Offseason doldrums

And, so, Signing Day has come and gone.

Now it's another month until spring drills begin and another two months until the Montana Grizzlies spring scrimmage. That'll be on April 12 in Polson.

Signing Day proved mighty big for the Griz. They signed 33 kids, including a Flathead High School Brave. It was a huge class.

Twenty-one of the recruits are from out of state. Twelve are from Montana. … Let's hope we don't have any negative culture shocks from those out-of-state kids.

Of the 12 from Montana, four are from small schools. One of those is from a Class C eight-man team. He actually lives in North Dakota, but travels across the border to attend school in Fairview. One of the Class B kids lives 50 miles from his Choteau High School and works on a ranch in real grizzly bear country.

Flathead Valley's Griz Nation learned all about the recruits first hand from coach Bobby Hauck Thursday night here in Kalispell - just a day after the big day. The coach gave an hour-long presentation, complete with video clips, of the new recruits.

Of course, there was a ton of speculation at the event on whether or not Bobby was going to be around after Monday. Unfortunately, the event coordinators didn't open the event up to a question-and-answer period like in years past. Many believe Hauck could still be headed to UCLA to join former colleague Rick Neuheisel. With that on the minds of many, though, they still silently applauded Hauck for at least sticking it out through Signing Day.

On top of sticking it out, Hauck traveled up to Kalispell to tell us 33 entertainingly different stories.

Sounds like one of the luckiest signings for the Griz (and hopefully not one of the unlucky ones given the potential problems that recruits from the Los Angeles-area have given Missoula recently) was 6-foot-3 receiver Trumaine Johnson. While awaiting offers from Arizona State and California, Johnson didn't select Montana until midnight - the night before Signing Day - thanks to Tim Hauck being on the phone with him at the time.

The story of Tucson, Ariz., running back Dan Moore is kind of crazy. The 215-pound all-stater rushed for 1,941 yards (at 9.5 yards per carry) and 21 touchdowns. He had 2,525 all-purpose yards. Moore was accompanied by his parents during his official visit to UM. They loved Missoula so much that, upon returning home to Tucson, they sold their house and are in the process of moving to Missoula and enrolling their daughter at UM.

The most inspiring story had to come from 6-5, 300-pound Kyle Kmet of Bonita, Calif. The offensive lineman travels a long distance to school everyday, practices and then comes home to work the nightshift in his father's warehouse. He gets three hours of sleep per night. Talk about work ethic. Hauck said Kmet couldn't wait to come to Montana earlier so he wouldn't have to work in the warehouse anymore.

A 6-2, 185-pound quarterback from San Diego looked amazing on film while scrambling out of ever-collapsing pockets. Hawaii quarterback Cody Von Appen looked the same way, but the Griz are going to move him to defensive back. Von Appen's father lives in Missoula and was an assistant for the Griz in 2003-4, after he was a defensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers during the Dennis Erickson days.

Two kids from Washington looked like definite blue chippers.

Spokane's Alex Shaw nearly missed out on becoming a Grizzly because he could not make a decision. A week prior to Signing Day, Hauck didn't think Shaw was going to pick UM so he gave his slot to another player. Shaw then picked UM, but it was too late. Coincidentally, that other player backed out, which let Shaw back in the door. The Griz plan to use the 6-2, 200 pounder as a linebacker. But he was an amazing tailback for Lewis & Clark High School. He rushed 793 yards on 151 carries in the state 4A playoffs. He was the Washington 4A co-player of the year and was named the state championship player of the game. He carries a 3.6 GPA and won the state shot put and was a member of the state champion 1,600-meter relay team as a junior.

Seattle's Donny Lisowski is a first-team all-league quarterback and safety who wowed the crowd during the video session. The Griz will play him at safety.

The biggest offensive lineman recruit was almost too big. A 6-9, 365 pounder from Ashland, Ore., had to lose 45 pounds after his junior year before the Griz would recruit him. Matt Lipski got down to 325 and Hauck stuck to his word.

I only talked to eight of the recruits. There were so many this year that folks started getting a little restless during the presentation. Still, it was worth going.

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Carl Hennell is a sports reporter for the Daily Inter Lake. He can be reached at chennell@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4446.