MISSOULA — Bob Stitt read Don Read’s book in recent months.
The man credited with laying the foundation for the University of Montana football team’s peerless success over the last generation penned “Complete Quarterbacking” in his retirement. Read’s book is mostly made up of game plan tips and tactics to hone elite quarterbacks.
But Read, who led Montana to 85 wins, five playoff appearances and its first national title in 1995, also uses a few anecdotes in the book. One of those is a story about losing to the UM alumni team in scrimmage settings in his first two seasons in 1986 and 1987.
Montana posted a 6-4 record in Read’s first season at the helm and a 6-5 mark in his second. In his third season, the Griz made the FCS playoffs. In his fourth, UM advanced to the semifinals of the Division I-AA playoffs. In Read’s 10th, Dave Dickenson became a college football darling and the Griz rode their star quarterback all the way to title town.
Montana head coach Bob Stitt/ by Evan Frost for Skyline Sports
Stitt, Montana’s third-year head coach, referenced Read’s admission in passing during his weekly press conference in the middle of a much longer monologue about helping Montana return to the pinnacle of the Football Championship Subdivision. For those listening, the reference held weight even if the circumstances are much different. Read inherited a program that went through three coaches and posted only had two winning seasons between its Camellia Bowl appearances in 1969 and 1970 until 1985. Stitt inherited a team that advanced to the playoffs 20 times in 22 seasons before his arrival.
Still, the tenant Stitt wanted to emphasis still rings true within the parallel. Building a program is a process. Trusting the process through patience is key.
“Montana Grizzly football wasn’t built in a couple years,” Stitt said on Monday. “Coach Read came in here and chipped away at it until he had something great.
“We want to get it back to what everyone envisions and to those great years and piece by piece, we are putting this thing together. It’s going to be very strong in the end.”
Montana’s success on the football field did not waver from when Read took over until Robin Pflugrad’s second season culminated in an eight-game winning streak and a surge into the semifinals of the 2011 FCS playoffs save for missing the playoffs in Pflugrad’s debut season a year earlier.
A sexual assault scandal rocked the Garden City, directly leading to quarterback Jordan Johnson’s year-long suspension and backhandedly leading to Pflugrad’s abrupt firing. Montana has been trying to recover ever since.
Former Montana head coach Mick Delaney/ by Brooks Nuanez
The 2012 season, Mick Delaney’s first of three at the helm, resulted in UM’s first losing record since 1985, the year before Washington-Grizzly Stadium was built. Montana climbed to No. 4 in the national rankings thanks to 10 wins in 2013. But those Griz lost on the most frigid day in Washington-Grizzly history to a team from Myrtle Beach.
UM won a first round playoff game in 2014 but lost to Big Sky Conference rival Eastern Washington to finish 8-5, a far cry from the seven national title game appearances and two FCS crowns the team claimed between 1995 and 2009.
In Stitt’s first season, the Griz overcame injuries to their top two quarterbacks, posted marquee wins over North Dakota State, Eastern Washington and Montana State in the process. UM beat South Dakota State in the first round of the playoffs before losing the rematch to the four-time reigning national champions in Fargo.
Last season, Montana hit its second speed bump as Stitt still tries to prove he is the man to right the ship. UM surged to a 5-1 start that included a win at No. 3 Northern Iowa. But it all came crashing down. Montana lost four of five down the stretch, including losing to a three-win Montana State team on its home turf. The Bobcat loss ensured UM would miss the playoffs for the third time this decade but just the third time since 1993.
Since the beginning of last season and the coinciding departure of veteran defensive coordinator Ty Gregorak to join Jeff Choate’s coaching staff at MSU, Stitt has spoken frequently about what he sees as the need for a culture change. From hand picking Jason Semore to run the Griz defense to striving a cultivation of an ethos centered on the mental toughness that trademarked the Griz from Read through Mick Dennehy, Joe Glenn and Bobby Hauck, Stitt has trudged through the swamp of high expectations and striking scrutiny.
With his team’s season opener on Saturday against non-scholarship Valparaiso, Stitt remains confident that his process will help return Montana to glory.
Joey Counts celebrates the game winning touchdown against North Dakota State in Stitt’s debut game/ by Brooks Nuanez
“What happened to us the last couple of games last year was one of the toughest things any of us have ever went through but it actually was the best thing that could’ve ever happened to our program because it hurt so bad, it woke us all up and we had to change some things,” Stitt said during the Big Sky Conference coaches’ teleconference on Wednesday. “I think it’s going to pay big-time dividends. We can’t wait to get on the field and show people what we’ve accomplished over the off-season.”
Stitt’s offensive ideas built him a reputation on a national level despite his Division II credentials. He served as the head coach at Colorado School of Mines for the 15 years prior to landing at UM. The Grizzly attack has proven lethal at times, from the 38-point explosion to topple North Dakota State in Stitt’s resounding debut to the 57 points Montana piled up to avalanche Eastern to the 54 points UM scored in Bozeman to give Stitt his first rivalry game victory.
