Is it right to say that the 2009 Cat Griz games weren exactly that special?”
The Montana State Bobcats aren’t a one-dimensional football team, says a guy who has studied them closely the past week. The Cats get that tag because their defense is so sound, but Montana coach Bobby Hauck said MSU deserves more credit in other areas. “I don’t know why people talk only about their defense, because they do some good things on offense, too,” Hauck said from Missoula before heading to Bozeman for today’s 109th Bobcat-Grizzly game. UM is 7-0 in Big Sky Conference play, 10-0 overall, and ranked No. 1 in the nation among Football Championship Subdivision teams. MSU is 5-2, 7-3 and ranked 23rd this week. The Bobcats’ only chance to make the 16-team FSC playoffs is to knock off the Grizzlies, and even that might not be enough to get an at-large bid from the NCAA committee. “They feel strongly that they want to run the football,” said Hauck. “I’ve looked at a lot of games and they do a nice job on offense, defense, the kicking game and special teams.” The Cats do a nicer job
MISSOULA – Those Mountaineers weren’t exactly mole hills. After a mistake-marred first half, the Montana Grizzlies used two Steven Pfahler touchdowns to pull away from Western State Saturday, 38-0 at Washington-Grizzly Stadium. That it took that long to put away their Division II foes took some of the salt out of a record crowd of 25,698. The Griz, ranked No. 3 in the Football Championship Subdivision, had an uneven couple of quarters while rotating quarterbacks Andrew Selle and Justin Roper against a mobile, attacking defense. When each QB hit Pfahler, a senior tight end, with a touchdown pass in the third quarter, the visiting Mountaineers had no more answers. Montana improved to 6-1 in openers under coach Bobby Hauck, who saw good and bad. “The goal was to win the game, and we did that, decisively,” said Hauck, whose club heads to FCS foe UC Davis next Saturday. “I wasn’t impressed with our performance the first half. I think we have a whole bunch of things to work on. “We’re just n
