[Sly Fox]

University of Montana
Missoula, Montana


Montana Football Official Site

MontanaGrizzlies.com Unofficial Site run by Newspaper

eGriz Message Board


Founded in 1893
Public Research University
Enrollment: 15,642
Athletic Affiliation: Big Sky Conference
Nickname: Grizzlies
I-AA National Championships: 1995 & 2001




Bob Stitt
1st Season as Grizzlies Head Coach


2015 Schedule/Results

• 08/29 - North Dakota State ...................... W 38-35
  09/05 - Cal Poly ...................................... L 19-20
  09/19 - @ Liberty .................................... 5:00 PM MT
  09/26 - Northern Arizona*
  10/03 - @ UC Davis*
  10/10 - Weber State*
  10/24 - North Dakota*
  10/31 - @ Portland State*
  11/07 - @ Idaho State*
  11/14 - Eastern Washington*
  11/21 - @ Montana State*

Key Players

• 
  # Brady Gustafson
  6' 7" 230 lbs Junior Quarterback
  Thru 2 Games: 70-of-119 (58.8%) for 787 Yards with 4 TDs & 4 INTs + 14 carries for 33 Yards & 1 TD
  
  
  
  #20 John Nguyen
  5' 7" 180 lbs Junior Running Back
  Thru 2 Games: 33 Carries for 156 Yards (4.7 Avg) + 12 Catches for 70 Yards
  
  
  
  #6 Jamaal Jones
  6' 1" 192 lbs Senior Receiver (Washington Transfer)
  Thru 2 Games: 17 Catches for 205 Yards with 1 TD
  
  
  
  #35 Kendrick Van Ackeren
  6' 1" 215 lbs Senior Linebacker
  Thru 2 Games: Team-Leading 30 Tackles + 2 Fumble Recoveries + 1 Blocked Kick
  
  
  
  #45 Jeremiah Kose
  6' 2" 225 lbs Senior Linebacker
  Thru 2 Games: 23 Tackles
  
  
  
  #91 Tyrone Holmes
  6' 4" 250 lbs Senior Defensive End
  Thru 2 Games: 18 Tackles Including 2 For Loss + 2 Sacks + 1 Forced Fumble

[R i]

Our 4th Down Defense better be ready.

[ballcoach15]

We need to make life miserable for the QB when he drops to pass.

[jyoung]

That is a big quarterback...

[Rooster Cogburn]

A terrific breakdown from a UM Poster on Egriz...

After a week off the Griz are headed east as part of a home and home agreement with the Liberty Flames. The last time we played Liberty it was 3 years ago in Missoula. That was a rather tumultuous 2012 season for Montana but they were able to put Liberty away with ease winning 34-14.

Last year’s Liberty team was a playoff team and they had a heck of a run. Their season was highlighted with some big wins and some losses that were incredibly close. Liberty lost in 2OT to Richmond and beat App State in App’s house. In their last game of the regular season Liberty blocked a fieldgoal to seal a 15-14 win against then #2 team in the nation Coastal Carolina. Once in the playoffs they beat JMU and then lost to Villanova.

This is the first road game for the Griz and it’s going to be quite the test. Liberty is 14th in the nation and coming off a moderately good showing against West Virginia. The other interesting thing to see will be the execution and performance of the Grizzlies. In their 3 years under Mick Delaney we saw the break between the “home Griz” and the “road Griz”. The “road Griz” consistently did not execute as well with a combined 10-9 road record on that stretch. This is a new coaching staff, but mostly the same players. This game will be a big test to see how much improvement this coaching staff has installed for the Griz when they’re on the road.

Liberty Flames: 1-1

32-13 win over Delaware State: Liberty fairly successfully shut down DSU’s run game – just 42 yards for a 1.7 YPC average. The Flames grabbed two picks on defense as well and limited DSU’s TOP to just 23:00. The Flames offense relied quite a bit on their ground game, 230 rushing yards, which allowed them to control the pace of the game. DSU would go on the next week to get drilled by Kent State.

