Top-5 showdown on tap as #4 Griz host #3 Wildcats

In the more than three decades of football played inside Washington-Grizzly Stadium, you'd be hard-pressed to find a bigger conference game with bigger implications than this.

On Saturday the No. 4/5 Montana Grizzlies (8-2, 5-1 BSC) put their undefeated home record on the line in a top-5 showdown with the No. 3 Weber State Wildcats (8-2, 6-0 BSC), who come to Missoula for the first time since 2015.

The game marks the highest-ranked FCS opponent the Griz have faced since defeating No. 3 Northern Iowa on the road in 2016 then falling to No. 3 Eastern Washington on the road the same year. It's also the highest-ranked opponent to come to Missoula since No. 1 North Dakota State in 2015. The last Big Sky team to play at Washington-Grizzly Stadium with a top-10 ranking was No. 9 Northern Arizona in 2017.

This year, it's a battle between the top two teams in the Big Sky standings, and with only two regular-season games left to play, it will go a long way toward determining who will claim the Big Sky championship.

One of those teams is the defending conference co-champion that brings the league's best overall defense and an explosive offense. The other, a team hungry to return to its former dominance, boasts a dynamic and balanced offensive attack and the second-best rush defense in the league, led by arguably the best linebacker in FCS football.

Two of the founding members of the Big Sky Conference, Montana and Weber State will clash for the 55th time on the gridiron this week, and the winner will be in pole position to earn a first-round bye into the FCS playoffs.

Led by head coach Jay Hill, Weber State enters the game undefeated in Big Sky play, with its only two losses of the season coming in narrow defeats at San Diego State (6-0) and at Nevada (16-13).

"They're a good team. I think they're a really complete football team. They're good on offense, they're good on defense, they're good in the special teams area. A lot of that comes from the fact they're a veteran team, and they also have a very experienced, veteran coaching staff," said Montana head coach Bobby Hauck.

"I think they're physically mature. They look big and strong on film, and I just think we've got our hands full with a real veteran outfit."

Kickoff for the highly-anticipated contest is set for 1 p.m. Tickets are still available at GrizTix.com or at the Adams Center Box Office (1-888-Montana).

HAPPENINGS:

SENIOR DAY: Make sure to get in your seats early as Grizzly Athletics pays tribute to the 17 seniors on this year's squad. As is traditional, each senior will be introduced one-by-one in the leadup to kickoff.

HALL OF FAME GAME: The Grizzlies celebrate the careers of two Montana legends this week, inducting All-America Safety Vince Huntsberger into the Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame and presenting former team doctor Robert "Doc" Curry the Grizzly Lifetime Honors Award.

The two will be honored Friday evening at the SOLD-OUT hall of fame banquet at the Holiday Inn Downtown Missoula and will be honored on the field during the first quarter of Saturday's game.

A native of Libby, Huntsberger is one of the greatest defenders in Grizzly history and remains UM's all-time leading tackler with 393 regular-season stops in his career. He was named the Most Valuable Player of the 2001 FCS National Championship game and was a two-time Big Sky Conference Defensive MVP. He made 55-straight starts for the Grizzlies and was named to eight different All-America teams.

Curry served as the football team doctor and was the director of UM's student health service (for whom its building is named after) for nearly four decades.

CAN THE CATS: The 20th annual "Can the Cats" food drive is officially underway this week with Montana fans and Montana State fans competing in a friendly contest to see who can collect the most donations for area food pantries in the leadup to the Griz/Cat game on Nov. 23.

Help the Griz "Can the Cats" this week by bringing canned food donations to drop-off points around Washington-Grizzly Stadium as UM takes on Weber State. Other drop-off sites are located in the Adams Center Lobby and nine different locations around the UM campus.

All donations in Missoula will benefit the Missoula Food Bank & Community Center and the University of Montana Food Pantry, which was established this year on the first floor of the University Center.

Learn more about how you can donate at canthecats.com

GRIZ WALK: Fans are encouraged to gather on Memorial Row (outside the Adams Center) at 10:45 a.m. to cheer on the Griz as they make their way from final meetings to the locker room prior to kick off.

WATCH: The Griz/Wildcats game marks the fifth of six Griz games this season to be broadcast nationwide on ROOT Sports. Veteran broadcaster Tom Glasgow will have the play-by-play, with analysis from Taylor Barton.

