What the Hell Happened Last Night?

For about 55% of Americans, a Monday night looks the same every week: Just getting home from work. Tired. Hungry. Beat up. Mentally clocked out. All they want is Monday Night Football to distract them from everything going on in their life.

Then there’s the other 30% of you, the less normal people. The ones who need something competitive on TV, who need the action, the ones who can’t just sit around waiting for the Fiesta Bowl or Peach Bowl to "save them."

So, for both of those groups, the 55 and the 30, roughly 85% of you rolled your eyes when you read: “2026 FCS National Championship” come across your TV screen after you put the kids down for bed.

That last 15% though? We smirked. Because we knew what was coming.

And hey, listen, of the 30+ guys that were on the field playing last night, sure, maybe 7 or 8 will just get NFL camp invites in a few months, and maybe 2 will actually make rosters. But tell me how that’s any different than SMU–Arizona four days ago. Right? It's not.

Let me also start by saying this: I am currently hammering refresh waiting for ESPN to drop the official viewership numbers. Because I’ll say it now, this will be the most-watched FCS football game of all time. Also, the most bet on, with the highest volume. And it won’t even be close.

The moment we, the media, and the real pulse-knowers, the people who actually understand this subdivision, stepped foot in Nashville, we knew we had found something.

It smelt different. The town was ripe for the taking.

The Tennessee Titans have two wins, and Cam Ward is in a sling. The Nashville Predators are 19-18-4. Nissan Stadium is getting rebuilt because it’s a rust bucket. FirstBank Stadium had just recently gotten a facelift. We knew we had a window. A real one. To turn Nashville into a football city, our way. The FCS way.

We siphoned an entire block of bars on Broadway out of Busch Light like it was nothing on Saturday night. They even made an announcement. We roared. And we were just warming up. We do this everywhere we go.

For anyone still confused about what this game was and are new here, on paper, it was Ohio State vs. Miami last week. Except this time, Ohio State (Montana State) actually showed up.

We knew the double-digit spread was meh, WRONG. Just like last week with the Buckeyes -9.5. We knew Illinois State wasn’t rolling over. Their quarterback listens to Johnny Cash pregame. That tells you everything you need to know. Stepped right into the ring of fire without a care in the world.

Shoutout to the ESPN on-site studio coverage crew. Kevin Connors, Sam Acho, Jay Walker, and Stormy Buonantony, they were FANTASTIC all night.

But let’s be real about Brock Osweiler in the broadcast booth. We’re not stupid. So don’t talk to us like we are. This was the first FCS game he's watched all season long ... AND HE WAS CALLING IT.

Montana State jumps out to a 21–7 lead, the live line hits -20.5, and yeah, maybe you rolled your eyes again. But then you actually watched.

You realized the Bobcats’ signal caller used to be a Stanford Cardinal, so yeah, you knew he had game. Then you noticed #14, a little dude named Taco making Julian Edelman look unathletic.

Then the All-American corner for Illinois State Shadwel Nkuba II who more than looks the part and has Reese’s Bowl written all over him.

Then a wide receiver in Daniel Sobkowicz so dangerous that the best team in the country was designating half of the field to him, cover 6, or just cover 4 to the field, who knows, clearly, they were afraid of the "lanky white kid." The Bonafide all-American.

That kid now has eight touchdowns in his last four games.

Has broken just about every single-season record a wideout can hold at his school. Has 1,141 yards on the season to go with 19 touchdowns and 41 total in his career. And could absolutely do what Jalen Coker (Holy Cross product) is doing for Carolina, for any of the 32 teams in the league.

... But you rolled your eyes.

Remember when I said we were smirking while you were doing that?

That’s because we knew Tommy Rittenhouse was going to introduce himself to the world when the moment came. He’d been doing it for weeks.

He plays quarterback like he’s holding a video game controller, honestly, not that different from Diego Pavia.

And that’s when the football happened.

That’s when tens of thousands of Illinois aunts, the ones who make the worst, whitest mac and cheese at family holidays, woke the heck up.

That’s when the Busch Light kicked in. We had ourselves a war! Tie ballgame!

Those eyes that were rolling? Now glued to the TV.

Perfect timing, too, end of the third quarter, and they announce we’ve broken the FCS National Championship attendance record: 24,105.

And then chaos. Thousands of people around the country cheering for a kid they think is named Taco.

And now the football was real. Tommy Rittenhouse made throw after throw after throw. If he had been wearing an Oklahoma State jersey on a random Saturday in September in Stillwater, he’d have blended in like a chameleon.

He was FBS-level good. It just looked casual to us.

When Tommy kicked the door down, he grabbed the microphone and woke up the Illinois State fanbase. The gloves were officially off.

His fanbase, the pale, tired, annoyed they were out past 11 p.m., bad at cooking, Redbird fans ... They were fireworks! They realized their team was going to keep them up past bedtime, and they were okay with it. Because they thought they were about to be champions. And no, last night was no different than the Alabama–Indiana fan dynamic, except Montana State fans actually travel. And always will. Because it’s the FCS. And we have standards.

Montana State punts with five minutes left in a tie ballgame. Tommy has the ball. He can go win it.

Illinois State picks up a few first downs and gets to about the 30… and his coaches do what so many coaches do when they’re in the driver seat. They get scared. They run the ball three straight times to set up a 4th & 1 where everybody in their mother is screaming at them to go for it. You get one yard, you set yourself up for a walk-off game winner, and a shorter kick.

I guess they forgot we don’t have NIL deals to hand kickers. The kid's career long was around 40 something yards. It was 45 degrees outside, and he had been sitting on his ass for two-plus hours.

So yeah. You can imagine how that went.

They weren’t champions. Not yet.

Luckily, and oddly, Montana State couldn’t handle the noise all night. Mistakes. Penalties. 42 false starts, and suddenly, overtime.

Remember how you rolled your eyes about being forced to watch this? Now you get free football, and remember? The kids are already asleep. Illinois State scored quick. But nobody checked on the kicker ...

He was still thinking about being the hero about five minutes earlier and his PAT got blocked. Montana State needs a touchdown and a PAT to win their first national championship since 1984.

Guess who? Taco. Obviously. On 4th and 10.

They send him across the formation on fourth down, confirms it’s man coverage. Justin Lamson leans into a corner ball that drops perfectly into Taco’s hands.

Game. Set. Match. Extra point. Cinema. Montana State did it. Illinois State didn’t. It feels weird. It still feels weird.

Montana State didn't deserve it. Maybe they were owed it. Illinois State actually deserved it. All can be true, I suppose.

A wise man once said: Hate me or love me ... you watched.

And keep watching. Please. We need a new TV deal to get us off ESPN+. Because we’ve got dudes. Everywhere. Every Saturday. All across the FCS who deserve the same amount of attention the guys in the FBS get.

We just don’t have the money to employ social media teams.

Now we get to sit here and watch schools throw “millions of dollars” at our beloved Taco trying to poach him.

And yeah, Taco has NIL deals. I would know. Just don’t come ruin our sport like you ruined yours.

Love,

Stone