Griz return to the road to face Jacks in Flagstaff

WHERE TO WATCH | UM NOTES | NAU NOTES | LIVE STATS

At July's Big Sky football kickoff meetings in Park City, Utah, the league announced Northern Arizona had been selected by the conference coaches and media as the favorite to top the table this season.

Since that day, many fans have had this weekend's Montana Grizzlies matchup circled on their calendars as one of the biggest games of the year.

THE GAME: After three straight home victories and a pair of record-setting performances, No. 10 Montana (5-1, 2-1 BSC) returns to the road this week to square off against the preseason favorite NAU Lumberjacks (3-4, 2-2 BSC) at the J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome (11,230) in Flagstaff, Arizona.

NAU hosts the Griz coming off two important Big Sky wins that improved the Jacks to 2-2 in the league after a tough 1-4 start to the season. The Jacks defeated Montana State 20-14 in Bozeman two weeks ago and dismantled Idaho State 52-7 last week in Flagstaff to move into a tie for sixth place in the league.

Montana now sits in fourth place on the Big Sky table as winners of three-straight. A win at NAU would put the Grizzlies at 6-1 on the year heading into another difficult week of league play at No. 3 Eastern Washington.

Kickoff from Flagstaff is set for 5:00 p.m. MT (4:00 p.m. PT).

WATCH: Fans around the country have plenty of options available to watch this week's Griz showdown at NAU. In Montana, Cowles Montana Media will provide the statewide broadcast of the UM/NAU game. In most Montana markets the game will be shown live on your local ABC Montana station, while in the Billings/Miles City market, the game will be shown on SWX.

Elsewhere around the country, the game will be shown live on FOX Sports Arizona (DISH 415, DTV 686) and FOX Sports San Diego (DISH: 408, DTV: 694). FOX Sports Arizona will replay the game on Saturday, October 22 at 2:30 a.m. (PT) and Tuesday, October 25 at 11:30 a.m. (PT).

Fans around the world can watch the game live and free of charge via web stream at WatchBigSky.com.

Long-time NAU play-by-play man Mitch Strohman will lead the broadcast alongside color commentator Kevin Stephens and Reggie Eccleston on the sidelines.

LISTEN: "Voice of the Griz" Riley Corcoran will have the radio call of Saturday's game, supported by long-time color commentator Greg Sundberg in the booth, and Adam Painter on the sidelines. Fans can tune-in statewide to hear the call on the Montana Grizzly Sports Network and its flagship station KGVO in Missoula, or visit GoGriz.com to listen to the audio-only web stream.

GSA TAILGATE: The Grizzly Scholarship Association will hold an official tailgate party in Flagstaff for Griz fans making the trip to NAU. The tailgate party is located in Parking Lot C south of the Walkup Skydome and opens to the public at 2:00 p.m.

WEEKLY POLLS: Despite another 60-plus point victory and two teams ahead of the Griz in the rankings losing, Montana held firm at No. 10 in this week's STATS FCS media poll and the FCS coaches' poll.

In the media poll, the Griz were just 21 votes shy of moving up to No. 9 with 2,610 votes. Charleston Southern (3-2) sits ahead of the Grizzlies in the poll with 2,630 votes.

In the FCS coaches' poll, the Griz were once again just shy of moving up, collecting 428 points to remain at No. 10. Charleston Southern again sits ahead of UM at No. 9, collecting 431 points.

The Grizzlies are the second of four ranked teams from the Big Sky this week, with EWU at No. 3, Cal Poly at No. 17/18 and North Dakota at No. 19/16.

SERIES HISTORY: Montana leads the all-time series with Northern Arizona 35-13 dating back to the first competition between the two schools in 1966. Since the Jacks joined the Big Sky conference in 1970, Montana leads the series 33-11. Since 1988, UM is 24-3.

The Grizzlies are 16-8 all-time in Flagstaff (19-5 in Missoula) and 14-5 in the Walkup Skydome. In 1977, Montana played NAU in the first sporting event ever in the Skydome. NAU would beat UM in that game 25-24 on a last-second field goal.

UM last faced NAU in 2015 on homecoming in Missoula, when Montana rode a dominant defensive effort and a balanced offense to a 23-14 victory, highlighted by four sacks from Tyrone Holmes.

Montana outgained Northern Arizona 355 yards to 19 in the first half behind backup QB Chad Chalich, built a 16-0 halftime lead. NAU then pulled within two at 16-14 on a pair of scoring passes less than a minute apart midway through the third quarter.

With the game on the line in the fourth, the Grizzlies put together an 11-play scoring drive that sealed the win for Montana, with Chalich hitting Chase Naccarato on a three-yard touchdown pass.