ROOT Sports and its regional affiliates (AT&T Rocky Mountain, Las Vegas, and Southwest) are available on DirecTV, Dish Network, and Spectrum Cable. The game will also be shown nationwide on DirecTV's Audience Network (Ch. 239), part of the satellite provider's basic channel lineup.

A webstream of the game is also available via AT&T Now and AT&T TV (subscription required) via the Audience Network.

LISTEN: "Voice of the Griz" Riley Corcoran and longtime analyst Greg Sundberg will bring you the action live from Washington-Grizzly Stadium on KGVO Missoula, the flagship station of the Grizzly Sports Radio Network, and its thirteen affiliates around the state. Live audio web streams can also be found at GoGriz.com/Listen or on the TuneIn app.

LIVE STATS: Live stats can be found at GrizStats.com

GRIZ IN THE POLLS: With a 42-17 defeat of rival Idaho, the Griz moved to No. 4 in the AFCA FCS Coaches' Poll on Monday and No. 5 in the STATS FCS Media Poll. In a tight vote, Montana (8-2, 5-1 BSC) picked up 561 points in the coaches' poll (14 points shy of Weber State's total of 575), and 3,161 points in the media poll, 85 points shy of No. 4 Northern Iowa.

The Grizzlies have had one of the toughest schedules in FCS football this season, ranked fifth-strongest in the Massey Ratings. Weber State has faced an equally tough schedule, ranked the third-strongest by Massey.

SERIES HISTORY: As founding members of the Big Sky, the Griz and Wildcats enjoy one of the longest rivalries in the conference, set to face each other for the 55th time in program history this week.

While Montana holds a comfortable 39-15 overall lead and a 21-7 lead in Missoula, Weber is riding a two-game win streak against Montana dating back to 2015, the last time the two met in Missoula.

In that game, a 27-yard field goal in overtime broke a 13-game losing streak for the Wildcats in Washington-Grizzly Stadium that dated back to 1989. Montana will be looking to prevent Weber from starting a win streak of their own in Missoula this week and making it 14 of the 15.

LAST MEETING: In 2017 at Weber State Montana put up 500 yards of offense and out-scored Weber State 21-7 in the second half, but the Grizzlies also turned the football over five times, and couldn't overcome a poor first half, falling to the Wildcats, 41-27 after falling 31-0 early on.

Everything that could go wrong for Montana did go wrong in the first half. The Wildcats scored on all six of their first-half possessions to stake out to a 34-6 halftime lead.

In the second half, both Samori Toure and Jerry Louie-McGee caught touchdown passes, with Toure's grab for 81 yards remaining the longest of his career.

SCOUTING THE WILDCATS: The Wildcats are 44-28 in six seasons under Jay Hill and at 33-13 in the Big Sky have grown to become one of the league's dominant forces in recent years, finishing second in the conference standings in 2016, and winning back-to-back titles in 2017 and 18.

• The Wildcats improved their conference record to 6-0 last week for just the second time in their school history with a 30-27 win over No. 22 North Dakota in Ogden, scoring 10 points in the final 2:49 thanks to a fumbled North Dakota kickoff late in the game.

• WSU has been ranked in the FCS top-10 for a school-record 19 consecutive weeks and ranked in at least one poll dating back to Nov. 2016.

• The Wildcats have won seven-straight games, which is now tied for the third-longest overall winning streak in school history.

• WSU's ground attack is led by sophomore Josh Davis, who won the Jerry Rice Award for the National Freshman of the Year in 2018. Davis is currently fourth in the Big Sky in rushing yards, averaging 90.1 YPG and 6.7 yards a carry. Despite only being a sophomore, he is already No. 6 on WSU's all-time rusher list with 2,263 yards.

• Kicker Trey Tuttle leads the Wildcat special teams unit with a Big Sky-best 18 field goals. The junior is now the second most prolific kicker in Weber history with a .778 career FG percentage.

• Seniors Jonah Williams and Adam Rodriguez are each among the Big Sky's top-10 in sacks with Williams at No. 4 with 6.5 and Rodriguez with 4.5. They help lead the league's top overall defense that has held teams to 355 yards this year, and the league's top rushing defense, keeping opponent's ground game to a mere 110.8 YPG. For comparison sake: Montana holds the second-best rush defense in the Big Sky, allowing just 117 YPG.

GRIZ TRACKS

LOOKING FOR 250: The Grizzlies will be in search of the program's 250th Big Sky Conference win this week against Weber. UM's win over Idaho put its overall league record at 249-136-1 (.646) since joining the conference as an inaugural member in 1963.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: Montana nominated three players for Big Sky and National Players of the Week awards on Sunday after the win over Idaho.

