Griz are in midst of a youth movement

Heading into the final two weeks of the season, Montana coach Bobby Hauck feels his ninth-ranked Griz are really two teams in one - a veteran offense at or near the top of its game and an inexperienced defense constantly evolving.

"On offense we're refining," Hauck aid Tuesday. "On defense we're playing so many young players that we need to continue to improve."

From the first game until now, the Griz have been using a lot of players on defense - sometimes because of injury, but mostly because the aggressive scheme requires an exhaustive effort and that leads to frequent substitutions.

The result is Montana delves into its depth chart at nearly every position, and that means a lot of young players are seeing significant playing time.

"We're a young football team on the defensive side of the ball," Hauck said. "We're playing a lot of freshmen and sophomores - 17 on defense."

The results haven't always been pretty (the Griz are last in the Big Sky in total defense) but they have been effective (UM is 7-2 on the season and is fourth in the league in scoring defense).

So while the defense is taking its lumps statistically, this young group of players is gaining invaluable experience while the team continues to win.

"There's no substitute for it," Hauck said. "It's everything."

COACHING CAROUSEL: Former Montana coach Mick Dennehy got the boot from Utah State on Monday, making him at least the third Division I-A head coach to be fired or resign in midseason. Washington (Keith Gilbertson) and Florida (Ron Zook) are the others.

In all three cases, the coaches will finish out the season.

"It's wrong," said Hauck, a good friend of Dennehy and a former assistant with Gilbertson under Rick Neuheisel at Washington.

"It really isn't fair to them or the players" to fire a coach in the middle of the season, he said.

"I know a lot of good friends that go through (coaching changes) every year."

BOUNCE BACK WIN: After a bad loss to Portland State the week before, Montana rebounded with a convincing 34-22 win over Northern Arizona on Saturday, a game that was more lopsided than the final score would indicate.

Montana led 34-0 in the third quarter and 34-3 going into the fourth.

"It was a great win," Hauck said. "It was nice to get out and thump somebody. Our team is coming together."

Perhaps the biggest key was the aggressive game plan of the Griz. Montana converted a fourth-and-one from its own 29 on the first drive of the game, setting the tone for the rest of the afternoon.

The Griz tried and failed a fake punt and converted a fake field goal for a touchdown.