Academics, Film, and Fitness keep the Griz going while social distancing

Under normal circumstances, the Montana football staff and players would be laser-focused on finishing the spring season as the calendar flips to April, and showing out for fans at the annual Spring Game.

But these times of COVID-19 are anything but normal, and like every other football team in America Grizzly head coach Bobby Hauck and his staff have been forced to adjust.

With the NCAA putting a hold on in-person team and recruiting activity and universities across the country moving to distance learning, the Grizzlies are now working remotely on both their games and their academics from their homes across the country.

Not only are the Griz distance learning, Hauck and his staff are distance coaching, keeping the players focused on two major goals: maintaining the team's string of record-setting academic performances, and looking to improve on last year's 10-win, quarterfinal-appearance season.

"There's been an abundance of caution with this, which is good. The thing that I worry most about with our players is the academic part. We're doing our best to mitigate the damage academically," said Hauck in this first episode of the Inside the Den Spring Podcast Series, available now at GoGriz.com/InsidetheDen.

Since returning to UM in 2018, Hauck's Grizzlies have posted a string of the best team GPAs in program history, including four-straight semesters with an average 3.0 GPA or better, and 22 players named Academic All-Big Sky in the fall.

So with players now working at home while social distancing safely, Hauck has made it priority number one to help keep that success going.

"Our coaches are in touch, voice to voice, with our players multiple times a week, and because everyone has to do their coursework online now - some people don't do well in online classes. In fact, the majority do not. So, that's a major concern for me. So, all of our energy at the moment, this week in particular and next, will be pointed toward the academic side," said Hauck.

When not staying on top of the current players' academic progress, Hauck and his staff have been looking forward on the never-ending task of finding the next group of Grizzly greats, evaluating recruiting film, and piecing together the class of 2021.

"We're doing a significant amount of evaluation of recruit film for next year's class," said Hauck.

"There's plenty to keep us busy, at least for the time being. Pretty soon that busy work is going to run out, and we're going to be chomping at the bit to do some real work."

Another big concern for Hauck during this downtime is making sure his team doesn't erase the gains they made in the weight room during the winter conditioning period and the first two weeks of spring practice.

"That's probably the thing that's most troubling to me. Every day we can't train, some of our previous works is eroding. We had a really good winter. We have a bunch of workers. We have a great work ethic on our team," said Hauck.

"There's an evil fact, specifically for football players, is that you can't get strong without lifting heavy weight. There's no amount of pushups, sit-ups, pullups, air squats, pulling cars, things like that. It's just not going to get the job done.

"Now, the reason we're doing them is because they can slow the erosion of our gains, so we've got our guys working. They're doing their best to stay as fit as they can, but football is a game of power and strength, and we need a weight room to get power and strength. No one has that type of weight room in their house, so we're chomping at the bit to get back at it."

The Grizzly players haven't been resting on their laurels at home, despite not having access to the Washington-Grizzly Champions Center. With the assistance of strength and conditioning coach Matt Nicholson, the Griz have gotten creative to try to stay in shape while remaining safe.

"I think it's entertaining to see some of the Instagram stuff they send to each other. Like 'Hey, I'm getting fifty,' and the roommate will film him doing fifty pushups, and they'll send it out to their teammates and encourage everybody to get some with them," said Hauck.

While every team in the nation is in the same situation, one thing is certain. There is no playbook for how to navigate this ongoing global crisis.

"We get a lot of texts that say 'how are you handling this? What are you doing?' I don't think anyone has a real template for this, but we'll find different ways for our players to watch film and get back to academics," Hauck added.

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The Inside the Den Spring Podcast Series with Riley Corcoran and Coach Hauck is set to drop on Wednesdays each week in the month of April. Fans can download each week's podcast as well as past episodes of the Grizzly Coaches show from all major platforms, or at GoGriz.com/InsidetheDen.

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SEASON TICKET INFO: In March, Grizzly Athletics decided to delay mailing season ticket renewals to current holders temporarily. Invoices will now be mailed in early April, and the original renewal deadline of May 1 will be extended to June 1.

Online season ticket renewals are now available at griztix.com, with information available over the phone at 406-243-4051 or 1-888-MONTANA, Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

University of Montana Athletics

Academics, Film, and Fitness keep the Griz going while social distancing

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