There wasn’t much FCS attention to go around last weekend outside of Bozeman and Fargo, where Montana State and North Dakota State won hyped semifinal matchups to set up a No. 1 vs. No. 2 championship game in Frisco. The noise around those semifinal games – and, now, around that titanic title game – drowned out happenings elsewhere in the subdivision, including both Idaho and Sac State hiring new coaches. But in Missoula, the Montana Grizzlies – whose season ended two weeks ago with an uncompetitive loss at South Dakota State – had an under-the-radar good week as they try to bounce back from a discouraging year. Here’s why semifinal week was a low-key triumph for the Griz.
THEY BROUGHT ELI GILLMAN BACK
I can hear you now:
Bringing back one of the top running backs in the country is a win? You don’t say. Great analysis.
Which, fair, but Gillman’s return, officially announced by Montana’s NIL collective Good Ol’ Grizzlies on Wednesday, is a big win for two reasons that go at least a little beyond the obvious.
The first is that, woof, Montana’s offense was going to be in a rough place without him next year. Nobody has any idea who the quarterback (or quarterbacks) is going to be. All the playmakers at wide receiver, including two stars in Junior Bergen and Keelan White, are gone. All-American Brandon Casey, on the offensive line, is gone as well. So you tell me, without Gillman, who were the Griz going to rely on offensively next year? It would have been bleak. This at least gives them a focal point, something to hang their hat on as they try to develop players at those other spots.
The second positive is that this is now two years in a row that Montana has been able to bring back its single biggest transfer target. Both Bergen last year and Gillman this year were certainly receiving interest – and NIL offers – from FBS schools. Both times, Montana was able to put together an offer good enough to get them to stay.
It’s even more impressive in Gillman’s case because he doesn’t have a home-state connection. That says really good things about both Montana’s fundraising power and Good Ol’ Grizzlies’ ability to navigate and work within the still very young NIL marketplace. It’s not quite a trend – my journalism professors always said that took three examples – but it’s a very encouraging few data points for the Griz moving into the future of this new and uncertain landscape.
THEY WERE PROACTIVE IN THE PORTAL
Former USC quarterback Jake Jensen is the headliner – more shocking news, the Griz got a transfer quarterback – but Montana added multiple players out of the transfer portal in the last week. In addition to Jensen, who played in three games in three years with the Trojans, there’s former Whitefish star Fynn Ridgeway from Minnesota State-Moorhead, two JUCO guys in pass rusher Giovanni Pifferini (Fresno CC) and hulking offensive lineman Cooper Bowen (Butler CC) and former Idaho DB Diezel Wilkinson.
Of that group, I think Wilkinson is the best signing. This is a player who had an offer from the Griz out of East Valley HS in Spokane, and even picked up a late Washington State offer after he committed to Idaho. He then played in 12 games for a very good Vandals team this year as a true freshman, recording 14 tackles.
It’s impossible to say what the other transfers will turn into, but I think there’s basically no way someone with that early-career resume doesn’t become at least a solid Big Sky player – with plenty of upside above that. That’s nice work.
THEY LEARNED FROM A BIG MISTAKE
There was plenty of humiliation on the field for Montana in 2024 – against Weber State, Montana State, South Dakota State – but one of the lowest Griz moments of the year came a few days after Early Signing Day, when Helena Capital quarterback Merek Mihelish, originally a UM commit, signed with Montana Tech instead. There was nothing good about this situation for Montana. For one, Mihelish had just capped an all-time year, leading the Bruins to the state title and receiving the Gatorade Player of the Year award.
Somehow, it looked worse as more details came out. Mihelish quickly revealed that he chose the NAIA Orediggers because Montana wasn’t willing to let him – again, the state-title-winning quarterback – play quarterback. He also said that after he switched to Tech, the Griz offered to let him play QB. If they were willing to do that when Mihelish suddenly had other options, why didn’t they do it from the beginning? I truly have no idea.
Anyway, that debacle deepened a disturbing trend for the Grizzlies – namely, that Montana State has whipped their ass on recruiting in-state talent the last couple years. The Griz still have Treasure State talent, sure – Junior Bergen and Trevin Gradney are stars; Jaxon Lee, Jace Klucewich, Ryan Tirrell and others had good years in 2024. Well, Montana State is in the process of wrapping up a year in which their Big Sky Offensive MVP (Tommy Mellott, Butte), Defensive MVP (Brody Grebe, Melstone) and Freshman of the Year (Adam Jones, Missoula) were all from the Treasure State.
On Early Signing Day, the Griz announced four players out of Montana – receiver Bridger Smith (Kalispell), running back Chase Cook (Red Lodge), linebacker Bridger Salvevold (Culbertson) and offensive lineman Ezra Meyer (Missoula) – out of their 15-man class. Montana State announced 10 players from Montana among its 24-man class, including stars like Billings West running back Malachi Claunch, Bozeman receiver Kash Embry and Dillon tight end Carter Curnow. Of those 10 players, half didn’t even have an offer from Montana – borderline inexplicable given how much Montana-made players have contributed to the best seasons at both schools recently.
The good news – and, again, we’re all about the good news in this particular column – is that Montana appears to have learned from that, and is pursuing a different strategy for the Class of 2026. Over a few days late last week, the Griz offered the entire top echelon of talent in the Treasure State for next year. Although not all are public, sources say the Griz made more than a dozen offers in one fell swoop, including to Carter Dahlke, a star speedster from Bozeman Gallatin, Brit Linder and Derek Opitz, state-champion teammates from Helena Capital and Maverick Diede, an all-state lineman from Kalispell Glacier.
Now, all of this might mean nothing in four years. All of those players might choose a school other than Montana anyway, or get to campus and not develop. They may never see the field. But Montana making an effort – and a visible one, with all of those offers going out at once – was a sea change compared to how the Grizzlies have approached in-state recruiting recently, and it was indicative the Griz are willing to change things up after a discouraging 2024. And that may be last week’s biggest triumph of all.
