MISSOULA — Keali’i Ah Yat’s eyes scanned from the left hash, where Montana began a play, all the way across the field, checking to see if the wide receiver in the slot who was running a fade route was open.
Ah Yat immediately got through his first several reads with rapid efficiency, choosing to check down to running back Stevie Rocker Jr. in the flat for what resulted in a 3-yard gain.
It may have looked like a non-consequential play. But it reveals the elite level Ah Yat is playing at as his sophomore season enters its most pivotal stretch. Two plays after the efficient check down, Ah Yat threw an absolute laser to Michael Wortham in the middle of the field for a 28-yard touchdown , Ah Yat’s fourth of Saturday’s second-round playoff game.
It wasn’t the final dagger by the Griz offense but it certainly was one of the most important. Ah Yat’s dime to Wortham helped Montana keep its foot on the gas and gave the hosts a 36-14 early in the fourth quarter in a game that turned into and stayed a run away against a South Dakota State team that eliminated UM from the FCS playoffs in 2023 and 2024.
By the time the dust settled, the Griz had rolled up 32 first downs and 561 yards of total offense and rolled to a 50-29 win over the No. 14 Jackrabbits to advance to the quarterfinals of the FCS Playoffs for the 15th time in school history.
“We went into the last game 11-0 (a 31-28 loss to No. 2 Montana State) and we didn’t feel like th ball bounced our way much in that game. We came out of there with a loss. I attitudinally go the way our team goes and our team was fired up to get back into game week this week,” Montana 14th-year head coach Bobby Hauck said. “It showed today.”
Part of the reason Montana dismissed a Dakota State in the playoffs and bounced back from a heartbreaking rivalry game loss to Montana State came because of UM offensive coordinator Brent Pease’s creative, sharp and effective play calling.
And part of it was because of astute yet explosive play of Ah Yat. This fall, Ah Yat has had at least four ascending moments that made many around the fan base say, ‘Wow, that was his best game yet.” And following a sophomore season in which he threw for 3,156 yards and 25 touchdowns, he earned first-team All-Big Sky Conference honors.
The nod marked the first time in 21 years a Montana quarterback landed on the first-team all-league list. Ah Yat is the first gunslinger since Craig Ochs to earn such acknowledgement.
Yet still, Saturday was almost certainly his best game as a Griz. He completed 29-of-37 passes for a career-high 360 yards and the four touchdowns. He looked wickedly efficient in his run-pass option reads. He maneuvered in the pocket and got the ball out quickly, one of his strengths and signs of program during his breakout season. He showed command of the offense, swagger leading it and looked like a seasoned veteran in leading Montana into the Elite Eight.
“Our offense was clicking,” Hauck said. “I thought the quarterback (Ah Yat), the game was moving slow for him today. He was seeing everything the way he needed to see it. Everything from seeing the corner blitz and hurting them there, he was on the money. He did a great job today. The ball is going where it goes and we are moving fast.
“I don’t know how many plays we played but I do know that when you are playing a team like we just played, we see the top end of the Missouri Valley in the playoffs year in and year out and if you can out-rush them 200-60, they are going to have a hard time beating us, especially when our quarterback is playing that way.”
Montana might’ve scored even more points if not for getting stopped on a 4th & goal just two years from pay dirt on its first possession and having to settle for a field goal after not converting a third and goal in its third possession.
Still, Ah Yat led a charge that saw Wortham roll up 135 yards from scrimmage, including eight catches for 113 yards. Eli Gillman, the Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Year, rushed for 135 yards and two touchdowns, bringing his season total to 1,396 yards and 19 touchdowns and his career totals to 3,533 yards and 47 touchdowns. His career rush yard total surpassed Jordan Canada for fourth in school history.
Not only could you argue that Saturday was Ah Yat’s best game, but it also went hand in hand with UM offensive coordinator Brent Pease calling a magnificent script. The cherry on top was when Gillman took a Statue of Liberty play 11 yards for a touchdown to push the lead to 43-22 with five minutes to play.
“We work it through the season, he brings it out when he wants it,” Hauck said of Pease’s play calling. “I thought that we executed it at a high level. We had a good blend. And then if you look at it, we had 32 first downs and he can get down his call sheet and he did a great job of mixing things.”
But the story of the day was Ah Yat. His first touchdown throw as an off-balance but precise and accurate dime to Rocker on a wheel route for a touchdown that set the North End-zone on fire. It also helped Montana squash SDSU’s momentum after the Jackrabbits scored a 95-yard touchdown right after the goal-line stand.
Ah Yat’s second touchdown was a side arm throw that he zipped perfectly to Rocker to beat the middle of the SDSU defense on a beautifully designed play that left the Jackrabbits stuck in the mud.
“Their quarterback, really talented player and he has some great weapons around him,” SDSU first-year head coach Dan Jackson said after his team finished the season 9-5. “They are really well coached and he has some dangerous guys around him. I think our defensive line played really well, created some pressure in there, made it hard on him and he made some throws.
“We need to be better in coverage, we need to be tighter in some things to make him feel uncomfortable but he’s a phenomenal player and just the little I’ve heard of him, an awesome person, too.”
And Ah Yat’s third touchdown was one of the great catch and throws in the history of Griz football. Ah Yat threw a perfectly placed back-shoulder fade into the right corner of the South end-zone that senior Drew Deck made a perfect diving catch on to secure a 29-yard touchdown and give Deck one of the highlights of his quietly tremendous Griz career.
“He’s a gamer,” Deck said of Ah Yat. “He’s a leader out there. When he’s operating like that, it’s fun. And it’s fun, this offense, we feed off each other. Like coach Hauck said, we’re all out there to make plays, so when people are making plays, we get fired up.”
