Bobby Hauck has won 140 games against Division I-AA/FCS opponents, with 155 wins in his head coaching career.
Among the FCS football programs he’s squared off against in his career, the only one he’s ever played against and never beaten is the University of North Dakota.
That is, until Saturday afternoon. And it came against all odds.
North Dakota beat Montana in Hauck’s first season back at the helm guiding his alma mater in 2018, UND’s final season during its brief stint in the Big Sky Conference.
The Griz and the Fighting Hawks did not square off again until last season in a non-conference clash the second week of a season in which Montana was trying to prove that its 2023 run to the Big Sky title and the national championship wasn’t a fluke.
When UM held a 21-7 lead at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks, North Dakota behind an explosive offensive performance led by redshirt freshman quarterback Keali’i Ah Yat, it seemed like a harbinger for good things to come for the Griz.
Then Bubba Schweigert’s Fighting Hawks ground the Griz to dust. UND possessed the ball for most of the second half and rallied for a 27-24 victory.
North Dakota faded after that, but the result stood and the Griz faithful who watched the collapse certainly had a bitterness in their collective craws.
So when Jerry Kaminski hit BJ Fleming for an 82-yard touchdown in the first quarter on Saturday at Washington-Grizzly Stadium, one couldn’t be blamed if they wondered if Hauck and company might not be able to change the trend.
In the only matchup of the week between two teams ranked in the Top 25 in the most recent STATS FCS poll, Montana never made it look easy. That is, until the Griz got into a two-minute drill after getting a fourth quarter stop to set up a chance to win in front of a sellout crowd of 26,492 fans.
UND took a 23-14 lead early in the 4th quarter when Kaminski threw his second touchdown of the day to put UM’s backs collectively against the wall. But sophomore quarterback Keali’i Ah Yat engineered a pair of scoring drives, one for a 42-yard Ty Morrison field goal and one for a 28-yard Brooks Davis touchdowns, to help Montana emerge with a razor-thin 24-23 victory to stay unbeaten in 2025.
“Crazy game,” Ah Yat said in the post-game TV interview after overcoming two impactful interceptions to throw for 300 yards and three touchdowns. “One play at a time, trying to stay calm, trying to execute, trying to get it done with the plays we had and minimize the mistake.
“Mostly, credit to our team. We were resilient today.”
On what amounted to the game-winning drive after the Griz defense forced a punt, UM took advantage of a horse collar penalty and overcame two sacks as Ah Yat seemed to come of age. He hit tight end Josh Gale on 4th & 12 for a 27-yard gain to set up what might be a star-making conversion when he hit redshirt freshman Brooks Davis, one of the stars of the off-season for the Griz, for a 28-yard touchdown to give Montana the lead for the first time all afternoon.
“Coach Pease (UM offensive coordinator) drew it up perfectly and Brooks, Josh, made helluva plays when it mattered the most.
“This win means a lot. Our fans were here the whole game. We were sloppy at first and I turned the ball over. Credit to North Dakota. They were a great team. But I’m proud of our guys. That’s a great win.”
Montana’s run game churned out over 300 yards in a 42-17 runaway against Division II Central Washington last week. Saturday, the Griz run game couldn’t get going, although All-American candidate Eli Gillman did earn 82 yards on 16 carries (5.1 per tote) against UND’s swarming defense. Montana rushed for 71 yards on 34 carries as a team, meaning Ah Yat had to win the day.
Antonio Bluiett picked off a pair of Ah Yat passes in the first half while also blanketing Griz pass catchers throughout the afternoon. But the Hawaiian field general managed to settle in after halftime, completing 17-of-23 passes for 220 yards and both of his touchdowns to help earn the Griz a win that, if not signature, is certainly memorable for a variety of reasons.
“North Dakota, I’ve been saying it all week, has a really, really good football team,” Hauck said. “They were dialed in, ready to go. They are going to have a really good season. I have a high regard for their team and the job they do.
“As far as the rest of it goes, I’m proud of our team. It took a lot of guts to get that win. I thought our guys did a really nice job of staying with it, being focused throughout the game.”
“We have inexperience on our football team all across the board. We probably are not ready to win a game of that magnitude, but we did. But if we can get into the latter part of this season and keep finding a way to win, we are going to have a terrific football team.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
