With FCS title win, how does QB Justin Lamson rank among Sacramento-rooted stars?
Eric Cavaliere paced and fretted on Monday night in trying to enjoy a football game that included one of his former pupils.
The retired Oak Ridge High School gridiron coach wrung his hands, exhaled, sighed and celebrated in his El Dorado County home, sometimes all for one play, surrounded by equally-as-stressed friends.
Such was the high-drama theme for anyone who took in the FCS national championship game on ESPN or who attended the fireworks show in Nashville. Montana State won 35-34 over Illinois State with a walk-off, point-after-touchdown kick in overtime after Oak Ridge alum Justin Lamson fired the go-ahead score to Taco Dowler.
That capped an MVP-like season that included a 14-game winning streak for the Bobcats of Bozeman.
“Crazy game,” Cavaliere said in a text message, adding that longtime friend Ron Martin brought “his famous meatballs to my house for the game.”
Added Cavaliere, “May have lost my composure a time or two during the game but no meatballs were thrown.”
The last time Cavaliere coached Lamson was on a cold, dreary night in 2019 in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I championship game. Lamson battled the speedy Monterey Trail Mustangs and sideways wind and rain to engineer a dramatic victory, doing so with a torn knee ligament that even the quarterback didn’t think was that serious.
A redshirt junior quarterback, Lamson’s college journey has taken him from Syracuse in New York to Stanford in the Bay Area to Big Sky country. And there he was on Monday night in Tennessee, giddy and proud, with family in the stands, to bask in the glow of Montana State’s first national crown in 41 years.
Lamson thanked teammates and coaches for accepting him before the season as an incoming transfer from California. Lamson was named the championship game’s Most Outstanding Player. He finished the first half completing 12 of 13 passes, and he finished with 280 yards passing and two touchdowns to go with two rushing scores.
He finished the season by completing nearly 72% of his passes for 3,172 yards and 26 touchdowns with just three interceptions. He had no interceptions in Big Sky Conference play, and he rushed for more than 700 yards and 16 touchdowns as a dual-threat talent who befuddled defenses during a 14-2 campaign.
Lamson didn’t transfer from Syracuse to Stanford to Montana State because he was impatient. That’s a bad tendency for a quarterback. He bounced to find the right fit, and that was with Montana State and a coach in Brent Vigen who had recruited Lamson for years, including when he coached at Wyoming.
“I think you always dream of winning a national championship, and I really think that’s become the standard at Montana State,” Lamson said in Monday night’s postgame news conference. “We lost a lot of guys (from the 2024 team), and that’s all I heard going into the season. But when I got here, I already knew that we had dudes. I got here late, and these guys accepted me. Coach Vigen took a chance on me when not a lot of other people did, kept pursuing me.”
Dowler, who caught the game winner, sized up Lamson this way earlier in the postseason: “He’s an easy person to follow, just because he does work so hard. He worked hard from Day 1 and gained a lot of respect and trust from the whole offense, the whole defense, even special teams. And that’s big on this team.”
Because we all dig all-time player lists, where does Lamson rank among the Sacramento-area’s best quarterbacks?
The Sacramento Bee boils this list down to those who achieved big things in high school and in college with no bearing on any professional football careers.
Scott Barry
High school: Delta, class of 1980
College: UC Davis
Notable: Barry set prep passing records for a small-school powerhouse located on the Sacramento River and then emerged as an All-American at UCD in 1984. He started in the NCAA Division II national title game in 1982 and starred his final two seasons, passing for 5,387 yards and 37 touchdowns, huge numbers in that era.
Eric Beavers
High school: Davis, class of 1983
College: Nevada
Notable: A Bee All-Metro pick as a senior when he passed for nearly 1,700 yards for a playoff team, Beavers was a three-year starter at Nevada, leading the Big Sky Conference in passing in 1984 and 1985 and earned Big Sky MVP honors as a senior in 1986 when he powered the Wolf Pack to a 13-1 season. He finished with 9,028 yards of total offense and 78 touchdowns and was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame.
Ian Book
High school: Oak Ridge, class of 2016
College: Notre Dame
Notable: A three-year starter at Oak Ridge, Book was big on comebacks with poise and a rocket arm in earning Bee All-Metro honors. He became the winningest quarterback in Notre Dame history, and his 72 career touchdown passes are second in Irish history.
Robbie Bosco
High school: Roseville, class of 1982
College: BYU
Notable: A Bee All-Metro performer as a prep with scores of passing records, Bosco only got better at BYU. He was third in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1984 when he powered the Cougars to the national championship with a 13-0 season. Bosco passed for 3,875 yards and 33 touchdowns as a junior in 1984 and set then-BYU records with 4,273 yards and 30 TD passes in 1985 in again finishing third in the Heisman. He bowed out with 10 NCAA records.
