Griz turn attention to surging South Dakota

The Montana Grizzlies return to Washington-Grizzly Stadium Saturday for a battle between two playoff programs from a year ago, with the South Dakota Coyotes coming to Missoula for a Big Sky/Missouri Valley showdown.

The Griz (1-0) enter the game riding high from a 47-0 dismantling of Northwestern State last week, extending UM's streak of wins in the home opener. The Coyotes (0-1) also played in a shutout last week, but came out on the wrong side in a 34-0 loss to the Big 12's Kansas State Wildcats.

The game marks the return matchup of a home-and-home series with USD which has deep roots in the northern plains. Montana and South Dakota first faced each other in 1915 and played regularly in the '60s and '70s. After a hiatus, this week's matchup marks the fifth between the two programs in the last decade.

South Dakota comes to Missoula as a program on the rise, with Coach Bob Nielson's program knocking off No. 7 South Dakota State last season in Vermillion to advance to the playoffs for the first time since 2017.

But the Griz are also a team on the rise with sights set on a championship. Montana has made two-straight trips to the FCS quarterfinals and has the tools to compete at the highest level in the land, as evidenced by last week's season-opening shutout and a long list of preseason accolades.

In recent history, however, the road to a championship has gone through the Missouri Valley.

Like the Griz, the Coyotes boast – statistically speaking – the program's best defense since the school joined the FCS in 2009, led by All-American linebacker Brock Morgensen who had a game-high 12 tackles against K-State last week.

If USD is to return to the playoffs, they'll have to run a gauntlet of a schedule that started in Manhattan and heads to Missoula this week. Their schedule also includes week four and five conference battles with No. 1 North Dakota State and No. 2 SDSU – pitting USD against the top three FCS teams in the country in the first five weeks.

With a better than 86 percent win average at home, Montana will need the full power of Washington-Grizzly Stadium behind it this week, providing a playoff atmosphere for a battle between two playoff potential teams.

KNOW BEFORE YOU #GOGRIZ: Griz Football is back for its 125th year and Bobby Hauck's 11th as head coach. Get game ready with these helpful tips:

MOBILE TICKETS - Download your tickets to the wallet app on your mobile device now, before you get to the game. TRANSFER YOUR TICKETS to friends and family via your GrizTix account.

MOBILE DEVICE - Charge the battery on your mobile device so you're sure to have plenty of power to get your tickets scanned.

TRANSPORTATION – Double-check your transportation and parking options ahead of time.

GAMEDAY POLICY REMINDERS – Visit the Gameday Central page on GoGriz.com to make sure you're caught up with clear bag policies and other important gameday info.

GAMEDAY TIMELINE – Saturday's kickoff time was moved back a half hour to 1:30 to accommodate the Texas/Alabama game on TV in the lead-up to the Griz game. Below is a timeline of activity to plan your day. Be sure to get in your seats early and enjoy the pregame festivities.

9 a.m. - Parking Lots Open
10:30 a.m. - Ticket Office Open
11:15 a.m. – Griz Walk
11:30 a.m. – GSA Tailgate Opens
Noon - Stadium Gates Open
1:30 p.m. - Kickoff

WATCH: ABC/Fox Montana (SWX in Billings) will carry a statewide, free-to-air broadcast of Saturday's game, with ESPN+ streaming the action nationwide with no blackouts.

Dennis Patchin will serve as the play-by-play man for the broadcast, with former Grizzly QB and current Kalispell Glacier High School head coach Grady Bennett serving as analyst. Shaun Rainey 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 long-time 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 held steady in the FCS national polls this week at No. 2 in the AFCA coaches poll and No. 3 in the Stats Perform media poll.

The Griz did pick up a first-place vote in the coaches poll to increase their point total to 666 points, up from 567 points in the preseason poll to pull further ahead of South Dakota State.

Despite last week's loss at Kansas State, South Dakota continued to receive votes in this week's national polls, picking up 44 points in the media poll and five points in the coaches poll.

Montana was picked to win the Big Sky Conference title race for the first time since 2012 by both the league's coaches and media in the lead-up to the season at the annual football kickoff in Spokane.

HILL NAMED PLAYER OF THE WEEK: After leading the charge in a Montana season-opener shutout, Grizzly junior linebacker Braxton Hill was named the Big Sky Defensive Player of the Week on Monday. Making his first career start in maroon and silver, Hill, from Anaconda, was one of Montana's main catalysts on defense, racking up a career-high 10 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, and getting in on a half sack.

Hill was one of many shining stars on a Grizzly defense that dominated Northwestern State on Saturday. The unit held the Demons to just 19 rushing yards and 212 yards of total offense while allowing the visitors to cross into Montana territory just three times.

