Griz open season on the road at South Dakota

The long wait for Montana football officially ends this week when the Grizzlies travel to Vermillion to knock the lid off the 2019 season against the South Dakota Coyotes of the Missouri Valley Football Conference.

Montana opens 2019's 12-game slate on Saturday, Aug. 31 at the DakotaDome in Vermillion, with the opening kick set for 1 p.m. Mountain Time.

As is usual when the Griz square off against a team from the Missouri Valley, there is a feeling that the season opener could already hold postseason implications for both Montana and South Dakota.

With each knocking on the door to the national top-25 polls (UM ranked No. 25 in preseason FCS media poll), and each looking down a gauntlet of a 2019 schedule, the winner of this year's season opener could reap big benefits come playoff selection time in November.

But head coach Bobby Hauck had high praise for his team in the offseason entering fall camp and has been pleased with the way the team battled through the last month of preseason work.

Now, the 14-year veteran head coach says his team is up to the tall task of facing an MVFC team on the road to open the season.

"I think our players would agree it's been a pretty arduous offseason. They've worked really hard, and we're at that juncture where they want to play someone else. I think the last eight-plus months have been really productive for our team," said Hauck "I'm excited to watch them play this weekend.

"We just need to go execute. We need to play. First games are certainly interesting, but we just want to look sharp. Take care of the football and play a good sharp game in all three phases."

THE GAME – Streaks could be snapped in Vermillion following Saturday's season-opening clash with South Dakota.

It's a rare occurrence for the Griz to start the year with a road game. Since 1999, UM has opened on the road just seven times (4-3 overall in that stretch) and hit the road only twice in the past 10 years (at Tennessee in 2011 and Wyoming in 2014).

And in that 20 years, the Griz have opened against South Dakota twice. Once in 1999 and the second in 2012. This is the ninth time in series history South Dakota and Montana have met in a season opener. Montana leads the overall series 12-6, dating back to the first meeting between the two in 1915.

Meanwhile, the 'Yotes are opening at home for the first time since 2013 and for just the second time since 2010. They may not start the year at home that often, but they are successful when they do, winning 16 consecutive home openers dating back to 2003 – tied for the fifth-longest active streak in the FCS.

Sitting right behind USD with the seventh-longest home-opener win streak? Montana, whose last home-opener loss came in 2003 (Coach Hauck's first season at UM) against North Dakota State.

A Grizzly win over the Coyotes in Vermillion this year would snap UM's 10-year road-opener drought, and snap South Dakota's 16-game home-opener win streak.

ACTIVE FCS HOME-OPENER WIN STREAKS
1:        20 – North Dakota State (1999-pres)
2:        19 – Central Arkansas (2000-pres)
3:        18 – Wofford (2001-pres)
          18 – Harvard (2001-pres)
5:        16 – South Dakota (2003-pres)
           16 – James Madison (2003-pres)
7:        15 – Montana (2004-pres)
8:        14 – McNeese (2005-pres)

With history on the line, Hauck knows the Coyotes, who were two missed kicks away from an upset over Kansas State in 2018's 4-7 season, will be looking to defend their home turf and has the pieces in place to do so.

"Coach Nielson does a great job. He's a good man, he's a solid person, and he runs his team the way it should be done," says Hauck.

"He just does a great job. They'll be solid on the field; offense, defense, special teams. They'll be coached right, and he just runs a really fine, well-oiled program that has great structure and a great base for their players."

WATCH: ABC Montana (SWX in Billings) will simulcast the MidCoSN broadcast of the UM/USD game across the state of Montana. Jay Elsen will provide the play-by-play, Andre Fields will serve as analyst, and Elaina Lanson will report from the sidelines at the DakotaDome.

Griz fans outside the state can stream the game via ESPN+, or watch a free stream at GoYotes.com.

LISTEN: "Voice of the Griz" Riley Corcoran and Greg Sundberg will bring you the action live from Washington-Grizzly Stadium on the Grizzly Sports Radio Network.

Fans from Polson to Plentywood can tune in to hear the live call on one of 15 radio stations statewide. You can also hear a digital stream of the game live worldwide via GoGriz.com/listen or the TuneIn app on your computer or smartphone.

GRIZ TRACKS

RECORD WATCH: Senior wideout Jerry Louie-McGee enters the 2019 season on the cusp of becoming Montana's all-time leader in pass receptions, needing just 18 more catches to break the record.

The dynamic receiver and punt returner has 175 career catches entering the year, and is looking to break Raul Pacheco's (1995-98) career mark of 192. Should he break the record, he'll also pass a host of other Grizzlies in the top-10, including Jon Talmadge (176), Shalon Baker (182), Jamaal Jones (184), and Grizzly Sports Hall of Famer Matt Wells (189).

