Matt Zimmer: Jimmy Rogers has plenty of motivation in FCS national championship against Montana

Jan. 2—BROOKINGS — Jimmy Rogers' college football career began and ended at Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula, Montana.

In 2006, Rogers, a South Dakota State freshman, traveled with the Jackrabbits to the home of the Big Sky powerhouse for what was technically the second game of his career but the first against a Division I team (they'd opened at home against Division III Wisconsin-La Crosse, but nobody remembers what happened in that one....). The Griz whipped the Jacks 36-7. Welcome to Division I, kid.

Four years later, SDSU made the FCS playoffs for the first time, and the 8-3 Rabbits were rewarded with a trip to Missoula to face the 11-0, top-seeded Grizzlies.

The Jacks were significant underdogs. More than 19,000 fans were in attendance for the snowy noon kickoff. It would go down in the history of both programs as one of the most memorable games they'd ever played. SDSU jumped out to a 17-0 lead, and after the Grizzlies fought back to 17-14, the Jacks responded with a rip-roaring run that had them leading 41-14 in the third quarter. They could not hold onto that 27-point lead. Montana came back to win 61-48. Rogers, who'd turned himself into an all-conference linebacker by then, took his helmet and shoulder pads off for the last time that day. It was about as gut-wrenching a way to lose a game as one could imagine, let alone to end a playing career.

Things have, of course, worked out well for Rogers since. He soon embarked on a coaching career that saw him work his way up the ladder of John Stiegelmeier's staff to where he was named the legendary coach's successor after SDSU won their first national championship last year.

But it's clear Rogers hasn't forgotten that November day in Missoula. The Jacks went back there in 2015, by which point Rogers was the SDSU linebackers coach, and they lost again, 24-17 in a game they trailed 20-0 only to see a comeback bid fall short.

Now, as SDSU pursues its second straight national title and 29th consecutive win, it's the Grizzlies who stand in their way. The schools have played eight times previously, and Montana has won all eight. But that one in '09 is the one that really stings for SDSU's coach.

I had heard in the aftermath of the semifinal round, in which the Jacks pounded Albany 59-0 and Montana held off North Dakota State, that Rogers had admitted to some that there would, in fact, be some extra emotion in the national championship game because of the Jacks' past history with the Griz. Naturally I wanted to ask him about it, but the Jacks rookie coach tends to play certain things close to the vest and has made several references this season to his annoyance at some (read: me) making too much of narratives that may make for good copy but don't really have much effect on the actual games.

Rogers and the Jacks had a virtual press conference on Thursday, and I had initially planned on asking him about it then. But I figured I'd get a better answer if I asked Rogers about it in private, in person, so I grabbed him after practice on Thursday, and I was right.

It took a little prodding. When I first brought it up Rogers shrugged and said, "Eh, the players don't give a (crap) about a game from 14 years ago."

But he paused and added: "I wanted (to play for a championship) my whole life, and to get to a point where you feel like you're there and then to have it ripped away from you — I just don't want anyone else here to feel like that. That was a hard, hard time in my life. (Playing football) was what I'd done my whole life, and then in a blink of an eye you don't have it anymore. It's motivation for me to not let these seniors feel like how I felt."

I asked a few players if they were aware of their coach's history with their next opponent. They said they'd only found out recently. They thought Rogers might bring it up sometime between now and the game, but didn't expect it to be a significant talking point.

Rogers' former pupil and now defensive coordinator, Jesse Bobbit, suspects it means more than Rogers lets on. And it means something to him, too. Bobbit was a junior linebacker on the 2015 team. Offensive coordinator Zach Lujan was the Jacks' quarterback then (though he missed that game due to injury), and defensive assistant Kellen Soulek was the anchor of that SDSU D-line.

"I can guarantee it'll be brought up at some point as we get closer to the game," Bobbit said. "There's some personal stuff there for him, for me and the rest of us that have that history. There will be no lack of urgency for this game. The guys will be ready to fly around."

Details from Rogers' final game as a player still linger in his mind. When he first starts to recount the events of the game his voice is barely a whisper. But as Rogers gets further into what happened he gets more animated. And profane.

The Jacks had taken a 14-0 lead on a pair of touchdown passes from Thomas O'Brien to Colin Cochart, and pushed it to 34-14 at the break. A huge, huge upset was brewing.

"We had all the momentum, and the stadium was silent," Rogers recalls. "Then we come out of the half and blocked a punt for a touchdown (to make it 41-14). Then (Marc) Mariani went nuts and the fans started to trickle back to their seats and everything changed. We lost the momentum and we lost all the good mojo we had."

Mariani, who would be named to the Pro Bowl as a Tennessee Titans rookie the very next year, had a 98-yard kick return score in the third quarter and two touchdown catches in the fourth. Montana scored the final 40 points of the game, outscoring SDSU 34-0 in the fourth quarter alone.

"We played elite for 40 minutes of the game but we didn't finish," Rogers said. "It's vivid for me how I felt afterwards and it's vivid for me just the emotions that came from not getting to play again.

"Those things haunt me," Rogers continued, "because I think all losses, if they don't stick with you then you're not competitive enough."

In the years since, Bobbit said Rogers has referenced the loss several times. Not because he's still dwelling on the emotions of it, but because the spectacular collapse is a lesson that can be applied to almost any situation. Rogers means it when he says he remembers what that felt like and doesn't want to experience it again.

"It's been brought up many times," Bobbit said. "Just talking about no matter who you're playing or what the score is you have to keep playing. Being up on a team — that's what can happen if you don't keep your foot on the gas, if you lose focus and make mistakes. And when he talks about that day he gets pretty emotional as you can probably imagine."

Still, Rogers is reluctant to make too much of events from his own career. The last thing he'd ever do, he says, is pull out some kind of 'win this one for me' speech.

And then, as if to prove his own point, Rogers rattles off the final games of a handful of his prized pupils, gut-punch moments that are still seared into his memory.

"I've been a part of enough of those heartbreaking losses," he says. "R.C. Kilgore's last game was Eastern Washington. T.J. Lally's was at Montana. Jesse Bobbit at NDSU, Christian Rozeboom against UNI. Those losses stick with me more than most."

So no, we're not going to run with the angle that Sunday's national championship game is about revenge for Rogers or anyone else at SDSU. It's not.

But the history the Jacks have with Montana is just one more reason a 29th consecutive win would feel pretty good for everyone in blue and yellow.