FRISCO, Texas – Toyota Stadium in Frisco, the site of the crown jewel of the FCS calendar, is a soccer stadium hosting a football game – but on Sunday, it played host to a three-hour-long lesson usually reserved for the boxing ring.
The opponents were well-defined along timeless stereotypes – the champion, South Dakota State, clad in all blue for their return to Frisco after beating Dakota Marker rival North Dakota State for their first-ever title last season; the challenger, Montana, in classic white and maroon, making their first appearance in the national title game since 2009, when the Grizzlies they were the dominant FCS power West of the Mississippi.
The ensuing years have not been kind to the Griz, who suffered scandal and fell inexorably from a title contender – perhaps *the* title contender of the 2000s, with one championship-game win (2001) and four losses (2000, 2004, 2008, 2009) during the decade – to a playoff contender and, for a select few ill-remembered years, a step even below that.
Recently, they’ve been a consistent quarterfinal team – until 2023, when they responded to a shocking conference-opening loss to Northern Arizona with a quarterback change and 10 straight wins, including back-to-back overtime playoff victories in the friendly confines of Washington-Grizzly Stadium that earned Montana a trip to Frisco, Texas.
It was a run that catalyzed the Montana fanbase, reigniting memories of seasons past and enshrining several new, iconic moments in the Griz pantheon.
But in the final game of a magical and captivating season, the Grizzlies learned the hard lesson of many a challenger: There are levels to this violence, and just because the Griz hadn’t yet run into a more bad ass team didn’t mean that they don’t exist.
With 16 straight points in the final eight minutes of the third quarter, South Dakota State pulled away for a suspense-free 23-3 win to win its second-straight title, affirming their status as the FCS’ new-age juggernaut and robbing the Grizzlies of their triumphant return to the national stage.

“Congrats to South Dakota State on the win and the championship,” Montana head coach Bobby Hauck said postgame. “They’re a senior-dominated team, and they played like it today. They went out and took that game and did a great job. In terms of our team, everybody in our operation loves winning, hates losing. We have a very competitive group. They compete every time we take the field. I’m proud of them. It’s an honor to coach them. We hope to continue on and have a chance to be back here at some point.”
The result capped a historically dominant playoff run for the Jackrabbits, who outscored their four playoff opponents by a total of 146 to 15.
“This is the best defense in FCS history, and I’m proud of that, proud of this football team, proud to go back to back, proud to do it with these guys, and blessed to be the head coach of South Dakota State,” SDSU head coach Jimmy Rogers said.

Montana senior running back Nick Ostmo is gang tackled by the South Dakota State defense/ by Blake Hempstead
It was the 29th straight win for SDSU, despite several uncharacteristic mistakes by the defending champions including a bad early interception by Walter Payton Award-winning quarterback Mark Gronowski. Corbin Walker snared the under-thrown deep ball, leading to Montana’s only points of the game when Nico Ramos knocked in a 30-yard field goal.
South Dakota State also had a punt bounce off one of their blockers, giving the Griz the ball back near midfield, but the Jackrabbits still took a 7-3 lead into halftime thanks to All-American running back Isaiah Davis’s 6-yard touchdown run on their first possession.
Meanwhile, the Grizzlies spurned plenty of early opportunities, advancing into SDSU territory three separate times in the first 30 minutes but only coming away with the three points.
The most costly of those missed chances came on Montana’s first drive. Trying to answer Davis’s opening touchdown, the Grizzlies drove inside the 10, but three separate hits sent McDowell spinning every which way in midair and stopped him a half-yard short of the goal line on a third-down scramble to end the first quarter.

