New season for No. 2 Griz
Griz fans have had plenty to talk about this offseason, from a new head coach to possible conference realignments to the return of Jimmy Wilson. And on and on.
Starting today there will at least be some actual football games to talk about.
The Montana Grizzlies kick off the season at home against Western State College (0-1) at 1:05 p.m. The Griz come in ranked second in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) Top 25 Preseason Poll behind only defending champion Villanova, who dealt the Griz their only loss last season in the title game.
The talk around the tailgates today is sure to be centered around the new name in charge, Robin Pflugrad (pronounced flew-grad). The Portland, Ore., native became only the fifth head football coach at Montana since 1986 when he replaced Bobby Hauck this offseason. In fact, in 1986, Griz legend Don Read took over the program and, on the way to starting a dynasty, he hired Pflugrad as an assistant. After a short stint at UM, Pflugrad bounced around the Pac-10 Conference among other stops, for 13 seasons and cut his teeth as an offense-savy coach before landing back in Missoula last season.
Pflugrad is bringing in a spread offense playbook, but how that will translate with the current players remains to be seen in full. A few certainties return this season - Chase Reynolds is one of the top running backs in the FCS, quarterback Andrew Selle has emerged as a consistent decision-maker and the Griz defense appears loaded with talent.
Both Reynolds and Selle are preseason candidates for the Walter Payton Award, which names the offensive MVP in FCS. Reynolds, a senior who has ran for over 1,500 yards the last two seasons, is ranked third in school history with 3,085 rushing yards and second in career TD rushes with 44. Kalispell's Lex Hilliard holds the TD record with 50 and Yohance Humphrey is the top-all-time yards leader with 4,070.
The defense, under the watch of defensive coordinator Mike Breske, has dominated during fall camps so far and is poised for a strong opener today against the Mountaineers from Gunnison, Colo., for the second straight year. The Griz blanked Western State in the first game last year, 38-0. The UM defense held the Mountaineers to 116 total yards and only six first downs.
Junior cornerback Trumaine Johnson is a Buck Buchanan Award candidate this season. Senior strong safety Erik Stoll and senior defensive tackle Tyler Hobbs are All-American candidates on defense.
Cornerback Jimmy Wilson returns to game action inside Washington-Grizzly Stadium for the first time since late 2006. Wilson was one of the hardest hitting corners in the conference before two years of jail time and a subsequent acquittal in a murder trial sidelined the preseason All-American candidate. From 2004-2006, Wilson started in 26 games and had 140 tackles.
But looming over everything else in Griz Nation is the oncoming conference changes. Schools in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) have already began swapping conferences, like Boise St. leaving the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) for the Mountain West. Montana is currently studying the viability of joining an FBS conference like the WAC within a couple years.
And when the time comes, it sounds like the first FBS invitation is being postmarked to Montana.