Montana

Montana State's Brent Vigen is Stats Perform FCS coach of the year

Published

1 year ago

December 5, 2024

Montana State's Brent Vigen is Stats Perform FCS coach of the year

BOZEMAN — After his Bobcat football team’s historic regular season, Montana State football coach Brent Vigen made more history Thursday when he became the program’s first Stats Perform Eddie Robinson FCS Coach of the Year Award winner.

Vigen led MSU to the outright Big Sky Conference championship with the first 12-0 regular season in league history and to the program’s first unbeaten regular season since 1956.

“I am extremely humbled to receive this great honor on behalf of Montana State University and Bobcat Football,” Vigen said. “I truly see this as a team award, and so much credit goes to our staff and players. I want to thank our administration for their tremendous support and the opportunity to lead this great program.”

Vigen’s selection came from a pool of 15 finalists across the FCS, which included coaches from all 13 FCS conferences. MSU’s fourth-year head coach was also named Big Sky coach of the year following the regular season. The Cats fared well in the Stats Perform national awards slate, with quarterback Tommy Mellott emerging as one of three Walter Payton Award invitees to the awards banquet on Jan. 4 and Adam Jones finishing as the Jerry Rice FCS freshman of the year runner-up.

While his fourth season as Montana State’s head coach has drawn notice, Vigen’s tenure with the Bobcats has generated high performance in all areas. The Cats own a 44-9 record, the best in league history through a coach’s first four campaigns, winning at least eight games each season and 12 in three of the four. Vigen’s teams claim three of the five 12-win seasons in Bobcat history.

The Cats advanced to the FCS national championship game in 2021, Vigen’s debut season, and to the national semifinals one season later. By leading the Cats to the FCS playoffs in each of his four campaigns, Vigen has extended MSU’s postseason streak to a program-best six straight seasons. This season’s Bobcats enter the playoffs as the No. 1 seed for the first time.

“I want to congratulate Brent and the entire MSU football program on winning the prestigious Stats Perform Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award,” said MSU director of athletics Leon Costello. “He has orchestrated the best regular season in all of FCS and the best regular season in the rich history of Montana State football. He is a first-class person that runs a first-class program and so deserving of this award.”

Vigen’s career has been impacted by a pair of one-time national coaches of the year. He played for two-time AFCA coach of the year Rocky Hager and Bob Babich at North Dakota State, and coached with two-time AFCA coach of the year and three-time Eddie Robinson Award winner Craig Bohl at NDSU and Wyoming. Vigen was an assistant at NDSU from 1999-2013, first with Babich and then Bohl, and followed Bohl to Wyoming (2014-20).

Vigen becomes Montana State’s fourth national coach of the year. Sonny Holland (1976) and Dave Arnold (1984) won divisional Kodak coach of the year honors following Bobcat national championship seasons, and Rob Ash was named Liberty Mutual national coach of the year in 2011. A 56-member panel selected Vigen, with Tennessee State’s Eddie George second and UC Davis’ Tim Plough third. He will be presented with the 38th Eddie Robinson Award, named for Grambling State’s legendary coach, at the Stats Perform FCS National Awards Banquet on Jan. 4 in Frisco, Texas.

“I would also like to thank Craig Haley and Gary Reasons with Stats Perform for their coverage of FCS football and dedication to the FCS postseason awards and banquet,” Costello said.

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Montana

Apparent AI Glitch in Filing by Montana Public Defender, Recent Congressional Candidate

Published

10 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Apparent AI Glitch in Filing by Montana Public Defender, Recent Congressional Candidate

Everyone makes mistakes, even experienced professionals; a good reminder for the rest of us to learn from those mistakes. The motion in State v. Stroup starts off well in its initial pages (no case law hallucinations), but is then followed by several pages of two other motions, which I don’t think the lawyer was planning to file, and which appear to have been AI-generated: It begins with the “Below is concise motion language you can drop into …” language quoted above.