Montana scored points in bunches last season as well, putting up 135 points over a two-week span and 178 during a three-game home win streak in October. But a defense that struggled to execute the required press man-to-man principles on the outside in Semore’s high-pressure, multifaceted defense combine with an offense that struggled in crucial conversion situations doomed UM. The Griz lost 45-34 at Northern Arizona a week after beating Sac State by 61, sparking the second-half skid.
The season continued unravelling with a lackluster effort in a 34-16 loss at Eastern Washington in which starting quarterback Brady Gustafson suffered his second significant injury of the Stitt era. Montana again exploded at home with a 62-point effort agaisnt Idaho State but gave up 44 to the hapless Bengals, further heightening concerns defensively. Montana’s first loss to Northern Colorado since 1976 was only overshadowed to losing to a struggling Bobcat team quarterbacked by a true freshman without any semblance of ability to throw the ball.
Stitt and his staff went to work revamping Montana’s roster for a second straight off-season after the Bobcat loss. The Griz now have just 18 players recruited by Delaney on the roster. Stitt continues to harp on what he says is a solidification of Montana’s mental fortitude. It’s up for debate how broken it was when Stitt inherited the program but the head coach believes fixing UM’s mental grit will be the key to UM’s 2017 season.
“We’ve always had good players, we just haven’t had the team unity, the support, the players that we need to win every game, win on the road, deal with adversity,” Stitt said Monday. “That’s all we’ve been talking about. I feel good about the talent on our team, the athletic ability, the strength, power, speed. We just have to keep the mental side of it strong.”
Montana defensive coordinator Jason Semore’s unit gave 368 yards rushing in a loss to Montana State/ by Jason Bacaj
Schematically, Montana has made adjustments on both sides of the ball. Rather than giving his quarterback so much freedom to “get us into a great play”, Stitt said he and the offensive staff, including quarterbacks coach Andrew Selle, have simplified the pre-snap recognitions. Defensively, Semore said surrendering explosive passing plays frequently to NAU, EWU, Idaho State and Northern Colorado humbled him.
“It absolutely was a learning process for me,” Semore said the first week of UM’s fall camp. “You have to get a feel for how your season is going and how much success you are having during a game. Managing a game as a play caller, you never stop learning. As a coach, it humbles you, as a player, it humbles you and you have to work as hard as you can, take those lessons learned and apply them to the next season.”
UM moved past NCAA sanctions that cost the team scholarships and practice time this off-season after four years of penalties. Semore and his defensive coaches used that extra time to implement adjustments. On the defensive side. Montana has used the extra time to sharpen the mastery of Semore’s scheme rather than install it like last season. The coaching staff has also put a priority on improving fundamentals.
The Griz defense this season is sure to play more zone coverage even if the front seven continues bringing pressure from all angles. Semore said he has also leaned on his talented, veteran safety duo of senior Justin Strong and sophomore Josh Saundry to help the secondary disguise coverage pre-snap.
“I think it’s going to help us control the explosive passing game and it’s allowed us to focus on fundamentals,” Semore said. “With limited practice last year, you have to focus on what you are doing. We probably focused too much last year on trying to get scheme installed. Not the case this year. We work on tackling a lot every day. We work on block protection a lot every day. It’s really showing up on tape for us.”
Despite his NFL talent, Montana CB JR Nelson and the UM secondary gave up a slew of explosive passing plays last season/ by Brooks Nuanez
Montana gave up explosive scoring plays at untimely moments —William Morehand’s 74-yard touchdown on NAU’s first possession, Cooper Kupp’s 69-yard first-quarter touchdown for Eastern Washington, Hakeem Deggs’ 58-yard touchdown on the fourth play of the game in UM’s loss at Northern Colorado all come to mind — yet still managed to lead the league in total defense. Montana piled up 28 sacks, second in the Big Sky. The Griz were one of two Big Sky teams to allow less than 200 passing yards a game.
The new defensive ideas have resonated with the unit, junior linebacker Josh Buss said.
“It will take a ton of pressure off the DBs,” the third-team All-Big Sky selection said on Monday. “Last year, different games, offenses hit a bunch of vertical shots and a lot of times, we didn’t have the answers to it because of the packages we had in those games. It is a nice change up.”
The 2017 Montana Grizzlies return talent in bunches, from a collection of dangerous wide receivers both veteran and unproven to an offensive line featuring four seniors to a defensive front hoping to rotate at least eight players to Buss and a linebacker corps that returns all three starters plus promising sophomore Vika Fa’atuiese. The secondary should be a strength as well with Strong and Sandry flanked by senior Ryan McKinley and junior Markell Sanders.
The performance of first-time starting quarterback Reese Phillips will be a crucial factor, as will the completion of the mental overhaul Stitt has preached as a necessity since taking over one of college football’s most pressure-packed jobs.
“It’s why I came here, why I was hired,” Stitt said. “I have been in this spot before and it’s a process. There was a little more patience at Colorado Mines than here. You want to get it done sooner than later here. But we really feel like we are going in the right direction with this program. Internally, these guys know what’s going on.”
Ryan Tootell contributed to the reporting of this story. Photos by Brooks Nuanez and Jason Bacaj. All Rights Reserved.