Jake Browning
High school: Folsom, class of 2015
College: Washington
Notable: Browning blew up defenses and scoreboards as a prep, the three-year starter passing for a national prep record 229 touchdowns, including a prep-record 91 as a senior for a 16-0 team in 2014. He has the state record for career passing yards with 16,775 yards and was a three-time Bee Player of the Year. He left Washington as the program’s all-time passing leader and as the winningest quarterback in the history of the Pac-12.
Virgil Carter
High school: Folsom, class of 1963
College: BYU
Notable: Carter was Folsom’s first great quarterback when he led the then-small school Bulldogs to a No. 1 Northern California ranking as a senior. At BYU, Carter set six national, 19 conference and 24 school records, and his 50 career touchdown passes as a three-year starter were a massive number in that run-heavy era.
Ryan Dinwiddie
High school: Elk Grove, class of 1999
College: Boise State
Notable: Dinwiddie steered CIF Section Division I title teams in 1997 and 1998, going a combined 27-1. He started three years at Boise State in setting since-broken school career passing marks, including passing for nearly 10,000 yards and 82 touchdowns. He is in the Boise State Hall of Fame.
Randy Fasani
High school: Del Oro, class of 1997
College: Stanford
Notable: The No. 1 prep quarterback recruit as a senior and the 1995 Bee Player of the Year, Fasani won two section titles at Del Oro while passing for 5,299 career yards and 60 touchdowns. He started two seasons at Stanford. In an effort to get on the field his first two seasons on The Farm, Fasani played tight end, linebacker and goal-line quarterback.
Aaron Garcia
High school: Grant, class of 1988
College: Washington State, Sacramento State
Notable: He broke John Elway’s state passing, yardage and touchdown records in passing for nearly 6,000 yards his final two seasons to go with 57 touchdowns in earning Bee Player of the Year honors in 1986. Garcia started at WSU and Sac State and passed for 4,295 yards and 31 touchdowns.
Dano Graves
High school: Folsom, class of 2011
College: Cal Poly
Notable: Graves was The Bee’s Player of the Year in 2010 when he powered Folsom to its first CIF State championship. He passed for 9,452 career yards and scored a total of 151 touchdowns passing and rushing at Folsom. He was a three-year starter at Cal Poly, leading the Big Sky Conference in passing efficiency once.
Khari Jones
High school: Center, class of 1989
College: UC Davis
Notable: A Bee first-team All-Metro quarterback in 1988 who still holds scores of school passing marks, Jones became the first UCD player to fire 50 career touchdown passes in going 17-2 his final two seasons. He is in the Cal Aggie Athletics Hall of Fame.
J.T. O’Sullivan
High school: Jesuit, class of 1997
College: UC Davis
Notable: After leading Jesuit to a CIF Section crown as a junior in 1995 and setting some school passing marks, O’Sullivan was a three-year starter at UCD. In earning multiple Division II All-American honors, O’Sullivan passed for 10,745 career yards and 96 career touchdowns, and he was inducted into the Cal Aggie Athletics Hall of Fame.
Craig Penrose
High school: Woodland, class of 1971
College: San Diego State
Notable: After leading the greatest Woodland team of them all, a 10-0 club in 1970 when he willed the Wolves to win in the mud, Penrose starred in college. He set a number of San Diego State passing records and was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame.
Troy Taylor
High school: Cordova, class of 1986
College: Cal
Notable: In earning Bee Player of the Year honors in 1985, Taylor led the section’s first 14-0 team in becoming the region’s first quarterback to rush for 1,000 yards and pass for 2,500. He started four years at Cal, setting scores of career marks, including nearly 9,000 yards of total offense, as a three-time team MVP.
Chris Vargas
High school: Woodland, class of 1990
College: Nevada
Notable: After a dazzling prep career in which his mother would cover her eyes in the stands in nervous anticipation on winning drives, Vargas earned the nickname “Magic” for his penchant for late-game dramatics in college. He led Nevada to the Division I-AA (now called FCS) title game in 1990, led a historic 35-point rally and win against Weber State in 1991 and was the MVP of the Las Vegas Bowl in 1992. A three-time conference champion, Vargas passed for 4,265 yards and 34 touchdowns as a senior and was later inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame.
Seneca Wallace
High school: Cordova, class of 1999
College: Iowa State
Notable: A dual-threat, Bee All-Metro ace at Cordova, Wallace was a JC All-American at Sacramento City College who started his final two seasons at Iowa State, passing for 5,289 yards and 26 touchdowns. He was in the running for the Heisman Trophy in the middle of his senior season of 2002.
- Ken O’Brien and Tony Eason starred in college in the early 1980s at UC Davis and Illinois, respectively, and they were part of the famed first-round quarterback haul in the 1983. They excelled more in college and the NFL than they did as preps.