Griz return to the road for another top-10 showdown

The October Gauntlet continues for Montana this week with another top-10 showdown on the road in Ogden, Utah, with the No. 10/11 Griz squaring off against the No. 5/7 Weber State Wildcats.

It's do-or-die time for Montana as the tail end of the regular season rapidly approaches as the Grizzlies look to rebound from a pair of gut-wrenching losses over the past two weeks.

At 5-2 overall and 2-2 in league play, Montana's goals are still ahead of it as the business end of the year approaches.

Weber State will also be looking for a bounce-back after suffering its first defeat of the season in Bozeman last week to put the Wildcats at 6-1 on the year and 3-1 in conference play.

It will be another battle of similarly matched opponents at Stewart Stadium, too, with Weber and Montana each possessing one of the top three overall offensive and defensive units in the conference. And like Sacramento State, the Griz are looking to shake a Wildcat monkey off their backs, with UM having lost three of the last four matchups to WSU dating back to 2015.

Kickoff from Ogden is set for 1 p.m.

WATCH: The Grizzlies return to the Montana Television Network this week with the UM at Weber State game airing exclusively on CW stations around the state, with kickoff time from Ogden set for 1 p.m.

The CW is a free-to-air station owned by MTN that is also available on basic cable, DirecTV, and Dish Network around the state. Local CW programming can also be found on Hulu and Youtube TV. To see if the CW is available over the air in your neighborhood, visit thefreetvproject.com.

The game will also be streamed nationwide without blackout on ESPN+, with a subscription required.

For complete broadcast details and channel listings, visit the Where to Watch page on GoGriz.com.

Long-time Montana broadcaster Jay Kohn will provide the play-by-play, with Grizzly Sports Hall of Famer and former NFL head coach Marty Mornhinweg serving as the analyst. Kyle Hansen will report from the sidelines.

LISTEN: "Voice of the Griz" Riley Corcoran is in his seventh season behind the mic at Montana and is once again set to bring you all the Grizzly action over the airwaves on the Grizzly Sports Radio Network and its fifteen affiliate stations around the state.

Your "Grizzly Gameday" starts two hours before kickoff each Saturday with the official pregame radio show featuring Denny Bedard and Scott Gurnsey, who then throw to Corcoran and color commentator Greg Sundberg 30 minutes to kickoff. Bedard and Gurnsey will also wrap up the day's action with the official post-game show.

Griz fans outside the radio footprint can stream all of Montana's broadcasts on their mobile device LIVE and FREE of charge with the Varsity Network App, powered by Learfield and Sidearm Sports.

Fans can download the app for iPhone or Android use for instant access to free gameday audio streams and the Coach Hauck Radio Show and receive push notifications to remind them of games starting or upcoming audio broadcasts as well.

GRIZ IN THE POLLS: Montana remained among the top 10 teams in the nation this week after the overtime loss at Sac State, checking in at No. 10 in the AFCA coaches poll and No. 11 in the Stats Perform media poll.

The Griz entered last week at No. 7 in both polls and dropped slightly after falling to the No. 2/3 Hornets, who are one of only three undefeated teams left in the FCS.

SCOPE THE SAGARINS: Montana checks in as the fifth-highest-rated FCS team in this week's Sagarin Ratings at No. 91 among all Division-I college football programs. Sac State leapfrogged the Griz to take the top spot among FCS teams at No. 74.

Weber State slots in one place ahead of the Griz this week at No. 88, with NDSU in third and South Dakota State in second.

Between Montana at No. 91 and Montana State at No. 99 sit two Power Five teams in Georgia Tech and Northwestern, and Group of Five teams Costal Carolina, Navy, Ohio, Southern Miss, and San Diego State.

The Sagarin Ratings calculate strength of schedule into its ranking of all D-I teams, and factor in the Big Sky Conference's tiebreaker process.

KEEP DRIVING: Montana put together its two longest scoring drives of the season at Sac State, the first for 15 plays capped by a Marcus Knight 2-yard TD, and the last for 13 plays capped by a 2-yard run from Nick Ostmo. The Griz have had eight total 10-plus play drives so far this season.

TURNOVER MARGIN: Montana won the turnover battle decisively at Sacramento State with three interceptions and one fumble recovery to go +4 on the all-important differential chart. The Griz are now +5 on the season with 13 total takeaways and eight giveaways, and have capitalized on their gains, leading the points off turnover battle 45-25.

UM is third in the Big Sky and tied at No. 9 nationally in turnover margin. Idaho sits at No. 2, and UC Davis is tied for third.

GET OFF THE FIELD: This week's matchup in Ogden will feature the Big Sky's two most efficient defenses on third down battling it out. Weber State ranks No. 8 nationally in third-down D, allowing opponents to convert just 32 of 113 attempts, while Montana ranks No. 11 having allowed 34 of 114 third-down plays.

MOVE THE CHAINS: Offensively, Montana converted a season-high 10 of 20 third downs en route to 26 total first downs – evenly balanced between the pass and the rush at 12 each.

The Griz have converted the second-most third downs in the league this season at 46 of 100 attempts.

