MISSOULA, Montana — Montana has lost consecutive home games just twice in the last 13 seasons. But the Grizzlies have not lost games on consecutive Saturdays inside Washington-Grizzly Stadium since the monolith of Division I-AA football was erected in 1985.
Montana head coach Bobby Hauck had only lost on homecoming one time in his 13 seasons guiding his alma mater.
And despite the tumult of the last two weeks — Montana gave up 104 points in its first two Big Sky Conference games after giving up only 116 last season on the way to its first Big Sky title in 15 years — Montana was not about to let a Northern Arizona team with a third-string quarterback come into Missoula and win.
Despite NAU’s best efforts and Brian Wright’s superb coaching display, the Grizzlies found a way to stay alive before burying the visiting Lumberjacks in front of yet another sellout crowd here on a picturesque Saturday homecoming afternoon.
Montana scored 21 points in the final 30 minutes of the game to turn a 13-3 halftime deficit into a 31-20 avalanche that could have major ramifications for the rest of 2024 for these Griz. A reeling squad that gave up a Washington-Griz record 55 points in an overtime loss to Weber State last week instead adjusted its defensive scheme and rode the third consecutive efficient effort by junior quarterback Logan Fife to a runaway victory filled with redemption. NAU handed Montana its only league loss during last year’s 13-2 campaign.
“Exciting game this week and I am proud of our team to come back from some pretty tough situations in the first half,” Montana head coach Bobby Hauck said. “There were a lot of different things going on out there, offense, defense, special teams, a lot of up and down, a lot of moving parts, a lot of adjustment needing to be made by our guys.
“…The defense was tremendous. We gave up three on a roughing the punter and gave up the first touchdown on a takeaway from our offense and they got an 80-some yarder on a Daffy Duck play. That was it. I was proud of our defense. I thought they played great. I am certainly excited to get a win here in front of our home crowd of almost 27,000.”
The victory moves Montana to 2-1 in Big Sky play and 5-2 overall entering its bye week. It also ensures that UM takes momentum in to the back half of its schedule. UM had a bye, then plays cellar-dwelling Northern Colorado and Cal Poly to close October.
UM’s patented “heavy metal” defense, a scheme filled with exotic blitzes and pressures and an array of coverages, took it on the chin against Eastern Washington and Weber State the previous two weeks. Quarterbacks Kekoa Visperas of EWU and Richie Munoz of Weber had field days against a flailing Griz defense that struggled with tackling, alignment, continuity and making plays on the football.
On Saturday, Montana dialed up the pressures and diversified the coverage schemes in holding the NAU offense to seven points after halftime. The 20 points is the least UM has allowed this season in a game, other than the two points non-scholarship Morehead State managed in Week 3.
The Griz came up with negative plays and sacks when needed. And despite getting fooled by a trick play out of a creative alignment early in the second half that led to NAU’s last touchdown from 88 yards out, UM looked like the Griz of old the last 20 minutes of the game in shutting down NAU’s offense.
“I think this defense responds to adversity well,” said UM junior linebacker Riley Wilson after rolling up nine tackles and a sack to spearhead a Griz defensive effort that allowed 306 yards and 16 first downs. “This week, we had a bad taste in our mouth and throughout this season, we’ve hard a target on our back.
“Today, we stepped up. We executed in our assignment. We did our jobs. It’s a taste of what this defense can do. The sky is the limit for us.”
Northern Arizona has played one of the toughest schedules in the FCS. The Lumberjacks opened the Brian Wright era by pounding non-D1 Lincoln before playing No. 22 Arizona tight before losing 22-10 and losing 38-14 at Incarnate Word. NAU made a statement with a 34-16 win over No. 10 Sacramento State to open Big Sky play before falling 23-17 last week at No. 10 Idaho.
The Lumberjacks lost starting quarterback Ty Pennington as well as backup Angel Flores in the Idaho game. That meant P.J. Jordan made his first career start in front of 26,299 fans at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
“That’s a great program, a great team that we played today,” Wright said. “I feel like our guys really battled throughout. We couldn’t overcome a couple of situations.
“I thought PJ battled the entire game. I thought he did a great job of keeping us in the game, as the defense did. He really managed the game well. We just didn’t help him enough at the end.”
He was able to help NAU run a ball control offense that ate up clock and helped the Lumberjacks take a 13-3 lead into halftime. NAU was aided by Fife’s fumble that Brandon Wong took 45 yards back for a touchdown to stake the visitors to an early 7-0 lead in Northern Arizona’s first game in Missoula since 2017.
London hit Kolbe Katsis on a wacky, creative 88-yard touchdown out of an unbalanced and jumbo formation to give NAU a 20-10 lead. Montana dominated the game from there.
“Definitely not the way we planned to start,” Fife said. “Three points in the first half is not what we are used to. That was a little bit of everything, shooting ourselves in the foot, not seeing the stuff that was there early. I made the mistake of coughing up the ball and I have to get rid of that early.
“But we were optimistic at halftime. We know what we are capable of and we knew everything we had in the game-plan was still there to make. It was just a matter of moving the chains and executing in the second half.”
From there, the defense tightened, and Fife kept up his efficient, impressive play. Since taking fully control of the Griz offense following the injury of freshman phenom Keali’i Ah Yat, Fife has completed 76-of-100 passes and is throwing for 333 yards a game.
Saturday, he completed 16-of-27 for 199 yards and one touchdowns. Montana’s final score came on a two-yard Fife quarterback keeper with 1:57 left.
“This is going to be a bombshell to some of you but most of the football game does not show up on the stat sheet. Most of the things Logan did today were just spectacular. He just played money all day,” Hauck said.
Montana gave up more than 1,500 yards and 139 points over the last three weeks, completely mind-bending numbers for anyone who has followed Hauck’s stout history of smothering defenses and lights out kick teams.
But for much of the second half against Eastern Washington — the Eagles scored 28 points in the last quarter alone — and throughout last week’s overtime home loss to a Weber team that lost this week to a previously winless Northern Colorado, Montana’s defense looked completely broken.
It’s hard to say that Saturday was a wholesale fix. But if you take away NAU’s defensive score, the gadget play for the 88-yard touchdown and a field goal after UM was called for a roughing the punter penalty, Montana’s defense certainly made strides.
“I thought the defense played great,” Hauck said. “We didn’t give up anything. They had ’em stopped on one field goal drive and we roughed the punter. They really gave up nothing in the first half.
“The trick play that went out the gate on us in the second half, I’m not real happy about that but stuff happens. The defense was really good, all game, from play one to however many plays Northern Arizona had.”
Montana now turns its attention to the relenting part of its schedule. The Griz take a bye this week before playing at Northern Colorado and Cal Poly to close October.
“I’m happy about today and I think our best football is ahead of us,” Hauck said. “We still have work to do so we will go practice this week and we will have a great week of practice. Then we will get going on the next one.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
