Griz set for first road test at Idaho State

As yet unbeaten and riding high off a feel-good win over old foe Idaho, the Montana Grizzlies hit the road for the first time this season on Saturday looking to complete a Gem State sweep as UM travels to Pocatello for a Big Sky showdown against Idaho State.

Montana heads south on I-15 looking to keep a good thing going at 4-0 and one of just three teams in the FCS with two wins over ranked opponents after dispatching the Vandals 41-30.

It's UM's first road game and indoor game this year as the Griz face the Bengals in a refurbished ICCU Dome (formerly Holt Arena), one of the more unique venues in the nation for college football.

The "Minidome" has been happy hunting grounds for the Grizzlies over the years, however. Montana leads the all-time series with Idaho State 48-13 but holds a slimmer 16-7 advantage in games at the 12,000-seat venue since it opened in 1970. UM enters the contest riding a hot streak against the Bengals having won the last 15 meetings between the two founding Big Sky members, and 23 of the last 24 meetings dating back to 1995.

Montana's offense has blossomed under quarterback Keali'i Ah Yat over the course of four games, aided by a strong O-line performance that has helped Eli Gillman become one of the top rushers in the nation. The'll be met with a stout ISU D that is second in the league in sacks and first in both fumbles forced and recovered.

UM's "bend don't break" defense will also be tested at ISU. While UM sits third in the league in scoring D and second in defensive efficiency, the Bengals enter the game with a two-headed monster of an offense that accounts for nearly 300 yards per game – a league high.

Kickoff from the ICCU Dome is set for 6 p.m.

WATCH: The Grizzlies return to Montana Television Network stations around the state this week, with the Idaho State matchup available on basic cable, satellite options, free-to-air channels, and online streaming.

This week's game will be shown on KPAX in Missoula and Kalispell, KTVQ in Billings, KRTV in Great Falls, KXLH in Helena, and KBZK in Butte and Bozeman. The game will also be shown in the Boise, Twin Falls, and Tucson, Ariz., markets on "The Spot." The Spot is a new independent television network that serves as the secondary home of Big Sky Conference games and will carry specific UM games in specific markets.

The Spot is available around the state free-to-air for viewers with antennas. It is also available on Spectrum Cable, TCT West, Montana Opticom, Access Montana, DIRECTV, the DIRECTV streaming platform, and FUBO TV.

ESPN+ will again serve as the primary streaming home of Montana Athletics this season.

In the booth are veteran play-by-play announcer Trey Bender, joined by former Grizzly All-American Jordan Tripp who serves as analyst. Kyle Hansen will report from the sidelines. For complete broadcast details visit GoGriz.com/WhereToWatch.

LISTEN: "Voice of the Griz" Riley Corcoran is in his tenth 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.

"Grizzly Gameday" starts two hours before kickoff each Saturday with the official pregame radio show featuring Ace Sauerwein and Denny Bedard before Corcoran and longtime color commentator Greg Sundberg take over 30 minutes to kickoff.

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.

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PLAYER(S) OF THE WEEK: Montana has had at least one Big Sky Player of the Week every Monday through the first three weeks of the season. So, who do you honor after several standout performances in a dominant win over Idaho on week four? The whole dang team.

It took a total team effort for the Montana Grizzlies to dismantle the No. 8 Idaho Vandals 41-30. While there were certainly bigtime players in all three phases of the game for the Griz, no one individual on offense, defense, or special teams racked up numbers that jumped off the stat sheet.

So, in recognizing the team's combined performance on the biggest stage in a top 10 battle for the Little Brown Stein, the Grizzlies were named the Stats Perform FCS National Team of the Week. The FCS arm of the NCAA also named the Grizzlies its national Team of the Week on Monday as well.

Montana led the game from bell to bell, never trailing Idaho in the Big Sky Game of the Week to claim a bigger win than the score would indicate in the series dating back to 1903 to make it nine victories in the last 10 meetings against the Vandals.