17-41 loss vs West Virginia: Liberty had some early chances but their first half was marred with errors. They had just 4 possessions in the 1st half, one ended in a turnover on downs, the next 3 ended with missed fieldgoals. Meanwhile WVU scored 20 points in their first 4 possessions (2 FGs, 2 TDs). Liberty didn’t give up but couldn’t close the gap – they tacked on all 17 of their points in the 2nd half and WVU added another 21. Liberty ran for just 92 yards but did pass for 280. WVU ran for 172 and passed for 313 in the game – their passing efficiency was insanely good, 27-32 passing.



--------------------
General Stats

Looking at yardage per game, here’s who holds the advantage:

Passing yards Montana (394 ypg vs 234 ypg)
Rushing yards Liberty (160 ypg vs 108 ypg)
Total Offense Montana (502 ypg vs 394 ypg)
Pass defense Montana (127 ypg allowed vs 270 ypg allowed)
Rush defense Liberty (107 ypg allowed vs 280 ypg allowed)
Total defense Liberty (377 ypg allowed vs 406 ypg allowed)

Advantage Liberty 4 categories to 3

Other Stats worthy of mention:

Offense Points Scored Montana (28.5 ppg vs 24.5 ppg)
Defense points Allowed Liberty (27 ppg vs 27.5 ppg – almost a push)
Turnover margin Liberty (+3 for Liberty vs -4 for Montana)
Fieldgoal % Montana (80% made vs 33% made)
Punt returns Push (Liberty has just 2 returns for a net of 1 yard, Montana has 0 returns)
Kick returns Liberty (19.6 ypr vs 18.6 ypr)
T.O.P. Liberty (33:38 for Liberty vs 24:33 for Montana)
Red Zone Defense (touchdowns) Liberty (67% of the time allowed TDs vs 80% for the Griz)
Red Zone Offense (touchdowns) Liberty (60% of the time scored TDs vs 44% for the Griz)

Advantage Liberty 6 to 2 with 1 push

Some final numbers:

Sitt’s offense on the road last year averaged 42 points per game while Liberty’s defense at home last year averaged 27 points per game allowed.

Gregorak’s defense on the road last year was allowing 26 points per game while Liberty averaged 40 points per game at home last year.
---------------
Players to watch:

#6 Josh Woodrum, QB – Josh actually started for Liberty in 2012 when they played here! He threw for 322 yards that day. This year the veteran QB averages 235 pass yards per game and has 3 TDs to just 1 INT. He’s completing passes at a 62.5% rate. Woodrum has some NFL buzz, he’s listed as the 21st best QB prospect in the 2016 draft.

#26 Desmond Rice, RB – Liberty uses 3 running backs but Rice has had the bulk of the carries so far. 31 rush attempts on the season for 176 yards (an 88 ypg average) and 2 TDs. He’s also 3rd on the team in receptions, he’s got just 16 receiving yards though on 5 catches. Rice is a bit of a smaller back, listed at 5-8 and 195 pounds.

#13 Darrin Peterson, WR – Peterson is a taller WR at 6-2, he leads the team in receptions, yards, and TDs. He’s got 12 catches, 147 yards, and 2 TDs this season. He’s their #1 guy so far.

#2 DJ Abnar, RB – The 2nd back in the offense, Abnar is a little taller than Rice at 5-10. He’s got 96 rushing yards this season, no TDs yet, and just 4 receiving yards. He’s also the primary kick returner for Liberty.

#1 Zac Parker, WR – Parker has 101 yards and 1 receiving TD this year. He’s a 5-8 wide receiver and 2nd on the team in receptions and yards. He’s also the punt returner – but no stats to report there, just 3 total yards on 2 returns.

#52 Chima Uzowihe, DE – The 6-2, 250 pound D-end has had a major start to the season. He’s 4th on the team in tackles with 10 and has 3.5 sacks already and has forced 1 fumble.

#9 Nick Newman, LB – A tall LB at 6-4, Newman leads the team with 13 tackles, he’s also got 1 sack and 1 forced fumble.

#11 Avery James, S – Tied with Newman for 1st in tackles with 13 stops as well. Newman has a sack and 2 TFLS so far.

#28 Corbin Jackson, S – 12 tackles and 3 TFLS so far for the other starting safety on the team.

