Big Sky notes: A surplus of yards, on both sides

The Montana Grizzlies gained 701 yards Saturday, in their first win on the red turf of Roos Field, for the second-biggest offensive output in the football program’s history. 

Remaining in first is the 717 yards piled up against Weber State on Sept. 25, 1999. 

That came in an 81-22 win. Saturday’s outcome, a 52-49 victory, was a bit closer. 

“It was a wild game,” UM coach Bobby Hauck said Monday. “Haven't had one like that in a while. In fact, I can’t remember the last one.” 

The one that comes to mind is a 61-48 playoff victory in 2009 against South Dakota State — a game the Jackrabbits led 48-21 in the third quarter. That was the most points Montana had given up in a win, until Saturday. 

UM sports information guy Eric Taber noted this week that 21 times Montana has gained more than 600 yards in a game, and 12 have come with former Griz QB Brent Pease on the offensive staff. The last five have come with him as Hauck’s offensive coordinator.  

For the record, Pease was Northern Arizona’s OC in 1999; Bob Cole was Montana’s OC that year. 

On the other side of the line, Eastern piled up 551 yards. 

“There were a lot of things,” Hauck said. “A lot of guys out of position. You’ve got to play your assignment, you have to do one-eleventh and when you don’t it can look bad.”

Hauck bemoaned “dirty eyes” in man-to-man pass coverage, and not staying home in zone. 

“Their quarterback running the ball hurt us — we knew that going in. That wasn’t a big surprise,” Hauck added. “I thought our second contain on the scramble wasn’t good enough.” 

Wildcats Heading In 

Next comes Weber State, which had a few costly errors in a 28-26 home loss to McNeese State and quarterback Clifton McDowell.

The Wildcats got a 1-yard TD run from Damon Blankston with 8:15 left, but thanks to a botched PAT earlier in the game, that left the score 28-26, McNeese.

They then ran a “Philly Special” PAT play, but instead of throwing the ball to quarterback  Richie Munoz, receiver Damon Sharp kept the ball and cut upfield only to get stuffed.

“He’s thrown it every time we’ve repped it in practice, I’ve just got to do a better job of coaching,” Weber coach Mickey Mental told the Ogden Standard-Examiner. “It’s always on myself as a coach to coach it better so he doesn’t make that mistake. I’ve got to do a better job.”

Weber got the ball again, but what looked like a certain TD on a third-down pass was instead dropped with 1:30 left. Then a fourth-down targeting call on McNeese was reversed.

McDowell ran for 109 yards and threw for 203. He wasn’t sacked or tackled for a loss.

“He’s a big kid, tough to wrap up,” Mental said. “He didn’t lead them down to Frisco for no reason, for Montana. Just got to get more hats on him, bring him down earlier.” 

Back to Weber: Bankston is third in the Big Sky in rushing with 517 rushing yards, and the Wildcats average 202 rushing yards a game. Munoz’s 957 passing yards also ranks third in the Big Sky.

“We won’t read much into their loss last week because I firmly believe they were looking ahead,” Hauck said Monday. “I think they’re far better than they played last week, so we won’t get fooled by that.” 

Don’t mess with the Rohan 

Former Maine Black Bear turned Bobcat Rohan Jones had the key play in Montana State’s 37-17 win at Idaho State Saturday: A 70-yard catch and run of a Tommy Mellott pass that spurred the Cats away from a 17-10 lead.

The host Bengals blew a coverage; the safety was supposed to stay deep but everyone sold out against the run.

“That was the call and it was pretty standard,” Bengals coach Cody Hawkins told the Idaho State Journal. “But you know guys get excited, guys get in the moment and we just blew coverage.

“I was really bummed that we couldn’t catch fire right there at the end. You kind of felt things were starting to go our way. I thought we had an opportunity a few times, but we just couldn’t get it over the hump.”

Scottre Humphrey, who moved past Montana’s Eli Gillman (565) to lead the Big Sky with 587 rushing yards, had 27 carries for 159 against ISU. That included his third TD, an 8-yard run with no time left on the clock that didn’t sit well with the Bengals.

“It was bush league,” one told the ISJ.

“I don’t like the fact that that’s the way it looked or appeared,” MSU coach Brent Vigen said Monday. “Hindsight being what it is, we should have just kneeled on it.” 

Bearing Down 

Montana State’s next opponent is Northern Colorado, which dropped its 17th straight game 28-7 at Cal Poly Saturday. The host Mustangs piled up 290 rushing yards against the Bears; in their first three games they ran for 84 yards total.

Now the Bears visit Bozeman, ranked No. 3 in the Football Championship Subdivision, though Vigen is quick to note that they’ve had their moments – mainly, a 24-22 loss to No. 17 Abilene Christian on Sept. 14, in which ACU kicked a 54-yard field goal as time ran out.

“They were competitive with Colorado State and (No. 15) Incarnate Word,” Vigen added of the Bears, who lost those games 38-17 and 28-7. “They’ve had some challenges. They’ve played five quarterbacks this season.”

Jonah Chong and Hank Gibbs combined to throw 13 passes in the Abilene Christian game, though Gibbs ran 12 times for 57 yards; on Saturday Kia’i Keone started and threw for 115 yards and ran for 55 on 12 carries. 

Game of the Week 

UC Davis’s 28-26 win over then-No. 4 Idaho marked the Aggies’ first over a Top-5 ranked opponent since they moved up to the FCS in 2004. 

It took three Miles Hastings touchdown passes, and two touchdowns and 138 all-purpose yards from running back Lan Larison. And some Idaho miscues.

They included, in no particular order: A reverse pass from the Davis 21-yard line that was picked off late in the first half; a fourth-and-4 interception near midfield in which Idaho quarterback Wagner was injured; a turnover on downs inside the Aggies 5-yard line.

Redshirt freshman Nick Josifek came in at QB for Idaho and threw a 19-yard scoring pass with 44 seconds left. But his pressured two-point PAT sailed over the intended receiver, leaving the Aggies up two.

Larison — that guy again — recovered the ensuing onside kick for Davis.

Josifek was 9 of 19 passing for 96 yards.

“He was a warrior,” Idaho coach Jason Eck told the Coeur d’Alene Press. “He gave us a chance.” 

Player of Week 

Griz quarterback Logan Fife was named the Big Sky Conference offensive player of the week Monday, after throwing for 364 yards and five touchdowns in his first start for UM.

He was 30 of 42 passing, with no interceptions. It’s the most passing yards for a Griz QB since Dalton Sneed threw for 459 against Southeastern Louisiana in the 2019 FCS Playoffs.  

QUICK KICKS: Northern Arizona’s 34-16 win over then-No. 10 (and still No. 20) Sacramento State Saturday was its third straight at home over a ranked opponent. Two came last year. ... The Lumberjacks had both the special teams (kicker Marcus Lyle, no returns, two field goals, 10 points) and defensive (DB Alex McLaughline, 9 tackles, 2 sacks, forced fumble for a TD) players of the week for the Big Sky. ... UM nominated LB Ryan Tirrell on defense, and MSU nominated Humphrey on offense. ... Weber State’s last visit to Missoula was in 2022, and the No. 4 Griz beat the No. 3 Wildcats 35-16. Then Weber State hosted UM in the playoffs, a 17-10 Wildcats win.