OFFENSIVE OUTBURSTS: Eli Gillman carried the ball a career-high 27 times for 142 yards and a pair of scores. It was third game over 100 yards this season and the 11^th of his career. Here's a few more Gillman goodies:

• He passed former teammate Nick Ostmo to move to No. 5 on UM's all-time career rush yards list with 2,671 in his career. He'll have a long way to go, however, to move to No. 4 and surpass Jordan Canada's career best of 3,435 yards – specifically 765 more for Gillman. Granted, after just four games he's totaled 558 yards this season and still has eight more games to play AND another year of eligibility.

• Gillman leads the FCS in rushing yards per game this season, averaging 135.5 per outing, a number that places him third in all D-I football behind Rober Henry of UTSA (156) and Ahmad Hardy of Missouri (146).

• He leads the Big Sky and is third in the FCS this week in rushing touchdowns with eight on the season. With 36 rushing and 38 total in his career, he's on the verge of passing Canada's touchdown count as well, needing five more of each to pass. He's the FCS' career active leader in rushing touchdowns again this week and top five in rushing yards and all-purpose yards.

Michael Wortham added 164 all-purpose yards with a rushing and receiving touchdown on top of 90 return yards in the kicking game to help UM past Idaho. He's now first in the Big Sky and second in the FCS in all-purpose yards per game with an average of 159.

Wortham remains the FCS' career active leader in all-purpose yards per game (122.93) and kickoff return average (28.6) this week. He totaled a game-high 164 AP yards against Idaho last week, paced by 74 kickoff return yards.

Keali'i Ah Yat was again tremendous passing the ball, completing 17 of 23 passes (a 73.9 percent rate, his second-best of the season) for 223 evenly distributed yards, while throwing for one score and rushing for another.

• Ah Yat leads the Big Sky in passing yards per game and is fourth in the FCS with 271.5. He's also first in passing efficiency in the league. Combine that with UM's Big Sky-best rushing offense and Coordinator Brent Pease's group is humming along at an average of 42.5 points per game – the most prolific in the conference and No. 8 nationally.

Drew Deck led the team with a career-high 67 receiving yards, hauling in all five of his targets, even if it meant getting caught in a kickers net on the sideline. Brooks Davis continued his breakout freshman season as well with 63 yards on four catches to give the Griz three players over 55 yards receiving including Wortham's total.

DOMINANT D: Montana's defense also had another smothering game. UM held Idaho to just six points in the first half and 191 yards of total offense in the game if you take out four long pass completions in the second half as the Vandals tried to overcome a lead of as many as 19 points.

Sophomore safety Kade Boyd led the Griz with six tackles and a key fumble recovery late in the fourth quarter that helped ice the game for Montana. Elijawah Tolbert added five tackles (one for a loss), and one of UM's six pass breakups that helped keep the Vandal air attack in check.

Despite those long chunk plays it was a solid day for the defensive secondary in general, with safety Micah Harper breaking up two passes and nearly picking off a third and corner Kenzel Lawler adding four tackles and a pair of breakups in his best game as a Grizzly to date. Former Vandal safety Diezel Wilkinson also broke up a hail Mary attempt and added four tackles to his total.

Defensive end Hunter Peck was also a major disruptive force, filling the stat sheet with four tackles, one of which was a sack with two for a loss, and adding a forced fumble.

Ty Morrison was again lights-out in a dominant kicking game performance. He hit on two field goals from 37 and 26 out while going five-for-five to total 11 points with his foot. He also flipped the field for Montana, pinning Idaho inside their own 20 on all four of his punts that averaged 40.8 yards a piece. In the kickoff department he totaled eight attempts for 504 yards and four touchbacks.

All together the Griz are the No. 1 team in the Big Sky and top 12 nationally in both red zone offense and red zone defense, converting points 94 percent of the time and allowing them 67 percent of the time.