#63 Jonathan Burgess, LG – One of two 1st team all-conference lineman for Liberty. Burgess has a bit of NFL chatter about him. He’s 6-2 and 305 poinds.

#72 Max Sommer, LT – A very big LT at that, 6-6 and 300 pounds. Also on the 1st team all-conference and one of the better LT’s in the nation.

---------------
Keys to a Grizzly victory

1. A positive point differential on 4th down conversions. Yep this is a real thing for us. Against NDSU Montana was +10 scoring on drives where they opted to go for it on 4th. The next week against Cal Poly they flipped the table and were -10. Considering the score differential, 2 points against NDSU and -1 points against Poly, this ratio seems to be a VERY important one. Montana MUST have a positive differential this week for a win.

2. Limit turnovers. -3 against Cal Poly can also be attributed to the loss. The Griz cannot fall into a deep hole with a lot of turnovers against Liberty, it will be a major challenge to overcome that, especially on the road against a team that historically is pretty good at home. Brady cannot sail passes like he did last week. That will require two things, better timing and understanding from him and his WRs on routes – and better pass protection from the O-line. And with that said…

3. Protect the QB. In the first two games Gus took some major hits. As pointed out to me by another egrizzer on at least one of his plays where he sailed a ball he was forced to leave his shoulders open and not follow through on the pass – reason being? One of our interior lineman whiffed on a DT and Brady had a 275 pound D-lineman barreling into his chest. The O-line has been serviceable but now needs to take that next step forward.

4. Run for 125+ yards. I think being able to salvage some sort of running game is a key factor here. Against NDSU the Griz were able to get their ground game moving and did just enough on the ground to keep the Bison guessing. Against Poly that rushing game all but vanished at times and it took all the guess work out of the game late as to if we’re running or passing.

5. Improve in the redzone. 44% efficiency scoring TDs in the redzone is bad – and that’s a good way to lose close games. This comes in two-fold with being able to run the ball better and being able to protect Brady so he has time to hit his targets.

6. Plan to stuff the run. With Kidder and Peevey’s status unknown as of now and after Cal Poly hung almost 350 rushing yards on the Griz you’ve got to know that Liberty is going to use their 3 backs to pound the ball. They like to win games by grinding it out and they can do it with a very talented O-line. Our corners and safeties are probably going to be on an island as the defense will need to do much better against the run than they did 2 weeks ago.

7. Clean up the execution errors. The Poly game had quite a few all across the field. A missed shorter fieldgoal, countless dropped passes, missed blocks, some very costly penalties, a missed assignment on an option run, and of course 4 lost turnovers. Can’t repeat that poor of a showing.

8. Improve TOP. The Grizzlies two games so far the TOP has tipped heavily to the opponents. I don’t think the Griz need to “win” the TOP battle – but if they can have a few more sustained drives and get their TOP up over 27:00 or 28:00 that will help our defense not get so worn down.

9. Field the punts or just go all-out block. Nguyen has had some luck (the last NDSU punt rolling into the endzone) and some bad luck (two Poly punts rolling for a long ways). Either he (or someone else like Ellis) should field almost every punt and try for a return or the Griz should just put the extra man to line up to block the punt.

10. A quicker/shorter passing game. I assume Liberty is going to see how NDSU’s cover-2 didn’t work the best and Poly’s cover-3 and cover-4 defense worked much better. The shorter passing game could be there, but that will require better timing, better blocks (and no holding calls), and far fewer dropped passes.


-----------------

Is this a “must win” game?

No, no it isn’t.

This is a game that will prove if this is a top 10 Griz team or a Griz team that is still finding its way. As our last non-conference game we’ve seen a big win against the #1 team in the nation, and then a close loss where just about everything that could go wrong did and yet the Griz lost by just 1 point on a last second fieldgoal. All three of our non-conference opponents are playoff contenders, if the Griz can come out of this stretch 2-1 then you’ve got to be feeling great about our position as conference play starts. On the other hand if we’re 1-2 after this weekend, it isn’t the end of the world (although I bet some of this board will beg to differ).