• Offensive: Making his return from injury in the second quarter, Montana QB Dalton Sneed gave the Grizzlies the spark needed to erase an early 10-point deficit and go on a 42-7 run as UM retained the Little Brown Stein with a 42-17 win over Idaho. Sneed looked like his usual, exemplary self in making his first appearance since Oct. 19, completing 17 of his 27 passes for 241 yards and a touchdown, while only taking one sack.

• Defensive/Freshman: Montana freshman Milt Mamula wreaked havoc on the Vandals in a breakout performance for the Griz. The Newton Square, Pennsylvania, native posted a career-high two sacks for a total loss of 13 yards with four tackles and forced a critical fumble on a strip of Idaho QB Mason Petrino. He was a crucial part of Grizzly defense that held Idaho to just 10 yards rushing in the second half and 139 total yards in the same period.

• Special Teams: Jerry Louie-McGee was a shoelace away from returning his fourth career punt return against the Vandals, breaking loose for a 39-yard punt return on his only opportunity of the day.

DANTE KEEPS CLIMBING: At this point in his career, seeing Dante Olson come away with 13 tackles in a game doesn't even turn a head. The senior All-American and Buchanan Award Candidate had another solid day at the office against Idaho for 13 takedowns. With 338 career tackles, he's now moved ahead of former NFL linebacker Jordan Tripp and Mike Rankin to No. 5 on UM's all-time tackle leader list, needing just 10 more to pass Kent Clausen ('76-'79) and Matt Hermanson ('11-'14) at No. 3.

GOOD KNIGHT: With three TDs against Idaho that brought his Big Sky-best season total to 17 total scores, sophomore RB Marcus Knight is starting to rewrite the Grizzly record books in his first season at UM.

He is now the only player in UM history to rush for three TDs in four different games. A total of 26 players have scored three TDs in a game or more since 1968 at UM… and Marcus Knight has been responsible for four of them. The prolific scoring has helped build his rushing TD total to 16 – tied for the third-most in a season in Griz history with Jordan Canada's 2013 total.

Knight's 17 overall TDs are also tied for the fourth-best scoring performance in UM history with Lex Hilliard's 2004 total and Yohance Humphrey's 2001 national championship performance.

Those 17 touchdowns have equated in 102 total points, now tied with Marc Mariani ('08) and Hilliard ('04) for the 11th-most points by any UM player in a single season. He is currently ranked No. 1 in the Big Sky in scoring and No. 6 in FCS football in scoring.

SNEED RISES: Sneed's return to action against Idaho improved his career passing total by 241 yards, bringing his career tally to 4,983 passing yards. That mark puts him above Brady Gustafson's career mark at No. 11 on the all-time passing list. He needs 436 more yards to enter the top-10 and pass Craig Ochs' career total of 5,419 yards.

With one passing TD against Idaho, Sneed's career total of 38 is tied with Andrew Selle and former NFL coach Marty Mornhinweg.

QUICK HITS: • Senior receiver and kick returner Keynan Foster, who joined the team out of UTEP this fall, broke loose for a 34-yard kick return against the Vandals (and was a shoelace away from breaking loose for a TD), the longest of his short career at UM.

• Punter/Kicker Adam Wilson posted a career day in kickoffs, averaging 64.3 yards per kick (61.6 prev.), with a total of seven touchbacks.

• Senior D-Tackle and legacy jersey #37 holder Jesse Sims is scheduled to, appropriately, make his 37th-career start this week against Weber State.

• With Idaho jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first quarter and Montana roaring back for the 42-17 win, it marked the first time this season when the Griz have won when trailing after the first 15 minutes of play.

• A noted second-half team, Montana has outscored its opponents 234-80 in the final 30 minutes of games this season, with the team scoring 133 of those points in the third quarter.

UP NEXT: Montana caps the regular season in Bozeman in the 119th Brawl of the Wild game against No. 19 Montana State in another game that could have Big Sky Championship implications.

Kickoff from Bozeman is set for Noon on Saturday, Nov. 23. The game will be broadcast nationwide on ROOT Sports. A list of watch parties around the country can be found HERE.

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Players Mentioned

Keynan Foster

Brady Gustafson

Marcus Knight

Jerry Louie-McGee

Dante Olson

Jesse Sims

Dalton Sneed

Samori Toure

Adam Wilson

University of Montana Athletics