Nicholas Korom.

The return of Polidore is an even happier sight than expected given the loss of Dowler. Polidore is a rare athlete who has shown the ability to make big plays against the run and pass during his short time at Montana State. He proved that in Saturday's game when he had to take a tackle for loss on his first play of the season. On the next play he made a tackle, and in the second quarter he made a beautiful pass breakup with a perfectly timed hit. Despite playing limited time against Idaho, Polidore finished the game with five tackles.

MSU has also seen Taki Uluilakepa become a capable defender at safety over the course of the season, and part-time starter Blake Stillwell returned from injury last week to give MSU good depth behind Polidore and strong safety Rylan Ortt as senior captain to provide.

Linebacker is a more pressing concern as the Bobcats typically rotate three players in their 4-2-5 defense. With Uluilakepa out, third man, freshman Bryce Grebe, will take his place. MSU has listed Neil Daily as another replacement for Grebe. As the fourth player in this rotation, Daily hasn't gotten nearly as many reps, and that could put pressure on Grebe and senior star McCade O'Reilly to be on the field more often.

“We were hoping for good news about Danny, but unfortunately we didn't get it,” MSU head coach Brent Vigen said during his weekly press conference on Monday. “If you want to go out, what a way to go out. It was a great play he made and we were able to get points just before halftime. The way he has played up to this point this season has been significant, leaving him with big shoes to fill.

“Bryce Grebe has gained more and more traction as the season has gone on, so he needs to step up. Ultimately, it's Neil Daily more than anyone else, as his role will continue to grow. Neil probably excelled more and more on the practice field, but I think we came through the season well in terms of both playing opportunities and opportunities.”

Davis is close to returning from injury and Vigen said he will make the trip to Portland. Vigen expects Perkins to also return in a few weeks.

“It sucks, but it’s the nature of the game,” Vigen said of the injury situation. “The real test for your team is, how can we withstand this? Can the next guy that comes in there play with confidence and execution so we don't have a drop-off?

“We have a number of guys who have position flexibility. We believe Neil Daily has the ability to play both linebacker positions. It's great to have a guy like Dru coming back. It's unusual to have a chance to get three guys (Davis, Perkins and Polidore) who are at least all conference guys who can come back. I look forward to getting them all back eventually.”

The backup players – Sharbono, Bryce Grebe and Polidore – will face a tough test from a Portland State University squad that, despite its 1-5 record, has plenty of standout players, including but not limited to quarterback Dante Chachere. The Vikings were just 17-14 in Bozeman last season and could easily be 2-4 if they beat league title contender UC Davis at home two weeks ago. PSU lost on a controversial last-second touchdown pass.

MSU continues to work on its game plan for PSU this week before traveling to Hillsboro Stadium for kickoff at 2 p.m.