Griz Year in Review: Much to Remember in 2022

The Montana Grizzlies wrapped up the 36^th winning football season in the past 37 years with a hard-fought 49-26 loss at North Dakota State in the second round of the FCS playoffs.

It was a season of astronomical highs and frustratingly close lows, with UM getting out to a 5-0 start to the season before dropping five of the last eight, three of which were by a touchdown or less, and three more of which were to a top-five ranked team on the road.

The narrow losses in a tight Big Sky race saw the Griz through to the playoffs, however, where Montana righted the ship with an emphatic first-round win over Southeast Missouri, where UM scored 31 unanswered to advance to the second round. Key injuries in big games also spelled disaster for the Griz, with prolific players often times limited in their playtime.

With success comes big performances, and Montana had plenty of them. Plenty of history was made by the Griz this year, with team, Big Sky, and FCS records all falling by the wayside.

Montana now looks ahead to the 2023 season, with two first-time opponents visiting Missoula in the non-conference slate, and the regular season wrapping up with the 122^nd Brawl of the Wild against Montana State.

ACCOLADES: With the FCS season winding down, the time for postseason accolades is just getting fired up. While several All-Big Sky and All-America lists will be published between now and the FCS Championship, here's a breakdown of some personal awards that have come Montana's way.

• All-Big Sky: 14 Grizzlies earned All-Big Sky honors at the end of the regular season, with UM landing six first-team selections – tied for the most on the team since 2019.

First-team honors went to offensive lineman Hunter Mayginnes, D-tackle Alex Gubner, linebacker Patrick O'Connell, defensive backs Justin Ford and Robby Hauck, and punter Patrick Rohrbach.

Second-team honors went to record-breaking return man Malik Flowers and special teams standout Tyler Flink.

Landing on the third team were center AJ Forbes and all-purpose player Junior Bergen. Honorable mentions went to receiver Mitch Roberts, tight end Cole Grossman, and linebackers Levi Janacaro and Marcus Welnel.

Of the 14, eight are expected to return for the Griz: Mayginnes, Gubner, Rohrbach, Flink, Forbes, Bergen, Grossman, and Janacaro.

• First-teamers Patrick O'Connell and Justin Ford took the next step toward their professional opportunities this week as well.

O'Connell accepted an invitation to compete at the Hula Bowl All-Star Game in Orlando, Florida, on Jan 14. The Hula Bowl is one of the Nation's Premier College Football All-Star Games. NFL, XFL, USFL and CFL teams will be all be represented by top scouts during Hula Bowl week.

With one against NDSU, O'Connell finished his career with 45 tackles for loss, which ties him with the great Kroy Biermann and Josh Buss at No. 4 all-time in program history for TFL's. O'Connell also finished his career with 28.5 career sacks, placing him at No. 6 all-time for the Grizzlies. With 242 career stops, he also finished among the top-40 UM tacklers of all time, despite missing several games as a junior and senior due to injury.

He finished his senior year on top of the Big Sky in both TFLs (14) and sacks (8), despite missing the bulk of three games to injury.

Ford announced he has declared for the NFL Draft and will now look for training and all-star opportunities. He was named to the Senior Bowl Watch List at the leadup to the season and Senior Bowl scouts were on hand in Missoula during the season to watch him perform.

PAT'S PUNTS: Patrick Rohrbach, a true freshman punter, finished ninth in the voting for the Stats Perform Jerry Rice Award, announced Wednesday. The Kalispell native is in the running for another national award, however.

On Monday Rohrbach was named one of 10 semifinalists for the FCS Punter of the Year Award by the Augusta Sports Council, the same organization that promotes the Ray Guy award for the top punter in FBS football.

Voting for the FCS Punter of the Year is currently underway by a panel of Sports Information Directors and media from around the nation. The winner will be announced Dec. 13.

Rohrbach finished his first season at UM with the second-best punt average in program history at 45.2 yards on 48 attempts, a mark good enough to top the Big Sky Conference and land him No. 3 overall in the FCS.

He's also been a catalyst for Montana's punt coverage team, with the Grizzlies finishing the year second in the FCS in net punt average at 41.52 yards per attempt, meaning the average punt return for UM's opponents is a mere 3.68 yards.

FORD'S NO FLY ZONE: Justin Ford leaves Montana as one of the greatest corners to ever wear maroon and silver, receiving the ultimate compliment from opposing teams all season: throw his way at your own peril.

The senior has limited opportunities to improve on his FCS-best 9 interceptions from a year ago. He ends his UM career with 11, the second-most ever by a Grizzly cornerback behind Trumaine Johnson's career total of 13.

Including Montana's season-ending loss at NDSU, UM's opponents completed 229 passes for 2,391 yards against the Griz all season. Just 12 of those passes have been caught by Ford's man for a total of 163 yards. Ford was targeted just twice against the Bison, both passes were broken up. He now finishes the year with four games having shut-out his opposite for zero catches.

