BOZEMAN – The Montana Grizzlies will be working to preserve an unbeaten regular season while the Montana State Bobcats will be making a case for a playoff spot when the two teams clash for the 109th time.
Montana (10-0, 7-0 Big Sky), ranked first in the Football Championship Subdivision coaches poll and third in The Sports Network poll, takes on Montana State (7-3, 5-2), which is ranked 23rd in both polls, on Saturday in Bozeman.
Montana coach Bobby Hauck said he’s less concerned about the playoff seedings than he is an unbeaten season.
“What’s really important, to me and the group, is the fact that there have been four undefeated teams in Grizzly regular-season history: ’69, ’70, ’97 and 2007. We want to be the fifth,” he said.
Montana has won three straight Cat-Griz games, giving its 19 seniors the possibility of finishing their careers without a loss to the Cats.
“It’s a big deal,” said linebacker Shawn Lebsock. “Obviously, I want to end my career with a win over these guys. But like everybody keeps saying, it’s going to take a great effort. Hopefully we can put that together on Saturday.”
Ending that three-game losing streak and making the playoffs are on the minds of the Bobcats.
“That’s one thing that we wanted to do as a staff when we came here is to get Montana State back in the playoffs, and that’s a goal we can still have,” said MSU coach Rob Ash. “Montana’s already got the championship, and congratulations to them for winning that already, but we still have a chance. To me, that’s the bottom line on this game is that if we can win we get a chance to keep playing, which is what everybody in this program wants to do.”
Montana’s quarterbacks — Andrew Selle and Justin Roper — have combined for 2,579 yards passing and 26 touchdowns with just six interceptions. Marc Mariani has 44 catches for 917 yards and seven touchdowns and Chase Reynolds leads the Griz rushing attack with nearly 110 yards per game and 15 touchdowns.
“They have some great playmakers on their team,” Ash said. “Chase Reynolds is a fabulous runner, and Mariani’s a fabulous receiver. It’s a great one-two punch. You can’t focus on stopping the run. You can’t focus on playing pass defense or doubling Mariani or anything because you get in trouble otherwise.
“We cannot go into the game and get focused on any one individual,” he said. “We know there are guys on that team that can make big plays in addition to those outstanding stars that they have.”
Montana State’s quarterback duo of Cody Kempt and Mark Iddins has combined for 2,166 yards passing, 13 touchdowns and eight interceptions while Aaron Mason and C.J. Palmer combine for 120 yards per game for the Bobcats and have 10 touchdowns between them. Everett Gilbert and Elvis Akpla have combined for 67 catches for 898 yards and nine touchdowns.
“What we’ll plan for is what they do on offense,” Hauck said. “I anticipate … we expect Kempt to play. That’s who we’re game planning.”
Defensively, Clay Bignell has 71 tackles and three interceptions for the Bobcats, Michael Rider has four interceptions and Dan Ogden has five sacks. Lebsock leads the Griz with 70 tackles, Trumaine Johnson has four interceptions and Tyler Hobbs has three sacks.