MISSOULA, Montana — On Monday, STATS Perform released its first national poll leading up to the 2022 Football Championship Subdivision season.
Montana appeared at No. 3 on the list, behind only perennial powers North Dakota State and South Dakota State. The recognition was the latest for a Griz team with sky high expectations entering the fourth season and fifth year of Bobby Hauck’s second stint at his alma mater.
UM was picked to win the Big Sky Conference by both the league’s affiliated media and its head coaches, although rival Montana State received five first-place votes from the head coaches and Montana received three. Grizzlies littered the All-American teams with returning super seniors like edge rushing aficionado Patrick O’Connell, ball hawking cornerback Justin Ford and fearless safety Robby Hauck landing on the Buck Buchanan Award watch list.
A fearsome Griz defense that allowed just a bit over two touchdowns a game last season returns almost totally in tact, boasting elite talent at all three levels plus depth in spades.
Despite questions about pretty much every possible way to score points in a football game for the Griz, the expectations are as high as they’ve been for more than a decade here in the Garden City.
Hours after the initial poll anointing the Griz as the No. 3 team in the FCS, Hauck expressed he was ready to talk about something other than rankings.
“I don’t think much about it,” Hauck said. “It’s nice to be recognized as a team that probably has a pretty good chance to have a pretty good season. But now that we are started, I don’t have to talk about that anymore.
“We have a game coming up (September 3 against Northwestern State in Missoula) and I’m excited to watch our team get ready for that and I’m excited for our team to keep score here come September.”
Montana is almost certain, barring complete catastrophe, to be one of the top defensive units in the country. The Griz announced the addition of 11 new players this off-season, bringing the total of FBS talent added to the roster since last season to nine total players, including graduate transfer quarterback Lucas Johnson (San Diego State), offensive tackle Chris Walker (Nebraska) and defensive end Garrett Hustedt, all who took front-line repetitions Monday.
UM returns senior kick returner Malik Flowers, one of the most explosive specialists in the recent history of the Big Sky Conference.
Yet Montana is not without question marks. Here’s a look at the three most compelling position groups to watch during Montana’s upcoming fall camp.
“For me, I don’t have any questions. I feel like I have a handle on every single aspect, as I should at this point,” Hauck said defiantly when asked about position groups to watch.”
“These next few days are really similar, non padded, to what we’ve been doing,” Hauck continued. “We need to put the pads on to really evaluate some of our (gains). That’s a better question for two days from now. But it’s always excited to get the season going. Everybody’s excited, maybe me most of all.
3. Wide receiver — Montana returns a pair of seniors, one steady and the other explosive yet still unproven. The rest of the top contenders to contribute on the perimeter include a quartet of sophomores.
One thing Bob Stitt did unquestionably well in recruiting: adding dynamic receivers to the Griz roster. As a junior, Samori Toure set several single-game and single-season records for an explosive Griz offense that put up 73 points in the second round of the 2019 FCS playoffs. He then graduate transferred to Nebraska before last season.
Sammy Akem finished his senior season last fall with 49 catches for 689 yards and seven touchdowns, giving him 191 catches, 2,711 yards and 29 career touchdowns. He is the only receiver in program history to finish in the top five in career pass receptions, total receiving yards, and total touchdown catches. His 29 scores tied Marc Mariani for Montanta’s all time record. He was a two-time winner of the team’s Terry Dillon Award winner for outstanding back or receiver for the second time in his career.
The Griz lose Akem and Gabe Sulser, a former Montana Gatorade Player of the Year from Billings who showed flashes of his exceptional talent but was plagued by injuries before transferring to Texas in the off-season.
Mitch Roberts, a fifth-year senior who once upon a time an all-state quarterback at Missoula Sentinel, enters his final season. The second-generation Griz has been solid and consistent during his career. As a freshman, he broke into the lineup as Montana’s place kick holder, a position he’ll start for a fourth consecutive season at this fall.
In 2019, he broke into the rotation, finishing his sophomore season with 37 catches for 420 yards and scored his first touchdown in the playoff win over Southeastern Louisiana State.
Last season, Roberts was Montana’s most productive and reliable pass catcher. He led the team with 55 catches for 683 yards. He scored a touchdown against Western Illinois and had a career-best 145 receiving yards in a win at Idaho. He enters his final season with 96 catches for 1,134 yards and two scores.
Flowers, who has had five kick return touchdowns in his career but just 33 total offensive touches, is the elder statesman along with Roberts of the receivers group. Flowers caught 14 passes for 210 yards and two scores last season giving him 20 career catches for 256 yards.
The sophomore quartet that includes Junior Bergen, Keelan White, Ryan Simpson and Aaron Fontes all got action last year. They combined for 64 catches, 643 yards and one touchdown (by Bergen) in 2022.
White, a 6-foot-2, 190-pounder from British Columbia, led the group with 22 grabs. He has been talked as a rising player within the program for a few years.
Bergen, a Billings Senior product like Sulser, was thrust into action mostly at running back a year ago. He carried the ball 118 times for 498 yards and four touchdowns while catching 21 passes for 230 yards and a score. He’s expected to play a large role on the offense this year.
Simpson, a 6-foot-6 former basketball star who prepped at Bozeman High, had 19 catches for 247 yards in his first real action last fall after standing out in the spring of 2021.
But Fontes might be the most talented of them all. The 6-foot-1, 170-pound speedster from Oxnard, California had just two catches for 10 yards last fall after choosing Montana in recruiting over an offer from Colorado State. Fontes was the standout of UM’s spring game and could force his way atop the rotation by the time fall camp ends.
