The marquee matchup in this Saturday’s 124th Cat-Griz game is unquestionably the University of Montana offense against Montana State’s defense.
The Grizzlies enter the game with the No. 1 scoring offense in the Big Sky Conference, while the Bobcats lead the BSC in points allowed. Something has to give and it might be the deciding factor in one of, if not, the biggest clashes between the two storied programs that have five national titles and 37 BSC titles (42 overall conference titles). For the first time in the 135-year history that college football has been played in the state of Montana, each side enters the game with unblemished 7-0 records in the league.
UM is a perfect 11-0 and MSU has won nine straight. The Grizzlies are ranked No. 2 in the coaches and media polls, while the Bobcats are No. 3 in both polls. The winner will secure an outright Big Sky championship and likely the No. 2 seed in the FCS playoffs with a victory.
“Any time you’ve gone through 11 games and you are undefeated, you have continued to find ways to win. And credit to them: they are explosive on offense,” Montana State head coach Brent Vigen said.
The Grizzlies average 42 points per game and are coming off a resounding 63-17 win at Portland State, which marked the second time this season they’ve scored 63 points with the other being a 63-20 win over Indiana State. UM has only been held under 41 points four times this season.
UM also leads the lead in total offense (467.5), passing yards per attempt (9.0), and touchdown passes (26).
“You always want great competition so going against one of the best offenses in the country, that’s what we want,” Montana State senior captain defensive tackle Paul Brott said.
The Griz offense is led by Keali’i Ah Yat, son of former UM quarterback Brian Ah Yat (1995-1998), who has been the most prolific quarterback in the BSC in terms of yards passing (2,968) and touchdown passes (24). His passer rating of 161.7 is third in the league just behind UC Davis’s Caden Pinnick (168.6) and MSU’s Justin Lamson (168.1).
“I think it does start with (Ah Yat), but then you add in Gillman and Wortham and those are two headlining playmakers in our league,” said Vigen, who’s 2-2 against the Griz in his career. “Gillman has been doing it for a while now, Year 3, and he continues to be very productive. And Wortham (an Eastern Washington transfer) has been this new added dimension for them. I know just offensively, I think he’s at 100 touches between receiving and rushing, well over 1,000 yards. And the element he certainly brings in the kick return game is there too (almost 30 yards per return).”
Wortham has 51 receptions for 822 yards and seven touchdowns and 43 carries for 238 yards and five touchdowns. That gives him 94 touches for 1,060 yards and 12 touchdowns. UM has a preference to run the hurry-up after a gash play and line Wortham, a former junior college quarterback, up in the Wildcat and make defenses guess. Wortham can run the read option or he can run the QB keeper or he can throw, which he has five times this year, including a touchdown throw to Josh Gale earlier this season.
“They line Wortham up at Wildcat and all the different things they do with him, he certainly added a dimension to their offense,” Vigen said.
Gillman is the leading rusher in the BSC with 1,129 yards on 177 carries, which includes 16 touchdown runs. He is over 3,000 yards in his decorated career and has scored 44 career rushing touchdowns. His 48 total touchdowns are tied for third in school history.
“Eli is a fine player, an exceptional talent who we are thankful to have on our football team,” Montana head coach Bobby Hauck said earlier this season.
The Bobcats will be UM’s biggest test so far this season. MSU allows an average of16.2 points per game and that includes 59 points it allowed to the Oregon Ducks. Eliminate that score and MSU is allowing just 11.2 points per contest. The Bobcats haven’t allowed more than 17 points to an FCS team during regulation time this season. They’ve allowed just 23 touchdowns, which is nine less than the next best team in the BSC. Not counting the eight touchdowns allowed to Oregon, that number is just 15 over the last 11 weeks.
MSU also leads the BSC in total defense per game (308.5), yards per play (4.7), rushing per game (111.0), rushing per play (3.6), passing yards allosed per game (197.5), passing yards allowed per attempt (5.7) and pass efficiency defense (115.2).
So much of it is because of a swarming, aggressive defense that hasn’t missed a beat despit the graduation of defensive end Brody Grebe, the Big Sky Defensive MVP last year, along with first-team all-conference players inside linebacker McCade O’Reilly and safety Rylan Ortt.
Both teams enter this year’s rivalry game with a key player banged up as UM starting offensive tackle Everett Johnson is listed as a backup after missing a few starts, while Brott was knocked out against UNC, missed Weber State, came back last week, hurt his ankle again, but came back in.
“That was good to see,” Vigen said about Brott’s reentry.
The Bobcats preach having every man do his 1/11th, nothing more and nothing less. Hauck says he’s taken note of that.
“It’s early in the week but they are very assignment-sound, and they have a good understanding of how their defense fits together, front and back,” Hauck said. “They play hard. It’s two of the best teams in the country. They are doing a lot of things right.”
One of the media members in Missoula asked Hauck about MSU not giving up any points in the third quarter – they’ve outscored teams 100-0 in the third quarter — and he said he was unaware of that stat until the question was asked.
“We don’t spend a lot of time on the stat sheet,” Hauck said. “We watch the film.”
The Bobcats have seen some strong offenses this year in Oregon, South Dakota State, Northern Arizona, Idaho State and UC Davis. How they stack up against the Grizzlies, however, may not be as favorable as those previous foes.
MSU defensive coordinator Shawn Howe, like Hauck, isn’t focusing on the Bobcats’ stats.
“I really believe it’s this: it’s two-fold – it’s the way the players approach work and the way they approach preparation,” Howe said earlier this season. “We have a saying here on defense: You don’t rise to the occasion, you fall to the level of your training. We want to make sure that level of training is so high, it’s not a big fall.”
The Bobcats are solid at every position group, let by a defensive line featuring four seniors, including three who are multi-year starters. Despite the fact that Vigen has had four defensive coordinators during his five seasons at the helm, the North Dakota State-influenced 4-2-5 defense has remained relatively unchanged.
After Bobby Daly left for the DC job at UTEP last off-season, Howe took over. The charismatic defensive coordinator gives a lot of the credit to the MSU defensive assistant coaches.
“I think we have a bunch of position coaches that really, really do a great job of preparing their units at an elite level,” Howe said.
The Bobcats have been led all year by unassuming safety Caden Dowler, who’s twin brother Taco is perhaps the most recognized athlete in Montana and gets most of the limelight between the two thanks to his electric punt returns and pass catching ability.
But the last two weeks have been the Caden, not Taco, Dowler Show.
Dowler is reigning BSC defensive player of the week each of the last two weeks and has intercepted three passes – returning one 83 yards for a score, over the two games. He has also forced two fumbles with one being recovered by a teammate.
“I think he is the Defensive Player of the Year in this conference,” Brott said. “He’s the best player on our team. He’s had two ACLs since he’s been here, but he battles, and he works. I make jokes that I used to be cranky and now he’s the cranky one. And that’s because he’s the standard of this place and I’m so proud of him because of his great hands.”
The unstoppable force meets the immovable object….that’s the way it’s being billed at least. But consider this: Montana scored just 18 points less last week than Montana State had given up all conference season. So someone’s scoring average is going to move following Saturday.
Brott probably summed up his and his opponents’ feelings about the game best.
“Same thing as always man, we don’t want them to have it, they don’t want us to have it (the Great Divide Trophy) so it’s all about who wants it most at the end of the day,” the MSU captain said. “I am just going to go out there and play as hard as I can, my teammates are going to play as hard as they can. Our process is going to be great. We are going to be defined, and we are going to go keep it.”
The Bobcats and Grizzlies kickoff at noon this Saturday in Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula.