With the entire break to think about their fourth-and-goal play, the Griz lined McDowell up under center and handed the ball off to Eli Gillman in motion from right to left.
The Jerry Rice Award winner looked to have a shot at the end zone, but South Dakota State’s All-American linebacker Adam Bock, running laterally along the goal line, somehow planted himself and wrestled Gillman down short of paydirt.
“Jason (Freeman) did a good job just setting the edge there,” Bock said. “I knew I had the next fit after that. I’ve been on too many of the wrong side of those. It was just huge to come up with that in a big time game. It felt awesome to get a little bit of momentum on our side when maybe things weren’t going the way we wanted to and they were driving down the field. That was a big momentum shift for us, I feel like.”
Worse than failing to capitalize on their opportunities, the Griz also saw McDowell get hurt in the first half. The transfer quarterback who had jump started Montana’s offense in mid-season remained in the game throughout, but was clearly limited in his mobility the rest of the way.
After getting just four drives in a fast-moving first half, South Dakota State broke the stalemate on its second possession of the third quarter. Gronowski, who’d been ineffective after Walker’s interception, escaped the pocket on third and 10, rolled left and hit tight end Zach Heins cutting across the field for 37 yards to the Montana 10.
On the next play, Gronowski, who was named the Most Outstanding Player of the game, scrambled straight up the middle for a touchdown. With the award, he became only the third player ever named MOP in two different title games, joining former North Dakota State quarterbacks Brock Jensen and Carson Wentz.
Less than five minutes later, the Jacks were in the end zone again after a Montana punt when Gronowski hit Jadon Janke for a 23-yard touchdown.

Things continued to snowball for the Griz on the first play of their next drive, when Cade Terveer slapped the ball away from McDowell as he tried to scramble and Ryan Van Marel recovered for SDSU. Hunter Dustman converted the turnover into points with a 32-yard field goal to make it 23-3 going into the fourth quarter, and that was all she wrote as the Jackrabbits suffocated Montana in the final 15 minutes.
“In terms of the game, I think that’s — you know, when you look at it, each team had 17 first downs, that’s two pretty good defenses,” Hauck said. “I think, in terms of evaluating how they won the game and we didn’t, it’s the critical things that are critical in every football game. I don’t think it’s — when you have good teams on each sideline, you can’t turn the ball over, you can’t get behind the chains and take negative plays. You’ve got to run the ball better than we did, and you can’t turn it over.”
SDSU outgained UM 372 to 273, with Gronowski finishing 13 of 21 for 175 yards, one touchdown and one interception and adding eight carries for 62 yards and a rushing score. SDSU’s Davis had 16 carries for 87 yards and a touchdown, actually a below-average playoff performance for the Jackrabbits’ All-American.
The title was the first for Rogers, an SDSU alum who had his playing career end in Missoula in the 2009 playoffs who went on to replace the legendary John Stiegelmeier after last season.

“It takes a whole team to get this much done, especially with the hype that surrounded this football program,” Rogers said. “We never paid much attention to it. We stayed consistent. We worked extremely hard week in and week out.”
#GrizFB captains Braxton Hill (right) and AJ Forbes on what this Montana football experience has meant to them pic.twitter.com/XQTXOJtd7a
— Skyline Sports (@SkylineSportsMT) January 7, 2024
More than that, it was more proof of the Jackrabbits’ ascension to the top of the FCS, sliding into the spot held for so many years by their rival North Dakota State.
As for the Grizzlies, whose four-month grind of joy and pain left them a clear second-best, it was a harsh reminder that even being runner-up doesn’t mean you’re all that close to the top level.
“I mentioned this in the locker room. In 2018, five seasons ago, we didn’t look like we do now physically or in the ability to perform,” Hauck said. “This senior class and the guys we’ve added on, I mean, they won a lot of games, culminating with this appearance in the National Championship Game. But we’ve won playoff games every year since that first year. We’ve been in the quarterfinals. Pushing our way into this game was terrific. They have an understanding that we expect to win, and I think they have passed that on to everybody in the locker room.”


Montana senior quarterback Clifton McDowell/ by Brooks Nuanez

Montana senior linebacker Levi Janacaro runs out of the tunnel with the special teams hammer/ by Brooks Nuanez.