Montana's rushing defense picked up where it left off last season, putting in the best performance in the Big Sky against D-I opponents on week one, leading to one of just seven shutout victories in the FCS on Saturday.

Hill made his debut as a starter Saturday after making 22 appearances in his first two seasons. In his last game at James Madison, he logged his previous career-high with eight tackles and a sack. He also received an honorable mention for the FedEx Ground FCS National Defensive Player of the Week.

SATURDAY'S OTHER STARS: On offense, Montana nominated another first-time starter for player of the week in quarterback Lucas Johnson. In his Grizzly debut, the senior was a true dual threat, completing 15 of 24 passes for 208 yards and four touchdowns. He also led Montana in rushing with 7 carries for 76 yards, averaging nearly 11 yards per carry.

His 284 yards of total offense on 31 plays were also the second-most for a winning QB in the Big Sky this week and were the most average yards per play among Big Sky QBs.

On special teams, junior linebacker Levi Janacaro was threatening all day and finally broke through in the second quarter to block a Northwestern State punt that was then scooped up by his Big Sky high school teammate Tyler Flink and returned for a Montana special teams touchdown.

Janacaro was a menace on both special teams and defense, totaling 6 tackles, one TFL, a forced fumble, and a pass breakup in addition to his block.

Eastern Washington QB Gunnar Talkington threw for 348 yards and five TDs against Tennessee State to win Offensive Player of the Week Honors. Sacramento State sophomore running back Cameron Skattebo logged a rushing, receiving, and a kick return touchdown in the Hornet's win over Utah Tech to earn Special Teams honors.

SERIES HISTORY: Once familiar foes, Montana and South Dakota faced off frequently in the mid-60s and early 70s but have only played each other five times since 1999 in the decades since.

Montana holds a commanding 13-6 overall lead in the series. The Griz are 5-0 in games played in Missoula and 4-1 in neutral site games, with three meetings held in Billings in 1949, '65, and '67 and two held in Great Falls in '69 and '71.

UM enters this week's game having won six-straight meetings dating all the way back to 1975.

LAST MEETING: Montana opened its 2019 FCS Quarterfinal run on the road in Vermillion, where the Griz knocked off the Coyotes 31-17 in the DakotaDome.

Dalton Sneed threw for 430 yards and three touchdowns while Samuel Akem and Samori Toure both caught nine passes for a combined 300 yards and a pair of scores to hand South Dakota its first loss in a home opener in 16 years.

The Grizzlies would score on five straight possessions in the second and third quarters while being forced to punt just twice while going 10 of 16 on third downs. Marcus Knight scored his first touchdown as a Grizzly late in the third quarter on a six-yard pass from Sneed to cap Montana's scoring.

Defensively, Robby Hauck led the Griz with 10 tackles and a key pass breakup while Jace Lewis picked up a sack and two pass breakups to help hold the Coyotes to 352 yards of total offense in two scoreless quarters.

STREAKS ALIVE: Montana extended its winning streak in both home-openers and season-openers last week, both streaks that rank among the tops in the FCS. The Griz now hold the fourth-longest active home-opener streak in the country at 19 games after Arkansas State lost at home on week one. Only Harvard, NDSU, and North Dakota have longer streaks, with Harvard and UND yet to play at home this year. UM is now 32-4 all-time in the first game of the year played at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

ACTIVE FCS HOME-OPENER WIN STREAKS
35 North Dakota - 1986-2021
24 North Dakota State - 1999-2021
20 Harvard - 2001-2021
19 Montana - 2004-2022

After upsetting Washington in 2021, Montana has also now won seven-straight season-openers, which ranks as the subdivision's second-longest streak behind Dartmouth's 11-straight wins. The Big Green have also not played yet this season, and are set to face Valpo on Sept. 17.

ACTIVE FCS WIN STREAKS IN SEASON-OPENERS
11 Dartmouth
7 Montana
6 North Dakota State, Princeton
5 Villanova
4 Alabama A&M, Columbia, North Dakota, Towson

Montana has not lost a season-opener since 2014 at Wyoming, and before that had not lost since 2011 at Tennessee.

Since Hauck returned to Montana in 2018, the Griz have won their home opener by a combined score of 235-50, and have not allowed an opponent to score more than 10 points in the last three seasons.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED: The Montana/South Dakota game kicks off the 2022 edition of the Big Sky/Missouri Valley Challenge Series as the first of six scheduled matchups between the two conferences this season.

Now in its fourth year, the Missouri Valley Football Conference holds a 3-0 advantage in the series with wins in each previous year.

