Article on Cats vs Griz success

[nanacat]

Saw this on 406 Sports thought it was interesting. Just copied the article, hope that's not a bad thing.

On precipice of Frisco return, Bobcats becoming what Grizzlies dream of reattaining
Frank Gogola
MISSOULA — Montana State advanced to the FCS playoff semifinals for the fourth time in five seasons with a 52-19 win over Idaho on Friday night.

That's something Montana has never done.

You read that right. The Grizzlies, who have played in eight national championship games, have never made the semifinals four times in a five-season stretch.

They've reached the semis 11 times in program history — 12 if you count the vacated 2011 run. They did it four times in six years from 2006-11, four times in six years from 2004-09 and three straight years in 1994-96 after lasting doing it in 1989 and then doing it again in 2000.

The Cats are back in the semifinals after trips in 2019, 2021 and 2022. They and the Griz didn't play in the spring 2021 season after the pandemic canceled the fall 2020 campaign.

The Cats won their 2021 semifinal to advance to the championship game for the first time since 1984. They'll try to do that again when they host South Dakota at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. The other semifinal will be South Dakota State versus North Dakota State at 10 a.m. Saturday.

The Montana and Dakota schools have the money, facilities, fan bases and tradition to be in position to make perennial deep runs in the playoffs. Montana State has indeed risen up as the departure of top-tier teams to the FBS over the past decade-plus has diluted the subdivision.

Meanwhile, Montana has made the semifinals just once since its 2011 trip. That came in 2023 when it finished as the national runner-up.

The Cats missed out on a semifinal trip in 2023, which would've been a rematch with the Griz in Missoula. They suffered a heartbreaking loss to North Dakota State in the second round on a blocked extra point.

They're allowed one unexpected loss and can still call what they're doing a dominant run. Just look at Hauck's 2007 team, which he has called his best. The Griz were stunned in their playoff opener, losing by one point to Wofford.

You can even lose to your rival and still be the more successful program. The Griz were 5-2 in the rivalry in Hauck's first head coaching stint as they lost in 2003 and 2005. The Cats are 6-2 in the past eight Brawls with losses in 2021 and 2023. Hauck has coached in six of the past eight and is 2-4 against MSU.
He's 3-5 against the four Dakota schools since returning in 2018, including 1-3 against North Dakota State and South Dakota State. Only one win of those three came over a team that ended the year with a winning record, while one of the losses came to a team that finished with a losing record.

Montana and Montana State have both followed the Dakota States with indoor practice facilities for their football programs. At the grand opening of the facility in October, Hauck said, "It's starting to look like a practice complex out here. They're gonna start expecting us to win some games, I imagine."

Montana didn't need a warm place to practice in the winter months in order to win regularly during Hauck's first time around. The Griz made the semis four times in seven seasons from 2003-09 and advanced to the title game three times. They won the Big Sky title all seven years.

They've now won just one conference crown in the six seasons since he returned. They've had just the one semifinal trip in that same timeframe.

They've been knocked out in the quarterfinals twice and second round twice. They also missed the playoffs once, in 2018 as he was starting to rebuild the program left by Bob Stitt.

"I think the Big Sky Conference is what it is. I think it is what it has been," Hauck said of the league's landscape at his introductory press conference in December 2017. "I think the one difference right now and has been the last numerous years is there's not Montana at the top.

"When Joe (Glenn) was here and Mick (Dennehy) and the end of Don (Read)'s tenure and then my seven years here, there was always Montana at the top and then there was some challenger. ... The difference in the Big Sky is everybody's equal instead of somebody trying to challenge the Griz."

Six teams have won at least a share of the conference crown since 2018 while the league has had successful coaches like Troy Taylor, Jay Hill and Jason Eck, who all moved on to FBS jobs (Eck was named New Mexico's head coach Saturday). UM's 2023 Big Sky championship season has been the outlier, not the norm, for the Griz since Hauck came back.

