With a bit of melancholy, bitterness and disappointment, it’s time for me to make the transition from the perils and challenges of the year’s pigskin world to the hardwoods of Griz hoops.
I completely enjoy the beginning of basketball season and scanning scores on the crawl across the bottom of the television screen and am thankful for my DVR, where I can run them back to be sure that Doneybrook actually upset Northeast South Kinneckinec State. But I’m equally accustomed to and, of course, prefer multi-tasking and prepping for a football playoff game for the weekend.
A little more than three months ago, you’ll remember, I wrote in this space that with the expansion of the Football Championship Series playoff field from 16 to 20 teams, since the lowest eight seeds played on opening weekend, I’d be home for Thanksgiving weekend for the first time in 18 years.
Well, I’m home all right but for the wrong reason as Grizzly coaches won’t be handicapped by a late start on the recruiting trails this year since the 2010 season came to an abrupt end after just 11 games for the first time since Don Read’s 1992 team that started 1-5, then won their last five to finish 6-5.
That’s right. While Papa Bear’s ‘89 team finished 11-3, losing to Georgia Southern in the semi-round of the playoffs, it wasn’t until my first year of football play-by-play in ‘93 that Griz football again posted a double-figure win season, losing to Delaware in a classic, 49-48.
Read’s teams won 51 games those first seven years and, after posting 25 wins the previous six years under Larry Donovan, all was well with what then was tiny Griz Nation.
Of course, longtime fans remember it was a legendary final three years for Read, now a UM athletic director emeritus and frequent confidante to the program, as he posted double-digit wins and consecutive playoff appearances culminating in the 1995 national championship.
Just a little bit of perspective about Montana’s playoff run. The Griz streak of playoff appearances was just broken after a record 17 years. Amazingly, the previous record was 12 and the longest remaining streak now is seven.
That, folks, is called rewriting the playoff record book and permanently etching the school’s name in history. And while I agree records are made to be broken, I predict that one will never be duplicated.
I am not about to agree that with a 7-4 record the Robin Pflugrad era is off to a rocky start.
Some of the reasons for a third-place league tie have been remunerated here, others are obvious and still others are best left in the locker room.
There’s no doubt in my mind the Griz will return as strong as ever in 2011 and, while it might not even mean they win double-figure games or start their own streak of advancing to the playoffs, they’ll represent the school and the state in the manner we are all proud of.
And that includes in the opener before 105,000 in Knoxville against the University of Tennessee.
I’ll disagree with Vince Lombardi here. It isn’t always about winning:
But I guarantee you this. There’s a bunch of Griz guys already somewhere in a weight room this week working off that sense of disappointment and building to a better day.
And, while we won’t realize the fruits of their labor for nine months, their dedication will pay dividends and return a broad smile to our faces.
And so it’s on to hoops with the men in a measuring stick game for this year’s program Dec. 5 at UCLA. I’ll talk to you next on your radio.