MISSOULA – It is an electric feeling to stand on the roof of the Washington-Grizzly Stadium press box before the Brawl of the Wild. Think about that – 27,000-odd people in one place, all focusing on the same thing, players and coaches and fans alike locked-in on nothing else but the game that will decide Treasure State bragging rights for another year. It’s an uncommon experience, exhilarating and even a little scary to feel the sheer force of attention from everybody in the stadium.
If ever a Cat-Griz game deserved that single-minded intensity and fixation, it was Saturday’s, which had not only the Great Divide Trophy on the line, but also (for the first time in the history of the rivalry) the outright Big Sky title and (for the first time in the history of the rivalry), the No. 2 seed in the FCS Playoffs, given that it was being contested (for the first time in the history of the rivalry) between two top-five teams, No. 3 and No. 4 in the country.
That’s a lot of firsts, and if there was a most impressive thing out of all the impressive things the Montana Grizzlies accomplished in their 37-7 beatdown, it’s this: they turned the most consequential rivalry game arguably ever into a runaway, battering the Bobcats so badly it removed all drama from the Brawl to end all Brawls.
The win gave Montana the Big Sky title for the first time since 2009 — Bobby Hauck’s last year with the Griz before returning to Missoula in 2018 — and made sure the Great Divide Trophy would stay in the Garden City.
“It was a great performance by our team today, and we’re very excited to get the 74th win over our rival,” Hauck said. “I think it’s kind of special just because of the landscape of Division I college football right now. Recruiting classes are kind of an antiquated notion to a degree with everybody hopping schools everywhere, so the fact that we have a bunch of guys who came in here together, I think that’s a little bit unique. … Certainly with this group here, we have a bunch of guys who stuck it out. They enjoy it, they like each other, they like football and they love Montana.”
Instead of the top-five battle it was billed as, the record crowd of 27,178 at Washington-Grizzly and the stakes of the moment made Montana State look like an overmatched, undisciplined high school team, as mistakes piled up to condemn the Bobcats to a demoralizing defeat heading into the FCS Playoffs.
The Griz will head into those same playoffs as the No. 2 seed and arguably the hottest team in the country, with a seven-game winning streak, four straight victories by at least 24 points and, as long as they keep winning, the opportunity to play at home all the way up to the national championship game in Frisco, Texas.
“We are good at home, somebody’s going to have to come in here and beat us,” Hauck said. “Not that that can’t happen, certainly it can, but it really felt like the winner of this game was going to be the No. 2 seed in the playoffs, and that’s the way it’s gonna be. The best part of this whole deal is, the way the playoffs are set up these days, is that we don’t play next weekend, so we get to sit at home and enjoy this, marinate in it for a week before we even know who we play.”
Two years ago, the Griz shocked Montana State with a 74-yard Junior Bergen touchdown on the second play of the game, sparking a 29-10 rout that wasn’t that close and, for the first time in Brent Vigen’s time coaching the Bobcats, exposing the then first-year coach.
This time, Montana’s opening drive was less explosive, but just as effective. The Griz took advantage of some weak Montana State tackling, converted three third downs, caught a break when Nick Ostmo jumped on his quarterback Clifton McDowell’s fumble inside the MSU 15, and finished off a 14-play, 75-yard drive when Eli Gillman spun into the end zone for a 4-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead.
“We got beat in all three phases,” Vigen said. “Never quite got the momentum back. … Momentum the other way feeds that crowd. That first series, their offense against our defense, was not good. The number of tackles we missed on that particular drive was more than usual for us.”
Montana State, meanwhile, gashed the Griz with the run game between the 20s but couldn’t finish promising drives, and that, along with the complete and utter lack of a passing game, combined to doom the Bobcats.
Montana State attempted just three passes in the first half, completing none, and quarterbacks Tommy Mellott and Sean Chambers finished the game 4 of 16 for 67 yards.
The Bobcats drove inside the Montana 30 twice in the first half, but after Casey Kautzman missed a 42-yard field goal on the first drive, they went for it on fourth down the second time and failed.
Montana State went for it four times in the game, failing each time.
With the Grizzlies stretching their lead and unable to find an answer, the Bobcats became undisciplined and mistake-prone.