Montana, however, holds a 3-1 lead over MVFC opponents during the series run, entering this week's game against South Dakota with three-straight wins.

The Griz defeated Western Illinois 42-7 last season, South Dakota 31-17 in 2019, and Northern Iowa 26-23 in 2018. Western Illinois was UM's only loss in the series on Sept. 15 of 2018, with the Griz falling 31-27 in Macomb.

Montana has two chances to expand its lead in 2022 with a road trip to face Indiana State on the schedule for Sept. 17.

In a friendly competition between the two premier conferences in FCS football, the MVFC won the series 4-2 in 2021, 6-4 in 2019, and 5-3 in 2018.

DOMINANT D: Montana produced one of the most dominant defensive performances of the last decade on Saturday. The 47-0 shutout was just the second time Montana has kept an opponent completely scoreless since 2011 when the Griz beat Idaho State 33-0. The last time UM pitched a shutout was 304 days before this story was published – a 35-0 whitewash of Northern Colorado on Nov. 6, 2021.

DEFENSIVE QUICK HITS: Here are some other defensive highlights from Montana's season-opening shutout - one of just seven in FCS football on week one.

• In Montana's last four regular season games, opposing offenses have only scored 13 points against the Grizzly defense. The start of that streak was also Montana's last shutout at Northern Colorado.

• While the Griz have had two shutouts since 2011, giving the opponent a goose egg is not exactly foreign to Coach Hauck's defenses. Now in his 11th overall year coaching at UM, Hauck has led the Griz to nine total shutout victories since 2003.

• Montana had more sacks than Northwestern State had trips into UM territory. The Demons entered UM's half off the field just three times on Saturday, while the Grizzly defense produced four total sacks. At one point in the game Montana had just as many sacks (3) as NSU had total rushing yards (3).

• The Griz lead all of Division-I football (FCS and FBS) in turnover margin after week one. The Griz are +5 on turnovers after recovering three fumbles and picking off two passes.

• Montana held Northwestern State to just 36 net yards rushing – the best defense against the run in the Big Sky versus a D-I opponent on Week 1.

IT'S ALL CONNECTED: Levi Janacaro, a Missoula native and graduate of Big Sky High, blocked a punt against Northwestern State that was scooped up by his fellow Big Sky teammate Tyler Flink and returned for a touchdown.

The last Grizzly to return a blocked punt for a touchdown? Janacaro, who both blocked a punt and returned it for a score against Cal Poly in 2021.

ATTACK WEAPONS: Offensively, Montana spread the love last week with five running backs taking a snap and ten Grizzlies catching a pass. The steady hands of Mitch Roberts produced a pair of early TDs and a game-high 103 yards receiving, while Junior Bergen added two more scores with 61 yards in the air.

Johnson's four passing touchdowns were the first since Cam Humphrey threw four at Portland State in 2019 (he also threw five TDs in 2021 against Western Illinois).

RECORD WATCH: Robby Hauck logged nine tackles Saturday to inch closer to Montana's all-time record. Now with 373 to his name, he needs just 25 more to set the school's career mark.

Patrick O'Connell logged a pair of tackles for loss in addition to a sack and his first career interception last week. He passed Adam Boomer on UM's all-time TFL list at No. 11.

Marcus Knight was welcomed back to Washington-Grizzly Stadium with a touchdown Saturday, the 24th of his career. He is now tied with Tony Rice for the 6th most career rushing TDs in program history, chasing Chase Reynolds' career mark of 52 with nearly two full seasons to play.

HAUCK MILESTONES: Now with an overall record of 109-29 and 63-14 in conference play in his ten years at Montana, head coach Bobby Hauck is the Grizzlies' winningest coach of all time. He is also closing in on becoming the all-time winningest coach in Big Sky Conference history.

Hauck needs just 15 more career wins to pass former NAU head coach and UM assistant Jerome Souers' Big Sky record 123 overall wins. However, he only needs three more wins to pass Nevada's Chris Ault's total of 111 to move into second place in league history.

In conference play, Hauck's career total of 63 wins ties him in fourth place with Mike Kramer, needing six more wins to pass Ault's Big Sky total of 68, 12 more to pass Tim Walsh's total of 74, and 24 more to pass Souers' total of 85.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Samuel Akem

Junior Bergen

Tyler Flink

Robby Hauck

Braxton Hill

Cam Humphrey

Levi Janacaro

Lucas Johnson

Marcus Knight

Jace Lewis

Patrick O'Connell

Mitch Roberts

Dalton Sneed

Samori Toure

University of Montana Athletics