MISSOULA — Two weeks ago, Griz Nation wondered how Bobby Kennedy and his staff would respond after the first loss of the BK era as Montana navigated unknown waters.
Following a 52-17 loss to Oregon State, the first defeat of Kennedy’s tenure, Montana had plenty of questions to answer. Sure, OSU had personnel advantages typical of a Pac-12 team facing a Big Sky Conference power, even if the Pac-12 is a shell of its former self.
But Montana seemed lost defensively in its pre-snap alignment and its ability to rise to the occasion on both sides of the ball.
Last week, the Griz answered the bell resoundingly, playing a nearly perfect game on the way to a 62-22 win over UC Davis.
So, entering this homecoming Saturday against a Northern Colorado team riding its first two-game winning streak in four years — and just the fourth such streak in its 20 years playing Division I football — Montana still had plenty to prove despite its big-time victory on the last Saturday of September.
UNC entered the contest without having scored a single point against the Grizzlies since 2017. On Saturday, the Bears offered plenty of resistance, standing up in the trenches on both sides of the ball against a Griz team that mauled Davis up front and rushed for 366 yards offensively.
But the Bears had no answer for Brooks Davis, Keali’i Ah Yat and Montana’s surging offense as the Griz cruised to a 36-14 win, officially entering the second half of the season on a roll.
“We came out today, we did not eat the rat poison,” Kennedy said after his team improved to 5-1 overall and 3-0 in Big Sky Conference play.
“I talked about that this week, and I thought our guys did a good job. Now, we had a couple of times in the first quarter where I think we should have converted on the fourth down when we went for it, and then we had the high snap for a fumble. But overall, I thought the offense was really working, and the defense was playing really well again and had some key stops.”
Davis hauled in nine catches for 205 yards as he continued his assault on virtually every single-season receiving record in Griz history. His 61-yard touchdown helped ignite the crowd, and his 25-yard leaping touchdown catch pushed Montana’s lead to 29-0.
Northern Colorado finally got on the board against Montana, scoring on a Kenny Lueth quarterback keeper and ending the Grizzlies’ shutout streak 13 seconds short of 15 consecutive quarters.
But Davis put any comeback illusions on ice when he hauled in a 28-yard touchdown, his third of the day and the fifth touchdown pass of the afternoon from senior quarterback Keali’i Ah Yat.
After experiencing starts and stops offensively for much of the first month of the season, the Griz have shown newfound aggressiveness over the last two weeks. Pair that with improved execution, and Montana looks like a legitimate national championship contender again.
“That’s what I work for every single day,” Davis said of his and the Griz offense’s performance. “During the game, I didn’t even know how many yards I had. I’m just focused on the next play, next drive, and trying to get in the end zone and put our team in the best position to win.”
On the heels of a freshman season that ranked among the greatest in UM history, Davis has ascended into one of the best playmakers in the country.
His 200-yard effort marked the fifth-best receiving performance in Montana history. It also gave Davis more than 100 receiving yards in five consecutive games, marking the first time a Griz receiver has accomplished that feat since Joe Douglass went on his iconic tear between the Brawl of the Wild and the Division I-AA title game in 1995.
“We use him as an example all the time because I see the way he comes off the ball and his attention to detail,” Kennedy said. “I hope he doesn’t eat this ‘rat poison,’ but we shower praise on him. But I know he’s not, he’s going to continue to work.”
Last season, Davis caught 54 passes for 698 yards and five touchdowns. This season, he already has 53 catches for 772 yards and six touchdowns at the midpoint of the 2026 season.
Davis is on pace for 106 catches, 1,544 yards and 12 touchdowns. The Montana single-season record for receptions is 87, set by Samori Toure in 2019. Toure also established the school’s single-season receiving yards record with 1,495 that year. Douglass caught a school-record 18 touchdowns during the 1996 season.
Kennedy said Davis has transformed his body through hard work in the weight room. He is up to 180 pounds and, while still wiry, can endure contact and fight through tackles better than he could during his breakout freshman year.
“I’m just trying to get as much yards as I can,” Davis said. “Especially in the weight room and the muscle, I think it’s helping absorb some of those hits and get those extra yards. I think that’s crucial for us.”
Northern Colorado head coach Ed Lamb said the Bears are committed to playing man-to-man defense on the perimeter. It’s a strategy that has helped the traditionally struggling program gain ground defensively, but it also contributed to the Bears getting buried on Saturday.
“That’s the coverage that we preach, that’s the way we’ve developed our team,” Lamb said. “And so he was able to beat that and win.”
Davis has been one star in a three-headed monster that has driven Montana’s success this season. Ah Yat continued his sharp play Saturday, completing 23 of 30 passes for 346 yards and five touchdowns.
“He’s a guy that he can really put a ball anywhere,” Kennedy said. “It’s nice to see these guys get on the same page and hit some of those explosive passes because we talk about explosives and turnovers all the time. And for us to make those big plays is huge.”
Eli Gillman, the leading rusher in UM history, rushed for 99 yards, including a 55-yard cutback run that showcased his exceptional vision and speed.
“Really, really frustrating, especially like Ezra was talking about, shape of the defense. We had a backside player there unblocked, and we saw it happen on film over and over and over. Last week, at Davis happened three or four times for monster yardage,” Lamb said. “Really frustrating when an unblocked player loses the shape and then allows something like that to get out. Also on (Gillman’s) catch out of the backfield for the touchdown, we had a had an unblocked player there that just kind of broke down and in the moment stopped advancing toward the runner and so we just got to do a better job of coaching that. We’ve got good players who should have matched up better today than the score. That’s got to be on us as coaches.”
Friday night, Idaho beat the No. 1 team in the nation in Moscow, handing Montana State an almost inexplicable 35-34 loss in a game that went down to the wire and ended with the Vandals converting a two-point attempt as time expired. The win, Idaho’s first of the year, snapped Montana State’s 19-game winning streak and gave the Bobcats just the fourth Big Sky Conference loss of Brent Vigen’s six seasons at the helm.
The last time the Bobcats lost a conference game before Friday night was a 37-7 defeat to Montana in Missoula in the regular-season finale of the 2023 season.
Saturday, UC Davis bounced back from its loss to the Griz to post a 49-38 win over Eastern Washington. Northern Arizona also rallied after a 28-14 loss at Montana State, beating Idaho State 38-31 and handing the Bengals their first Big Sky Conference loss.
That’s all to say that Montana now sits in the driver’s seat in the Big Sky. Home dates against Idaho and Idaho State loom, as does a trip to Bozeman to take on the Bobcats in the 125th Brawl of the Wild.
A star offensive trio and an affable head coach have the Griz riding high. But Kennedy is determined to keep his team grounded as it heads to Flagstaff, Arizona, to take on NAU next week.
“There is a confidence with our guys that we can work through things,” Kennedy said. “I always want to give our staff credit because those are the guys day in and day out that grind with these guys. But just to have that grit to kind of battle through things because everything’s not going to go your way all the time … it’s how do you respond back.”
PHOTOS BY BROOKS NUANEZ. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