FOUR-AND-OH-YEAH: Montana is one of 11 teams in the FCS and just eight who have played more than two games to remain undefeated this week. The Griz hit the road for the first time this season riding a six-game home win streak, and have won 23 of the last 24 games inside Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

TO BE THE BEST…: You gotta beat the best. After two wins over ranked opponents and another over a program from the Missouri Valley, Montana's past SOS (past strength of schedule) is ranked No. 8 in the FCS and No. 2 in the Big Sky this week behind Portland State's gauntlet. UM heads to ISU with a .692 SOS percentage, as ranked by the NCAA's toughest schedules report.

GRIZ IN THE POLLS: The Grizzlies bumped up a spot to No. 4 in both the Stats Perform FCS media poll and the AFCA coaches' poll this week – their highest ranking of the season. UM is now the highest ranked Big Sky Conference team in both polls out of five teams from the league all in the top 15.

GRIZ IN THE RATINGS: Montana rose to No. 82 and remains the No. 2 Big Sky team and the No. 5 FCS team in this week's Sagarin Ratings with a 66.23. UM stays put in the Massey Ratings similarly at Nos. 2/5 as well.

Just for fun, Montana ranks above other prominent programs in this week's Sagarin's like Utah State, West Virginia, Purdue, Wake Forest, Army and Stanford. Idaho State is ranked No. 182 behind Eastern Washington.

The Sagarin and Massey ratings are computer calculations that take into account strength of schedule, among other variables, to rank teams, and can be used in tiebreaking scenarios for championships and the postseason.

CAN'T WIN WITHOUT THE BALL: Montana entered into positive territory in the turnover differential this week for the first time this season, now at +1 after recovering a key fumble against Idaho. The Griz have totaled six takeaways to five giveaways, but have made the most out of those turnovers, outscoring opponents 24-7 off the takeaways.

NICE ROUND NUMBERS: Montana's win over Idaho was No. 240 for the Griz inside Washington-Grizzly Stadium since the venue opened in 1986. UM is now 240-37 (.866) at "The Mecca of FCS Football", one of the best home field advantages in the game.

It was also the 650th in program history. UM sits at 650-518-26 since 1897 (.555), a tradition of success unlike most FCS teams in the west. Montana is the only team in the Big Sky and one of just six FCS teams west of the Mississippi that have passed the 600-win mark.

HAUCK HISTORY: Already the winningest overall coach in Big Sky Conference history, Bobby Hauck is now closer to the top of the table in league wins after beating Idaho. Hauck is now 80-22 in 14 seasons of conference play. He needs just six more wins over Big Sky opponents to surpass Jerome Souers' career total of 85.

ATTENDANCE LEADER: Montana ends the month of September as the FCS leader in total and average attendance following a string of four-straight home games, each with a top 20 crowd in program history. UM totaled 106,019 fans in the month and averaged 26,505 per game, that's 105.1 percent of Washington-Grizzly Stadium's capacity.

The 2025 season is now tied with the 2023 season with four games listed among the top 20 highest attended in program history, still with four more home games to play out of this year's FCS record eight home games.

THE NIGHTTIME IS THE RIGHT TIME: After night game wins over Central Washington and Idaho, Montana has now moved to 19-3 in games after dark played in Washington-Grizzly Stadium. The Griz could get one more night game at home this season, with ESPN scheduling at least one playoff game in Missoula at night in each of the last four seasons.

UM will play two night games on the road this season, with the first coming up this weekend at Idaho State at 6 p.m.… but you wouldn't know it because the game will be held in a dome. The Griz play under Friday night lights on ESPN 2 at Sacramento State on Oct. 24 at 8:30 p.m. (MT).

#NEXTLEVELGRIZ UPDATE: Former Grizzly defensive end Hayden Harris officially signed with the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League on Tuesday. Harris was selected by the Lions in the second round of the CFL Draft with the 11^th overall pick in the spring. However, he also signed with the Buffalo Bills as an undrafted free agent following the NFL draft. After being cut by the Bills during training camp, he's now officially headed north of the border.