ROBBY'S RECORD: Prolific Grizzly safety Robby Hauck finished his illustrious career on top of the Montana and Big Sky record books for career tackles this season, and earned a place among the FCS elite as one of the six-best tacklers in 1-AA/FCS history.

With eight stops at NDSU, Hauck finished his career with 482 tackles in 53 games played, an average of 9.1 per contest over the span of four full seasons.

With 118 stops in 2022, Hauck posted 115-plus tackles three different seasons for the Griz, including a career-high 129 in 2019. His total of 482 beats EWU's Ronnie Hamlin's previous Big Sky record of 473 and Montana State's Kane Ione's previous record of 471 set between 2000-2003.

FCS Career Total Tackles

Player	Team	Years	G	Solo	Ast.	Total
Boomer Grigsby	Illinois St.	2001-04	44	325*	225	*550
Donald Payne	Stetson	2013-16	44	317	209	526
D.J. Smith	App State	2007-10	56	246	279	525
Scott Lewi	Saint Francis (PA)	2007-10	43	206	*318	524
Liam Ezekiel	Northeastern	2001-04	44	218	271	489
Robby Hauck	Montana	2018-22	53	204	278	482
Lee Russell	Western Ill.	2000-03	48	317	163	480
Nick Rick	Eastern Ill.	2000-03	47	298	180	478
Christian Rozeboom	South Dakota St.	2016-19	53	241	235	476

• As a finalist, Hauck finished No. 15 in the voting for this year's Buchanan Award, Not only did he get it done on the field for the Griz, he's excelling in the classroom too. Last Wednesday he was one of 15 standouts named as a finalist for the Stats Perform Doris Robinson Scholar-Athlete Award. Already this season he's been named a semifinalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy and an Academic All-District selection by College Sports Communicators (CoSIDA).

FLOWERS POWER: Malik Flowers cemented his name among the best kickoff returners in FCS history this year, tying the FCS all-time record for return touchdowns with seven in his career, a total that ties him for BOTH the all-time FCS AND FBS record for career returns.

Three players are tied at the top of the FBS record book with seven return TDs, and there is a Montana connection with one. Bobby Hauck was Rashaad Penny's special team's coach at San Diego State from 2014-17, and saw the future Seahawk rack up seven during that time as well.

With 55 return yards at NDSU Flowers also made history in another major kickoff return category.

With 2,659 career kickoff return yards, Flowers broke the Big Sky record formerly held by Weber State's Bryant Eteuati (2,644). His kickoff return average of 28.90 is the best average in school history and the sixth-best in Big Sky history, just two-tenths of a yards shy of Rashid Shaheed's career average of 29.09.

He had three seasons with 600-plus return yards after totaling 615 in 2022, despite most teams avoiding kicking to him at all cost.

Terrence Hold of Austin Peay (2007-10) holds the FCS record for most return yards in a career with 4,683 on 191 returns.

Flowers' career kickoff return stats:

Year	GP	ATT	YDS	TD	Long	AVG/R	AVG/G
2018	11	22	607	1	95	27.6	55.2
2019	14	32	879	2	100	27.5	62.8
2020-21	2	2	70	0	51	35.0	35.0
2021	12	16	488	2	99	30.5	40.7
2022	13	20	615	2	100	30.8	47.3
Total	52	92	2659	7	100	28.9	51.1

NCAA FCS Career Average per return
(Minimum 1.2 returns per game; minimum 30 returns; player must have concluded his career)

Player	Team	Years	KR	Yards	Yds/R
Xavier Roberson	Southeastern La.	2012-15	65	2,106	*32.4
Scotty McGee	James Madison	2006-09	71	2,166	30.5
Lamont Brightful	Eastern Wash.	1998-2001	65	1,949	30.0
Juwan Petit-Frere	Southeastern La.	2017-19	50	1,491	29.8
Michael Armstead	San Diego	2018-19	45	1,337	29.7
Troy Brown	Marshall	1991-92	32	950	29.7
Cedric Bowen	Ark.-Pine Bluff	2001-04	38	1,124	29.6
Fabian Truss	Samford	2010-13	85	2,493	29.3
Charles Swann	Indiana St.	1989-91	45	1,319	29.3
Rashid Shaheed	Weber St.	2017-21	88	2,560	29.0
Malik Flowers	Montana	2018-22	92	2,659	28.9

PICK SIX'S IN THE PLAYOFFS: Montana's Corbin Walker provided a spark against NDSU with a 58-yard pick-six in the third quarter that brought the Griz within a point of the Bison. It was the first pick six for the Griz since Justin Ford ran back an interception against Eastern Washington in the 2021 FCS playoffs.

It was also the second pick six of Walker's career, with both occurring in the playoffs. In 2019 the then-freshman rank one back 47 yards against Southeastern Louisiana in the second round of the postseason.

