MISSOULA, Montana — Bobby Hauck takes no moral victory in covering the point spread against a Pac 12 powerhouse.
“We need to get better. We lost,” Hauck said following his Montana team’s 35-3 loss at No. 15 Oregon on Saturday night at Autzen Stadium. “We came here to win and we didn’t do it.”
The loss was the first of the season for the Grizzlies. UM looked explosive in a 31-17 win at South Dakota that denied the hosts a 16th straight win in the USD home opener. Montana looked dominant in a 45-point second half that lifted the Griz to a 61-17 win over North Alabama.
Montana looked respectable against one of the Pac 12 favorites. The Ducks scored 77 points against Nevada the week before hosting UM. Saturday night, the Griz forced three punts and earned three more fourth down stops.
Against an offensive line that is touted as one of the best in America, Montana’s young, talented defensive line held its own as well. Outside of Sean Dollars’ 63-yard run in the waning minutes with both teams’ backups in, the Griz did not give up a rushing play of more than 23 yards and just two plays of more than 17 yards all evening.
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“I was afraid they would knock us off the ball and they did not do that,” Hauck said.
Every five years, FCS teams are afforded a 12-game schedule when the division typically plays 11 games. That means the Griz have a fourth and final non-conference contest Saturday afternoon in Missoula against Monmouth of the Big South Conference.
“They will be a great challenge,” Hauck said during his weekly press conference on Monday. “They have a good, veteran team. They have four seniors and a junior starting on their offensive line. They have the Big South preseason Player of the Year in their conference at quarterback. And they have a first-team all-conference running back.
“This is a huge game for us. We need our crowd to be here and ready to go and try to be disruptive because this is a really, really quality opponent that was in the playoffs two years ago. And we weren’t. We have our hands full with these guys.”
When the ball kicks at 1 p.m. MST on Saturday, it will mark the first matchup between the Grizzlies and the Hawks. Montana comes into the game ranked No. 19 in the latest STATS FCS Top 25 polls, meaning Saturday will mark the eighth time Monmouth has taken on a ranked FCS opponent this decade and just the third time the contest has been non-conference.
The last time Monmouth played a Big Sky Conference team, Montana State posted a 42-24 victory in Bozeman to open the 2013 season. The Hawks enter the game on a two-game winning streak that includes a 24-21 home win over Lafayette and a 38-35 overtime win over Albany last week in Long Branch, New Jersey.
“It is a challenge because we don’t have a whole bunch of crossover,” Hauck said. “But we do know of some of the teams we’ve played the last couple of years so we do have a bit of a gage.
“These intersectional games are big when you have a playoff system.”
QUICK HITS
Location: West Long Branch, New Jersey
Nickname: Hawks
Founded: 1933 as Monmouth Junior College, the school morphed to Monmouth College in 1956 and Monmouth University in 1995 after receiving its charter.
Monmouth University is a private university in West Long Branch, New Jersey. Founded in 1933 as Monmouth Junior College, it became Monmouth College in 1956 and Monmouth University in 1995 after receiving its charter. An estimated 80 percent of the Monmouth faculty has a Ph.D and the student to faculty ratio is 14-to-1 at the small private school. The student population comes from 29 states and 28 foreign country.
Enrollment: 6,167 students, including 4,630 undergraduates and an en00 fans dowment of $89.1 million
Stadium: Kessler field, built in 1992 before Monmouth’s first football season. The venue holds 4,200. The Hawks averaged 2,744 fans in six home games last season.
The Coach: Kevin Callahan, 26th season at Monmouth. Callahan is the only head coach Monmouth has ever had. The Hawks operated as Division II indepdent in 1993, then as a Division I-AA independent in 1994 and 1995. Between 1996 and 2012, Callahan led Monmouth to five Northeast Conference Championships.
The Hawks moved back to FCS independent in 2013 — Monmouth lost its season opener at No. 2 Montana State 42-24 that season — before moving into the Big South Conference. The team hit a peak in 2017, reaching the FCS playoffs for the first time after a 9-3 campaign.
Callahan is 152-121 overall during his time at Monmouth.
THE OFFENSE – Players to watch
Kenji Bahar, quarterback, 6-3, 190, fifth-year senior — Bahar was voted as the Big South Preseason Offensive Player of the Year entering his final season at the helm. Last season, he threw for 2,626 yards and 20 touchdowns, earning second-team all-conference honors to set the stage for the returning honor.
“I’m impressed with their quarterback, Kenji Bahar,” Hauck said. “He’s a really good player. He’s smooth, has a big arm. “
The Baltimore native has thrown for 6,637 yards and 45 touchdowns in his career. In his third season as Monmouth’s starter, he’s completing 59.8 percent of his passes for 679 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions.
Pete Guerriero, running back, 5-10, 190, junior — The physical, durable tailback earned Freshman All-American honors from Hero Sports and second-team All-American honors from the American Football Coaches’ Association after putting up 1,408 all-purpose yards. He rushed for 100 yards six times that rookie season. He rushed for 1,061 yards and nine touchdowns to earn first-team Al-Big South honors.
Last season, he only started six games as he battled injuries. But he still put up 918 yards (6.9 yards per carry) and scored eight touchdowns.
“Guerriero is a good player and when you have a guy who is as durable as that, you give it to him,” Hauck said. “I always feel like we are somewhat reticent early in the year to give the guy the ball that much because we want to make sure we have him. But you have to do what you have to do to win any given Saturday. So they are feeding him the ball.”
This season, the competitive, hard-nosed runner has rushed for at leat 100 yards in all three Monmouth games. He has carried the ball at least 23 times, including a season-high 30 last week. He has 79 carries for 393 yards (5.0 yards per carry) and has scored a touchdown each of the last three games. He is averaging 131 yards per outing so far this season.
“He’s running well behind that big, veteran offensive line,” Hauck said. “And I can see why they are scoring the points they are when they are rushing for as many yards as they do and his numbers are what they are.”
Lonnie Moore, wide receiver, 5-10, 170, junior — Moore has ranked either second or third on the Hawks each of the last two seasons, totaling 44 catches for 639 yards and a touchdown.
This season, he already has 18 catches for 239 yards and two touchdowns, all three career highs.
THE DEFENSE – Players to watch
Anthony Budd, safety, 5-11, 190, junior — Last season, Budd was all over the Monmouth opponents’ backfields. This season, he is a ball hawk.
As a sophomore, the athletic finisher piled up 7.5 tackles for loss, one of the top totals in the conference period and the top total amongst defensive backs. His 45 total tackles also ranked 20th.
This season, Budd has already snared three interceptions. He also has 14 tackles, the second-highest total on the Hawks.
Da’Quan Grimes, linebacker, 5-11, 210, senior — The former prep state champion from Gaithersburg, Maryland went 46-4 during his high school career at Damascus.
Then he missed the 2016 and 2017 seasons with an injury. Last year, he returned to start the first five games of the season before injuries struck again. He still finished with 45 tackles and 3.5 tackles for loss
Through three games this season, Grimes is Monmouth’s leading tackler with 20 total stops. He as two tackles for loss, including a sack against FBS Western Michigan. He also forced one of his two fumbles in that game.
Kahari Scarlett, defensive end, 6-3, 235, senior — The Bloomfield, Connecticut native also won a state championship in high school. He broke into the Monmouth lineup as a true freshman in 2016. Two games into 2017, his sophomore season was cut short by an injury.
Last year, he led an anemic Monmouth pass rush that finished with 11 total sacks with three sacks, a team-high. This year, the athletic edge has five tackles and half a tackle for loss.
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Photos by Monmouth University Athletics or Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
