MISSOULA — Jeff Choate had never coached a game in Washington-Grizzly Stadium before. His Montana State Bobcats came here with a true freshman quarterback, a penchant for committing turnovers at crucial moments, a banged up defensive front and one conference win. Yet Montana State showed no fear in the face of a Montana team fighting for its playoff lives. What played out was exactly how Choate envisioned his first rivalry game.
A dominating performance by an MSU offensive line that knocked Montana’s defense on its heels all afternoon, a flustering defensive showing orchestrated by a former Grizzly and a thoroughly well executed game plan in Choate’s first rivalry game helped Bobcats shocked the Griz and the rest of the Treasure State.
Montana State rushed for 368 yards, including 142 yards and two touchdowns by electric rookie quarterback Chris Murray. The Bobcats consistently knocked Montana’s front seven off the ball, creating lanes that allowed MSU to average 5.9 yards per rush and pile up more than 38 minutes of possession. With former Griz defensive coordinator Ty Gregorak calling the defense for the Bobcats, MSU held Gregorak’s former team to 305 yards of offense and just 13 first downs.
The result: a 24-17 MSU victory filled with grit in front 26,182 fans on an unusually warm November afternoon at Washington-Grizzly Stadium on Saturday.
“Going out like this, this is a dream come true,” Montana State senior captain Chad Newell after rushing for 72 yards and a third quarter touchdown that gave MSU a 17-point lead. “Five years ago, this is what I came here to do. We got it done today. We were able to execute and do the things we wanted to do as far as running the ball.”
Montana State snapped its six-game losing streak to begin Choate’s first Big Sky season last week with a 27-13 victory over UC Davis in the Bobcats’ home finale. MSU played turnover-free football last week for the first time in league play and replicated that on Saturday. Possessing the football allowed Montana State to grind Montana’s defense into the ground, running the ball in every conceivable situation and allowing UM’s up-tempo offense to run just 59 plays, including just 20 in the first half. MSU won despite completing just two passes.
“Preparation is what always gives you that level of confidence,” Choate said after finishing his first season at 4-7. “I really do think the win against UC Davis was super important. There are some things that took place in that game and there were some parallels between that game and today’s game if you just simply look at the bottom line which is we ran the ball very well and controlled the line of scrimmage.”
The loss drops Montana to 6-5 as the Griz, once the No. 6-ranked team in the country, lost four out of five down the stretch. UM finishes Bob Stitt’s second season at 3-5 in Big Sky play, just UM’s second losing Big Sky mark since 1992.
“It’s hard because it’s the last game and you would like to say you have to learn from this, you have to know this feeling because you never have it again but for the seniors, that doesn’t help,” Stitt said as he sat between senior quarterback Brady Gustafson and senior defensive end Ryan Johnson. “The message is we have a great senior class and we appreciate what our seniors have done for our program in getting it moving in the right direction for where we want our program to be. Unfortunately, a couple of plays in games are costing us a chance to win games. You are so close, there is such a fine line between winning and losing in games like this.”
The Bobcats physicality on offense and their ability to dominate the point of attack and wind the clock were on full display during a dominant final drive. Montana scored 10 points in less than five minutes to draw Montana within a touchdown after trailing 24-7.
After Joey Counts’ 3-yard touchdown plunge, MSU’s offense went three-and-out. The Griz ran seven plays, but on third down and eight yards to go, Stitt called a Jeremy Calhoun run. Junior Mac Bignell and sophomore Grant Collins swallowed up the UM sophomore tailback. Gustafson’s fourth-down pass fell incomplete and Montana State took over with 6:20 left on the clock.
The visitors would not give the ball back. MSU ran the ball seven straight times to set up a fourth down and one yard to go from the UM 29-yard line. Choate called a timeout and gathered his team close.
Montana State came out in a heavy set with two tight ends and three running backs on the field. Instead of giving the ball to their workhorse Newell, Murray faked the handoff and tripped. The athletic gunslinger from Inglewood, California recovered his footing and found sophomore tight end Connor Sullivan, an Ennis product, for a 26-yard gain to the UM 3-yard line. MSU took two knees, Montana burned its last time out, the Bobcats took a final knee and the upset of this rivalry’s last generation was complete.
“I didn’t hesitate,” Choate said of the fourth down risk. “…Even more awesome was he got tackled on the one and we could run the clock out. That’s a feeling I just love as a coach.”
Montana State gashed UM’s defensive front all afternoon long. Senior Gunnar Brekke’s 65-yard run set up Peppenger’s 21-yard field goal to give the ‘Cats a 17-7 lead after their first possession of the third quarter. Junior Nick LaSane’s 61-yard run to the UM 4 set up Newell’s 32nd touchdown of his storied career and gave MSU a 24-7 lead with 7:56 left in the third quarter.
While the early drives set the tone and helped keep the ball away from Montana, the final drive proved to be the glorifying knockout punch for Choate’s first Cat-Griz win.
“On that last drive, you could look at every o-lineman’s eyes and there was no doubt I would have lanes to run through, Chris would have lanes to run through, Gunnar would have lanes to run through,” Newell said. “They moved those guys off the ball and did an awesome job.”