Montana led 17-0 late in the half thanks to a 4-yard touchdown run by McDowell and a 40-yard field goal by Nico Ramos. With the Bobcats trying for a Hail Mary to end the half, Chambers took a sack at the MSU 31 with one second left on the clock. That brought the players, who had run to the locker rooms thinking the half was over, back onto the field and gave Montana a chance for a 48-yard field goal to end the half.
Freshman Grant Glasgow’s kick was well short, but Jon Johnson crashed into the kicker’s plant leg, resulting in a 15-yard roughing the kicker penalty and letting Montana try to kick again from 33 yards. Senior Nico Ramos slotted the re-kick right down the middle, giving the Griz a 20-0 lead at halftime.
“We could have let the time run out,” Vigen said. “We can protect well enough to get a Hail Mary off, let the five seconds run out. Our chances of scoring there are slim. It didn’t work, I know that.”
Montana State showed a pulse out of the halftime break with a quick touchdown drive, scoring on their first completion of the game when Mellott hit Ty McCullouch for a 19-yard score.
But on the ensuing kickoff, another mistake – Brendan Hall not kicking the ball into the end zone – let Junior Bergen return the kick, and the Billings native who was at one time committed to the ‘Cats took it back to the 50.
Six plays later, the Griz were back in the end zone when Bergen motioned to the slot, shredded Level Price Jr.’s ankles on an option route, and side-stepped into the end zone after the catch for a 20-yard score and a 27-7 lead.
“Their kid (Brendan Hall) is 85% touchbacks, so we didn’t know if we’d get an opportunity (for a return), but we did work at it this week,” Hauck said. “The point with the kickoff return was, if we get an opportunity, we have to take advantage of it, and they did. Fifty-yard return and get the ball into positive territory, that kind of steals it back from them. I would have liked to have scored on the kickoff return, but Junior likes to share it a little bit.”
Ramos kicked a 29-yard field goal and Nick Ostmo rumbled untouched up the middle for a 64-yard touchdown late as the Griz continued to impose their will and the ‘Cats continued to flounder.
Unlike in 2021, Montana State couldn’t even add a consolation score, making the 30-point margin of victory the biggest beatdown in the Brawl since the famous 2008 game when the Griz ran out of the tunnel in throwback copper-and-gold uniforms and proceeded to stomp the Bobcats 35-3.
Fitting, considering so many have compared the 2023 Griz with the 2008 Griz, a squad that looked sluggish during the non-conference, got pushed by a Division II team, lost its conference opener, and then won 10 games in a row to surge all the way to the national championship game.
The second part of the current story is yet to be written, but this group of Griz have 10 wins already and – if they keep on winning – won’t have to leave the state until after the New Year.
Saturday, Montana rolled up 430 yards to Montana State’s 280, with McDowell finishing 17 of 22 for 200 yards and one touchdown, and adding 69 yards and a touchdown rushing. Ostmo had 85 yards on seven carries for Montana, and Bergen had six catches for 91 yards. Montana converted 7 of 14 third downs, while Montana State was 1 of 10.
In what’s destined to be a future trivia question, Montana State had two 100-yard rushers (Mellott, 108, and Julius Davis, 107), but the Bobcats will take a sour taste and plenty of questions into what will be a tougher playoff run than they could have imagined three weeks ago. At 8-3, the Bobcats might fall out of a top-eight seed with Saturday’s result and their prospects at a Top 5 seed evaporated.
“This game does not end our season,” Vigen said. “We’ll find out tomorrow what the next steps are going to be, and we’ve got to go back to work. We’ve got to look at this film and say, OK, what could we have done better? And get off the mat and go after that next opportunity.”
The Grizzlies, meanwhile, will take two shiny trophies and all the momentum in the world into their playoff run, continuing an astonishing resurrection and upswing after their shocking conference-opening loss to Northern Arizona.
And it’s no secret that Montana thrives on momentum. Just ask Montana State, caught in the highlights, run over and left on the side of the road in a Brawl that was billed as historic and ended up that way in a completely different manner than everybody thought.
“It’s awesome,” Montana linebacker Braxton Hill said. “I can’t even describe it. I’ve been here six years, we’ve been saying championships 18, working on 19. Knowing that we finally made it to 19, I mean, I’m just so proud of this team, the seniors and the coaches, and I wish it could last forever.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez and Blake Hempstead – Skyline Sports. All Rights Reserved.
