Watching the playoff selection show at The Pressbox restaurant Sunday, Montana coach Bobby Hauck was as excited as anyone when third-ranked Massachusetts received the No. 3 seed into the playoffs. Defending Division I-AA champion Appalachian State had already been announced as the top seed.
That meant the Big Sky Conference champion Griz were in position to host up to three playoff games.
“I made the assumption we were going to be No. 2. Gosh, that would've been terrible if I was wrong - bitterly disappointing if I was wrong,” Hauck added. “But I wasn't.”
The buzz hadn't worn off from Saturday, when a record crowd at Washington-Grizzly Stadium welcomed 36 Harley riders, not to mention one Chicago Bulls mascot and two F-16s - call it Benny and the Jets - before watching the Griz down intrastate rival Montana State 13-7.
McNeese State, 7-4 after winning the Southland Conference title outright with a 26-10 win over Nicholls State on Saturday, comes in as a bit of an unknown. A tape exchange was being arranged, but Hauck didn't figure to have much to look at until Monday.
“This year it was really difficult to figure out who (we'd get),” Hauck said. “We just don't have any tape. We have some from a year ago that we'll probably take a look at this evening, and we'll move on from that.
“All we know about them is historically, they are very athletic, fast and skilled, as are a lot of teams in that conference. And the last time the two teams played, in '02, they knocked us out of the playoffs.”
McNeese used a late-season surge to win the Southland Conference crown and its first playoff berth since 2003. The Cowboys were seeded first that season, but lost in the first round to Northern Arizona, 35-3.
This year's Cowboys have a redshirt freshman quarterback named Derrick Fourroux, a talented receiving group led by Steven Whitehead (42 catches, 543 yards) and a young defense. Junior end Bryan Smith has 12.5 sacks and 22 tackles for losses.
All of which Hauck and his staff will find out soon enough.
“It's just nice to have an afternoon to relax,” said Hauck, before the Grizzlies held their postseason awards banquet at the DoubleTree. “Our coaches haven't had Sunday dinner with their families since July.”
Montana State figured to relax after its first road loss in five games - eight if you count the three games when the Cats cribbed in Livingston the night before - left them with four losses. But not only are they the first 7-4 at-large team since Idaho in 1995, the No. 15 Bobcats are hosting eighth-ranked Furman.
“I'm not real sure I thought we'd have a chance,” Cats coach Mike Kramer said Sunday. “To be selected by a committee is a little cloudy for me. I'd certainly rather get in through the front door.
“Whatever machinations were used to get to this point, I don't care. The game's on the schedule, and here we go.”
“Good for them,” Hauck said. “Obviously they were rewarded for resurrecting their season and winning six straight.”
Hauck could just as easily have been speaking of the Cowboys. McNeese State president Robert Hebert forced out seventh-year coach Tommy Tate after a 1-3 start, elevating Matt Viator from offensive coordinator.
Viator lost the “interim” tag last Monday, and the Cowboys responded with their fifth straight win. Viator, like Tate a McNeese State alum, said he didn't see many playoff signs in the upheaval of early October.
“Not really,” he said. “We just tried to get the players to focus. We just kind of took it a week at a time. To win five in a row, three on the road, in pretty tough venues in our conference. Š that was a good feat.”
Tate was offensive coordinator in 2002, when McNeese stormed back from a 17-0 deficit to beat the Griz 24-20 in a I-AA quarterfinal game.
“It was a very good game,” he remembered. “It was a game we were fortunate to win.”
McNeese, which lost in the '02 title game to Western Kentucky, is 2-1 in playoff games against the Griz. The Cowboys also edged UM 19-14 in 1997, getting a touchdown pass with 27 seconds left.
Montana's win over McNeese came in similar fashion: Andy Larson hit a field goal with eight seconds remaining to lift the Griz, 30-28. The home team won all three playoff matchups.
Viator's team watched the selection show from “The Cowboy Room,” McNeese State's version of the Adams Center Sky Club, behind the south end zone of Cowboy Stadium.
“We're just excited to be in,” Viator said. “I think the players understand the history of Montana football and the tradition and how good Montana's been. And how tough Montana is to play in the playoffs, especially in Missoula.
“We're just excited to have the opportunity.”
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