LUCAS LEADS: Montana quarterback Lucas Johnson battled injury for much of his senior season, slowing the spark he showed in the first half of the year, but still able to put together true dual-threat numbers.

Johnson passed for 21 touchdowns and ran for eight more for a total of 29 touchdowns responsible for, the second-most in the conference. With 187 completions on 305 attempts for 2,233 yards he finished the year with the fourth-best efficiency rating (140.9) in the Big Sky.

WELNEL WOWED: Another Grizzly linebacker that put up big numbers this season was senior Marcus Welnel, who finished second on the team in tackles with 97, second in TFLs with 12, and second in sacks with five.

He finishes his career with 240 tackles, No. 36 among Montana's top-40 tacklers of all-time. He also passes Adam Boomer to finish No. 12 on the all-time TFL list at 32.5, and finished No. 15 on the sack list with 16.

HOME SWEET HOME: Montana's playoff win over SEMO marked No. 220 for the Griz inside Washington-Grizzly Stadium, giving UM an unprecedented .862 winning percentage inside the friendly confines with a record of 220-35 since 1986.

At the end of the regular season, Montana finished second in the FCS in attendance averaging 25,298 fans per game, over 100-percent capacity of Washington-Grizzly Stadium for the year.

Montana posted its fourth-straight sold out home game of the year against EWU, with 25,403 fans packing the place. It's the first string of four-straight sellouts for UM since 2015 when the Griz started the season with a bang, beating NDSU in front of 26,472 fans.

BOBBY'S RECORD: At 116-34 and 67-18 in conference play in his 11 years at Montana, head coach Bobby Hauck is UM's winningest coach of all time and became the second-winningest coach in Big Sky history in '22. He needs just 8 victories to break the league win record set by former Northern Arizona head coach and long-time UM assistant Jerome Souers (123).

With a 67-18 conference record at UM, Hauck also needs two more wins in Big Sky play to pass Nevada Hall of Famer Chris Ault at No. 3 on the league win list. He's chasing Tim Walsh (Portland State/Cal Poly) who posted 74 wins, and Souers, who totaled 85 conference wins.

THE YOUTH OF THE GRIZZLIES: Montana fielded a young team in 2022. Just 30 of the team's 107 players on the roster checked-in as upperclassmen (junior or senior), meaning 77 were listed as freshman or sophomores, more than 71% of the roster. Plus, 49 of those 77 underclassmen were listed as freshmen, the largest class on the team.

The Griz are expected to matriculate 16 juniors this season, each expected to return as seniors. They will replace the 15 outgoing seniors on this year's program.

POSTSEASON QUICK HITS: Montana's 2022 postseason run extended the program's FCS record for most overall playoff appearances to 26. Here are some other Griz playoff quick facts:

• The Griz are now 35-24 all-time in the postseason. Those 35 wins are the third-most FCS playoff victories ever and the second-most among teams still competing in the FCS. The most playoff wins belong to Georgia Southern (45), followed by NDSU (41), Montana (35), and Youngstown State (28).

• After defeating SEMO, UM is 32-7 all-time in playoff games (.820) at Washington-Grizzly Stadium dating back to the first playoff appearance in the facility against Jackson State in 1989.

• Montana's record of 26 playoff appearances is followed by Eastern Kentucky and UNI with 22, Furman with 19, and Delaware with 18.

• Montana has made 14 appearances in the Quarterfinal round of the FCS/1-AA playoffs, the second-most in tournament history behind Georgia Southern's 17 appearances. North Dakota State has now made 13 appearances in the quarterfinal.

• Montana holds the record for most consecutive playoff appearances at 17 set between 1993-2009. New Hampshire is second with 14 between 2004-2017, while NDSU is still building in third on the list with 13 from 2010 to the present.

• Montana is 7-5 all-time against teams from the Missouri Valley Conference in the postseason. The last time the Griz played a team from the Valley in the playoffs? 2015 at NDSU, a 37-6 loss. UM is 0-2 in the FCS playoffs against the Bison, and 0-4 against them all-time in the postseason.

Montana and North Dakota State played two years straight in the 1969 and 1970 Camellia Bowl, at the time the College Division National Championship Game. Missing many key starters, Montana fell in both of those games, 3-30 in 1969 and 16-31 in 1970.

Head Coach Bobby Hauck is 2-2 against the Valley in the playoffs, falling to Western Illinois in 2003, and defeating Southern Illinois in 2006 and South Dakota State in an epic 2009 comeback.

University of Montana Athletics

Related News

Players Mentioned

Junior Bergen

Tyler Flink

Malik Flowers

AJ Forbes

Justin Ford

Cole Grossman

Alex Gubner

Robby Hauck

Levi Janacaro

Lucas Johnson

Hunter Mayginnes

Patrick O'Connell

Mitch Roberts

Patrick Rohrbach

Corbin Walker

Marcus Welnel

Related Videos