Jeff Choate remembers the meeting room squabbles during his time at Boise State as the final weeks of the regular season wound down.
The former BSU assistant remembers Pete Kwiatkowski and Brent Pease, fellow members of Chris Petersen’s coaching staff, having some “healthy conversations” in the staff rooms the days leading up to the fiercest rivalry in the West. The heated conversations were not in the weeks the Broncos played Nevada or Idaho or Wyoming. Kwiatkowsi and Pease would argue and bicker and perhaps even wager when Montana State and Montana squared off.
“I’m not going in depth about what might’ve been on the line because I don’t want to get those guys in trouble with the NCAA,” Choate cracked on Monday with a chuckle. “But there was a lot of lively banter surrounding the Cat-Griz game.”
Choate is now in his first season as Montana State’s head coach. He will experience the rivalry first hand on Saturday as his Bobcats take on the Grizzlies at Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula for the 116th rendition of one of the most bitter rivalries in all of college athletics.
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“Regardless of the situation, it would mean the world to me and the other seniors to beat those guys and go out as a senior like that,” MSU senior captain running back Chad Newell said following Tuesday’s rainy practice in Bozeman. “To hand Coach Choate that win, the relationship we have, that would be something special.”
The trip into enemy territory might be the first for Choate as a head coach, but he’s been familiar with the rivalry most of his life. The 46-year-old grew up in St. Maries, Idaho about three hours away from Missoula. As a teenager in the 1980s, Boise State and Idaho were among the Big Sky powers, but with St. Maries’ proximity to the Garden City, Choate remembers seeing as many Griz fans as Vandals or Broncos followers.
Montana began its generation-long rise to the elite with its first playoff appearance in 1989, Choate’s first year attending college at Montana Western in Dillon. At Western Choate played for and then later coached under Griz alums and future UM head coaches Mick Dennehy and Mick Delaney. Choate’s wife, Janet, is from Montana and Choate said he has “been very, very aware of the rivalry all of my life.”
Still, nothing can prepare any coach for the intensity of the historic rivalry. Robin Pflugrad, an assistant on Don Read’s staff in the late 1980s, remembers pulling into Bozeman for his first Cat-Griz game and seeing stuffed Grizzly heads dangling from assembled nooses.
Delaney, a stalwart of the Treasure State football scene for most of his life and the coach of the Griz from 2012 until 2014, remembers heated conversations about the rivalry game long before he was a part of it. He remembers Western Bulldogs arguing with each other or their Carroll College counterparts or anyone else that would listen.
Rob Ash, Jeff Choate’s predecessor at Montana State, coached in nine Cat-Griz games and won just two. Ash used to joke that rivalry week meant advice from all over the state whether he wanted it or not. He also realized the magnitude of the rivalry when the rivalry would be the first question and foremost talking point at each of his stops across the Treasure State in his eight off-seasons.
Mike Kramer knew of the rivalry from the moment he moved to Helena to coach high school football in 1977. By 1983, the Big Human was the defensive line coach for the Bobcats and in 1984, MSU won the I-AA national championship. The 12-2 season included a win over the Griz.
Kramer went on to have a successful run as the head coach at Eastern Washington, winning in Missoula in 1997. In 2000, MSU swiped Kramer from EWU. In 2002, Kramer ascended to cult hero status as he led the Bobcats to a win in Missoula, snapping “The Streak”, a 16-year losing streak to Montana State’s hated rival. Kramer would go on to beat UM three times in four years, further affirming his place in the lore of the rivalry.
Even if Choate has plenty of previous knowledge — his path is very similar to Kramer’s — Kramer said Choate has no way to prepare himself or his team for his first Cat-Griz showdown at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
“You have no idea, no idea until you are in it, no idea,” Kramer said on Wednesday. “There’s no way to prepare for it. There’s nothing you have ever done in a sporting event that comes close to it. Nothing. Not Huskies-Cougars. Not USC-UCLA. Not Idaho-Boise State. Nothing. It’s as far from being a normal college game as you can possibly get. The intensity of it is so personal. It might not be bigger than every rivalry in the country but it’s certainly more personal. I wish you could bottle it, save it and sell it because it’s all alone by itself, unique in college athletics.”
