MISSOULA, Montana — A few things are certain two games into the Bobby Kennedy era at the University of Montana.
Washington-Grizzly Stadium is one of the hardest places for opponents to visit. ANd Eli Gillman remains one of the best and most prolific point scorers in college football
Other than those two certainties, however, much remains uncertain for the Griz.
Gillman scored a pair of first-half touchdowns to stake Montana to a 14-3 lead early, just like he did a week ago in UM’s 28-21 victory over Southern Utah. And other than a broken play that resulted in a 67-yard gain that set up a field goal to stake non-scholarship Drake to its only lead of the game early on, the Bulldogs hardly threatened.
But 16 penalties to the tune of 138 yards had many of the 25,915 in attendance on a beautiful Garden City afternoon scratching their heads. And the Griz are still finding their footing when it comes to playing clean.
After committing a few detrimental turnovers against SUU, the penalties colored the day despite Montana cruising to a 45-10 win to move to 2-0.
“We do address the penalties and we show a lot of clips and try to coach to it,” Kennedy said. “We had a personal foul on the sideline. There was a holding call by one of our wide receivers.
“We talk about smart, tough, physical, disciplined. And we have to be more disciplined. We will continue to address those things. If we are going to win a high level – and we are not a finished product – each week, there are going to be better and better teams that we face and we can’t have those self-inflicted wounds. It’s a constant battle.”
Although much of the operation has been clunky over the last two weeks, Montana has Gillman. And nobody else does.
The strapping 6-foot, 218-pound fifth-year senior continued his assault on the UM record books Saturday, breaking a hallowed record and tying another one.
Gillman’s second touchdown run, a 3-yard plunge with two minutes left in the first quarter, helped him tie Chase Reynolds for the most rushing touchdowns in a Griz career with 52. His one-yard touchdown on a toss pitch play helped him break Reynolds’ rushing touchdown mark with 7:19 remaining in the first half.
Gillman’s one-yard touchdown reception with four minutes left in the third quarter not only provided the first score of the first half and put Montana up 28-3, but it also gave Gillman 59 total touchdowns in his nearly unprecedented career.
“I wasn’t aware of which one tied it and which one broke it, to be honest,” Gillman said. “I don’t really know about celebrating it. I just like to celebrate with my fellas, especially the offensive line. But it’s sweet.”
Gillman’s next touchdown will break Reynolds’ record, a hallowed mark set by a former 8-man football star from Drummond who first rewrote the Treasure State’s prep record books before becoming the latest underdog turned all American when he burst onto the scene in 2008. Reynolds rushed for more than 4,000 yards and scored his 59 total touchdowns despite being the starting running back for the Griz for about two and a half seasons.
Gillman, the Jerry Rice Award Winner as a freshman and the Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Year last season as a fourth-year junior, has rolled up his eye-popping statistical accumulation with still at least 10 games to play in his senior season. After finishing with 105 rushing yards Saturday, Gillman now needs just 209 yards to break Yohance Humphrey’s career record (set 1998-2001).
With Gillman’s next touchdown, he will become the fourth player in Big Sky Conference history with 60 or more touchdowns. Sheridan May of Idaho (1991-1994) and Charles Dunn of Portland State (1997-2000) each scored 61 career touchdowns. The incomparable Cooper Kupp of Eastern Washington scored 72 touchdowns between 2013 and 2016 before going on to become the NFL Offensive Player of the Year and a Super Bowl MVP.
“He’s an all-time great at the University of Montana,” Kennedy said. “That’s a pretty unique thing. Not a lot of people can say that. Records are meant to be broken. I’m super proud of him and I’m super proud of the way he carries himself, the way he finishes plays, the way he bursts down the sideline, the way he leads us as a captain. I think his practice habits have a lot to do with his success and he’s going to continue to get better. That’s what exciting to me – when your really good players work like he’s works, it’s a good thing for a coach.”
A huge point of observation for Saturday’s matinee came in the form of watching Griz All-American quarterback Keali’i Ah Yat. The fourth-year senior looked rusty in the SUU win, throwing an interception on the first play of the game and completing just over half of his passes.
Saturday, he looked a little more sharp, completing 27-of-40 passes for 282 yards and two touchdowns. His touchdown throw to Brooks Davis put Montana up 35-3 and helped aid Davis’s 8-catch, 95-yard day. Ah Yat also found Rice transfer Landon Ransom-Goelz five times for 101 yards.
“Ah Yat is a special kid and it’s good to see him step up in the moment,” Kennedy said. “And I’d like to always give a shout out to the offensive line. They gave great protection this week again.
Drake came to Missoula in its second game operating head coach Matt Walker’s fast-break offense. Last year as the head coach at Wisconsin-River Falls, Walker helped lead his team to a Division III national championship by snapping the ball faster than any college football team in the country.
That strategy had detrimental results in Drake’s 38-35 loss to Division II South Dakota Mines last week and it didn’t help the Bulldogs much on Saturday, either. Drake threw the ball 60 times and ran 86 plays, but averaged just 3.5 yards per play in gaining 297 yards of total offense.
“I thought they would present some challenges on defense after going from last week, a team that controlled the ball and grind it out, to a team that spread it and got the ball in space,” Kennedy said. “But I was really pleased with the defense. There were a couple of times that we gave up explosive plays, which is something that we worked on all week.
“Fourth down stops, stops in the red-zone, we got the ball back offensively.”
The Bulldogs went for it on fourth down three times, including twice in their own territory and did not convert any of the three tries. Usually, that sort of thing leads to a steam-rolling by the host Griz, a program that has lost just 38 home games in the 40-year history of Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
But Montana’s win on Saturday was more of a deliberate dismissal of its non-scholarship Pioneer Football League opponent instead of a decimation that many expected.
“We are far from a finished product and we have plenty of things to clean up,” Kennedy said.