Former Grizzly receiver Keelan White is also currently in the CFL with the Ottawa Redblacks after being selected in the first round of the draft. He's caught 36 passes for 410 yards and is Ottawa's fifth-leading pass catcher as a rookie.

Former Grizzly linebacker Braxton Hill of Anaconda has been called up to the active roster with the Hamilton Tiger Cats of the CFL as well. He started his career up north on the Saskatchewan practice squad before being waived and signed to the Hamilton taxi squad on Sept. 16, and has since been called up to the active roster and made his first appearance last week versus Winnipeg.

Back stateside, three other former Grizzlies are on NFL practice squads this year. Linebacker Patrick O'Connel is with the Seahawks, tackle Dylan Cook is with the Steelers, and receiver/return man Junior Bergen is with the 49ers.

SCOUTING THE BENGALS: Fuled by the No. 1 passing offense in the Big Sky, high-flying Idaho State enters this week's contest at 2-3, eager for a home game after playing four of its first five games on the road this season.

Despite the extended road trip, ISU has come out with some impressive results, taking UNLV down to the wire in Las Vegas to open the season with a 31-38 loss and hanging with Jason Eck's New Mexico Lobos 22-32. The Bengals picked up their first conference win last week, traveling to Greeley and dispatching a much-improved Northern Colorado team 26-18.

ISU also had a field day with Lincoln (CA), a program that is not affiliated with the NCAA or NAIA that plays all its games on the road and canceled last week's game after being drubbed by the Bengals 90-0.

QB Jordan Cooke paces the offense as the Big Sky's third-leading passer with an average of 241 yards per game, not far off the league leader Keali'i Ah Yat's average of 271. Receiver Michael Shulikov stands 6-foot-6 and is Cooke's favorite target, sitting third in the Big Sky with an average of 80 yards receiving per game.

Defensively, freshman safety Ryan Leathers and senior Cam'ron Willis are both top five in the league in tackles and TFLs, respectively.

LAST MEETING WITH ISU: Montana bounced-back from a loss at Northern Arizona and defeated Idaho State team 28-20 to improve to 4-1 on the 2023 season before going on to win the Big Sky title. The Grizzlies never trailed on a rainy day in Missoula, outgaining the Bengals 394-334, holding the best passing attack in the Big Sky to 289 yards through the air.

The game was a battle of styles with Montana running the ball 51 times and the Bengals passing it 47 times. In the end, Montana did enough to remain undefeated against Idaho State inside Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

Clifton McDowell started the game and took the majority of the reps at quarterback, helping spark Montana's rushing attack. McDowell had 20 carries for 66 yards and a touchdown and added 160 yards and another score through the air. He completed 65 percent of his passes with no turnovers. Gillman, a freshman, followed his quarterback with 16 carries for 51 yards and a score, while Nick Ostmo had eight totes for 49 yards on a 6.1 average.

Montana pulled out a pair of trick plays for momentum-changing plays. Sawyer Racanelli threw a touchdown pass to Evan Shafer on a reverse, and punter Travis Benham converted a fourth down with a pass to Garrett Graves.

The offense was balanced with 220 yards coming in the air and 174 on the ground. Junior Bergen hauled in seven catches for 100 yards on the day, gaining 40 of those after the catch. Keelan White added five catches, including two spectacular first-down grabs that are sure to make the highlight reel, for 54 yards.

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Players Mentioned

Keali'i Ah Yat

Junior Bergen

Kade Boyd

Brooks Davis

Drew Deck

Eli Gillman

Micah Harper

Hayden Harris

Kenzel Lawler

Ty Morrison

Nick Ostmo

Hunter Peck

Sawyer Racanelli

Evan Shafer

Elijawah Tolbert

Keelan White

Diezel Wilkinson

Michael Wortham

University of Montana Athletics