MISSOULA – The Montana Grizzlies team that returned to Washington-Grizzly Stadium on Saturday was not the same one last seen there nearly a month ago posting an unconvincing single-score win over Idaho State.
In the interim, the Griz went on the road to score ranked wins over UC Davis and Idaho, vaulting from in danger of falling out of the polls to on the cusp of the top five.
That transfiguration came on the heels of installing Clifton McDowell permanently at quarterback, a switch that turned the Griz offense into a ball-controlling bulldozer and also seemed to revitalize the defense, most particularly a pass rush that wasn’t at its most fearsome through the first three weeks of conference play.
On Saturday, the Grizzlies came off their bye and, after a slow start, showed off their glow-up to the home fans for the first time, suffocating Northern Colorado’s offense in a 40-0 win that was their most emphatic display of the season.
“Northern Colorado, they came in looking for a fight, and they fought hard,” Montana head coach Bobby Hauck said. “I think we ended up wearing them down a little bit. … I like our team, I like how our team competes, I like our guys in general are not fazed by negative plays or things that go against them. They just play hard throughout.”
The win was Hauck’s 123rd at Montana, tying him with longtime Northern Arizona coach – and former Griz defensive coordinator – Jerome Souers for the most in Big Sky Conference history.
“I hate turning this back on me, because there’s a bunch of players that just played their tails off,” Hauck said. “But, you know, it’s interesting. Going by coach (Don) Read in 2018 and then equalling Jerome’s record today – Jerome Souers and Don Read, along with Terry Donahue and Rick Neuheisel, are the guys that got me into coaching. So I suppose it’s pretty much a privilege to be able to do that. … Humbling.”
The milestone win came in typical fashion for Hauck, as the Griz defense overran a helpless and hapless Northern Colorado offensive line and Eli Gillman, Nick Ostmo and McDowell each ran for over 75 yards.
Montana ran for 285 yards altogether, while two pick-sixes and a relentless pass rush led by linebacker Riley Wilson highlighted the Grizzlies’ dominant defensive effort.
Northern Colorado, which played three quarterbacks – Jacob Sirmon, Hank Gibbs and Shea Kuykendall – recorded just seven first downs and 94 yards of total offense.
“It was such a dominating defensive effort,” Hauck said. “A shutout is hard to get, in modern-day college football, but to hold somebody under 100 yards of total offense is almost remarkable in this day and age.”
Both times the Bears got into Montana territory – once in the first half and once in the second – they went for it and failed on fourth down instead of attempting a field goal. Montana recorded its first shutout since a 57-0 win over Cal Poly last year on Nov. 5.
Wilson racked up three of Montana’s six sacks – it was the second-straight game the Griz got to the opposing quarterback a half-dozen times – although it didn’t spare him from his coach’s ribbing in the postgame press conference.
“Those types of plays just build so much momentum,” Wilson started, referring to the pick-sixes – one by Flint Creek’s Jaxon Lee, one by Anaconda’s Braxton Hill – that, respectively, shook the Griz out of their early-game malaise and signaled the official start of the rout. “The Highway 1 boys really stood out today.”
Hauck cut in with a dry laugh: You don’t even know what Highway 1 is.
Wilson, a Hawaii transfer originally from Prosper, Texas, shrugged: Well, I heard them shouting it, so, you know.
Lee, who started his high school career at Flint Creek and ended it at Missoula Sentinel, jump-started Montana after four fruitless Griz drives to start the game – two punts, two missed field goals – by picking off an ill-advised deep ball from Northern Colorado quarterback Jacob Sirmon, breaking a tackle around the 15-yard line and coasting in for a 48-yard pick-six.
True freshman quarterback Keali’i Ah Yat, the son of legendary Griz QB Brian, saw his first action for Montana, splitting time with McDowell in the first half.
His 21-yard touchdown throw to a wide-open Junior Bergen late in the first half made it 14-0 at halftime.
“We’ve had him at the No. 2 spot for about four weeks,” Hauck said about Ah Yat. “We had intended to play him in each of those games, and there just really wasn’t a juncture in any of those games where we felt good about plugging in a true freshman in his first college game. We basically decided that, whatever the scenario today, we were going to play him. … ‘Touchdown Ah Yat,’ there wasn’t even electricity in the stadium the last time that was said.”
With Northern Colorado’s offense looking almost incapable of putting the ball in the end zone, that was likely an insurmountable lead, but the Griz sealed things on the first two possessions of the second half.
First, a roughing the passer penalty on Levi Janacaro and an unsportsmanlike conduct on the Griz sideline on the same play put the Bears inside the Montana 30.
But Hill teamed up with Hayden Harris and then Nash Fouch on back-to-back tackles for loss, and Northern Colorado turned it over on downs.
On the ensuing drive, McDowell led the Griz on a seven-play, 68-yard touchdown march, capped with a 6-yard touchdown run by Gillman.
Gillman, the redshirt freshman from Minnesota who was recently named to the Jerry Rice Award watchlist for the best freshman in the FCS, ran for 106 yards and two scores on 14 carries.
Ostmo had 13 carries for 86 yards, and McDowell had 18 for 78 as Montana’s offensive line wore down Northern Colorado in the second half.
“It’s a good feeling, knowing that you can break arm tackles and people aren’t really going to try to put their hat on you,” Ostmo said about the Griz rushing attack growing stronger as the game went on.
Not even a minute after Gillman’s touchdown, Hill picked off an ill-advised throw to the flat and returned it 34 yards for Montana’s second defensive score of the game.
A 20-yard touchdown pass from McDowell to Sawyer Racanelli and a 4-yard run by Gillman capped the scoring for Montana in the fourth quarter.
Along with the two missed field goals by Grant Glasgow in the first half, Nico Ramos missed an extra point for Montana after Gillman’s first touchdown, and the Griz also failed on a 2-point conversion after Hill’s pick-six.
Lee, Hill and Wilson each led Montana with six tackles, and Wilson added another tackle for loss to his three sacks to give him four TFLs on the day.
“It starts up front and then towards the back end,” Wilson said. “A lot of those sacks just turned out to be coverage sacks. Yeah, I made a couple sacks, but it ultimately starts with those guys up front and then the guys in the back just doing their jobs as well.”
The Griz moved to 7-1, and 4-1 in Big Sky Conference play. Hauck will have a chance to break Souers’ record next week when they host Sacramento State. The Hornets, at 5-2, were ranked one spot ahead of the Griz at No. 6 in the country entering the week.
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
