Montana State's Mellott wins Payton Award over NDSU's Miller

FRISCO, Texas — Before the Division I FCS national championship between North Dakota State and Montana State is fought on the grass field at Toyota Stadium on Monday night, a pair of title game participants battled it out of sorts in a swanky carpeted banquet room at the Hyatt Regency Frisco on Saturday night.

A panel of 52 voters selected MSU’s Tommy Mellot as the winner of the Walter Payton Award, which goes to the best offensive player in the FCS. NDSU’s Cam Miller finished second.

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Montana State quarterback Tommy Mellott is awarded the FCS Walter Payton Award Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, during the FCS Stats Perform Awards Banquet at the Hyatt Regency in Frisco. Texas. David Samson / The Forum

“There are a lot of kids who lace them up on August 1,” said NDSU head coach Tim Polasek. “It means a lot, but Cam’s going to tell you the most important thing is getting this ‘W.’ ”

The general consensus was the award came down to Miller and Mellott, with Southern Utah running back Targhee Lambson being the third player invited to the banquet. Lambson rushed for 1,922 yards with 23 touchdowns.

NDSU quarterback Trey Lance won both the Payton and the Jerry Rice Award as the best freshman in 2019. Coincidentally, NDSU running back Marty Brown was presented with the Rice trophy on Saturday night, an honor that was previously announced.

The Payton and Buck Buchanan Award winners were not.

Brown for most of the season led all Division I freshmen running backs in rushing. He has 1,104 yards and 14 touchdowns heading into the Monday night title game. Before Lance and Brown, the only other major FCS award winner from NDSU was defensive end Kyle Emanuel, who won the Buchanan in 2014.

“Coming into this season, I just wanted to contribute,” Brown said. “I didn’t think about stats. Just show up every day and do everything I can for the team.”

Brown was joined on stage at the Saturday banquet by Rice, who has been at most of the award presentations. NDSU played a former Rice winner this year when the Bison faced Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders.

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North Dakota State's Marty Brown is congratulated by NFL legend Jerry Rice on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, after being recognized with his namesake award during the FCS Stats Perform Awards Banquet at the Hyatt Regency in Frisco, Texas. David Samson / The Forum

“Marty is a workhorse,” Rice said. “He represented the Jerry Rice Award the right way and not taking any shortcuts.”

With the Payton Award, both quarterbacks had similar numbers. Miller had the better passing statistics completing 239 of 329 attempts (73%) for 3,052 yards, 31 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. Mellott completed 190 of 276 passes (69%) for 2,564 yards, 29 touchdowns against just 2 interceptions.

Mellott was more explosive on the ground rushing for 915 yards on 8.4 per carry with 14 touchdowns. Miller had 510 yards averaging 4.0 yards but had 10 TDs.

Montana State head coach Brent Vigen was asked on Saturday how he would compare Mellott with other quarterbacks he’s coached, like Josh Allen at Wyoming and Carson Wentz and Brock Jensen when he was an assistant at NDSU.

“First, they all had the competitive drive, the belief that they’re not going to tell anybody how good they can be, they’re going to become as good as they possibly can,” he said. “Tommy is of a different stature, Tommy will win a race for sure amongst all those guys. He’s as quick as anybody on our team and as fast as anybody on the football field on our team.”

Vigen was named the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year by Stats Perform.

“Our consistency has been unbelievable this year and we need to do it one more time,” he said.

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Central Arkansas defensive end David Walker was named the Buchanan winner. NDSU faced Walker, who was a finalist for the third year in a row, last year in a 49-31 win at the Fargodome. Walker had 1.5 quarterback sacks in that game.

Montana State head football coach Brent Vigen is presented the Eddie Robinson Award for FCS Coach of the Year by Quentin Burrell, great-grandson of Eddie Robinson, on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, during the FCS Stats Perform Awards Banquet at the Hyatt Regency in Frisco. Texas. David Samson / The Forum

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