SPECIAL TEAMS: Punter Patrick Rohrbach was named to the Jerry Rice Award Watch list last week for FCS freshman of the year (at any position). The Kalispell native is averaging 45 yards per punt, has dropped 14 inside the 20 and boomed nine 50-plus yards. He's got the 4th best average in the nation and the best in the Big Sky, while the Grizzly punt coverage team is the second-best in the nation, allowing a net punt average of 41.93.

#PAT4BUCK: Patrick O'Connell continues to be one of the favorites to win the Buck Buchanan Award after finishing third in the voting as a junior. The Big Sky Preseason Defensive MVP leads the league in sacks and is third nationally with 7.5 on the season. He also leads the conference and is tied for eighth nationally in tackles for loss with 11.5.

O'Connell needs just two more sacks to pass Andy Petek's career total of 29 to move into the top-five Grizzlies ever in that category and two more TFLs to move into the top seven.

LEVI RISING: Junior linebacker Levi Janacaro has been putting up the best numbers of his career in past three weeks for the Griz, highlighted by a personal best 12 tackles (six solo) at Sac State last week.

With nine stops against Idaho State, 11 against Idaho, and 12 last week (each a new career high), the Missoula Big Sky product has been one of the team's top two tacklers in each of those games. He's now among the top-20 tacklers in the Big Sky and has the fourth-most stops on the team this year at 46 stops, with the third-most TFLs at 6.5 – the seventh-most in the league.

ROBBY'S RECORD: Already Montana's all-time leading tackler, senior safety Robby Hauck continued to add on to his school record tackle total with 7 stops at Sac State, bringing his career mark to 426.

He needs 48 more to break Ronnie Hamlin's Big Sky record of 473 career tackles and has four more regular season games to do it, averaging 9 per game. With 62 stops this year, Hauck is fourth in the conference in total tackles.

LEADING THE LEAGUE: With the help of the players listed above, Montana is leading the conference as a team in sacks and tackles for loss this week, checking in at No. 3 nationally in TFLs with 61 and No. 8 in team sacks 23.

FORD'S NO FLY ZONE: Justin Ford added to his impressive interception total last week with his first pick of the season against Sac State, bringing his career mark to 10 in less than two seasons.

Ford led all of college football with nine interceptions in 2021 to earn unanimous All-America honors and a place on the Senior Bowl Watch List. It's a good reason why opposing coaches have avoided his side of the field line the plague this year.

Montana's seven opponents this season have thrown the ball 234 times against the Griz. Exactly 11 of those have been thrown in Ford's direction, with only four being completed – a mark of respect for the senior's ability.

His total of 10 ties him with five other Grizzlies on the all-time INT list. Shann Schillinger, Keith Burke, Kent Clausen, Gregg Dunn, and Robin Peters all had 10 as Grizzlies.

RUN THE DANG BALL: Montana's offensive line plowed the way for the Griz to rush for 200 yards against Sacramento State. It marks the fifth time this season and the second in the last three weeks the Griz have rushed for 150-plus yards in a game. Montana has also out-rushed its opponent in five of the seven games this year.

BOBBY'S RECORD(S): Bobby Hauck is now 8-3 against Sac State in his career at Montana, with Troy Taylor the only Big Sky coach to beat him more than twice, taking the last three matchups.

Hauck remains the winningest Grizzly coach of all time and is on his way to becoming the winningest coach in Big Sky history, with only four teams having beaten him more than once in his time at UM.

• Now with 113 victories as UM's head coach, Hauck needs just 11 more to break Jerome Souers' Big Sky record 123 overall wins.

• With 65 wins in Big Sky play, Hauck needs four more wins to pass Nevada Hall of Famer Chris Ault's Big Sky total of 68, 10 more to pass Tim Walsh's total of 74, and 22 more to pass Souers' total of 85 wins in conference play.

INJURY BUG: UM quarterback Lucas Johnson missed the majority of last week's game in Sacramento with injury. It marked the third-straight season that Montana has been without its starting QB against the Hornets – each game a loss for the Grizzlies as well.

In 2019, Dalton Sneed went down mid-game in Sacramento. In 2021 Kris Brown got his second-straight start filling in for an injured Cam Humphrey in Missoula, and Johnson went down in the second quarter of 2022's matchup.

Johnson's absence in Sacramento marks yet another year the Griz have not had the full services of their starting QB. Since 2013, Montana has only had one season (2018) where a Grizzly QB has not left a game with injury.

BYE WEEK BLUES BOUNCE-BACK BOUNCED: Montana lost to Idaho following its bye week to move the Grizzlies to 2-6 since 2015 in games played after the open week on the schedule. Following the loss to Sacramento State, the Griz now have a 5-3 record two games removed from the bye.

NIGHT-MARES: Montana's 8 p.m. kick time loss at Sac State added to its night game road woes. The Griz now have a 1-13 road night game record since 2011 in games starting after 6 p.m. local time. The Grizzlies are also now 0-3 since 2011 in night games played at Sacramento.

