ALBUQUERQUE, NM — College football officially begins Saturday, and Montana State gets to join the select few playing in Week 0.

The stage is set for the opportunity to face FBS New Mexico in a standalone game nationally televised on FS1.

“I think the nation will see how confident our team is and how well prepared we are and how hard we worked in the offseason to make this upcoming season special,” Montana State defensive end Brody Grebe said.

“(A) passionate team, we’re going to run around,” Montana State quarterback Tommy Mellott added of what the nation should see from the Bobcats on Saturday. “We’re going to make plays. We’re going to fly around. The thing I’m most excited about is being on the field, those are the things that come to mind. And then just our acronym, CATS – we’re going to stand for character, accountability, toughness and state. We’re going to show that every day.”

New Mexico, part of the Mountain West Conference, finished 4-8 last season. But the Lobos have a new face since Bronco Mendenhall was hired as head coach this past offseason. He most recently served as head coach at Virginia from 2015-2021 and was head coach at BYU for over a decade before that.

“Personnel is one side of it, there’s a lot of turnover on the roster,” Montana State coach Brent Vigen said. “I think as far as practice goes, you can look at a group that’s been together for the most part. I know that goes back a couple years to Virginia. But you can certainly learn something from what they’ve done when they’ve been together before, offense, defense, special teams.”

With some unknowns in the Bobcats’ game, Vigen said it’s more about his players sticking together and focusing on what they can do.

“It has to be more about how we play and how we can react in this situation,” said Vigen.

Montana State will see a change in its offensive line to begin the season, according to the roster Vigen released earlier this week. With center Justus Perkins out due to an injury sustained in fall training camp, that role will be filled by Cole Sain, who is officially back from an injury that sidelined him all of last season.

Marcus Wehr has been moved inside to the right guard position, and Titan Fleischmann starts at right tackle. Conner Moore is in at left tackle, and left guard will be either JT Reed, who also returns after missing the 2023 season due to injury, or Burke Mastel, who hails from Red Lodge.

“It’s been a long time coming for Cole,” Vigen said. “It actually goes back to last summer for him. Before that, Cole was an incredibly experienced guy. He played both guard positions, played center and could even play tackle at times. Putting him in that position wasn’t the plan. But I think the plan was that he would be our next guy at center.”

According to Sports Bet Montana, Montana State has been the favorite by 13.5 points since Friday.

“I think in recent history most of the games between our conference and the Mountain West have been hard fought,” Vigen explained. “I know the teams in our league have found a way to win some of them. The teams in our league schedule these games because I think they feel like they can compete. That’s the opportunity we have.”

The Bobcats and Lobos will face off at 2 p.m. on Saturday and the game will be broadcast on FS1.