Montana last visited Flagstaff in 2013 when NAU's Zach Bauman rushed for 118 yards and two touchdowns and the Lumberjacks returned two fumbles for scores to defeat the Griz 34-16. It was the second of two-straight wins for the Jacks over UM in 2012 and '13, a pair of wins that ended a 14-game win streak for the Griz, dating back to 1998.

FIRST AND 10 WITH THE GRIZ: Brady Gustafson has now thrown for 3,825 yards in his career, surpassing Brent Pease at No. 12 on UM's all-time passing list. He is now 307 yards shy of passing Andrew Selle (Gustafson's position coach) at No. 11 on the all-time list at 4,131 yards.

With 165 completions on 243 attempts half way through the 2016 season, Gustafson is also on track to break the school record in pass attempts (475 by Brad Lebo in 1991) and pass completions (309 by Craig Ochs in '04 and Dave Dickenson in '95) in a single season.

He has also thrown for 30 career touchdowns so far, good enough to put him at No. 13 on the all-time career passing touchdown list.

With 1,757 career rushing yards, John Nguyen has moved up the all-time rusher list at Montana to No. 11, just 28 yards shy of moving ahead of his position coach, Justin Green. Nguyen is also just 228 yards shy of passing his brother Peter Nguyen on the all-time rushing list at No. 7.

After setting career highs in total tackles (10) and TFLs (4.5) against Sac. St., linebacker Josh Buss was named the ROOT SPORTS Big Sky Conference Defensive Player of the week on Monday. The sophomore from Boise was also awarded an honorable mention for the STATS FCS National Defensive Player of the Week.

In the last two games, the Montana defense has come up with two interception returns for touchdowns, one from linebacker Connor Strahm against MVSU and one from safety Justin Strong against Sac. State. Both interception returns were for exactly 78 yards each.

Speaking of Déjà vu: Gustafson has passed for four touchdowns and nearly similar yardage in each of the last two games. Against MVSU he threw for 251 yards, a pair of touchdowns to Keenan Curran, one to James Homan and one to Colin Bingham. Against Sac. State he threw for 246 yards and touchdowns to Curran, Jeremy Calhoun, Bingham and Josh Horner before being relieved by Chad Chalich.

At the end of the first half against Sac. State on Saturday, Caleb Kidder blocked a Hornet field goal attempt to keep the visitors scoreless heading into the break. The last Grizzly to block a field goal? Caleb Kidder in 2015 at Portland State.

In addition to blocking a field goal, Kidder posted a career-high 2.5 sacks against the Hornets. He now leads the Grizzlies in sacks at the midway point in the season with 4.5 total QB takedowns, resulting in a loss of 34 yards for opponents.

As he did last year, Kidder has posted a statistic in nearly every defensive category with a blocked kick, recovered fumble, five QB hurries, a pass deflection and a pass breakup. He's also the team's second-leader in tackles-for-loss with eight on a Montana defense that is ranked second in the nation in TFLs.

Against the Hornets, all 11 of Montana's active receivers caught a pass, with Colin Bingham leading the way on a career-high day with five catches for 77 yards and a touchdown. The only receivers to not catch a ball were UM's six redshirt receivers and the injured Jerry Louie-McGee.

Three of UM's four active running backs also caught a pass on Saturday. Running back Treshawn Favors was the only active Grizzly eligible to catch a pass who missed out, leaving the game early with a slight injury. All-told, 14 Grizzlies caught a pass against SSU.

FOUR DOWNS WITH NAU: NAU quarterback and last year's FCS National Freshman of the Year Case Cookus' status remains in question this week after suffering an injury against Eastern Washington on Sept. 24. Backup QB Blake Kemp has come in as Cookus' replacement and thrown for 787 and five touchdowns in three games, leading the Jacks to victory over MSU and ISU.

The Grizzlies and Lumberjacks are rolling out two of the nation's most prolific offenses so far this season. Montana is ranked No. 5 in all of FCS football in passing offense, while NAU is ranked No. 8, passing for 2,180 yards and 22 touchdowns in seven games.

The Jacks lead the Grizzlies in the national rankings in total offense (NAU No. 6, UM No. 7) with NAU rushing for 1,262 yards so far this season as compared to UM's 830.

Defensively the Jacks rank No. 49 in the nation in total defense, while Montana currently has the best defense in the Big Sky, coming in at No. 11 nationally.

Fun fact: NAU is one of 10 universities in the nation to own its own domed facility. The others are Idaho, Idaho State, North Dakota, Northern Iowa, Northern Michigan, North Dakota State, South Dakota, East Tennessee State and Syracuse.

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Players Mentioned

Colin Bingham

Josh Buss

Jeremy Calhoun

Chad Chalich

Keenan Curran

Treshawn Favors

Brady Gustafson

Tyrone Holmes

Josh Horner

Caleb Kidder

Jerry Louie-McGee

Chase Naccarato

John Nguyen

Connor Strahm

Justin Strong

University of Montana Athletics