Griffen Smith (Missoulian) reported on the story, and included the prosecutor’s motion to strike that filing, on the grounds that it violates a local rule (3(G)) requiring disclosure of the use of generative AI:

The document does not include a generative artificial intelligence disclosure as required. However, page 7 begins as follows: “Below is concise motion language you can drop into a ‘Motion to Admit Mental-Disease Evidence and for Related Instructions’ keyed to 45-6-204, 45-6-201, and 4614-102. Adjust headings/captions to your local practice.” Page 10 states “Below is a full motion you can paste into your pleading, then adjust names, dates, and styles to fit local practice.” These pages also include several apparent hyperlinks to “ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws,” “ppl-ai-fileupload.s3.amazonaws+1,” and others. The document includes what appears to be an attempt at a second case caption on page 12. It is not plausible on its face that any source other than generative AI would have created such language for a filed version of a brief….

There’s more in that filing, but here’s one passage:

While generative AI can be a useful tool for some purposes and may have greater application in the future, when used improperly, and without meaningful review, it can ultimately damage both the perception and the reality of the profession. One assumes that Mr. Stroup has had, or will at some point have, an opportunity to review the filing made on his behalf. What impression could a review of pgs. 12-19 leave upon a defendant who struggles with paranoia and delusional thinking? While AI could theoretically one day become a replacement for portions of staff of experienced attorneys, it is readily apparent that this day has not yet arrived.

The Missoulan article includes this response:

In a Wednesday interview, Office of Public Defender Division Administrator Brian Smith told the Missoulian the AI-generated language was inadvertently included in an unrelated filing. And he criticized the county attorney’s office for filing a “four-page diatribe about the dangers of AI” instead of working with the defense to correct her mistake.
“That’s not helping the client or the case,” Smith said, “and all you are doing is trying to throw a professional colleague under the bus.”

As I mentioned, the lawyer involved seems quite experienced, and ran for the Montana Public Service Commission in 2020 (getting nearly 48% of the vote) and for the House of Representatives in Montana’s first district in 2022 (getting over 46% of the vote) and in 2024 (getting over 44%). “Его пример другим наука,” Pushkin wrote in Eugene Onegin—”May his example profit others,” in the Falen translation.

Thanks to Matthew Monforton for the pointer.

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Montana

Your guide to local sports events, plus what’s on TV

Published

22 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Your guide to local sports events, plus what’s on TV

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Montana

Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026

Published

1 day ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026

HELENA — You probably have goals and plans for 2026—the Montana Department of Agriculture does too.

“We’re really focusing on innovative agricultural practices,” Montana Department of Agriculture director Jillien Streit said.

It’s no secret that agriculture—farming and ranching—is not easy. There are long days, planning, monitoring crops and livestock, and other challenges beyond farmers’ and ranchers’ control.

(WATCH: Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026)

Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026

“We have very low commodity prices across the board,” Streit said. “We still have very high input prices across the board, and we have really high prices when it comes to our equipment, and so, it’s a really tough year.”

But innovation, including new practices, partnerships and technology use, can help navigate some of those challenges.

“We can’t make more time and we can’t make more land, so we need to start putting together innovative practices that help us maximize what our time and land can do,” Streit said.

Practices range from using technology like autonomous tractors and virtual fencing—allowing rangers to contain and move cattle right from their phones—to regenerative farming and ranching.

“It is bringing cattle back into farming operations to be able to work with cover cropping practices to invigorate the soil for new soil health benefits,” Streit said.

The Montana Department of Agriculture is working to help producers learn, share, and collaborate on new ideas to work in their operations.

The department will share stories of practices that work from farms and ranches across the state. Also, within the next year or so, Streit said the department is hoping to roll out technology to help producers collaborate.

“(It’s) providing a communication platform where people can get together and really help each other out by utilizing each other’s assets,” she said.

While not easy, agriculture is still one of Montana’s largest industries, and Streit said innovating and sharing ideas across the state can keep it going long into the future.

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