Leon Costello speaks on the evolution of Bobcat football

Between 2018 and today, MSU football has experienced the most successful half-decade in the 125-year history of the program. With the Bobcats in the thick of the 2022 FCS Division 1 playoffs, the program is showing no signs of slowing down.

Over the past five years, fans of Bobcat football have spent a lot of time cheering their team on in the cold. For playoff football, they converge on the parking lot of Bobcat Stadium armored in ski jackets and armed with firewood and slow cookers full of hot chili. No one is shivering, everyone is having fun — they’ve refined the art of playoff tailgating. Who could blame them? They’ve had a lot of practice.

The Bobcats’ Dec. 3 matchup vs. Weber State marked the sixth time the team has hosted a playoff game since 2018. It also marked the team’s sixth win in such games. In the last five years, the Cats have boasted four visits to the playoffs, two appearances in the semifinals, and a trip to Texas for the FCS championship game. It’s definitely a good time to be a Bobcat fan — but it hasn’t always been like this.

Since the inaugural 1897 season, the program has seen ups and downs. In the early years, the team didn’t belong to a conference and faced the University of Montana annually along with any other team that wanted to come to Bozeman for a game. The team bounced around conferences for a few decades before landing in the NCAA Big Sky Conference in 1963.

Success in the 1970’s under coach Sonny Holland paved the way for a 1984 FCS championship. A nearly twenty-year playoff drought followed, and the first two decades of the 21st century saw the Bobcats experience moderate success with a handful of playoff appearances and early-round exits.

Leon Costello, MSU’s director of athletics, has seen the program evolve into today’s powerhouse over his seven-year tenure in the position.

“The program was going through a restart,” he said of Bobcat football in 2016.

The team was coming off a 5-6 season, and first-time head coach Jeff Choate had just been hired to replace long-time coach Rob Ash. Since Costello took over Bobcat Athletics, the football team has gone 51-26. “We’ve gone from one end of the spectrum to the next,” he said.

Recently, Costello’s administration raised $20 million for the development of the Bobcat Athletic Complex. Completed in 2021, it features improved strength training, nutrition and sports medicine facilities to support student athletes. “We want to enhance the student athlete experience,” Costello said, adding that facility upgrades help attract elite athletes to MSU.

While administrative support has boosted Bobcat football performance in recent years, Costello also cited a surge in fan support as a factor in the team’s success. The 2022 Cat-Griz game broke the all-time attendance record at Bobcat Stadium, with 22,037 blue and gold-clad fans willing the Bobcats past the Grizzlies on a single-digits November afternoon.

“Total attendance across the season has broken the all-time record,” Costello said.

Costello himself is just as much a fan as he is an administrator. In a Dec. 2 interview the day before last weekend’s game, he wore a Bobcat hat, a Bobcat hoodie, and a wide grin as soon as the topic of playoff football arose.. “I love playoff football,” said Costello. “It’s win or go home.”

In an 8:15 p.m. Friday, Dec. 9, date with William & Mary for the FCS playoff quarterfinals, the Bobcats will look to extend their stretch of success another week and another round into the playoffs. Each of the past four seasons the Cats have advanced one round further in the playoffs, with last season ending in a loss to North Dakota State in the FCS championship game.

When asked if he thought the pattern would continue and the Bobcats would finally win it all this year, Costello smiled. “I hope so,” he said.