Utah Tech football opened the 2024 season on the wrong end of a 31-7 decision to visiting No. 4 Montana State on Saturday night at Greater Zion Stadium.

The homestanding Trailblazers (0-1/0-0 UAC) could not get the offense going from the onset and trailed 14-0 at halftime. Utah Tech was limited to just 24 total yards and no first downs in its six first half possessions. 

Meanwhile, MSU (0-0) struck for its first touchdown late in the first quarter, which was set up by a 53-yard punt return by Taco Dowler to the Utah Tech 10 yard line. After a holding penalty on second down backed the Bobcats up to the Blazer 17, running back Adam Jones split the middle and scampered in for the game's first score. 
 
Montana State added a Tommy Mellott 47-yard quarterback-designed run early in the second quarter, and the Bobcats had chances for more points, but they missed on two field goals late in the stanza.

The first miss came on a great play by the Trailblazer special teams unit. Thanks to an initial surge at the line, sophomore Scooter Jackson was able to race around the end and block a 26-yard Myles Sansted attempt.

Sansted also misfired right before the half ended, which kept it a two-score game as both sides retreated to their respective locker rooms.  

Montana State tacked on a Mellott touchdown pass and a Sansted field goal in the third, and a second Mellott TD run early in the fourth quarter to extend to a commanding 31-0 advantage. 

Utah Tech managed to put together a sustained drive on its first possession of the fourth quarter, which started with a 37-yard pass play from Deacon Hill to Eni Falayi. That play resulted in the Trailblazers' first first down, and the moved them in Bobcat territory. 

Then after Hill connected with Daniel Thomason for a 14-yard completion to the MSU 24, the junior quarterback put an exclamation point on the drive with a 24-yard gallop to the goal-line pylon to get Trailblazers on the board with 13:03 remaining.

"Overall to have a chance in a game like this, we need to execute at a much higher level in all phases, offense, defense and special teams," said Head Coach Lance Anderson, who made his head coaching debut on Saturday night. "We did not do that tonight, so that did not give us a chance to really compete and stay in the game."
 
Utah Tech was finished with 176 yards of offense on the night, 75 of which came on the fourth quarter scoring drive. Hill finished with 103 on 11-of-23 passing to go with a team-high 24 yards rushing.  

On defense, safety Jagger Williams racked up a team high 10 total tackles, including a 0.5 tackle for loss, along with one pass break-up, while safety Brevin Hamblin tallied nine stops. Defensive lineman Cody Carlson also collected eight tackles in his Trailblazer debut, as did fellow lineman John Sniffen and corner Gabriel Valenzuela, and lineman Laytan Tanuvasa recorded a second quarter sack. 

Senior punter Andy Day tied his own school record (which he co-holds with four others) with 10 punts for 468 yards (46.8 ypp). His 468 yards were second-most in the program's NCAA era and included three punts of 50 or more yards, highlighted by a 57-yarder in the third quarter.

"There are certainly some positives, our [defense] battled, they played hard, they competed and never gave up," Anderson said of his defense. "They were put in a tough position, they were on the field a lot, but they battled."

Montana State tallied 491 yards of total offense, with Mellott accounting for 230 of those yards (152 pass/78 rush) and three of the Bobcats' four touchdowns.  

"You have to give credit to Montana State, they are a very good football team, a physical football team, and that's what we're trying to become," Anderson added. 
 
Utah Tech opens its six-game road slate with a quick trip down I-15 to Las Vegas to take on 2023 Mountain West Conference runner-up and Guaranteed Rate Bowl game participant UNLV next Saturday afternoon. Kickoff inside Allegiant Stadium is set for 1 p.m. (MT).