By Fritz Neighbor | Daily Inter Lake, Kalispell, Mont.
The fact that Justin Lamson fit in so well at Montana State doesn’t come as much of a surprise to Bobcat coach Brent Vigen, who recorded with his quarterback when Lamson was in high school.
“That goes from 2019 to 20,” Vigen said Saturday at a news conference before Monday’s Division I football championship game between MSU and Illinois State. “Justin was a big target of ours and I got a chance to go to Sacramento, to his high school, talk to his coach, see him pitch, get to know him.
At the time, Vigen was the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. And in the spring of 2020, the country was in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“So when Justin came to Laramie, I couldn’t have any contact with him other than seriously, looking out my second-floor office window and kind of giving up on him,” Vigen said. “But he meant us.
Until he wasn’t.
“I was really high at Wyoming,” Lamson, who committed to Syracuse out of high school, said Saturday. “I visited all the places during Covid and at the time I didn’t feel like Laramie was the right place for me.
Then the junior smiled. “I decided to go across the country to upstate New York. I’m happy with my decision out of high school; I enjoyed it at Syracuse, I learned a lot.”
Lamson then transferred to Stanford in 2023 and played some as a backup quarterback – he had four TD passes in 2024. He was then in a portal again, which led him to… Bowling Green.
“He was clearly our target during December,” Vigen said. “He played at Stanford and did some good things. … It was just disappointing that we couldn’t do it.”
On January 15, Lamson committed to the Falcons.
“Then March came and everybody left,” Lamson said. Falcons head coach Scot Loeffler has left to become the quarterbacks coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.
“The new staff (led by head coach Eddie George) came in and that’s really tough for a varsity quarterback because they brought in their own guy.
Before the end of March, Lamson watched the end of MSU’s spring practices. He was named the starter at the end of fall camp, though it was a process.
“I really felt like I had a tough fall camp,” he said. “A humbling experience in a way. I actually didn’t feel like I was playing my best football at the beginning of fall camp; I felt like our defense challenged me a lot. You know how good they are.”
“Once we got into the swing of things, I started doing well. Oregon Prep — once I was named the starter, I felt like I could be a real leader on offense. I think that’s when it started to click.”
In Monday’s game, which starts at 7:30 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN, Lamson has 24 touchdowns (against three interceptions) for the 13-2 Bobcats. He has 14 more TDs rushing. He is one of the most efficient QBs in the FCS.
“It was the way the story was supposed to be written,” Vigen said. “A crazy story and a relationship that went back and forth between us a lot. For it to come back to happen the way it did, I’m just thankful that things work out the way they do.”
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