MISSOULA, Mont. – Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the Montana Grizzlies went from ugly to exceptionally attractive in 2023.
Close games versus non-scholarship Butler and DII Ferris State, capped with a loss at traditionally inferior Northern Arizona had the masses viewing them like the frog in The Frog Prince, before the kiss from the princess. But after running through Big Sky competition, throttling Montana State, and winning back-to-back overtime playoff games, the Griz have transformed into the handsome prince, ready to compete in the FCS National Championship.
That’s how they were portrayed all year long, now considered by some “a team destined to win it” because of the way their season has been perceived – a no-good team that flipped the switch midseason and hasn’t looked back over a “miraculous” run.
But maybe the Griz were better than people thought this whole time and it’s not necessarily a surprise they’ll be in Frisco; Maybe they were the prince all along.
As everyone knows, head coach Bobby Hauck runs a tight ship at Montana, and what fans or media were saying about his team, both negative and positive as the season moved along, wasn’t heard. They didn’t see things quite the same way many observers did.
Digging into the resume
In mid-September, two-time defending DII national champion Ferris State came into Washington-Grizzly Stadium and played to the very final minutes.
Ultimately losing 17-10, they had drives in the final quarter that reached the Montana 5-yard line and 20-yard line but couldn’t convert. It got FCS football pundits talking about the Griz and who they’d be as a team this season – that trickled into fan conversations and outlook of Montana became bleak.
The next week, UM hit the road for a conference-opening test in Flagstaff, where the Lumberjacks handled the visitor 28-14.
That 14-day stretch became the defining moment of Griz football early on. They were written off, turned on, counted out; nobody believed. But it may have been blown out of proportion looking at the big picture.
After a full slate of games that included Pioneer League, UAC, MVFC, SoCon, CAA and Big Sky foes, including powers like NDSU and MSU, Hauck spoke further on their “just a DII” opponent.
“Ferris State I think is one of the best teams we played all year,” Hauck said. “I felt pretty good about our team after that game.”
It’s a sentiment that running backs coach Justin Green shared, too.
Externally, feelings weren’t so good. Internally? They knew what they had on their hands.
Fast-forward to the following week, and the Griz lose to NAU. Paired with what was being discussed by some as a bad win the week before, optimism surrounding the program wasn’t bountiful. But it was simply emotions running too high over opinions that, looking back, may have been wrong.
A loss to NAU wasn’t as bad as it seemed. They went on to finish fourth in one of the best FCS conferences in the land, also knocking off ranked Weber State and UC Davis – losses that prevented them from making the playoff field.
And honestly, the Griz were due - particularly Hauck.
“I don’t think I’d ever lost to NAU before, which, if you play somebody enough times, you’re probably going to get beat once in a while,” Hauck said. “We lost a road conference game. I didn’t get over-emotional about it, you know?”
And since then, the Griz haven’t lost. Which again, came as a shocker thanks to much of the narrative surrounding the team. However, it wasn’t a “switch flip” situation. There were no “coming to God” conversations between the players or coaches, no moment that stands out as the turning point, because there was no corner to turn.
The Griz did what they always do in the Hauck regime – “Keep their nose to the grindstone”, as center AJ Forbes said – and kept working. They didn’t get here by destiny; they got here by gradual improvement week-over-week, ironing out the kinks and staying level-headed.
Finding the formula
The ability was always there, they just needed to put the pieces together.
“I don’t ever think you know your team very well until September is over, any year, because every team is different,” Hauck said.
Those kinds of pieces included committing to Clifton McDowell as the full-time quarterback, who had shown flashes of greatness while splitting reps with Boise State transfer Sam Vidlak. And as a late addition to the squad, just days before fall camp started, he needed to gain a better grasp of the offense before getting the gig.
It included the coaching staff settling into their new roles, particularly Brent Pease at offensive coordinator and Ronnie Bradford at defensive coordinator. Both showcased the urge to be more creative than their predecessors, giving Montana a dose of modern-day style. They just needed to get used to various personnel groupings before unloading the tank.
The writing was on the wall that they could be a special team – it’s not a miracle.
All this said, reaching Frisco did come with a slight touch of luck that every team hopes for down the stretch and it’s the closest they’ve gotten to destiny helping them reach the championship: good health.
Montana thought they could reach this stage in 2021 and 2022, but health was not on their side. Just looking back last year, starting QB Lucas Johnson played injured for a large chunk of the season, and was hurt again in their playoff game at North Dakota State. Starting RB Nick Ostmo also missed that game, giving way to Isiah Childs as the feature back.
The offensive line was bruised and beaten and had their hands full with the Bison defensive line.
A depleted Griz squad just didn’t have enough to get through. This time around, they haven’t had to worry about that.
In fact, they got players back from injury. Henry Nuce, a key cog on the defensive line who hasn’t played all season with an injury, made a surprise return in the playoffs to bolster the Montana defensive line.
“We’ve stayed healthy, for the most part” Hauck said. “And where we’ve been injured, we’ve had capable backups. That’s probably why we’re still playing versus a year ago. We didn’t have anyone left at the end of the year last year.”
And behind it all, they’ve had Hauck, the coach who has brought them to three national titles already and is going back to another in his first full season with all of his own recruits since returning to Missoula in 2018.
He hasn't brought the trophy back to Montana yet, but people who were giving up on and even mocking his "RTD" slogan - return to dominance - might want to hold the phone.
Knocking off arguably one of the best FCS teams the world of college football has ever seen just might achieve that.