Choate saw on film that Montana’s multiple, high-pressure defense had one flaw he felt his offensive line could take advantage of. MSU’s offensive line — a unit featuring Flynn, junior left tackle Dylan Mahoney, sophomore center Alex Neale, junior right guard Monte Folsom and redshirt freshman Mitch Brott — played arguably its best game since former offensive line coach Jason McEndoo left for Oklahoma State before last season. UM mixes alignments and brings pressure from various angles. The Bobcats never let UM confuse them, instead knocking the Grizzlies backward or straight into the Washington-Grizzly turf.
“They have a tendency to play in a lot of two-point stances and pad level is the single most important fundamental in football,” Choate said. “I don’t care how good you are, if you are going to play in a two-point, you aren’t going to have great pad level. We were able to hit a lot of our quarterback runs because of it.”
The aura surrounding Montana State’s team entering the fierce rivalry game was much different than in years past. Rather than coming into the showdown with a playoff spot to clinch or a Big Sky Conference title to win or lose, MSU had nothing but pride to play for. The loose confidence spread throughout the team, from the jovial interviews given three Bobcat captains on Tuesday to the vibes among the Bobcats during warm-ups on Saturday.
In the first trip to Washington-Griz for almost every member of the Bobcat coaching staff and most of its upper classmen players — only eight seniors and nine juniors played significant snaps in MSU’s 34-7 loss in Missoula in 2014 — the Bobcats danced before the game and ended the action celebrating in the middle of Montana’s field.
MSU secondary coach Gerald Alexander, in an effort to galvanize his secondary and inspire the energy as the Bobcats prepared for Montana’s pass oriented offense, did not wear a shirt during pre-game warm ups. The ripped former NFL safety bounced around like a prizefighter getting ready for a championship bout, the energy rubbing off on his guys as MSU’s secondary limited Gustafson and the Griz offense to 192 yards passing.
Other than Justin Calhoun’s 58-yard touchdown on Montana’s first play of the game and Keenan Curran’s 37-yard reception in the second quarter, UM averaged just 6.9 yards per completion and threw for just 97 yards.
“We didn’t run enough plays in the first half and we kept our defense on the field for too long,” Gustafson said after finishing 16-for-31 with one touchdown and one interception. “For how many times we went three-and-out, I was disappointed with how I played and disappointed we couldn’t give them a break.”
The action began with two stuffed Montana State runs and a Josh Buss sack of Murray for a 12-yard loss. The Bobcats punted, the Griz took over on their 42 and Gustafson, a 6-foot-7 senior from Billings, threw a perfect ball to Calhoun, who beat MSU senior cornerback John Walker with a hitch and go. With Montana playing at home and a playoff spot on the line, it seemed like UM would affirm its position as the assumed favorite and run through the Bobcats.
In the face of the explosive Griz start, Choate did not panic.
“They are going to make plays,” Choate said. “I didn’t flinch on that one. You are frustrated, but hey, good call, well executed, good throw by Gustafson, good route. Now let’s go see if they can do it again.”
In fact, Montana could not do it again for most of the next two quarters. MSU’s second possession drove to the UM 34. The Bobcats lined up to go for it before Murray executed a quick kick that rolled to the UM 3-yard line. Montana State dominated the field position and possession the rest of the half.
Montana went 3-and-out on its next four possessions, running just 20 overall first half plays, mustering just two first downs and 117 yards of total offense before halftime.
The Griz problems were accentuated by a poor punting game that gave the Bobcats the football at or near midfield most of the first half and an untimely penalty. On MSU’s third possession on a drive that started on the UM 40 after a 37-yard punt by Eric Williams, Montana State faced a fourth-and-2 from the UM 32. Mitch Brott jumped offside but UM senior defensive end blasted Monte Folsom, drawing a flag and giving MSU a first down.
Two plays later, Murray ripped off a 17-yard run into the red-zone, then scored on an eight-yard boost stamped by a front flip into the end-zone to tie the game 7-7.
The Bobcat defense continued to hold and Murray continued to run wild. His 20-yard burst set up a 39-yard Peppenger field goal that Montana senior JR Nelson blocked. But the Bobcats responded with a stop.
On the ensuing possession, MSU faced a third-and-7 set up by an illegal formation penalty. The Bobcats ran quarterback draw like they did most of the day in third down situations, letting Murray fake to Newell, then following the 6-foot-1, 225-pounder through the hole. On this particularly play, Murray cut back inside Newell, followed a pancake block by Flynn of UM middle linebacker Connor Strahm and out-sprinted everyone for a 48-yard touchdown to give MSU a lead it would not relinquish.
“We came in with confidence and we worked on that all week,” Flynn said. “You don’t ever expect to come into Washington-Grizzly Stadium and blow guys off the ball. That’s not how it goes. They made their plays too. They played a hard-fought game.”
Montana’s once-surging season is now over after a collapse unseen during a dominant run over the last 25 years. The Griz miss the playoffs for the just the third time since 1993. The 6-5 mark marks just the second time (2012) Montana has not won at least seven games since 2000.
Montana State ends the season on a two-game winning streak after a multitude of growing pains during Choate’s first season. The Bobcats searched for an offensive identity for longer than expected after making Murray the full-time starter three games into the Big Sky season. Playoffs are not in the cards this season, but the Bobcats won what felt like a championship game on Saturday afternoon.
“This is the season,” Newell said. “We get to go out as winners, win the Cat-Griz game. This is what I came here to do. We got that done. They don’t get to play in the playoffs now. We get to go home with the trophy. Just an awesome feeling right now.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
