Editor’s Note: Leading up to the 118th edition of the fierce football rivalry between the Bobcats and the Grizzlies, Skyline Sports will provide features on five of the game’s key matchups between Montana and Montana State.
PART I — THE MATCHUPS: Troy Andersen vs. Griz defense
Montana State starts six seniors. Three of those are three or four-year starters on the defensive line. The fourth Montana State defensive lineman is a Pac 12 transfer who is currently second in the Big Sky Conference in sacks.
Montana is expected to start two former walk-ons, one who is a redshirt freshman, along with a converted defensive lineman, an additional redshirt freshman and a sophomore left tackle along its offensive line when the Griz host rival MSU on Saturday.
On paper, a Bobcat defensive front featuring senior honors candidates end Tyrone Fa’anono, nose tackle Tucker Yates and defensive tackle Zach Wright along with former Washington transfer Bryce Sterk at Buck end has a decided advantage over a Griz offensive line that has been a glaring weakness for most of the season.
“It’s interesting because I know they’ve struggled a little bit,” Montana State head coach Jeff Choate said when asked about the matchup. “I think originally, they have a guy who was recruited as a linebacker who is playing right guard for them and he played some d-line. (UM fourth-year offensive line coach) Chad Germer is a really good football coach and he’ll get those guys ready to go. I think they’ve done a nice job of mixing their personnel groups so you can’t just tee off on those guys.
Montana has given up 21 sacks and junior quarterback Dalton Sneed has had to use his mobility constantly during an up and down season for the Griz. Sneed led the league in total offense during UM’s 4-1 start. But the inability to win the line of scrimmage to convert short-yardage downs combined with a turnover plague sparked at least in part by the constant duress felt by the Griz quarterback led to a three-game losing streak in October, UM’s first since 1992.
An offensive line featuring Conlan Beaver at left tackle, redshirt freshman Skyler Martin at left guard, former walk-on junior Cody Meyer at center, former defensive lineman/linebacker Cy Sirmon at right guard and former walk-on redshirt freshman Colton Keintz has found a modicum of consistency during Montana’s prolific November.
Sneed endured five sacks and constant pressure in a 49-21 loss to UC Davis in Missoula to cap a winless October. The Montana offense has been red hot in November.
The Griz have scored 103 points and rolled up nearly 1,100 yards of total offense in road wins over Southern Utah (57-14) and Idaho (46-27).
“Good coaches figure out a way to make it work. They have probably gone way above what their coaches thought at the beginning of the year that they would be capable of,” Choate said. “You look at how they are operating on offense right now. You are not doing that if you are not playing well up front.”
UM committed no turnovers and surrendered no sacks against Southern Utah. Sneed threw for 323 yards and five touchdowns. Last week in Moscow, the Griz surrendered one sack and again committed no turnovers. Sneed rushed for 129 yards and a touchdown while throwing for 220 yards and three more scores.
“They’ve been playing good the last couple of weeks,” said Yates, a Colstrip native serving as one of Montana State’s captains in his fourth year as a starter. “They are rolling right now. They are a young o-line but I think they are playing with confidence right now. Their coaches are going to have them ready to go for this game. We will have to come out and match it. It will be a battle up front.”
The 6-foot-5, 255-pound Sterk is one of the most impressive physical specimens in the Big Sky. The former Husky has 14 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks among his 51 total tackles in his first year with the Bobcats. Only Mason Moe of UC Davis, who had 3.5 sacks and five tackles for loss against Montana, has more total sacks (8.5) and tackles for loss (16) than Sterk this season.
Fa’anono has worn out opposing offensive linemen from his “5I” strong end position in MSU defensive coordinator Ty Gregorak’s 3-4 scheme. His numbers are solid — 52 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks — but the stats don’t fully reveal the impact the 6-foot-3, 270-pounder has on the game.
The 6-foot, 295-pound Yates and the 6-foot-2, 265-pound Wright make up one of the stoutest and toughest pairs of inside guys in the league. The duo has combined for 16 tackles for loss, each individually ranking in the Top 18 in the league. And Montana State can bring in junior Derek Marks, a starter each of the last two seasons who has four tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks this fall.
Montana head coach Bobby Hauck kept his answers short almost exclusively during his press conference on Monday. When asked about Montana State’s defensive front representing a strength of the MSU team, Hauck cut off the reporter to opine that he feels sophomore quarterback Troy Andersen is the strength of these Bobcats.
But Hauck did give the front credit soon after.
“We watch film, meet and practice – that’s how you prepare,” Hauck said. “I think their defensive front is the strength of their defense.”
UM is fourth in the league in scoring offense at 34.8 points per game. The Griz are averaging 434 yards of total offense per outing, including 170.6 per game on the ground despite the limited availability and now abrupt departure of senior running back Jeremy Calhoun.
Montana scored 48 points against Drake, 41 against Sacramento State, 48 at Cal Poly, 57 at Southern Utah and 46 at Idaho, five of UM’s six total wins. In other words, when Sneed and the attack that also features some of the league’s most talented wide receivers gets rolling, the momentum continues to build.
“They are so aggressive,” said Wright, a starter in each of MSU’s last two wins in the historic and heated rivalry series with the Griz. “They’ve been very sound. They have the ability to capitalize on drives and give the momentum to their team. When they are doing well, they continue to do well. They build off of that and can steamroll teams like you saw last week against Idaho.
“We have a lot of confidence. We’ve been performing well, especially in these last two games. The Griz o-line deserves respect just like any other Big Sky o-line. We have that in mind. We feel confident that we have been playing at a high level so we can expect to perform at a high level in this game, too.”
Brooks Nuanez contributed to the reporting of this story. Photos by Brooks Nuanez.