In his second tenure, Montana has gone 32-16 (.667) in conference games, a drop from going 47-6 (.887) his first time around.

The Griz went 7-1 against ranked opponents in 2023 but are just 16-16 overall against ranked teams in the Hauck 2.0 version of the program.

They've also gone 39-7 at home in that stretch. Not a bad record, but the Cats are 43-3 in that same span, including 30-1 under Brent Vigen.

Further, Hauck's teams have lost five games three times in six seasons. They never lost more than four from 2003-09.

The Griz have now lost five or more games seven times in the past 12 seasons dating back to the 5-6 campaign in 2012. Before that, they had never lost five games in a season from 1993-2011. The last five-loss season before 2012 was way back in 1992.

The Griz had sustained their prior success under multiple coaches. They went from Don Read to Mick Dennehy to Joe Glenn to Hauck and Robin Pflugrad.

The Cats have now accomplished their success under multiple coaches. First it was Jeff Choate, who not only led MSU to the 2019 semifinals but went 4-0 against the Griz. Now it's Vigen, who took over in 2021 and has guided three semifinal trips in four seasons.

He has the Cats scratching their way toward greatness with their "1-0" mentality this season. They've already won their second Big Sky title in three seasons and their first outright league crown since 1984. They shared the 2011 title with UM but two years later became the outright champs when the Griz vacated wins as part of NCAA sanctions.

"In '21, when we made the semifinals and we advanced, I think we set a new expectation of where we want to be in this program," Vigen said Friday. "You're not guaranteed that just because you want it, but I think this is our expectation, that we're playing deep into the season, we're creating opportunities to play in big games, and that's where we're at right now."

The Cats have had this success by dominating on both sides of the line of scrimmage. Those were areas where the Griz had excelled when winning Big Sky titles and making deep postseason runs. They're now areas where they're currently lacking compared to the elite programs in the subdivision.

The Cats have also found their current success with Montana natives Tommy Mellott, Brody Grebe, Marcus Wehr, Rylan Ortt, Taco Dowler and Adam Jones playing prominent roles. Not only are they starters, but they're playing at All-Big Sky levels and in some cases All-America levels. Having those in-state players only adds to how special their accomplishments have been.

The Griz rode many talented in-state stars during their runs in the 1990s and 2000s, guys like Dave Dickenson, Chase Reynolds and Marc Mariani. Now, the Cats have won recent in-state recruiting battles and got the seven highest-rated Montana recruits in this year's class, according to 247Sports. Meanwhile, UM has lost two commits in the 2025 class to NAIA programs.

In the current era of unlimited transferring, things can drastically change from one season to the next. The Cats and Griz have traded places the past two years in terms of exceeding or failing to meet expectations. Perhaps things swing back in UM's favor next year as MSU graduates talented players.

Putting together a competitive team each season is different now than two decades ago as Name, Image and Likeness can lure top players to FBS programs that can offer more money than the Montana schools. Being an annual contender for titles could be one way to entice elite players to stay. Montana natives or those with program ties are also more likely to stay.

Perhaps UM has its quarterback of the future with legacy player Keali'i Ah Yat. The Griz have had two All-Big Sky QB awards since 2018. Both were Dalton Sneed being honorable mention when the Big Sky awarded three teams and honorable mention. In that stretch, Eastern Washington has had six, MSU and UC Davis have had four, and Idaho and Sacramento State have had three.

The Griz won't be the 2025 preseason favorite in the Big Sky, but they won the 2023 league crown when they were picked sixth in the poll and didn't have outside pressure on them. They finished sixth in 2022 and fifth in 2024 when they were the preseason favorite that had high outside expectations.

For now, don't expect the Griz to be rooting for the Cats in the semifinals like it's some sort of Treasure State brotherly love. While the Cats have again made the semifinals and are dreaming of another trip to Frisco, the Griz are still dreaming of becoming what they once were — and what the Cats are now.

[nanacat]

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