Montana second-year head coach Bob Stitt was in similar situation as Choate last fall. The first-year head coach led the Grizzlies on the road to Bobcat Stadium.
“We were very, very focused at their place,” said Stitt, who led UM to a 54-35 win in his first rivalry game. “You are expecting a hostile environment, which it was. I just remember coming out of the tunnel and we had tunnel vision.
“I just don’t ever feel like I was looking around and letting the outside influences get to us. We were very focused.”
Stitt said his feelings around the game have actually heightened and the pressure has grown as he enters his first rivalry game at home on Saturday.
“It feels a lot different because you’ve lived in Montana for two years and the first time you are going through it, you really don’t know what you are getting into and how important it is, all those things,” Stitt said on Wednesday. “You are a little more anxious the more years you live here because you understand this. You have those feelings in your stomach. You can’t wait to get out and get after this thing.”
Over the past 11 years as an FBS assistant, Choate has experienced rivalries like Florida-Georgia, the Apple Cup between Washington State and Washington and Boise State’s varying rivals, most memorably Idaho in Choate’s mind.
“I love big games,” Choate said. “That’s what I live for. I’ve had great fortune to be a part of some really cool rivalries and be a part of some really big games. Those are ones you remember. I feel very blessed to be in this position. I certainly understand the magnitude and importance of this game not just for our program but for our alumni, our university and the state of Montana.
“Coaching in big games is what you live for. It’s why you do it. It makes you better as a coach.”
Practice this week in Bozeman took on a whole different feel than during the Ash era. Instead of focusing on preparation and treating it like any other game, Choate installed a slew of new folds to heighten the emotion for his team.
On Sunday, Montana State’s group of scout team players had to wrap their helmets in tape and inscribe them with sayings, nicknames or proclamations of what they understand about the rivalry. After the project was complete, Choate gave the team a presentation on one of the oldest rivalries in college football.
“We started off by explaining the history behind it,” Choate said. “We have some footage on loops in the weight room and the locker room and in our offices. They are inundated with the importance of this game. It’s a different week and they feel that.”
Each day this week, Choate brought former Bobcats to speak to the team. Former All-American defensive end Brad Daws (1975) spoke to the group about the glory days of the Sonny Holland era when the Bobcats beat the Griz six of Holland’s seven seasons.
Former defensive tackle Ty O’Connor, a hard-nosed rancher from Eastern Montana who played for Cliff Hysell, talked to the team about what it was like to endure the most heartbreaking stretch of “The Streak”.
Evin Groves, a running back from San Diego, told the team about his baptism in the rivalry. He spoke of how quickly he learned the intensity under Kramer upon arriving on campus in 2004. He said to this day in his business dealings as a local entrepreneur, one of the first things people reference is his 143-yard rushing day in a 16-6 win over Montana in 2005.
“It’s much different than in my first three years but in a really good way,” MSU captain running back Gunnar Brekke said with a telling sneer on his face. “Choate is really exciting and he is really had a lot of energy all week. This coaching staff has a lot of energy. We have to feed off that as players.”
Saturday will mark another new chapter in an age-old rivalry. The Bobcats take a 3-7 record into Washington-Grizzly and will play for mostly pride. MSU will also look to snap a three-game losing streak to the Griz; none of Montana State’s players have played in a win over Montana.
The Griz are fighting for their playoff lives. A win would push them to 7-4, squarely on the bubble of the FCS playoffs. A loss will keep them out for just the third time since 1993.
“No matter how you want to emphasize that it’s just the next opponent, it isn’t really just another week. It’s THE week,” Montana State longtime assistant Kane Ioane, a four-year starter for MSU (2000-2003) said on Wednesday. “It’s not just another game. This is as big of a rivalry as it gets.”
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