Louie-McGee set a new school record (and tied the Big Sky record) for single-game receptions as a freshman with 21 grabs at Cal Poly.

O CAPTAINS! MY CAPTAINS! The Grizzly players voted on the team's 2019 captains at the end of fall camp last week and called upon three of UM's most decorated players to lead them this fall. Seniors Dalton Sneed, Dante Olson, and Jesse Sims, each known for leading by example, were elected captain this season.

Sneed returns for his second-straight season as captain after breaking several records in one of the top overall QB seasons in UM history. Olson was elected captain after leading all of Division-I football in tackles-per-game and shattering the school record with 151 as a junior. A leader on the field and in the weight room, Sims was also elected captain in his senior season.

FRESH STARTS: Montana returns an overall young team once again in 2019, with five different Grizzlies scheduled to potentially make their first start, and 21 total players on this week's two-deep who have never started a contest at UM.

ON SCHOLARSHIP: Coach Hauck made the dream of being a scholarship student-athlete come true for one Grizzly during fall camp. Sophomore offensive tackle Dylan Cook earned a scholarship after working his way into the two-deep during fall camp. Cook, a Butte native, came to Montana two years ago after playing quarterback at Montana Northern and has adjusted well to the offensive line.

HEADS UP QB PLAY: It takes a high football IQ to play the quarterback position at any level, and the Grizzlies roster is loaded with them In addition to the four QBs listed on the team roster, former high school signal-callers are prevalent throughout the team… even the offensive line (Cook). In fact, the only position group that does not contain a former QB? The D-Line.

GRADUATE GRIZ: In an effort to promote student-athlete academic success, The National Football Foundation recognized Montana natives Josh Sandry and Ryder Rice as two of 1,439 football players across the country at all levels of college football who have already obtained a degree and will play this fall while pursuing second diplomas in a nation-wide press release Tuesday. The pair are also two out just of 353 players from 82 FCS schools to earn a place on the list.

SCOUTING THE 'YOTES:

Head coach Bob Nielson is in his 26th year as a head coach and his third at South Dakota, posting a successful overall record of 202-99-1, and a 16-19 record at USD.

KEY RETURNERS
-      #44 Darin Greenfield – DE (Watch list for the STATS FCS Buck Buchanan Award, Two-time All-American, MVFC preseason defense team, STATS preseason All-American)

-      #82 Dakarai Allen – WR (MVFC preseason offense team)

-      #3 Austin Simmons – QB (MVFC preseason offense team, ranked sixth nationally for total offense at 314 yards per game)

-      #72 Mason Scheidegger – RG (MVFC honorable mention)

While South Dakota will bring a new-look defense under first-year coordinator Travis Johansen, the 'Yotes return plenty of known personnel on the defense, led by two-time All-American D-end Darrin Greenfield, a member of the Buchanan Award Watch List (alongside UM's Dante Olson).

Offensively, senior QB Austin Simmons returns to the team as the Missouri Valley Conference's leading passer in 2018 with 3,142 yards in the air, the fourth-best mark in the FCS. Simmons was sixth in the nation in total offense (314.2 ypg).

For comparison's sake, Simmons will be going toe-to-toe with Montana's Big Sky Newcomer of the Year QB Dalton Sneed, who ranked No. 9 nationally with an average of 308.9 ypg.

"It starts with their quarterback. He's a really fine player. He threw for a ton of yards throughout this career and a lot last year. They have all their skill players back for the most part on that side of the ball," said Hauck.

"They have the ability to put points up in bunches, and I think when your best player is your QB it makes you a dangerous team offensively."

While Simmons represents a dual-threat danger to the Grizzly defense, a young Coyote offensive line will need to step up to the plate to protect him this week. How young? On South Dakota's preliminary two-deep this week, eight of the projected 10 offensive linemen are underclassmen and will be led by junior all-MVFC guard Mason Scheidegger.

UP NEXT: The Grizzlies return to Missoula to face FCS newcomers North Alabama in a night game at Washington-Grizzly Stadium. This will be the second season in the subdivision for the Lions, but have already shown they belong with a win over Southern Utah in their first-ever FCS contest last year. UNA went on to finish their opening year at this level with a 7-3 record, with one loss coming at North Dakota State, a closer-than-expected 38-7 loss.

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Players Mentioned

Dylan Cook

Jamaal Jones

Jerry Louie-McGee

Dante Olson

Ryder Rice

Josh Sandry

Jesse Sims

Dalton Sneed

University of Montana Athletics