Flathead High School alum, former Kalispell resident and retired NFL quarterback Brock Osweiler will be part of the ESPN broadcast team for the upcoming Jan. 6 FCS National Championship game in Frisco, Texas, between Montana State University and North Dakota State University.

Osweiler, who was hired by ESPN in 2022 as an analyst for college football, has been busy of late as college football’s bowl season reaches its peak, with nearly 30 bowl games, plus additional college football playoff games having already taken place between Dec. 14 and Dec. 30. News of Osweiler’s involvement in calling the FCS National Championship began circulating Monday.

This will be the second Bobcats game Osweiler has been in the booth for since Dec. 21, when he and play-by-play broadcaster Dave Fleming and sideline reporter Stormy Buonantony covered the FCS semifinal between MSU and University of South Dakota on ABC. That game, a 31-17 win for MSU, featured a dominant performance by Butte High grad and Bobcats’ starting quarterback Tommy Mellott, who threw for 134 yards and a touchdown while also rushing for 125 yards and two touchdowns. Montana State was the top-seeded team in the FCS playoffs and is undefeated on the season. They will face a South Dakota State Bison team that is 13-2 and entered the playoffs as the No. 2 seed. The two losses on the season for the Bison have come at the hands of University of Colorado and University of South Dakota.

Last week, Osweiler reportedly became the first person in the TV broadcast booth for the Las Vegas Bowl between USC and Texas A&M who had previously played in the Las Vegas Bowl. That was back in 2011 when the Arizona State Sun Devils faced Boise State in a 56-24 loss during which Osweiler went 30 of 47 passing for 395 yards and two touchdowns.

A resident of Scottsdale, Ariz., Osweiler is also part of the TV broadcast team as an analyst for the Dec. 31 ReliaQuest Bowl between No. 11 Alabama and Michigan on ESPN.

Osweiler won’t be the only former pro quarterback from Montana covering the FCS championship game. Ryan Leaf, who grew up in Great Falls, and went on to play for Washington State before spending four seasons in the NFL, will be helping to call the game for the radio broadcasting company Westwood One Sports.

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