Liberty is going to be a real test, this team is no slouch and headlined by some veteran players. I think this could be a close one. I’ll bet Liberty finds some traction running while Montana has success passing. It could lead to another game just like the last two that comes right down to the wire. I’m going to lean to the hopeful side, Montana has had 2 weeks to rest up, hopefully get healthy, and learn from their first two games. I’ll say the Griz eek out a win 35-31.

GO GRIZ!

This thread is getting interesting too... http://www.egriz.com/grizboard/viewtopi ... 0#p1085390

[flamesfilmguy]

there has to be someone willing to do a Look alike thread... this one is just too good to pass up

[Sly Fox]

I nominate you to get it started!

[olldflame]

So, it looks like the only video feed will be espn3, which means I will be going with York and livestats again.

[Sly Fox]

This is an ESPN3 production so it is supposed to be unlocked. But I understand if that is not enough in the Caribbean.

[BJWilliams]

This game could turn out one of two ways I think: either both teams score at will and this one ends up with a score like the CCU game in 2013, or the defenses step up and we have a game similar to the Cal Poly game the Griz had two weeks ago. either way, we cannot have a sequence like we did in the first half against WVU if we are going to win on Saturday

[WyomingGrizFan]

Hello Liberty Flames fan, nice to meet you. Glad to hear you're excited about the upcoming game this weekend, should be a good one. I wouldn't exactly call your program an 'outlier,' at least to the FCS. So far, your athletic department has earned the respect accorded, at least in our minds, if not in all of the FCS. Looks like you have a mighty fine stadium with a supporting fan base that is gracious in victory as well as in defeat. The Griz look forward to playing in front of record breaking crowds when it comes to attendance records.

Wish you luck and best wishes:

[youtube]

[/youtube]

[ballcoach15]

LU needs to come out and score early and often. Put game away in first half.

[SoD BAS]

LU needs to come out and score early and often. Put game away in first half.

I don't really see any way that this game can be put away in the first half. Either side.

[B-Witt]

LU needs to come out and score early and often. Put game away in first half.

I don't really see any way that this game can be put away in the first half. Either side.

I agree. Montana is going to be a tough opponent. They were able to get by a the 4 time defending champs and then fought hard against Cal Poly the other week. Our guys do need to score early and often though and keep the momentum on our side as much as possible...this will also help keep the crowd in the game, which we know how loud the Bill can be!!

GO FLAMES!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Chippy]

They throw 60 times per game and run 90 plays per game and have a big OL. We better be in good condition and pressure the QB while covering the WRs. I can see why MU is the favorite in this game. I still like our chances at home

[ballcoach15]

Defense needs to pin ears back, and go after QB, along with a blitzing linebacker.

[alabama24]

Hello Liberty Flames fan, nice to meet you.

Welcome!

[WyomingGrizFan]

Hello Liberty Flames fan, nice to meet you.

Welcome!

Thank you. For your reading pleasure and for insight into the Griz game prospectus and depth chart for the forthcoming game this weekend:

http://sidearm.sites.s3.amazonaws.com/g ... df?id=2363

Enjoy.

[gerb]

LU Montana hype video

[youtube]

[/youtube]

[Wvflame2013]

The new LU Anthem - This is Liberty!

[youtube]

[/youtube]

[PAmedic]

LU Montana hype video

[youtube]

[/youtube]

freakin-a that's awesome

love me some Hendrix

bettin BALLCOACH is a voodoo child at heart

[Liberty22]

Some App State fans making the drive up today........ to root against us

http://www.yosefscabin.com/forum/viewto ... 169bb7352d

[olldflame]

Some App State fans making the drive up today........ to root against us

http://www.yosefscabin.com/forum/viewto ... 169bb7352d

While several said they wished they could go and voiced support for Montana, the only poster on that thread who actually said he will be in attendance indicated he will be pulling for Liberty while wearing his App State gear.

[rhezick]

So what's the best place to park if my son and I are getting there by 645? I assume green hall lot? Haven't been alot and figured this would be a game I would want to miss.

[Chippy]

So what's the best place to park if my son and I are getting there by 645? I assume green hall lot? Haven't been alot and figured this would be a game I would want to miss.

More than likely at the church/Green Hall at that point or even the mall across from the church.