2010 Montana Grizz

Montana is a dominant FCS team that has a major presence in the Northwest. Year after year Montana makes it far, and they do it by playing with a majority white roster. They earn themselves a thread based on the number of NFL prospects they have produced recently. (Shann Schilinger, Marc Mariani, Kroy Bierman, Colt Anderson). Montana will have as many as 17 starters.


Offense
QB- Andrew Selle *Justin Roper(Oregon transfer is a close second)
RB- Chance Reynolds (6'0 195)
FB- Beau Donaldson (6'1 233)
WR- Sam Gratton (6'0 197)
WR- Jeff Larson (6'4 210)
TE- Greg Hardy (6'5 245)
LT- Jon Opperud (6'7 300)
LG- Stephen Sabin(6'4 308)
C- Alex Verlanic (6'2 282)
RG- Russel Piette(6'4 300)
* Reynolds will be a star this year. Montana uses a lot of different formations so i listed the starters for spread formations and power formations.


Defense
DE- Josh Harris (6'5 231)
DE- Ryan Fetherston(6'4 230)
DT-Tyler Hobbs (6'4 270)
NT- Bryan Waldhauser(6'4 250)
MLB- Caleb McSurdy (6'1 240)
OLB- Jordan Tripp (6'2 217)
SS- Erik Stoll (6'2 203) * Could be the next great Grizz safety
* Right now a black is slated to start at FS but Stoll's younger brother(Kirk) could be giving him a run for his money. At the other OLB a mulatto starts. Donny Liskowski a backup CB Montana's D-coordinator had this to say: "Junior corner) Donny Lisowski is coming along, and our second scrimmage will be important for him. He has shown great athleticism and speed, but his tackling suffered in the first scrimmage and we want to see him pick that up. He's made some great strides."

Chase Reynolds was so fun to watch run the ball last year. And those U. Montana fans go absolutely nuts for their all white team! Never seen a stadium go so crazy in the playoffs.

Star Wars I'll have to agree with you buddy. That stadium has an awesome atmosphere and it is in quite a scenic area. I would love to take a visit out to Montana and catch a Grizz game!

Bravo to the Grizzlies for once again building a football team the right way.

Wish there games were on tv more.

1st game starts in 2 hours at 1 pm MST. You can watch it on the net at http://www.b2livetv.com/partner_members.asp?id=265

i remember it was mentioned a while back if there was a way we could watch our favorite college teams on stream. I looked into it but i really coundnt find anything good. Did anyone find anything?

celticdb15 said:

Star Wars I'll have to agree with you buddy. That stadium has an awesome atmosphere and it is in quite a scenic area. I would love to take a visit out to Montana and catch a Grizz game!

Click to expand...

Good luck getting a ticket.

green fire317 said:

i remember it was mentioned a while back if there was a way we could watch our favorite college teams on stream. I looked into it but i really coundnt find anything good. Did anyone find anything?

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Depends on your team. I watch just about every Griz game on b2live. This network carries a lot of games for various small conferences such as the Big Sky. For the new United Football League, I plan on watching Hass either on HDNET at a local sports bar or streaming on the UHL website. I would check your college team's website to see if their games are being carried on the net and go from there. Good luck.

qj said:

celticdb15 said:

Star Wars I'll have to agree with you buddy. That stadium has an awesome atmosphere and it is in quite a scenic area. I would love to take a visit out to Montana and catch a Grizz game!

Click to expand...

Good luck getting a ticket.

Click to expand...

I can imagine getting a ticket to the game would definitely be a mission. I had the opportunity to go to a Packer game last year and I was really excited because the waiting list for season tickets is just crazy. I've known folks who have been on the list their whole lives and if they happen to pass away, they put the tickets in family members names.

Anyways, who do the Grizz play today??

Looks like Montana dropped its Big Sky opener losing to Eastern Washington 36-27. Hopefully the Grizz can learn from this loss and be a force come playoff time!

RB Chase Renyolds had a nice all-purpose game 107 yds rushing on 23 attempts; and 67 ydson 6 rec and a TDin a 23-21 win over Portland State who BTW had Corey McCaffreyw/ 109 yds rushing on 24 carries and TD...4 rec for 22 yds....QB Connor Kavanaugh lead all rushers with 131 yds on 15 carries and a TD. Edited by: TwentyTwo

Went to the game with a couple of buddies out in Hillsboro. Roper looked lost out there for the most part. The Griz played really poorly overall. Reynolds was a bright spot, though. In the 1st half, he was stuffed much of the time as the line did not open up anything for him. In the 2nd half, he and the Griz finally cracked the Vik's D, and he was tearing off some big chunks of yardage as the game wore on. It did not show up in the final score, but Reynolds had a monster run over the right side in the later half of the 4th quarter, but an idiot held a defender needlessly as Reynolds trotted into the endzone. Then, Roper promptly threw a pick at the Vik's 3 yard line. All they (Griz) had to do was give 34 the ball, but no, the Griz had to get cute, and they almost lost the game as a result. The Vik's then marched the length of the field and scored with a little over 2 minutes to play. The Griz then had to get a field goal to win the game. Fortunately, the dumb Vik's kicked the ball to the shifty, scrappy, and highly entertaining Peter Nguyen who made his usual great return to the 40 yard line. Then, Reynolds basically took the Griz deep into Vik's territory, and the UM Kicker chipped it thru the uprights as time expired. All I can say is that the Griz (luckily) won the game, despite many stupid penalties, bone-head calls from the Griz play callers, and the lost and bewildered Griz QB, Justin Roper. I sure hope Justin bounces back and plays really well next week. Otherwise he may be benched for kid Johnson who has played pretty well this year when given some time.

