The Bobcat Nation

This is a really cool article for me personally. I was a Freshman when this game happened, and I was in North Hedges on the same floor as Joe. I remember how excited he was after the game, and I remember him telling us about his phone conversation with his Dad right after the game. It definitely seemed like a very big deal to him at the time, and it clearly still holds good memories for him. His comment in the article about Tetrault was very sincere. I remember that somebody made a snide comment about Tetrault (who was the whipping boy of the fanbase -- an option quarterback who was being asked to try to throw the ball), and Joe diplomatically put that person in their place. It was obvious that he took no joy in seeing Tetrault demoted, so he was conflicted over the turn of events.

Joe was (and presumably still is) one of those very, very good guys -- he was even nice to all of us drunken obnoxious Freshman that made way too much noise late at night when the football players were actually trying to get some sleep.

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articl ... 201990.txt

I remember that game very well-it was pretty close at halftime. The snow stopped in the second half and it warmed up and started melting. NAU was just done, and everything MSU did on offense worked.

I met John Tetrault not too long ago. He lives in the Bozeman area and I think he's a mechanical engineer of some sort. Super nice guy-who knows, maybe he even visits this website once and a while?

He really did get thrown into an impossible situation when Solomonson decided to dump the veer for the spread offense. Of course Solomonson's entire tenure here was an impossible situation-that I think the MSU football program is still recovering from.

I remember that game in detail. NAU came to town totally prepared to stop Tetrault and "ground Earle" and wound up looking at Volek running a spread from the shotgun. NAU was totally unprepared. The following week, after our next opponent got to view our new offense on film, things returned to (then) normal and we got beat.

I was in my second year of college, can't remeber if I was still a freshmen, or a sophomore,(partied way too much). I do remember that game though. I remember getting really drunk that night also.

I do remember Joe from some classes and remember well that he was a class act.

Being such a young Bobcat I had no idea that Billy Volek's brother played at MSU. I started reading the article thinking how funny it was that one of our QBs had the same name as and NFL QB. That is very cool! Billy saved me a few weeks ago in fantasy football and allowed me to remain the leader.

That is a great story! Sorry I can't share anything about being at MSU at the time. When I was a Junior at MSU we had this freshman quarterback, Lulay step in and...

rtb: We all hope you never have to endure the vivid memories of an Earle Solomonson-esque coaching tenure at MSU.

How far did those years set Bobcat fooball back? Have we yet fully recovered?

rtb wrote:Being such a young Bobcat I had no idea that Billy Volek's brother played at MSU. I started reading the article thinking how funny it was that one of our QBs had the same name as and NFL QB. That is very cool! Billy saved me a few weeks ago in fantasy football and allowed me to remain the leader.

That is a great story! Sorry I can't share anything about being at MSU at the time. When I was a Junior at MSU we had this freshman quarterback, Lulay step in and...

For another "Almost Famous" connection that only us more... aged guys remember, we also had a basketball player who was the half-brother of a high profile NBA player (Kwesi and Derrick Coleman).

Bay Area Cat wrote:For another "Almost Famous" connection that only us more... aged guys remember, we also had a basketball player who was the half-brother of a high profile NBA player (Kwesi and Derrick Coleman).

I actually know/remember that. Growing up my family's focus was on Bobcat basketball, I wasn't as exposed to the football program then.

rtb: We all hope you never have to endure the vivid memories of an Earle Solomonson-esque coaching tenure at MSU.

How far did those years set Bobcat fooball back? Have we yet fully recovered?

Amen rtb. I lived it and it seems like a prison sentence to me.

I miss Earle...

Just as someday, us Bobcats will miss Bobby...