The Long Goodbye

For many college football players, including those that matriculate through the University of Montana, there is a common refrain: I blinked, and it was over.

Garrett Graves is not one of those players.

“It feels like not yesterday to me,” the senior safety out of Eureka said, of his first day donning the maroon and silver. He chuckled. “It feels like a long college career. Six years is a long time.”

As part of Bobby Hauck’s second, first recruiting class — Hauck returned to his alma mater for a second stint after a highly successful run from from 2003-09 — Graves came to the school as a quarterback in 2018. 

Now he’s a backup safety and special teams ace on a Griz team seeded No. 2 in the FCS playoffs.

“The recruiting process started actually when Bob Stitt was the coach,” he remembered. “I started talking to the coaches, and I remember them telling me they couldn’t offer me until they saw me compete against tougher competition, because I was at a small school..

“So I came to a camp, and I had a really good camp. Then I got the call where they offered me a half scholarship.”

Then Stitt’s contract wasn’t renewed, and back came Hauck, who quickly reassured Graves he was still on the Grizzlies’ radar.

“Coach Hauck called me and visited my family, and told me he wanted to re-recruit me,” he said. “It was nice. I was pretty much thrilled to be a Griz. It was a pretty smooth process.”

The Grizzlies landed an athlete who’d led Eureka to two straight State B championships. He was a two-time state champion wrestler who had his final passes of both his junior and senior seasons — a Hail Mary to beat Missoula Loyola 31-28 in 2016, and a throw to his best friend Jonathan Schmidt in the third quarter of a 47-7 win over Shelby in 2017 — go for touchdowns.

At UM, though, playing QB seemed much less likely. Playing another position — and playing sooner — was attractive.

“I was excited to play quarterback for sure,” he said. “But I was more excited that the coaches wanted to get me on the field right away, and that wasn’t going to be at quarterback. “Quarterback is a really, really tough position. It takes a lot of years to develop, especially coming in with my skill set.”

Soon Graves was getting reps at running back, then at receiver. Then at safety. 

Somewhere in there was a pandemic, in case anyone has forgotten.

All this time, Graves has been a very good student.

“It’s been really nice for me academically,” he said. “I got to jam in a lot of degrees with that time. It worked out for the best that way.”

Undergrad degrees in management information systems and marketing led to his enrolling in post-graduate courses.

“I’m just about finished up with my masters in business administration,” he said. “I was taking heavy course loads but I got all that done in about five and a half years.”

Along the way there have been seven starts at safety, which is saying something — the Grizzlies have rolled through a lot of good ones and have a deep, talented set of them now. 

Which isn’t to say Graves wouldn’t like to play more; it’s rare that an athlete can’t say that. 

It’s notable that of 24 high school athletes that came to the Griz in 2018, just six remain, and that’s counting injured tight end Cole Grossman (hard-hitting safety Nash Fouch is another).

“Not too many of us lasted out of my senior class,” Graves said. “Tell you what, football is a tough sport to stick with. Anybody who’s still doing it has my respect.”

On Nov. 11, after the Griz had gone up 7-3 on Portland State, their ensuing kickoff was fielded at the 7-yard line by the Vikings’ Marquis Spiker. He didn’t make it far: Graves raced in from the left side and formed him up perfectly at the 14. 

It was a “slobber-knocker,” and just one play among many UM made in a 34-10 win — in fact in the statbook Corbin Walker was credited with the tackle. But the right people noticed. 

On Nov. 20 Graves was named first-team all-Big Sky on special teams, alongside Griz kick returner (and fellow No. 5) Junior Bergen.

“He just found a lot of different places to contribute,” Hauck said this week. “And one of those places is the kicking game. It’s exciting to me that he was named all-conference as a special teams player. Good for him. 

“And I think it just shows you what kind of guy he is. He’ll do whatever it takes to help us win.”

It was a boost for Graves, to be sure.

“This year I was kind of doubting the effect I was having on the game,” he said. “At the end of the year to receive those accolades, the coaches in the league and my own coaches, that means a lot.”

A Saturday night game against Delaware awaits. The Blue Hens have a pair of excellent return men and a bit of history on their side: They won a 1993 playoff game on the Grizzlies’ home field.

Graves wasn’t around then, and is too young to remember the copper-and-silver pre-1996 days. But he is where he always wanted to be. “It was all Griz, all the time,” he said.

Conference champion and all-conference pick; those are memorable descriptives.

”In my own head I felt like I’d had less of an impact on a game than in previous years,” Graves said. “At the end of the day, it’s about winning games and being able to contribute.”