BTW, I talked to a Griz fan about the possible move to the WAC, and he said there was a lot of concern about this in Missoula. Right now, there is an internal study going on as to whether or not the move would be beneficial to the Griz. If so, they would likely move up to the WAC if the Montana State Bobcats are also allowed to tag along. If the move happened, it looks like the Griz would be playing old Big Sky foes of yesteryear, so the move would be OK at this point in my book. We'll see.

The bottom line is it looks like the Griz may not have the Mojo to go very far even if they manage to make it into the playoffs. Their running game was missing for at least the 1st half of the game. The receivers do not look that good and Roper looked rather lost last night. Let's hope the Griz just had an "off" night and they really kick it into gear next week. They better, because their next opponent, the NAU Lumberjacks, dismantled the highly touted Montana State Bobcats yesterday in Flagstaff.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5792014

Montana staying in FCS, probably the best decision they could make from a caste perspective.


HELENA, Mont. -- The University of Montana Grizzlies
will stay in the Big Sky Conference and not move up to the Football
Bowl Subdivision, school president Royce Engstrom said Thursday.

"It
was a complex decision with many pros and cons," Engstrom said in a
statement. "In the end, the better course is to stay with the conference
we helped establish in 1963 and to continue building on its solid
foundation."

Engstrom said there were three keys to his decision -- he wanted to maintain the cross-state football rivalry with Montana State;
he wanted the Grizzlies to compete against institutions with similar
academic missions; and he wanted to maintain the prestige and integrity
the program has demonstrated.

"At this time, FCS football presents
the best overall fit for the University, it provides our
student-athletes and fans with a great experience, and it is consistent
with the strategic direction of the University," Engstrom said.

Montana
athletic director Jim O'Day, Commissioner of Higher Education Sheila
Stearns and Board of Regents chairman Clayton Christian all said they
agreed with the decision.

Montana will compete in an expanded Big
Sky Conference in 2012, as the league recently added Cal Poly, UC Davis,
North Dakota and Southern Utah.

The Western Athletic Conference
had put Montana high on its list as it looked for new members. But WAC
commissioner Karl Benson had said the conference was waiting for Montana
to decide what it wanted to do before issuing an invitation.

I think the decision to stand pat in the FCS is the correct choice, although the Griz would be able to compete in the WAC. Montana has a small population with 2 universities with an additional powerhouse football college team at Carroll (small time football). As a result, the local talent pool has been stretched really thin as it is. Perhaps if MT was like WY with only 1 university, the FBS would be a better fit for the Griz. Right now, they have a really good program, although they are not that great this year. I was working today, so I didn't get to watch today's game against ND online. The stats indicate RB Chase Reynolds had yet another monster game with 173 yards on the ground on 27 carries. He also had 39 yards receiving. Honestly, I think the guy could play at the next level. He's as good as Lex Hilliard, and Lex is playing right now with the Miami Dolphins. It appears Roper finally had a decent game. He went 14-21 with a TD and a pick. Next week, Roper, Reynolds and the rest of the Griz are going to have to play really, really well to beat their rivals over in Bozeman. Big game. It will be online. If the Griz win next week, I'm pretty sure they will make the playoffs. Here's a link to the Griz schedule:

http://www.montanagrizzlies.com/schedules/?s=17&g=100&m=37

There is a link on the schedule page for their games which are carried live online.

Great game by Chase Reynolds today! That performance should put him well into the top 50 in YPG in the FCS. qj, I hope Montana does win next week and gets into the playoffs. We need every team as White as they are to make the playoffs every year!

Chase Reynolds finishedhis senior year with stellar numbers he racked up1502 yards rushing(4.5 avg.)and 22tdsfor Montana who finished up the season at 7-4. They lost to in state rival Montana State so they didn't make the playoffs . Chase also showed he is a capable receiving back with 38 catches for 358 yards and 2 tds.






ToughJ do you think Chase has a legimate shot at catching someones attention in the NFL? Hillis, Gerhart, and Woodehead have all had pretty solid years, will they open the door for guys like Chase and Zach Line? Edited by: celticdb15

Joe Montana's son Nate will transfer from Notre Dame to Montana! He'll be able to compete immediately since he's transferring to the FCS level. Wish Brandon Wegher would have considered Montana..


http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=6123165

Here's a good video of some underrated guys the Grizz landed this year in their recruiting class. Looksoverwhelmingly white.I see Montana plays Tennessee next year,it would be awesome to see them pull off the upset.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEe8MbzwNa0