2. Special teams specialists — Hauck dug his heels in when he was asked about replacing All-Americans at long snapper and punter, not to mention trying to find a fill in for Kevin Macias, a former Arizona State transfer who nailed 19 straight field goals last season, a Montana and Big Sky record.
“You could go back to last year’s camp, you asked me the same dang question,” Hauck said. “We will be fine, we will be good there the way we always are there.”
“Last year, you didn’t know any of those guys names except Matthew (O’Donoghue). We will be fine there.”
O’Donoghue, a sixth-year senior former walk-on, was a consensus All-American last year. In 539 career attempts at long and short snapper on UM’s punt, field goal, and PAT teams, he registered exactly zero bad snaps. He also was one of three Grizzlies to be named the co-Hauck Family Special Teams Player of the Year at the team awards banquet.
Grayson Pibal, a redshirt freshman from Clackamas, Oregon, is the only true long snapper listed on the roster.
Brian Buschini was an unknown until the first day of fall camp last year. After seeing him punt once, it was clear he was a top level talent. After a fabulous freshman year that saw him earn All-American honors, the Helena Capital product transferred to Nebraska this past off-season.
Midway through fall camp last August, Hauck was asked about the kickers. He said simply, ‘It’s under evaluation.” Macias showed up on campus later that week. In 2021, he nailed 23 of 27 field goals and all 42 of his extra points, scoring 111 points. Hauck has also coached several of the most prolific kickers in Big Sky history, a list that includes Dan Carpenter and Brody McKnight, each of whom kicked professionally.
The Griz have several intriguing options at kicker and punter. On Monday, UM announced the addition of Nico Ramos, a Miami native who started his career at Princeton before spending the 2021 season at Cal. Ramos hit 7-of-9 field goals as a redshirt freshman in 2018 while also setting a Princeton record with 56 made extra points.
He did see action in 2019 and 2020 saw the Ivy League’s season cancelled. He transferred to Cal Berkeley but did not see game action for the Golden Bears last fall.
Ramos, who’s a senior, will be pushed in the place-kicking competition by several Montanans. Camden Capser, a Billings Central product who redshirted last season, scored a Montana high school record 198 points during his time kicking for the Rams.
Patrick Rohrbach and Adam Botner are listed as kickers and punters on the roster. Rohrbach, a Kalispell Glacier product who was a three-time Class AA all-state honoree, is the front-runner to start at punter. He also hit a 51-yard field goal in high school and received extensive praise from Hauck when the Grizzlies signed him.
“Pat came to our specialists camp and was just terrific,” Hauck said. “Kicking off, kicking, and punting it, he’s the best guy I’ve seen in Montana in a long, long time.”
Botner might be the most intriguing player on the Griz roster. He is a graduate of Frenchtown just up the way from Missoula from the Class of 2018. He signed with Rocky Mountain College coming out of high school but did not play his one season in Billings. He returned to Montana and enrolled at UM.
He was a student manager for the Lady Griz basketball team. He has also chronicled his development as a kicker and punter on a wildly popular Instagram page that he’s fortified with a TikTok page that boasts almost 75,000 followers.
It’s almost certain Hauck does not know what TikTok is and certain that he does not follow Botkin (or anyone) on the social media platform. If he can kick and punt like his social media videos, Botkin will be squarely in the mix.
- Offensive line — Somehow, the song remains the same along the offensive front for the Griz.
For the better part of two decades, Montana boasted one of the most fearsome offensive lines in the region and the conference. Hauck’s teams between 2003 and 2009 featured an almost endless string of All-Big Sky performers and NFL hopefuls. The Griz have not had a first-team all-conference selection at guard or center in 13 seasons.
This Montana line’s top returners are, however, on the interior in the former of former FBS transfers center A.J. Forbes and guard Hunter Mayginnes. But the rest of the unit will almost certainly be made up of less proven commodities.
Montana’s offensive front has been a point of emphasis since Hauck took over his post ahead of the 2018 season. Many of UM’s best offensive linemen in recent years, including 2019 second-team All-Big Sky center Cy Sirmon, were converted from other positions.
That may again be the case; Walker, who’s a graduate transfer who spent the last four years in Lincoln, was primarily a defensive lineman at Nebraska. The 6-foot-6, 290-pounder came to the Cornhuskers as an offensive lineman and a local product who de-committed from Wyoming to stay home and play for his hometown squad. He was an offensive lineman as a redshirt in 2017 then played defensive line 2018-2021. He is slated as Montana’s starting left tackle.
That means Brandon Casey can begin his first year as a starter at right tackle. The 6-foot-5, 285-pounder from Sandpoint, Idaho, chose Montana over Oregon State. He got spot duty in relief of senior multi-year starter Conlan Beaver a year ago. Now he’ll step in for graduated Dylan Cook , a monstrous former high school quarterback turned all-conference offensive tackle who is now fighting to make the active roster of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Cook started most of the 2019 and 2021 seasons. Beaver started 37 games during his Griz career.
If Walker and Casey are in fact the book ends with Forbes the incumbent at center and Mayginnes holding down one of the guard spots, the other guard spot will be a battle with redshirt freshman Liam Brown as the front-runner. The 6-foot-5, 307-pounder from Beaverton, Oregon, might’ve landed in the FBS but his senior prep season was cancelled in 2020.
The projected starters are green. But it’s the lack of depth that might be Montana’s biggest concern. It remains to be seen who pushes Brown — junior Cody Kanouse, redshirt freshman Kevin Good and redshirt freshman Kukila Lincoln are the top candidates — and it remains to be seen if third-year sophomore Colin Dreis can push Walker or Casey at all.
Who is Montana’s backup center if Forbes went down? Who could fill in adequately for Mayginnes, a third-team all-league pick last season? Even if the starting lineup is a hit, where does Montana find depth along the offensive front?
