Montana offensive line seeks to regain elite status in 2017

MISSOULA — After quite literally generation of dominance, the unthinkable happened to the Montana Grizzlies.

Through the combination of scholarship reduction, multiple changes in offensive scheme and pure happenstance, Montana’s offensive line, once one of the proudest position groups in the Big Sky Conference, became a deficiency.

From Chad Germer to Scott Gragg to Dave Kempfert in the early 1990s to Scott Curry and Thatcher Szalay later in the decade, from future NFL players like Dylan McFarland, Corey Proctor and Cody Balogh in the first part of the 2000s to Colin Dow and Levi Horn to finish up the first decade of the 21^st century, a crucial element to Montana’s streak of 17 straight playoff berths rested in the trenches.

The Griz have had some standouts on the offensive front this decade as well — Danny Kistler, Jon Opperud and current Chicago Bear William Poehls come to mind — but nothing like the dominance that saw 51 Griz offensive linemen land on the Big Sky’s first-team all-conference squad since the founding of the league in 1963.

From 1991 — the senior year of Germer, an All-American center who is now UM’s offensive line coach — until 2011, the last time the Griz won the Big Sky title, Montana landed 27 players on the Big Sky’s all-league first team. Since 2012, the year that saw UM’s playoff streak halt at 17, Kistler has been the only Griz to earn first-team honors. No Montana offensive lineman has been a first-team all-conference talent since 2013.

Photos by Jason Bacaj and Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.