FCS Playoffs

Griz navigate finals week with Final Four berth on the line

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MISSOULA, Montana — Cy Sirmon planned this all wrong.

“For some frickin’ reason, I’m a fifth year senior, my last semester and my only class and my only final is physics,” Montana’s All-Big Sky senior center said following Tuesday’s practice. “I was expecting knitting 101 but I guess the way the schedule worked out, I’m taking physics 200-something.

“It will be all good but this time of year, playoff football, you just want to focus on football. But you have to take care of business.”

No. 6 Montana is preparing for its first quarterfinal appearance in the FCS playoffs since 2011. The Griz travel to No. 3 Weber State for a rematch of a regular-season game that played out less than a month ago. And Montana’s players will have to navigate finals week before playing the Friday night game. Kickoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN2.

Montana center Cy Sirmon (66) & guard Moses Mallory (76) block for quarterback Dalton Sneed in 2019/by Brooks Nuanez

“Football first,” Sirmon said with a laugh when asked about how you manage a finals week and a playoff run at the same time. “No, there is a time and a place for everything but during the day, I’m on campus and I focus on football then when I get home, I open up the laptop and focus on physics. It’s only one class so it’s not bad. I find a good balance from physics and studying.”

Montana’s graduation ceremony will commence at 9 a.m. on Saturday. That means Sirmon, senior quarterback Dalton Sneed and many of UM’s 12 other fifth-year-seniors will be burning the candle on both ends on Friday. If Montana could win, the Griz would advance to the first semifinal since 2011 and the first official advancement to the Final Four since 2009.

“Finals week this week, it’s extremely tough,” said Sneed, a former transfer who threw for a career-high 459 yards last week in a 73-28 win over Southeastern Louisiana. “When we aren’t at practice, we are studying for finals, trying to get into all of our plays and film. It’s really tough to balance. We have guys running in and out of here for finals. It’s extremely tough to manage.”

A Montana win could be the precursor to quite the celebration in Missoula.

“That would definitely be an experience none of us would forget,” Sirmon said. “We will focus on the game day. Walking is great. But we have to stay focused on prep for this Friday.”

The Griz dismantled the No. 3 Wildcats in Missoula on November 16, building a 35-3 lead midway through the third quarter before cruising to a 35-16 win. Just a fews weeks later, a 38-10 Weber State win over Idaho State combined with a 48-14 loss by Montana in Bozeman against rival Montana State handed the Wildcats the No. 3 seed and the Griz the No. 6 seed in the FCS playoffs.

Montana quarterback Dalton Sneed (11) vs. Idaho State in 2019/by Brooks Nuanez

Sneed threw five touchdowns to help Montana into the Elite Eight. Conner Mortensen spearheaded a Weber defense that stuffed No. 9 Kennesaw State in a 26-20 win last weekend. The rematch is set.

“Last week was a huge game for us in my opinion because we played one of the best teams that wasn’t seeded,” Weber State sixth-year head coach Jay Hill said. “They have proven that over the last four years. They have won 40-some games in the last four years.

“We can feel comfortable about knowing what we like to do. But they are the same in this game. I don’t think there is any advantage one team over the other but it does help us feel like we are prepared in understanding what’s going on.”

Hill has led Weber State on a steady ascension to a place among the best programs in the Big Sky and the FCS. WSU has qualified for the playoffs four years in a row. Weber is in the quarterfinals for the third straight season. Hill is 45-29 in his career in Ogden, including 31-9 over the last three seasons. Four of those losses have come against FBS teams.

 But in his sixth season, the American Football Coaches Association Region 5 Coach of the Year is trying to lead Weber State to its first Final Four in school history.

Weber State defensive lineman Adam Rodriguez (9) vs. Montana in 2019/by Brooks Nuanez

“It’s big for these guys because they win this game…this is a big game for us,” Hill said. “This would be the first time we got to the semifinals. This is already the winniest senior class in school history.

“You have to give Montana credit: I thought last game they did a great job of eliminating our defensive line, our heart and soul, and putting the stress elsewhere. We need these guys to step up and have a great game no matter what Montana does.”

It’s a huge game for Montana as well. The Grizzlies made the playoffs 17 seasons in a row. UM won 119 games between 2000 and 2009, the most in college football for the first decade in the 21st century. Those Griz advanced to seven FCS national title games in 14 years, winning the crown in 1995 and 2001.

Officially (NCAA violations), UM has not been this far in the playoffs in 10 seasons. Montana has not advanced to the Elite Eight period in eight years. The Griz missed the playoffs the last three seasons, an unfathomable circumstance for a team that made the playoffs 21 out of 23 seasons between 1993 and 2015.

To get to the semifinals, the Griz will have to beat a team it beat less than a month ago. As the old adage goes, in college football, beating the same team twice is one of the hardest things to do.

“I’m not sure why but there is a weird thing about it,” Sneed said. “It can be done. In the NFL, you play teams twice in a season. It happens all the time. You have to stay locked in and prepare like you haven’t played them and come in with the same energy.”

Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.

About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

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