On the flip side, Montana has had considerable success under the lights at Washington-Grizzly Stadium with a 10-2 night game home record since 2011.

UM's last win at night on the road came in 2013 at North Dakota, a 55-17 win at the Alerus Center that kicked at 6 p.m. Central Time.

BAD BLOCK PARTY: Montana had two field goal attempts blocked at Sac State. The last time the Grizzlies had a field goal blocked was also a night game on ESPN2 at Eastern Washington in 2021.

• Another filed under "last time it happened": Sac State running back Cameron Skattebo rushed for 111 yards against the Griz – the most of any opponent this season. The last Grizzlies to run for 100-plus was Palmer Latrele for James Madison in the 2021 FCS quarterfinal – currently one of the top-20 rushers in the Sun Belt Conference.

• Montana picked of three Sac State passes from Jake Dunniway last week. The last QB to throw three INTs to the Griz? Washington's Dylan Morris in 2021.

MORE FIRSTS: Montana lost its first game of the season last week when the Griz scored first (the 15-play drive capped by Knight's 2-yard TD), with the Griz becoming the only team this year to score first against the Hornets. It was also Montana's first loss when winning the turnover battle.

SERIES VS THE WILDCATS: Montana leads the all-time series with Weber State by a wide margin at 40-15 since 1962, going 18-8 in games played in Ogden during that time.

Like the Hornets, however, the Wildcats have been a program on the rise under head coach Jay Hill since the Utah native took the program over in 2014. Hill has gone 3-1 against Montana in his time at the helm of Weber State, but has split meetings with Hauck as UM's head coach. Both of those matchups occurred in 2019 when Montana beat the then third-ranked Wildcats 35-16 in Missoula before dropping an FCS quarterfinal game 17-10 in a blizzard in Ogden.

LAST MEETING: Rain, snow, wind, and fog - the Montana Grizzlies battled both the Wildcats and the winter elements in Ogden, falling 17-10 in a defensive standoff that saw the Grizzlies give up five turnovers while at the same time allowing WSU just 113 yards of total offense in the FCS quarterfinal.

In his final game as a Grizzly, quarterback Dalton Sneed left it all on the field against Weber, but gave up five interceptions and took six sacks in trying to battle the elements and Wildcat defensive front that was able to apply plenty of pressure.

But in a game featuring two of the best special teams units in the country, it was only fitting that a blocked punt would be the deciding factor as the game rested on a knife edge heading into the final period with WSU holding a 10-7 lead. With nine minutes to play Weber State scored what would be the game-winning touchdown on a blocked punt to build a lead that proved to be insurmountable for the Grizzlies, despite an attempted rally.

Montana's historic season closed with a 10-4 record in the quarterfinal round of the playoffs (a place it hadn't reached since the 2009 season. The Wildcats advanced to the FCS semifinal, where they lost to the second-ranked James Madison Dukes on their home turf.

SCOUTING THE WILDCATS: Weber State enters this week's showdown with Montana at 6-1, on the heels of their first loss of the season – a bizarre, back-and-forth battle in Bozeman where WSU spotted the Bobcats eight points on four, yes four, safeties, to set a new FCS single-game record. Each of those safeties came from errant long-snaps over Wildcat punter Jack Burgess' head, giving MSU the go-ahead points in a 43-38 win over WSU.

Weber had built a 24-9 lead in the game, scoring early on a 100-yard kickoff return from Abraham Williams and shortly after on a 91-yard punt return from Hudson Schenk – highlighting the WSU special teams, a hallmark of Hill-led Wildcat squads.

Regardless of last week's outcome, WSU brings three of the top-12 rushers in the conference into Saturday's game, with Damon Bankston averaging more than 60 yards per game rushing, and former Big Sky freshman of the year Josh Davis averaging 56, despite missing the last two contests due to injury.

The Wildcat stable of running backs will have to contend with Montana's rushing defense, however. Kent Baer's unit leads the league and is top-10 nationally in stopping the run, allowing an average of just 91 yards per game.

Quarterback Barron Bronson has been steady for the Wildcats as well, averaging 226 yards through the air with the sixth-best passing efficiency in the conference at 145.8.

Including a big win over FCS in-state rival Utah State, Weber's defense has been stout this year as the top-scoring D in the league, allowing just 15.6 points per game. The Wildcats also lead the Big Sky in defensive efficiency at 91.3, giving up just six touchdowns and 1292 total yards, with Montana right behind them at 110.8 efficiency, six TDs, and 1423 yards given.

A big and physical defense, D-end Nuu Sellesin and linebacker Jack Kelly are both top-seven in the league in sacks (a category led by Patrick O'Connell). Cornerbacks Anderson Maxwell and Eddie Heckard are both top-four in the conference in passes defended, with Anderson putting up 2019 Justin Ford-like numbers with five picks in seven games.

Griz return to the road for another top-10 showdown

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Players Mentioned

Kris Brown

Justin Ford

Robby Hauck

Cam Humphrey

Levi Janacaro

Lucas Johnson

Marcus Knight

Patrick O'Connell

Nick Ostmo

Patrick Rohrbach

University of Montana Athletics